Aquarium Field Trip

Katie's class took a field trip to the Long Beach Aquarium, and Katie really wanted me to be one of the chaperones, since she thought it would be cool to tell her classmates that her Mommy used to work there! (I let her hold my old ID Badge while we were there - she was excited about that!)

Eric and I arranged for Nick to be at the back-up daycare place by his office, and I was able to be a driver for the field trip.

Well, I had a fabulous day! I felt kind of guilty -- the moms overseeing groups of 4-5 energetic boys exploring the aquarium were dead-tired at the end of our time there, while I had a group of 4 girls, AS WELL AS Mrs. Arnold (who came in my car to hear about my time at the aquarium as well as other marine biology experiences, and then stuck with my group inside the aquarium as well to get the inside scoop), AND I knew the place like the back of my hand! Easy peasy!

The program Mrs. Arnold had booked was a theater program (as opposed to a classroom program), one I had seen and helped with a few times. I was disappointed because that meant I didn't get to go inside the classroom area, so didn't get to peek in the office and see if there was anyone there I knew.

I knew that, since it has been over six years since I worked there (and I worked there less than a year), there would be plenty of rust in the old noggin. I didn't know that I would mess up our arrival! We were shown inside Gate 8 by Guest Services (who, in typical Guest Services style, neglected to tell us what we were supposed to do next and vanished), and then I led us into the aquarium to the public theater entrance, went in myself, and was told by the Educator to go back outside and wait for her there. OOPS!

But when we got back outside and she met us at that door, she recognized me! Not only that, she remembered me! She (Lori) said, "I know you! Dissolved Oxygen! Hi Barbra!" (Dissolved Oxygen is one of the lab classes that I wrote for them - I have been told it's been a popular one.) That sure made me feel good!

An ego-boosting day with a fun group at one of my favorite places!

But enough about MY day at the aquarium... how about KATIE'S day at the aquarium?

She and the rest of her group were very engaged. They explored every area of the aquarium, touching animals in all of the touch tanks and discussing what they were seeing in the exhibits. I love seeing a group of girls getting their hands wet without hesitation!






I love this photo. Leg up in the air for balance, hair in the water... petting a leopard shark!


The girls decided to buy some nectar to feed the lorikeets. This was actually my first time in that exhibit, believe it or not. No sooner did we get inside, than this happened:


She handled it remarkably well, remaining reasonably calm until Mrs. Arnold got the bird onto her own finger! Impressive, since it was walking down her hair, sort of pulling it with its beak for balance.


She even fed more birds afterwards!


A day to remember for both of us!

Spring Break

In addition to egg coloring Saturday, Spring Break started off with my usual singing-in-church bonanza: Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter morning.

Easter morning itself began very early: up at around 6:30, the kids had found their Easter baskets, opened everything, and finished the treasure hunt the Easter Bunny left for them, all by 7:13 am!

There was enough time for everyone to go to church (not just Mommy)! Later, Darell and Kathryn came over and we had a lovely meal (Darell brought lamb).


As to Spring Break, the main item on the agenda was "open-ended hanging-out time," which is SOOOO good for my kids. They do really well when we don't have to be anywhere!

I did take them to the zoo one day, and Katie went to a birthday sleepover. Shelby came to visit late afternoon Friday - noon Saturday (he and Annie captivated their audience).

That's Violet.

Thursday was the one "big" thing we did for Spring Break - Eric took the day off and we drove down to Legoland!

They have various American "cities" built out of Legos: New Orleans, Las Vegas, Manhattan, Southern California, etc. In Washington, D.C., they have replicated President Obama's Inauguration! It's fantastic. I took pictures:

Look at Aretha!

When we got home, I did some googling and found out that they actually built it shortly before the Inauguration. I found a picture of what it first looked like:

It's very interesting to me that they went back and redid it to reflect what everyone actually wore! Here's the updated version, also from google:



Other highlights of our visit to Legoland:

The Mission in Santa Barbara (I built a model of it in 4th grade, but I didn't build it out of Legos!) --- with Griffith Observatory in the background!


The Hollywood Bowl: we go there every summer!


San Francisco!



Nick liked Daytona Speedway:


Yep, kids get to drive at Legoland! No parents allowed!




This was really smart: while the parents wait in lines for the rides, the kids can play with Legos in special gated areas right off the line!

We love these visits

After we finished coloring eggs at our house, we got to go visit with our friends from Australia! The Hoffmans were staying at Kim's parents' house, so we went to see them and help them color their eggs.




Katie, Julianna, and Nick have a lot of fun with Stuart and Quinn when they come to visit!



We've been friends for a long time; aren't we lucky?

Coloring eggs

On the Saturday of Easter weekend, we colored Easter eggs!










On Easter, we ate some of the eggs! (We don't all like eggs, but we all tried them anyway!)

The Kindergarten Easter Party

Holy Family Kindergarten has a long-standing tradition of having a party for every holiday, and each holiday party has its own traditions to boot!

For Easter, a family that lives off of Diamond Ave. hosts an Easter Egg Hunt in their gardens. This family has been doing this since their 23-year-old daughter was in Kindergarten. They have Easter decorations all over their house, and their gardens have lots of great hiding places for eggs.

One of the parents always dresses up in the Easter Bunny costume and greets the children when they arrive at the house. Then each child gets to take a picture with the Easter Bunny.

(Nick and I went over to help hide the eggs before the Kindergarteners walked over. Nick saw the Easter Bunny and declared "that's not the real Easter Bunny. That's a person in a costume. The real Easter Bunny is magic.")

(Last month he shocked Eric and I when at bedtime he announced, "Santa is not real." I found out later that he was telling us he's not a real person, he's a magic person.)

After the Kindergarteners follow the bunny pawprints on their walk over from school, they greet the Easter Bunny, hunt for their eggs, and have time for craft and game stations, and then they have snack: cupcakes!








Nick was wearing a bear hat for the second day in a row. He was a bear.

Meet the Masters

This school year, I am a Kindergarten docent in the "Meet the Masters" program. Each month, we teach the students about an artist and lead them in an art project highlighting an art technique relevant to that artist.

So far, we have taught them about Joan Miro, Henri de Toulouse-Latrec, Paul Gaugin, Georges Seurat, and Auguste Renoir.

For April, I was not the lead docent, so I was able to take a few pictures to share with you.

The Master this month was Rembrandt. He was very deliberate about what was in the light and what was in the shadows. Therefore, we taught the students about identifying a light source and then shading the people or objects in their art work. Since Rembrandt was Dutch, the children drew windmills!

3rd Grade Literature Tea

The 3rd grade recently completed their March book reports. They read abridged versions of classic novels ("The Wizard of Oz," "Moby Dick," "Treasure Island," "Anne of Green Gables," etc.)

On the day of the Literature Tea, they arrived dressed as a character from their book, and the teacher interviewed them as if they were on a TV talk show. Halfway through, they had the "Tea." Parents brought in lemonade, iced tea, cookies and brownies, and served them to the kids, who had made floral centerpieces for their desks.

Katie was Prince Edward from "The Prince and the Pauper." She and Grandma made the costume during Grandma's visit.



Julianna helped Katie by wearing her backpack on the walk to school.






Katie's group: Prince Edward, Heidi, Anne (who told us she was from "Nova Scott-y-a which is in Oregon I think"), Peter Pan, and Robin Hood

Post-Its are fun

The girls like to play with post-its from time to time. They enjoy making labels for everything and sticking them all over the place.

The other day, after school, I was watching them make labels together: couch, door, oven, microwave, book, chair, etc. etc. etc.

After a while, I wandered upstairs and found Dino asleep on my bed:

Father-Daughter Dance!

The Holy Family Girl Scout Troops hosted a Father-Daughter Dance. Katie and her Daddy went out to dinner first with some other Daddy-Daughter pairs.

At the dance, they learned the swing step, and some line dancing, and the girls got to have the floor to themselves for some jumping around!

They got home late from their fun night together!

Katie is trying volleyball

I talked Katie into joining the YMCA's new volleyball league! She's got practice on Mondays and games on Sundays. The league lasts two months. I am very proud of her for agreeing to give it a try!


This is during a game. She's on the front line, in the "ready position" (except she needs to get her hands ready too!).



This picture is fun: Katie practicing violin after coming home from volleyball practice!