Jingle Jog

The middle girls were so excited to find out that their new school participates in the valley's well known jingle jogs. Imagine an entire school out on a walk while wearing bells!  Designed to get the entire school out and moving, promoting a healthy lifestyle, the kids all go out to do a one or two mike run or jog on the day before Christmas vacation starts. Santan invites family and friends to run with the children.  The streets around the school are blocked and with water stations set up by volunteers, it's certainly a fun event.  

We knew Grandma and Grandpa would be here in time for the run, so we ordered a tshirt for Grandpa to wear. The morning was beautiful as the children gathered in the park north of the school. The park is right next to our house. Bonus! The normal kid giddiness and chaos ensued, and Grandma and Grandpa had difficulty finding Annika and Ingrid and ended up spending most of the walk looking for the kids.

 The event concluded with fruit and water for the kids and families.

Thanksgiving Test

Testing blog post from iPhone

Miscellaneous Monday

• Today is Veteran's Day.  We are ever indebted and grateful to those who serve or have served.  Thank you.
• I had a long day at the hospital today with several documents reviewed and vetted, taking nearly all day before they were cleared for internal publication.
• No school for the kiddos today.
• Woody planned on working on the library shelves today.  That didn't happen.
• Ashley spent the night.
• Annika and Ashley played with classmate Kami who came over at 2 PM.
• Ashley went home at 5 PM.
• Kami went to dinner with us after claiming ramen noodles as the sole food she eats.
• Kami truly loves noodles and nothing else.
• Kami told us she eats tacos on Tuesdays because they are $1.00 at a local restaurant on Tuesdays only.  Annika asked Kami if the tacos taste good.  Kami said her dad thinks they're "damn good" and that's why they have to eat them on Tuesdays only.
• Kami said she's part Chinese, that's why she likes rice and noodles.
• Kami's parents say she's not Chinese, but had a Chinese babysitter when she was little.
• Kami is a very funny house guest.
• Morgan was working on Civil War trading cards for Social Studies this evening.
• Woody made the kids an "Internet Cafe" this morning.
• We are now growing seedless Red Flame grapes in addition to Thompson grapes in the backyard.
• That's all I've got.

Santan School Carnival

A perfect night for a perfect carnival.  That sums up what I can say about Santan K-8 school carnival - Western Round-up.  A fun evening with the family (despite lingering colds for two kiddos).   We followed neighborhood advice and pre-purchased our tickets for booths and wristbands for rides and bounce houses and headed out at about 5:15.  And, as we continue to say with glee each time there's an event at the school; our car was left parked in the garage.  No fighting for parking!

We strolled in and took in all the sights and sounds.  Actually, we could hear the sounds from our house.  The P.A. system played popular mingled with announcements.

Annika met up with Kami, Kami, and Ashley and we let them have their independence from us for the evening.  Morgan found her girls and was off - only to show up on occasion to see what we were doing (and vice versa).  Woody, Ingrid, Erik and I went to the slides and bounce houses and rides.  The train was a hit, so was the Toy Story Bounce house.

The weather actually cooperated.  We were expecting winds and cold with possible rain.  While it was cooler and the clouds looked ominous; we indeed had fantastic evening weather.  Couldn't have asked for better.

Independence

Our son is beginning to push autonomy and independence into his daily life.   Take today - Erik, like many boys, waits until the ABSOLUTE LAST second before announcing he needs to use the bathroom.  We've grown accustomed to dropping everything and running with him to the bathroom  to make sure he make's it.  Makes, sense, of course.

But now, he insists on shutting the door and allowing himself the dignity of pulling up his pants and washing his hands.  Of course, we are right nearby in case he happens to forget a step.

This afternoon, we tried to tell him he got it not quite right, but he wanted to hear non of that...

Math Problem

Annika is working on fractions in math right now: writing fraction equations, equivalent fractions, simplifying like terms, adding mixed fractions, etc.  They're using manipulatives - fraction tiles - to help illustrate the problems.

Here's the assignment.

Create a sketch card (draw on graph paper) with tasks and write the equation to answer the following question.

"Use 24 total (equal sized) tiles and use the denominators, 2,3,4,6,8 and 12.  You need to be sure that the fractions add up to 24/24ths or 1 whole"

We'll write the answer tomorrow.

Happy solving.

Election 2012

Elections are educational, no matter what your political leanings.  History, Geography and Math all rolled into one night.  Add art, too, considering how well you can stay in the lines of the U.S. states while coloring the electorate.

After Annika and Ingrid came home from school, we dashed to Sam's club and picked up meat, cheese, vegetables and grapes for dinner.  Added to existing crackers, apples, pretzels and chips and salsa, we had a party.

Similar to the 2008 presidential election family party (click here), we set up the bulletin boards and downloaded outline maps of the U.S. for the kids to follow along with the election coverage.

And similar to 2008, we were disappointed in the federal results, but local and state results matched our political stand.  We will continue to work hard for ourselves and use our voices and voting capabilities to make the changes we think will push this great country forward.

What I can't imagine is that the next presidential election will have my youngest child in first grade, my oldest child in eleventh grade and a whole new electoral map!

Santan Cross Country Team Wins!

We had the great pleasure of watching Morgan's first Cross Country meet today which was hosted by Santan Junior High.   Even a greater pleasure was the fact that the cross country running course runs right by the gate to our neighborhood.

After the fun day date with Woody, we collected the girls and Erik, grabbed our camping chairs and the wagon, and walked the few steps to the park.  We set up under a shade tree and had a great view of the teams running right past us, around the park and back in front of us before continuing the course along the school boundary.

Morgan had a great stride and finished in the middle of the pack of 7th grade girls.  She had a very good stride and felt great about her finish.  The girls started first and the boys cheered them on as they made their way along the 2.5 mile course.

We all liked our first meet.  After all the girls cross back from the park to the school, we packed up our camping chairs and made our way home (a one minute walk).

Ingrid plans on bringing pom poms next time - cheering her big sister to run her best!

Congratulations, Morgan.

Happy Halloween 2012

We finished our first Halloween in our new neighborhood and give it an immediate thumbs up for fun, family and friends.  The narrower streets bring everyone closer together despite the larger homes.  There are only four streets in the gated community - a perfect amount for trick-or-treating.  Woody walked with the kids and I handed out candy with two of our neighbors.  Two other families walked with Woody.  After the third street, Erik was working hard to catch up to the older kids and finally decided (himself) that he had enough and came home with Woody.  The girls continued on with Ashley's parents in charge.

The costumes I made for Ingrid and Erik were the most challenging sewing projects I have ever completed.  I started in August - a smart move - to avoid a last minute rush.  The costumes, Mary Poppins and Bert, turned out better than expected.  I used several photos on Flikr and one website - Make it and Love it, for inspiration and tips.

Erik loved his costume.  Do you want to know the secret to getting him to wear it?  I told him the gloves belonged to Mario and Luigi.  And the clothes, too?, Erik asked.  Yep, I said.  They're Mario's dress clothes for church.  Erik rocked his suit!

Morgan chose to wear the Troubodour costume Grandma sewed earlier this year.  Annika started out as Sally Ride, her costume from last year's Wax Museum project.  Just before heading out, she darted inside and switched to last year's Halloween costume - the iPhone.

More photos to come!

Ginny

Ingrid got a package in the mail that sure made her smile.  Grandma sent all of Susan's Vogue Ginny dolls to Ingrid this week after cleaning out some storage areas in the house.  Ingrid was on cloud nine taking out each doll and fawning over each outfit.  She loves the dolls on the right most - the sporty Ginny's with their running shorts and striped socks.

It's really sad now that American doll companies have gone by the wayside and have been replaced with cheap Chinese play sets.  There are so few options.  Even the American Girl company now makes its dolls not in America, as the name implies, but in China.  Grrr.

Thank you, Grandma, for taking good care of our toys so that another generation can enjoy their beauty.  We will be doing the same for Ingrid's kids.

Saturday Night Science

After much begging and pleading, we finally relented and let Annika buy a science kit instead of a book on our last vacation trip to Barnes and Noble in Rowland Heights.  She has had her heart set on a bubble gum kit.

I was skeptical and made her wait until we got back home to set it up.  It's definitely a parent and child activity with several steps.  Annika had it opened previously and spent several days pouring over the instructions.

With all that extra knowledge, she was a champ at getting things set up and laying out the supplies.  She chose watermelon mint as her first flavor.  Oh my.  Not quite the flavor combination I would think of - but that's our Annika.

Following the instructions closely,  Annika managed to make a very nice blob of gum with the correct consistency.  I helped her roll it out and Ingrid and Annika pressed cookie cutters to get their first piece of gum.  Annika immediately thought of her friend, Ashley, and asked if she could run a piece over to Ashley's house across the street.  Of course, I said.  She gave Ashley the Halloween cat at the door.

Annika is following up our successful Saturday Night Science with requests for more gum manufacturing.

Fall Break Day 3 - Natural History Museum

Day 3 of Fall Break Vacation in California.

As we previously said, this vacation is not scripted, except for Saturday's Chuseok parade.  Therefore, on our first day of "vacation part of vacation" we sat down during breakfast to decide a plan for the day.  What was not anticipated was the amount of road and freeway closures because of a campaign event.  Ugh.  Secret Service and CHP were planning epic closures.

Harabagee mapped out a path and we were on the road in two cars early to avoid the closures.

The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum is fantastic!  On the grounds of the University of Southern California, it sits adjacent to the California Science Center (soon home of the Endeavor Space Shuttle) and the USC Stadium.

The kids were so great, this is the first trip without a stroller.  We did have four adults and four kids which helped, we traded around and had a great time looking at all the artifacts and having a nice lunch on the lower level.

There was so much to see and to touch and to do that we did not even get through half of the museum.  In the atrium there was an exhibit of live amphibians.  Snakes, alligators, turtles, frogs and other caged creatures.  We all enjoyed looking at them and talking with the caretakers.