Wed. made up for Tues
By Tara Zandra | September 2, 2010
Yesterday Miss Daisy and I were talking and I wanted to do something for her. Together we thought on it and decided to go to the monkey zoo. It’s a small zoo with 50 monkeys and with Daisy being our Monkey-girl, I knew she’d want to go. The three of us had a lovely time walking around. It’s a well shaded zoo so even the weather was perfect. We sat and took in an animal presentation which means we were able to pet a millipede, a rosy boa, and a pygmy hedgehog.
After the zoo we went to our favorite grocery store and stocked up on goodies like veggie jerky, Annie’s fruit bunnies, and nori. After we got home there was some playing and relaxing and eventually Chris came home and took Tabitha to ballet.
Once they were back, my mom came over and Chris and I went out. We had dinner at Claim Jumper’s and then made our way to the movies and ended up seeing The Switch. It was what you’d expect in a little rom-com and was an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours.
Today I’m going to have some time to myself so perhaps I’ll see if I can figure out how to sew blanket binding so I can finish up my latest project. It’s time to start thinking of Halloween so I’ve got to move on soon!
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link for lapbook
By Tara Zandra | August 31, 2010
Someone came here twice today with a search of “Wrinkle in Time Lapbook.” So in case that person makes it back, here’s where I got it. Live and Learn Press. My oldest really enjoys it and I would definitely use their products again.
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here’s a little story
By Tara Zandra | August 31, 2010
Once upon a time there was a day where everything went wrong. A day where a sigalert was issued in both directions of the same freeway. A day that resulted in having to call no less than 5 shoe stores because a certain princess had to have a certain color of ballet shoes and she has giant feet. A day where even my beloved Target failed me. A day where 3, yes 3, rotten potatoes were found in the brand new 10-lb bag of potatoes. A day where other things too numerous to mention also decided to get together and ruin what tiny pinpricks of light could be found in this dark, dark day.
But it is almost over and I shall no longer dwell. Little kid is in bed, big one will folow in half an hour. Then the mister and I can settle in with some White Collar. Then, and most importantly, I can go to sleep and awake to a whole new day that will be 1000 times better.
And if it’s not, I can always take up drinking.
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
good stuff
By Tara Zandra | August 30, 2010
Me: You are wonderful little freaks.
T: Hey! I’m insulted!
D: Yeah. I’m in-salted in salt water too!
We had lunch with my mom today and aside from the pleasant visit and the bizarrely affectionate kids (to each other), it was a really tasty veggie burger.
Daisy started her new dance schedule today and her first class includes one of our park friends. So I got to sit and talk with my friend for an hour. Yay!
Yesterday we went letterboxing and walked a trail we’ve never been on despite it being a park we’re familiar with. It was great fun exploring and we found both letterboxes then had a good lunch at our new favorite place Rubios.
The last good thing I’ll mention is I’m about to get a shoulder rub 
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last minute
By Tara Zandra | August 28, 2010
Yesterday had two rash decisions for me. We hadn’t planned on going to park because Tues/Wed/Thurs the temps were flirting with 100° and I was sure it was be the same on Friday. So I planned for the girls and I to just get some extra stuff done in lessons. But then I woke up early from a bad dream which left me feeling out of sorts and anxious. Then the girls both seemed grumpy and neither was in the mood to do anything. We were getting absolutely nothing productive done and I said something to the effect of we might as well have gone to park. Tabitha told me we still could and she was right so off we went. It was perfectly lovely and exactly what the three of us needed.
After dinner, Miss Daisy was talking about something she wanted and I told her I thought she was going to say Disneyland. She said, “Well, can we?” That’s all I needed to hear. To Disneyland we all went! We honestly didn’t stay that long because the weather actually took an unexpected dip and it was rather chilly. Plus Daisy was getting tired out and it was kind of crowded. We still managed a few rides but we headed for home earlier than we thought. We stopped at the candy shop though for some goodies on the way out.
We started today off with omelets and then Tabitha had a Girl Scout pool party to attend. Somehow or other, Tabitha taught herself/was taught by a friend, how to swim. I watched her jump into the 9′ deep end and then immediately start swimming. This happened sometime in the last month. Good for her!
While she was at the party, Chris, Daisy and I ran a couple errands and the last one was frustrating so that left Daisy and I grumpy again. Then I had to rush through a lot of paperwork that I had to turn in when I went to pick up Tabs and then immediately go get her.
But since we’ve been home we’ve all had a fairly relaxing day and enjoyed some good family time. Daisy was a bit tired which was affecting her mood so I offered her a bath which she upped to a bubble bath and then I painted her toenails before sending her to bed. Tabitha is keeping Chris company while he plays a video game. I’m dinking around with no real interest in anything but trying to forget that by blogging
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night life
By Tara Zandra | August 26, 2010
The days may be blistering hot, but oh how lovely the evening is. I spread a blanket on the patio on the backyard and pulled out a couple chairs for Daisy and I. We’ve listened to all the night sounds- crickets, the coo of a nearby dove, chirps of various other birds- and admired the pink tones of the sunset as it reflected off the underside of the clouds. We also watched a spider wrap up his dinner much to Daisy’s delight. She also spent some quality time petting the dog and swinging. I was reading, but I couldn’t do that and concentrate on conversation with Daisy at the same time. Currently she is expressing how home is the best place in the world and her love of the blanket I laid down.
Today was a very pleasant day. At one point I had a very bad headache but that really just led to me reading a new book while relaxing on the couch so I can’t exactly complain. Daisy played in the backyard so we didn’t do an extensive ladybug activity. She did a couple fun pages I had printed but that’s it. She and I also did reading, math and printing.
For Tabitha I asked her not do California history today since I wanted her to do Chemistry including preparing a lab for tomorrow. She also worked on her “A Wrinkle in Time” lapbook as well as the usual French, violin, math, grammar and spelling. Tabitha’s lessons were rounded out with her dance class.
When we came home from dance it was still scorching so Daisy had me fill her pool and she got some good water play in. Tabitha chose to play video games in the air conditioning.
Dinner was another yummy meal. I chose a recipe from the new Vegetarian Times magazine. Essentially it was a Fettucine Alfredo but used linguine and cream cheese as opposed to cream. It was very lemony with a couple TBSP of lemon juice was well as the lemon zest. I served steamed broccoli and then for the protein I had bought Boca Bruschetta patties and sliced them up then lightly fried them in oil. Daisy wasn’t such a fan, but the rest of us enjoyed. She ate up the pasta and broccoli though, plus some of her sister’s broccoli.
After dinner was game time for Daisy and I and then we ended up here. All in all it was the kind of day that makes you smile and be happy in life.
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new table = fun
By Tara Zandra | August 25, 2010
Last night I purchased a folding table because the girls can’t do lessons in the same space. They both have projects that need to be spread out and I don’t like to keep the dining table at its full size because that’s just too big. So a folding table in the living room that could be brought out and put away was in order. But it couldn’t be a regular card table because they all either have tops that are padded or plastic with a texture to them and neither type works for writing. I ended up with a 4-feet long by 2-feet wide table that is bulky and heavy and with a wood top which is perfectly flat.
You’d think I bought a new toy the way the girls were fawning over it. Last night Daisy got out the cars and sat at the table to play. Today Tabitha insisted on doing her lessons in there and they both sat at it to eat lunch. I wonder how long their fascination will last? The table hasn’t even been put away since we brought it home because currently Chris is using it as a footrest while he reads on the couch!
Today was an at-home day because it is far too hot to do anything except sit inside in the a/c. The big kid went straight for the California state notebook project again and worked on it for an hour and a half. She then did her “A Wrinkle in Time” lapbook and then worked on her history timeline. I keep calling it ancient history, but I guess we’re done with that and now it’s Medieval history. Tabitha also did her regular stuff like violin, French, spelling, and math.
Daisy didn’t have too much to do today. Ladybug projects are kind of on hold until her pupa turns into a ladybug and frankly, I’m not sure that’s going to happen. We only have the one lone guy as the others all croaked. All she did today was make a paper pupa to put on her paper leaf that also has a ladybug egg and larva. Then she read, did an activity book, and did math and that was it for her. Since she wants more ladybug activities I found some printable sheets on the internet for tomorrow. One thing I printed is a ladybug matching game which she should really be happy about.
Dinner was yummy with parmesan roasted potatoes, green beans with a vinaigrette, and tofu baked in BBQ sauce. There were also grapes for the girls as they don’t eat green beans and they are seriously the most sweet and juice grapes ever. I definitely need to have more before they’re all gone.
After dinner I did some sweeping in the backyard so Daisy can go play there tomorrow and then she and I played a game while Tabitha made brownies. Soon as we get that big kid to bed, Chris and I can settle in with Psych
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abridged
By Tara Zandra | August 24, 2010
This afternoon we did Tabitha’s bridging ceremony to signify her going from Juniors into Cadettes. She planned the whole thing herself and included all of us wearing silly hats, trumpet blowing and confetti pelting provided by Daisy, and a speech by Tabitha. It was short but sweet and thoroughly her. I also presented her with her Bronze Award which is the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn. Afterwards, we took her out to dinner to a restaurant of her choice. Once home we all changed into comfy clothes and settled in to watch The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. Very fun since we’ve actually sampled food at a couple of those trucks. One of them is going to be not too far away this weekend and my BIL is thinking of going and we might join him. Though I have to admit, I’m less inclined now that I’ve seen them act like nimrods on TV.
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long day, but in a good way
By Tara Zandra | August 23, 2010
To sum up the day- we worked on lessons.
Tabitha went straight to her California history notebook again. This time I did ask her to stop after an hour and a half so we cold get other things done as well. She then moved onto her “A Wrinkle in Time” lapbook and spent quite a long time on that. She was dealing with the definitions of such things as metaphor, hyperbole, simile, etc. Then she had to find a sentence in the book that was an example of the term. I was able to tell her what chapter to reread, but she was on her own from there. One of them she couldn’t find after reading a long time so I helped her by skimming the chapter since I knew exactly what sentence I was looking for. I kinda got sucked in and now I’ve decided to read the book too. It’s proving to be a quick and enjoyable read and then I’ll go back to the Percy Jackson books.
While Tabitha was doing projects, Daisy and I worked on her ladybug lapbook. Today’s minibook involved her making ladybugs out of her fingerprints. She thought it quite fun to press her finger on the red inkpad numerous times. When it didn’t 100% wash off though, she was a little miffed.
Both girls also did math and Tabitha did spelling, ancient history and violin as well. I didn’t realize until this evening that I forgot to have Daisy do a reading lesson. But on the way to dance she was reading a dinosaur book and read the words Diplodicus and Iquanadon, so I don’t feel so bad. The kid reads constantly and it does sometimes make me feel silly having her do reading lessons. But on the other hand, sometimes without context she has trouble with simple words because she doesn’t know the phonics rule. So the reading lessons continue.
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everything
By Tara Zandra | August 22, 2010
Even if the past week is complete old news, I’m still going to type it up. If nothing else, my blog posts help me with my scrapbooking in terms of knowing what the pictures are from specifically. Not to mention, sometimes I enjoy reading my old posts and seeing what we were up to.
So, last Sunday (Aug. 15). We ran errands and had lunch out. Mainly, I updated Facebook constantly from the new phone just because I could. That night, Tabitha and I picked up one of her friends and went to a mall for a Girls’ Night Out event sponsored by Girl Scouts. There were crafts, a photo booth, karaoke and shopping. The girls had a fabulous time and I survived. We closed out the party at midnight and then all of us came home so the girls had a sleepover as well.
Skipping to Tuesday, my girls were both invited to a joint birthday party for a set of sisters. The two of the them are just right in age with the two of mine so it works out nicely. It was at one of those bouncy places and as usual all the kids had a ton of fun. You really can’t go wrong with one of those places. After the party we stepped into to Target to get a few things and then I decided to head to the children’s educational store. I hadn’t been since Tabitha was studying Greece and I was sure I could find one more ladybug thing for Daisy and one more California History thing for Tabitha. I was wrong and was sorely disappointed. It was our mega hot day too and the store isn’t exactly easy to get to or come home from so it was a big let down all around. We came home and all of us put on our PJs and I promised we wouldn’t leave the house until the next afternoon.
Which was Wednesday. Tabitha went to a pool party and Daisy opted to come home and play computer games. Chris was home by the time we needed to leave to get Tabi and it was decided we were going to go to California Adventure for the evening. Again, I updated Facebook over the course of the night just because. We started off at California Adventure’s “Glowfest” which I find hard to describe. Kind of like a club atmosphere but with kids and outside. We did watch a great performance by some Bollywood style dancers. It was a really hot evening and neither of my girls felt much like dancing to we headed to Disneyland instead. We purchased some goodies from the candy shop and parked ourselves on Main Street to wait for the fireworks. We rarely watch them from there so it was a great treat. Next we headed to a different area and saw fabulous spots for watching Fantasmic. So we decided why not? and waited for that show. We didn’t get home until after midnight but it was a great night!
Thursday, hmmm. I’m thinking nothing much. I think we all slept really late and then eventually Tabitha had dance class and I took Daisy to a McDonald’s playplace. But nothing really too interesting. Wait- I take that back. After dance, Tabitha changed and put on her Junior Girl Scout vest and we went to a local animal shelter where she donated a ton of pet items as the final step to her bronze award. They were so grateful for everything and really just the nicest people. We were told the caty stuff would be put to immediate use as they don’t get too many cat toys/treat donations. We were very happy to hear that. We toured the shelter which was really, really hard. I couldn’t even stay in the cat room for fear of crying. Afterwards we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen with a gift card my mom had given us for our anniversary last month. We then did a quick stop at Henry’s before coming home.
Friday was park in the morning which was really lovely. We had a small turnout for some reason but it was certainly a great group. Tabitha went home with a friend as she was having a sleepover so it was just Daisy and I afterwards. She was really tired that night so we put her to bed half an hour early so Chris and I got tons of time together. We just watched TV but what we do doesn’t really matter so long as it’s together.
Saturday (as in yesterday, Aug. 21), Tabitha was gone with her friend to the Getty Museum. Chris, Daisy and I went to Target and then we tried to take Daisy to Coldstone for a treat, but they didn’t open until noon and it was barely 11. So went to lunch at Rubios since that’s our new favorite restaurant. We then walked over to the T-Mobile store and Chris bought me a new hands free ear piece as my old one didn’t want to work with the new phone. We went to the grocery store and they just happened to be having a coloring activity in the produce department so I left Chris and Daisy there while I shopped. Aside from coloring, she was given a chocolate chip cookie, a balloon, and a Toy Story pencil. That’s a great day to a 5 year old! Once home I sewed and that’s pretty much it. Eventually Tabitha came home and we got kids to bed.
Finally, today! We went to Disneyland. We did our customary 8 o’ clock arrival time and got so much done before the crowds showed up. A friend texted me that he was on his way so we met up with him and his adorable little boy. The six of us watched the Tiki birds and rode Small World before parting ways. We finished up our morning with a ride on Splash Mountain. Man oh man did Tabitha and I get drenched! That’s why we left the ride until last. The plan was to stop at El Pollo Loco near Disneyland but it turns out, a heck of a lot of people had that idea. The place was packed. In the end we just came home; Tabitha had leftovers, Daisy grazed and Chris went and got El Pollo Loco for just us. We all did various things the rest of the afternoon. I personally planned all of tomorrow’s lessons because I find that more and more necessary with all the projects these two are doing. Once you add in the afternoon dance commitments and I really need to be on top of my game. Make no mistake, I’m not complaining. I love every minute of it and gladly do whatever planning is necessary for the girls’ lessons.
We’re all still doing our own thing and now I no longer have blogging hanging over my head. Yay!
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best laid plans
By Tara Zandra | August 18, 2010
I was supposed to be doing this while sitting at a play area. I was going to have 3 hours to kill. But Daisy decided she wanted to come home and play a computer game instead. Since I was home I took care of some necessary to-do items some of which were being done on the laptop. I attempted to blog from the laptop but it doesn’t have my password saved and I couldn’t remember it. So I took care of a few more computer related things and am now on the netbook (which has the password saved), but Chris will be calling me to chat in about 10-minutes so not really going to get a good post in at all.
Not much of a post is this?
I’ll do my traditional recap after I’ve been away too long and see how much I get typed.
Saturday we hit up the Grilled Cheese Truck which was parked very near the Farmer’s Market. I’ve been wanting to go there for awhile because it’s been a long time since we last went. It was packed and nearly impossible to get through and enjoy anything so I think I’ll be good for another 10 years. We didn’t bother with the Grove as I don’t go there to browse, just to shop. One good thing was we came home with some really good pasta. It was lemon parsley mafaldine. We also bought a ravioli but haven’t tried it yet. I cooked up the mafaldine that night with some garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. On the side we had veggie sausage (yet another new variety and I really liked this one!), and zucchini pancakes. Not pancakes like a batter, but like latkes. Three out of 4 Anc Fam members enjoyed, the 5 year old tried everything and switched to veggie nuggets.
Also on Saturday, Chris and I got some new phones. We have officially joined the Smart Phone clique! Just Chris was supposed to get one, but when he called T-Mobile to ask a question they told him it was buy one get one free. Well how could we pass that up? We each got a My Touch 3 G Slide- mine is white, his is red. Chris is learning all about it but for now, I’m just trying to fix my phone book which is a mess. Also, I keep disconnecting Chris inadvertantly when I plug in my hands-free and I somehow muted a friend today though she could hear me. I really need to devote more time to learning how the heck to operate this thing. So far I use it for texting and checking Facebook.
Mr. Bombastic is playing so Chris is now calling. I’ll have to do more later, probably tomorrow morning.
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It’s not you
By Tara Zandra | August 17, 2010
It’s not that I’m ignoring blogging, I’ve just had zero time in the last however many days. Though I could theoretically do it right now, I’m in the middle of a movie and tomorrow I’ll have this nice chunk of time where blogging will be ideal and watching a movie will not.
So until then, I say good-night.
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Come and knock on our door
By Tara Zandra | August 14, 2010
Date night last night! Woo-hoo! We all ate dinner at Applebees and then Chris and I dropped the kids off with his parents. Then it was out for a night of puppets.
That’s right, I said puppets.
Not just any puppets, no no. Sock puppets. And do you know what these sock puppets were doing? They re-enacted the first episodes of “Three’s Company” and “Friends” word for word complete with commercial breaks. This is a You Tube video of a snipppet of their show back in May- but it’s pretty much exactly like I explained.
We had a really fun time and it was in a neighborhood that had 3, count ‘em 3!, vegetarian/vegan restaurants within a couple blocks of eachother. If we could move there we would in a heartbeat. Except no one could ever visit us because parking was a bitch.
Now it’s 7:30 in the morning and I have to somehow convince my oldest child to go straight from waking up to getting dressed and she is really not going to like that. On the other hand, if she doesn’t, we will have to resort to using torn magazines as TP so that should really be enough incentive to get her to go on an errand early in the morning.
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
tiny letters
By Tara Zandra | August 12, 2010
My font is much smaller on my netbook. At first I simply wondered why I was seeing more of pages than I used to. Then I realized I hate to squint to read comments on Facebook. I don’t think it’s my eyesight, so somehow I need to figure out how to adjust this and how to prevent it from happening again.
Our latest homeschool projects are kicking my behind. It’s not that they are difficult, but both kids are working on such time-consuming projects that I am wiped out by day’s end. On top of that I’m not sleeping real well, though last night was pretty good, so blogging had to [once again] go by the wayside.
Tabitha finally started her state history and has taken to it like a bee to pollen. She chooses it first thing in the morning and then spends hours on it until her hand can write no more. For Daisy we’re working on a ladybug lapbook and I never realized how time consuming lapbooks were! I’ll post pictures when we’re done for those of you who don’t know what a lapbook looks like. Essentially it’s a file folder with mini projects arranged on the inside. Yesterday we read _The Grouchy Ladybug_ by Eric Carle and then were putting together a flip book when Daisy exclaimed, “Wow! I never knew learning about ladybugs would be this much fun!” Warmed my heart, oh yes it did.
Today though was easy-breezy because we had friends come over. Friends we haven’t seen since probably Tabitha’s birthday. It was so good to sit down and talk with my friend while the girls hung out in Tabi’s room. We went to lunch together too which was also nice. Eventually we had to say good-bye though it felt far too soon but I had to get Tabitha to dance class.
While she was in class, Daisy and I went to Joann fabric store in search of fleece. I’m sewing robes for a couple of special birthday girls and needed to get to the right fabric. I found one that I liked and got started on the robe after dinner this evening. Since I’ve already sewn 2, it seems to be moving right along quite nicely. Hopefully I can find time tomorrow to get at least a little more done. I’ll have to squeeze it in somewhere as we have park in the morning, violin in the afternoon, and a hot date in the night
Topics: Life, Homeschooling | 2 Comments »
where’d the time go?
By Tara Zandra | August 8, 2010
Well that was an unscheduled break from blogging. Not sure what happened there. Nothing of note really went on during the week but we had a pretty good weekend.
Saturday Tabitha got to go see a sneak preview of Camp Rock 2 which made her very happy. It’s not even going to be on TV until Sept. so it was a real treat. After she was back with us again, we had dinner with my in-laws who had been wanting to try one of the gourmet food trucks. There’s one that was going to be in their area so Chris and I stood in line for the food to take back to their house. It was soooo good, as usual.
Today had ups and downs- I think mainly I was just restless. We started the morning by going on a nature walk on nearby equestrian trails. It wasn’t fabulous but it got us out and about in the sunshine so that’s the important thing. Chris suggested Rubio’s for lunch as we’ve only recently discovered that we like that place. In the early evening Chris, Daisy and I did some yard work while Tabitha did housework. I think our gardeners have deserted us as they haven’t shown in 2 months. I don’t really care as they do a lousy job anyway, but this means Chris and I have to do general maintenance.
After Daisy was in bed I started working on putting lessons together for tomorrow. I find that if I prep Monday’s lessons, the rest of the week falls into place without much work at all. Somehow or other I found myself distracted by the California Avocado Commission website. They have some really yummy sounding recipes on there! I was supposed to be looking for more California history resources. I think avocados still qualify.
I’m looking forward to working on new stuff with the girls tomorrow, but I’ve researched so much this evening I have a feeling I’ll be dreaming of ladybugs crawling inside California Missions.
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five and a half
By Tara Zandra | August 4, 2010
A few days ago I told Daisy her half birthday was coming up. She really took that to heart and basically planned a mini-party. So today included a trip to her favorite park, plus we made party hats, we drew pictures of crazy cactuses/cacti, we threw confetti in the air (and apparently down my shirt), we had noisemakers and streamers, and we danced. Lastly, Tabitha and I baked half a birthday cake and then sang her half the song. I think it was quite the hit.
On a personal note, I did get in yoga and a Wii Fit run, but wasn’t out of the shower and dressed until 10:30am so I don’t think I can call this a victory of time management. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
go me
By Tara Zandra | August 3, 2010
Lessons, housework, a playdate, and I couldn’t dinner. Woo-hoo!
Tomorrow I attempt to add in yoga.
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I want my mummy
By Tara Zandra | August 2, 2010
Sunday morning the girls and I headed out to the science center to see the mummies exhibit. Chris was supposed to come too, but sadly was still feeling poorly. Since I had already bought tickets and they were non-refundable and couldn’t be exchanged, we had to make the decision to go without him.
But we did have a pretty good time. It’s a special exhibit on mummies from around the world, though they use the word mummy to mean any preserved animal (including humans) not necessarily intentionally preserved. So there were animals that were preserved because of dry conditions in say, an attic. There were the traditional kind as well. Daisy was intent on making sure she saw mummies that were unwrapped. I think she came to regret that decision!
Next we started looking at a new section of the science center but it turned out to be so large that we decided to postpone it until a future visit. We’re thinking we’ll go right after school goes back in session but it will still be too early for school field trip groups to get in the way.
After a relaxing lunch in the car with all the windows down and the back open to let in the wonderful breeze, we walked over to the Natural History Museum to see the butterflies. There were quite a few flitting about this year. I got a ton of pictures and I feel something of them really came out nice. I’ll share soon (famous last words!).
We then went to climb rocks but I wasn’t feeling it. Since I knew we were coming back soon, I didn’t feel obligated to stay that long and it wasn’t very peaceful as there were a ton of loud people in the rose garden next to us. The three of us went back into the science center to check out the gift shop before leaving. Tabitha asked me to buy her some astronaut food, which is hardly something I could say no to. She picked out chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and when I had some later, I have to say the flavor was spot on. I also bought her a tube that helps do the mentos and Diet Coke trick. She’s been wanting to try that trick forever and this is a neat way to do it. The package comes with different caps to put on the Diet Coke bottle so you can get different shaped geysers. It also came with the Mentos. For Daisy I chose a toy that is similar to tangrams but uses more shapes. Kind of the same concept though. It’s been on my personal wishlist forever it seems so it was good to finally purchase it.
Today it was good to get back to normal. Full lessons for both kids and regular housework for me- not sure of the last time I vacuumed. I didn’t do yoga or cook dinner though so it wasn’t perfect but better than the chaos of the last month.
I dusted off the old Ladybug Land and ordered Daisy some ladybug larvae. I ordered them Friday morning and they were here Saturday! Sadly, it doesn’t look like too many of them are alive, I don’t know if it’s just too late in the season or what. We’re watching what we have and I’m not adverse to ordering more if we don’t get enough viable ones this time around.
I also ordered 2 different curriculum guides for activities to do with Daisy based on ladybugs. Though they are both designed for classroom use, I think I can make them worth our while. They will need a lot of photocopying though so I should invest in more black ink soon.
Tabitha was looking for something to read last week and Chris offered her his old copy of _A Wrinkle in Time_. Lo and behold I happen to find a lapbook project for that very book while researching for something else! I ordered an e-copy and looked through it already but she probably won’t get it started until Wednesday. Always fun to find projects though as she is a typical child who likes hands-on things. If any of my homeschooling readers are intereted it’s called Learn ‘N Folders and they have many subjects, not just literature. I will *try* to remember to do a review and pictures after Tabitha finishes it.
Topics: Life, The Kiddies, Homeschooling | 1 Comment »
Saturday fail
By Tara Zandra | July 31, 2010
Last night we went to see the musical that Tabitha’s day camp was performing in. Her class was more involved this year with more dancing and reacting to what was happening on the stage. She had a great time at her camp, as she always does, and declared it the best one yet. The kids didn’t get to bed until after 11, but surprisingly were up at a decent hour this morning. I’m assuming tomorrow the tiredness will hit them.
Today didn’t go as planned in many different ways, the least of which was Chris was ill this evening. I really hope it’s just a 24-hour stomach ful thing and also that the rest of us do not get it. I talked him into to going to bed a couple hours ago and I’ve just been kicking it on the computer since then. I should probably go to bed myself, but instead I’m thinking of looking for something to watch on Netflix.
In other failures, we never got a family photo this month. Even though I haven’t been posting them, I have been faithfully taking a family photo every month this year. Except this month. I guess we’ll do it tomorrow and then take another one is a couple weeks.
Tomorrow has got to be a better day because I don’t want to wait a whole week for another weekend.
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weekend update on wednesday
By Tara Zandra | July 28, 2010
Tabitha is in a day camp this week and today I thought rather than go home, Daisy and I would spend the time going to a couple parks. Just to be sure we’d have enough to do, I also found a nearby McDs with an indoor play area. Daisy chose the big park to go to first so I was sure we’d be eating our lunch there and at least half our time would be there. I think we were there exactly one hour and now we’re at the second park which is tiny and full of toddlers. Not just toddlers, but toddlers with annoying parents who over-talk everything they say and all with a sing-song voice. They’re kids, not imbeciles. Well, I mean, a couple of them might turn out to be idiots, but it’s a little too soon to tell so no need to treat them that way. I can’t imagine Daisy wanting to stay here too long so we’re going to be stuck at McDonald’s for a long time.
My posts haven’t been very good of late and I know that. But I did want to talk about our weekend. Yesterday was our 14th anniversary but we celebrated on Saturday. My MIL bought us tickets to the LA Street Food Fest. Basically, a ton of the gourmet food trucks I’ve been talking about, as well as a few restaurants, set up booths at the Rose Bowl. Our tickets not only included entrance but all food as well. We ate so much! First of all, we had the VIP tickets, thank goodness, which means we got in 90-minutes before general admission tickets. This enabled us to sample half of the vendors before the GA ticket holders were let in. We had strawberry tamales, tater tots, sweet potato fries with peanut butter and chocolate, sweet corn cake, dark chocolate brownie in an ice cream cone, tofu Vietnamese sandwiches, crunchy tofu balls, Italian rice balls, vegan cookies, vegan ice cream, sorbet, ice cream sandwiches, and, oh yeah there was a beer garden and tequila tasting. That’s not quite everything we ate, I don’t think, but it’s all I remember right now. Even with everything being small bites, I was beyond stuffed to the gills. I quit before Chris who sampled far more desserts than myself. It was a fabulous afternoon though, I don’t care how full I was. I definitely want to do this next year. There’s one at the Honda Center next month, but you have to pay admission, pay parking, and then pay for the food and drinks. LA does it better, in my opinion, with an inclusive ticket.
I was right, 20-minutes and Daisy was done. We decided to have our picnic lunch before going to McDs. It’s rather lovely, even if the ants are annoying both of us. The playground emptied out so I think I’ll see if Daisy wants to go back in or just move on.
Hanging out with Daisy in the shade reminds me of what we’re missing by Tabitha not going to the Natural History Museum this year. They changed it from two 2-hour classes to one 6-hour class. Annoying on many different levels. We’re skipping this year, but I’d really like her to be able to finish her last 2 years there before she ages out. It’s one of those things though where it’s too long for Daisy and I to just hang out but driving back and forth in traffic 4 times a day isn’t exactly appealing. I’ve got a year to figure it out though.
Looks like Daisy has decided to engage in pure imaginative play as she’s walking around in the grass lost in her own world. Never mind, she asked to go back in the playground when I finished typing that sentence.
Sunday we went to California Adventure for our annual play in the water day. This year they even added a new water area. We also met up with friends for a little while, which was nice. We hung out for a little over an hour, their little one sorta did water and we separated as my girls had a lot more play to do and the little guy had his own agenda. It was great seeing them though and a short time is better than nothing. Hopefully we’ll do it again soon.
I’ve had Chris home since Friday so today seemed odd when he left this morning. He’ll also be home late so today is really off-kilter.
Only an hour and a half to go until we pick up Tabitha.
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CKs
By Tara Zandra | July 26, 2010
My crazy kids are hooping it up in the front yard oblivious to the cold. I actually went inside to put on sweats and my slippers and am only abstaining from the sweatshirt on principle, what with it being July and all. I came out so Daisy could play in an area that isn’t visible from the house, but then Tabi came out too so I could theoretically go inside. But I just know that as soon as I go in, Tabitha will go in as she will have lost her audience, and then Daisy will start wailing about being alone.
Today I’ve been married 13 years, 364 days.
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safe and sound
By Tara Zandra | July 24, 2010
Tabitha came home completely exhausted but full of happiness for the wonderful time she had. She ate wonderfully and only had PB&J one day and wasn’t cold at night at all. So next year I can cut my worrying in half because it won’t be the unknown. She wrote in her journal everyday during free time and I read it aloud to Chris and Daisy. It was rather entertaining, let me tell you. It was so very her and made me smile and be glad I sent her.
Exhausted though, seriously. Kid needed a nap and then some. But she only rested and never slept because that’s how she’s wired. She slept real well last night though and tonight should take care of the rest of her tiredness.
So good to have her home again
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
mid-week
By Tara Zandra | July 22, 2010
I went to my book club meeting this morning- I had a good time! I personally ran out of steam after about an hour, but I think that’s just because I’m not used to discussing books and there were distractions of keeping an eye on the kids at the same time. I’m looking forward to next month since then it will be a book I’ve never even heard of before.
I’m trying to get Daisy to finish her fair entries as we have to turn them in Saturday but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. I told her it’s up to her if she wants to do them or not but the problem is she does want to do them, just not right now. Totally my kid.
I feel her though, I’m in a lazy state of mind myself and have been for a good portion of this summer. I understand that summers are for laziness, but we do lessons year round so we can take time off whenever we want. But between this, that, and the other, well, not much in the way of lessons has been going on around here. That’s my constant lament. There is so much out there that is so interesting, yet no time to get it all done. I know the kids can’t learn everything, but one of the benefits of homeschooling is being able to go more in depth because of the lack of time constraints. I want the kids to do cooking and sewing, music and art and science. But there’s still math and history and violin and writing and spelling. But then still, I want them to have lots of free time and I want us to go on excursions. I just need to train us all to subsist on a lot less sleep. Well, and the ability to get up and go in the morning with a heck of a lot less dilly-dallying. I think Chris is the only one that has that ability. We girls take our time and I don’t even mean in the actual getting ready aspect but in the getting ready to get ready time of the morning. Snails look at us with pity in their eyes propped atop their heads.
Tomorrow I get to pick up my big kid and finally stop worrying about her. Last night I was feeling restless and wallowing a bit to myself about not knowing how she’s doing and decided I needed a change of scenery. So I consulted Chris and then sprang on Daisy that we were headed to Disneyland. It was only an hour from her bedtime, but who cares? She literally screamed and jumped up and down- that is some unusual behavior for her. I was determined to have a fabulous time and did my best to ignore the crowds and annoying people. I think I succeeded and enjoyed it the best I could. We ended up seeing the fireworks which will severely cheese off the oldest child when she finds out, but we are going to see them again so that should be okay.
Well the cat’s head is inching further and further onto my keyboard desperately trying to thwart my typing so I’ll pet her. I think I’ll give up the fight and call it good.
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
like a missing limb
By Tara Zandra | July 21, 2010
We sent Tabitha off to camp yesterday.
I’m practically hyperventilating just typing that sentence! I actually was fine saying good-bye and didn’t cry or embarass her, but as we were driving away I just felt so weird. I thought I’d be fine because she goes on outings and sleepovers without me but I guess since I didn’t have a pick-up time in a couple hours that it felt odd. Last night when it was pretty cool here I was especially worried about her. She was very insistent on the type of PJs she packed and I’m just afraid she froze her patoot off last night. It’s the not knowing how she’s doing that’s killing me. I slept horribly and got up before 6 this morning.
Coincidentally, I went to this same camp when I was 12. For the life of me, I can’t really remember anything about it other than the sleeping arrangements.
Is it Friday yet?
Topics: Life, Teriffic T | No Comments »
I’m just resting my eyes
By Tara Zandra | July 18, 2010
I’m typing this up while lounging in bed because I’m seriously contemplating going to sleep now. I have a book that I may read but that’ll put me out very quickly. It’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” as I’m joining some other parents from our park group in a discussion this week. Thankfully the reminder was sent today because I hadn’t even bought the book yet. Though I read it in high school, I remember basically nothing.
Discussing books is not something I normally do- I tend to take them at face value and just decide if I liked them or not. I dislike discussing books so much that I actually once told Chris the way he’d know if I was ever stupid enough to have an affair would be if I told him I was joining a book club. Guess it’s a good thing he didn’t remember me saying that when I told him about the discussion this week! I figured I’d give it a try and it’s only 2 books and 2 meetings this summer, not an ongoing thing. Plus it’s with people I really like, my kid gets to play with her friends, and there will be a potluck. Sounds like a good deal to me.
So I’d like to be witty and write something of interest, but in all honesty, I’m just wiped out. Here’s the past week in a nutshell:
*Saw “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and really enjoyed it.
*Am finally sewing a quilt for Daisy that I cut out approx. 4 years ago.
*Tabitha completed 2 sewing projects of her own this week.
*Daisy once again proved she is the funniest person in the family, but the story will not translate well in the re-telling. Suffice it to say she’s cute and funny and had us all in stitches during dinner one night.
*I watched a “Kate & Allie” episode on Netflix. It had Kelsey Grammar and there were a few laughs, but in general, I don’t think it survived the test of time and I doubt I’ll be watching any more episodes.
*A friend said it was too hot to go to park this past Friday and I disagreed and went. He was right and I really wished I had stayed home even though we were only there an hour.
*Chris now gets home at 3:30 and it’s wonderful!
I’m out.
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la playa
By Tara Zandra | July 14, 2010
We hit the beach with a group of our homeschool park group friends. Good times. I actually went in the water and probably spent more time in the water than the previous 2 years combined. Admittedly, only up to my hips.
And that’s it because the only other thing of note today was I took a nap.
Time for the Psych premiere!
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Sewing Webpage
By Tara Zandra | July 13, 2010
I finally finished my sewing webpage! Well, in all honesty, it’s missing a picture I cannot find and 2 others need to be replaced with larger versions. But it’s fine for now and I’d rather get it up sooner, rather than later. It has pictures and descriptions of everything I’ve sewn since I started sewing 3 years ago.
Topics: Life, Website talk, Sew What's New | 3 Comments »
Disneyland today
By Tara Zandra | July 11, 2010
Long day.
Lots of fun.
Dead tired.
End of post.
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stats
By Tara Zandra | July 10, 2010
Not that I super care about how many hits a day I get since I’m fairly low, but it is sad to see the average go down. Oh well, my worth is not measured by hits, lol.
First thing this morning we headed out to a mall to do a meet and greet with Phineas and Ferb (animated Disney Channel show geared to the 8+ set). The Disney Store at this mall had recently been redone so we spent some time exploring that as well. It was pretty neat, but I have to say, it sounded better on paper. Not that it wasn’t cool, it just didn’t live up to it’s hype in my opinion. Anyway, we stood in line for a long time but got the picture we wanted and then headed home where I promptly fell asleep. Not sure why I was so tired. I wasn’t alone either. Both Chris and the cat took a nap as well.
After I dragged myself up and got everyone lunch, we watched an Unwrapped episode about Disney theme park food and then a few episodes of I Love Lucy. At this point we got ready to go out and had dinner with my in-laws. Since then we’ve just done this and that, nothing worth writing about.
In general I’m in favor of the leisurely days every now and then, but today I was just kind of bored when I didn’t have something specific to do. Tomorrow we have plans so no time for boredom.
Topics: Life | 1 Comment »
late night
By Tara Zandra | July 9, 2010
Chris left an hour an a half ago to pick Tabi up from an event this evening only to find out it had been delayed an hour. I’m not happy about how late she’ll be getting to bed. I’m drinking some caffeine so Chris and I can spend some more time together this evening before sleep takes over.
The one [small] bright side is I did get more work done on my sewing page. It takes a long time because I’m not just uploading photos, I’m actually writing a few sentences about each and every outfit. Turns out there’s been a lot since I started sewing 3 years ago. I’m up to Halloween 2008 but I think I’m almost done because I didn’t sew very much last year at all.
I feel like blogging as I’ve got good music going on but honestly, it wasn’t a terribly interesting day and I hear a key so it looks like they’re finally home.
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I also choose Miami
By Tara Zandra | July 8, 2010
Because I’m pretty sure they have some damn sun shining.
The kids did most of the work for dinner tonight so that was nice for me. I supervised, more with the little than the big, but I didn’t have to step in and do anything. I even let Daisy cut the tofu, I figure the soft stuff is a perfect way to start. Tabitha made sesame dinner rolls and they were really good. They were very buttery and soft on the inside. We got the recipe from my Cuisinart cookbook that came with my machine so we used the dough blade and setting for the first time. Although that meant not kneading by hand and Tabs was a bit disappointed in that. I’ll have to make bread with the kids that involves really kneading. Daisy made the marinade for our lemon tofu which is a perfect job for her as she loves mixing things together and stirring.
Tabitha also made dinner Tuesday night and that took a lifetime so that made me doubly glad today didn’t require too much from me. On the plus side, she made good food- Cream of Broccoli Soup and Cheesy Rice Bake. Since I didn’t want to hover I wasn’t paying close attention and didn’t realize until we were eating that the rice recipe called for 1 TABLESPOON of pepper. Good grief was it spicy! I mean, it was fine for her, myself and Chris, but Daisy took one bite and said no (she’s really sensitive to any amount of spice). I’ve since modified the recipe for the future.
So I watched “Confessions of a Shopaholic” on my little computer simply because we got Netflix on demad yesterday. We’ve always had the absolute cheapest subscription so we only paid five bucks a month but could only have a total of 2 movies a month, 1 at a time and we couldn’t do the on demand feature. But after keeping “Finding Neverland” for roughly and still never watching it (sorry, Johhny), we decided maybe it was time to upgrade. This way, if we change our mind on a movie, we wont’ keep it around for a lifetime because we don’t want to “waste” our movie for the month. Because somehow it’s not a waste to end up spendning more on the subscription fee than if we had just bought the darn movie.
Anyway, I watched Confessions and really enjoyed it. Sure it was predictable and sure Joan Cusack is nowhere near old enough to be Isla Fisher’s mother, but the English guy was kind of cute and charming. Is it wrong that I totally identified with her? Not that I have that kind of credit card debt and goodness knows I’ve never stepped foot in Barney’s let alone bought something there, but I love me some shopping and yes, it does make me feel good.
Real good.
Topics: Life, The Kiddies | 2 Comments »
