I visited the elephant seal vista point, located about 3-4 miles north of the Hearst Castle entrance off US 1. This was my first visit to see the elephant seals, and certainly not the last.
Ahahaaaaaaaaha! We come from the land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow!
This little pup screamed at its mama several times, and she responded by continuing to sleep and occasionally flipping more beach sand onto her back. Well done, mama.
These graceful seals are not playing — they’re fighting. And from the sounds of it, I would not want to be in the middle of that fight.
So I says, “What do you take me for, a sea lion!?! Hahahahaha!”
–That’s nice, dear. We’ve all heard it before…
Oh my gosh, I think I see a human, guys! Look! There it is!
I went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Zing! Zang! Zoom! circus show over the summer. It’s the circus show that does a lot of magic. Some highlights: the elephants painted a watercolor that my sister-in-law and I debated recreating and claiming came directly from the elephant (it was a bunch of vertical lines, so recreating it was a strong possiblity). I also bought a bag of cotton candy that came with its own magician’s hat (a blue cone-shaped kind a la the Magician’s Apprentice). I somehow also wound up buying the kids light-up toys — a sword and wand for The Boy and Little No Limit respectively. And then there was the show itself — full of magic that left me and my sister-in-law scratching our heads wondering “How did they do that?”
But nothing — NOTHING — topped the start of the event.
For an hour before the show starts, the audience is invited to walk on the center floor, try on costumes, and take up-close pictures of and with circus performers.
Ahem.
DID SOMEONE SAY I COULD TRY ON THE CIRCUS COSTUMES?????
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…
Le chupacabra! Ole!
My turn, Mom!
Little Bo Peep goes wistful…
I’m the Magician’s Apprentice!
Um… Mom, why are you in this picture?
Just because! Ole!
***
To see upcoming show dates and buy tickets, visit the Ringling site here.
***
I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Feld Entertainment. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Just over a month ago, I moved to large lot of land in rural central California. I went from living across the street from a liquor store and walking distance to nearly everything to living walking distance from my mailbox and little else. The nearest gas station is about 15 miles away and it’s only open during select hours.
There have been some growing pains, but my favorite reason for being out here is to see the kids running and playing where kids ought to run and play: outside.
We go on nature walks and look for something different every day. We’ve found nests (one of which looks big enough to be an eagle or hawk nest – The Boy was a little wary of that one. The hawks scare him a little… I do admit, their circling and soaring can be a little unnerving). We’ve also found baby trees (collectively dubbed “Twiggy” by The Boy), distinguished between the calls of different birds (we can only clearly identify the owl, the rest we just imitate), spotted funnel shaped webs housing funnel spiders (terrifying for mom, exciting for all else), pointed out the different colors of leaves and types of trees, stargazed, and with all this, worked up a bit of a sweat on account of the extra walking running around.
This is a big deal to me, and it turns out, a big deal to a lot of people. Children in the US are increasing in obesity — one of the stats I read was more than fifty percent by 2011. Meanwhile, the amount of time children spend outdoors has declined fifty percent in the past 20 years. Coincidence? Hmm.
The great outdoors. They’re not as far as you think. And despite how wrecked our economy is, the government does still fund national parks and every city has local parks to support kids gone wild. Use them. And if you still need a little more prompting, visit the Forest Service’s website, Discover the Forest.
Thanks to MomCentral, I have tickets for 4 people to go to the Orange County performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus event on July 16th. Anyone interested should leave a comment, and if you’re so inclined, a circus memory. I’ll do the drawing a week from today. You do not need to have a blog in order to participate in this, but if you do, it would be nice for you to link up and mention the giveaway, maybe write a post about the circus. Did anyone else go to the one they claimed to have a unicorn at? I was in third grade when that one took place. I was pretty stoked on it, but everyone else just kept telling me it was a goat with one horn. Whatever, non-believers.
If you don’t win the giveaway, you can still take advantage of this discount:
Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for only $44 by logging onto Ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000 and entering the coupon code: MOM. Enter code in the “MC Promotion Box” on Ticketmaster. Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Not valid on VIP, Front Row and Circus Celebrity seats or combinable with other offers. Service charge, facility fee and handling fees may apply.
Show Dates:
Los Angeles
July 8: 7:30pm
July 9: 7:30pm
July 10: 12:00pm, 7:30pm
July 11: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
July 12: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
Anaheim
July 15: 7:30pm
July 16: 1:00pm, 7:30pm
July 17: 10:30am, 7:30pm
July 18: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
July 19: 1:30pm, 5:30pm
July 20: 1:00pm
July 21: 7:30pm
July 22: 1:00pm, 7:30pm
July 23: 10:30am, 7:30pm
July 24: 1:00pm, 7:30pm
July 25: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
July 26: 1:30pm, 5:30pm
Ontario
July 29: 7:30pm
July 30: 7:30pm
July 31: 7:30pm
Aug. 1: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
Aug. 2: 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
Mustang. Corvette. Camaro. Bel Air. Woodie. Barracuda.
What do these cars have in common? They were all ignored by Little No Limit today when we attended the San Clemente Classic Car Show . What did she point out instead? Dogs. Little dogs, big dogs, dogs wearing unfortunate outfits, and last but not least, dogs being carried around in what can only be described as Baby Bjorn for dog owners. It just goes to show, you can take a dog lover to a car show… and I have no idea what the rest of that saying is (possibly because I just started to make it up and then got lazy and didn’t finish it).
The Boy, however, did show an interest in the cars. We met up with a friend of his and between the two of them, they very animatedly discussed the function of a gear shift, whether or not a car was a good color, the precise location of the cotton candy booth, and how very cool the mammoth-size shark tooth fossil was at the Toll Roads informational booth (and to answer the question “What do Toll Roads and fossilized shark tooths have in common – about as much in common as they had with the free Frisbees the Toll Roads people were handing out).
There was other excitement going on at the car show today. In addition to your to-be-expected cover band musicians singing classic rock, there was also an In-N-Out truck (huzzah!), a farmers market ($5 orchids!), and, regrettably, absolutely no parking spots. Yes, indeed, I parked a good quarter-mile away. Ah well, the kids got good exercise.
The car show is always fun to walk around, because I love nothing more than checking out cool Mustangs. One day, I tell you, one day, I will have one to call my own. What can I say? I like muscle cars. I don’t exactly know why either. It’s not as though I was alive during that time period and it’s not as though I particularly like the idea of using so much extra gas or cars without shoulder belts. It’s all about image, I suppose. Simply put, I think these cars are cool. And I am cool. Hence, I should drive one. Had I only been alive back in the day. I’d have been so cool. Like these guys (without the “someone just died” fear):
P.S. To anyone wondering where my pictures are — I forgot my camera. So NOT cool…
This past Thursday, I attended my first ever Lake Elsinore Storm game. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the glorious fun that is minor league baseball, I strongly urge you to find the nearest stadium and attend. I’ve been to my share of major and minor league games, and while I do like the monkey dance after the eighth inning during Angels games, minor league ball offers something major league games never do. Beer for a dollar. And Star Trek:
I also prefer the whole compact-ness of minor league games. There is no such thing as a nosebleed section at a minor league game. There are no crowds nor the need to leave early to miss the parking lot traffic. True, there are no big name players, but there are fantastically named players:
Because it was Star Trek night, there was also a fabulous reenactment of the green woman seducing Capt Kirk, performed by none other than the Lake Elsinore Storm mascot, Thunderdog, and one [very lucky] Star Trek T-clad employee:
Alas, I didn’t whip out my camera in time to photograph the Baskin-Robbins cup of ice cream that danced on the field, then tripped and couldn’t get back up nor did I ask anyone to photograph myself and Little No Limit participating in the scream-the-loudest-and-win-a-pizza contest (I protest our loss - nobody is louder than me at a ball game, dude, NOBODY!).
The game was so fun, I was sick the next day (always a sure sign of an entertaining night) and cannot currently hear out of either of my ears (serious congestion over here, folks). Unfortunately, as a result of being sick, I had to miss out on attending the Padres-Cubs game I was supposed to attend last night. According to my sister, this is what I missed:
*an old man starting a fight with some younger guys behind him about where the old man’s wife could walk
*the younger guys spitting on the old man, because they didn’t like him for starting a fight with them
*a random old man interfering and accusing the younger guys of picking on old men
*the random old man’s daughter trying to pull her father away
*some combination of these people getting escorted out of the stadium and one of them shooting the bird at the others while yelling threats
*a group of pub crawlers getting escorted from the stadium
While I don’t deny that the above has all the points of an entertaining blog post (the story just isn’t as much fun when told secondhand, you know?), I’m glad I took my kids to the more family friendly Storm game. Really, if that was the behavior at the major league game with full price beer, imagine if it had only cost a dollar…
Welcome to Legoland, where The Boy asked me, “Why is everything made out of Legos?”
Mind the Sith Lord
Legoland is ele-fun! (how much dorkier can I be?)
Flamingoes! Lego Flamingoes!
The Sydney Opera House
George Washington gets an ear cleaning…
And now for my favorite part of Legoland, the Lego Cities! A fully constructed Las Vegas strip, New York skyline, San Francisco Bay, and yes, New Orleans too:
The French Quarter
A Jazz Funeral
The Cathedral
A Mardi Gras Parade
And no trip to New Orleans is complete without…
Wizard-dressed people standing on corners with their arms spread out to emphasize the coming Apocalypse…
April 25th, I was driving by the beach on my way to church, minding my own business, and what do I see, but 150+ woodie cars lined up in the parking lot. Little No Limit and I went and checked them out and they did NOT disappoint. Here are a few shots (but I took tons…)
1. It had a long metal slide with the metal ladder that in the summer got so ungodly-like hot that it became a dare as to who could stand to climb up it.
2. And then once you climbed the hot ladder, there was the matter of going down a metal slide in the burning sun when you’re all sweaty and sticky in Florida’s summer humidity.
3. The swing sets were even better. Hard wood boards that gave me splinters.
4. Not to mention the dirt from the chains would rub off on my sweaty palms.
5. They transitioned from hard wood swings to those black rubber ones, the kind where if you wore shorts, then your thighs were bound to stick to the swing, and when you stood up, an imprint was left behind.
6. And to think how much I LOVED it.
Prior to third grade, my favorite park was Lake Lucina at Merrill and Rogero Road in Jacksonville. After third grade, my family moved and the park du jour was the one up the hill from my house. A brand new park at the time, it featured all wood structures and woodchips on the ground.
7. There were two trampolines at this park. I use the word trampoline for lack of a better word. It was a springy 3 foot square that you could bounce back and forth between. My brothers and sister and I created a system where one of us ran to one corner of the square and jumped, forcing the one on the opposite corner to jump further, who would then land on the corner of the other square, forcing the person on the final opposite corner to go flying through the air.
8. Regardless of whether nor not that description made sense to you, let it be known that it is *amazing* how high and far we could go doing that.
9. That park also had a tire swing. How wonderful was the tire swing… here’s something you can spin and swing around on until you get dizzy and throw up. And kids just line up to do it. Fascinating.
10. Remember old school merry-go-rounds? Hard wood benches (full of splinters like its swing cousins) and hot metal bars.
11. And hello, the hot metal jungle gym with the beach sand bottom????
12. There is quite a theme here to my memories. Hot and metal. Sweat is a big memory as well, but I felt that my descriptions would cross over into “too much information” territory if I went into detail.
13. Final playground memory? The shaky bridge. Still popular in today’s parks, I marvel at my kids as they stand on the shaky bridge and giggle away. I know I used to do it to, but for the life of me, I have no idea why.
This is a totally neat site where you can upload pictures of your local play areas. The idea is to share the parks and community spaces with the world so that locals and visitors alike can find appropriate play areas for their families, but the result was a mindful of memories.
Did you ever go to the playground growing up? What was your favorite memory of it? And better yet, if you saw your playground of childhood today, would you let your kid play on the structures?
I posted this photo of Pines Park on KaBOOM!
Kids these days… they have it so easy with their safe parks…
(More lists of Thirteen things here.)
(Hat tip to MomCentral for alerting me to the existence of KaBOOM!)
This was The Boy’s calendar picture for April. I love the umbrella. There have not been many showers this month in Cali, but I suspect we will still see flowers nonetheless. In fact, I’ve received my first bouquet of virtual flowers from none other than The Boy’s recent IEP meeting.
Last year, at The Boy’s IEP meeting, I was very frustrated by the triennial review. What bothered me was the school psychologist’s assessment of The Boy. It was as if she was talking about someone else. Her assessment of The Boy was so foreign from the Boy as I knew him, and I honestly suspect it had to do with the first time she met him.
The first time she met The Boy was when he’d just started preschool and was still scared of attending. Not so unique, right? Plenty of kids go through a transitional period. The difference between The Boy and typical kids, though, is that he has severe eczema. And when he gets upset, the first thing he does is scratch. Everywhere. Face, arms, legs, anywhere he can touch, he will scratch. The first time the school psychologist met him, he was crying and scratching nonstop. I admit, it didn’t look good.
So at last year’s IEP, they recommended Special Needs Kindergarten. I debated back and forth on whether I was going to sign the IEP or not, whether I would fight for General Ed Kindergarten with a shadow or the Collaborative Kindergarten where half the kids are General Ed and half the kids are Special Needs. After meeting with the Special Needs Kindergarten teacher, I decided to agree to their recommendations. This is partly due to the fact that a personal friend of mine who was a teacher at the same school gave me the dish on the Special Needs Kindergarten teacher and how amazing she was and how she’d had students from the Special Needs Kindergarten with better handwriting and reading skills than General Ed because of just how wonderful this teacher was. Strong words, no?
So that has been this past year. Special Needs Kindergarten with the woman who turned out to be the world’s best teacher. I love his teacher. I hope all future teachers are just like her. And what I like the most about her is that she sees The Boy as I do. I just attended The Boy’s annual IEP, and she said she’d read the assessments of The Boy from the previous IEP and felt that they didn’t sound like The Boy as she knew him. The rest of the IEP was just like that. The therapists, the teacher, and the General Ed Kindergarten teacher, all saying what I’ve always seen: The Boy is in league with his peers and doing well. His test scores aren’t topping the charts and he is a tad slower to complete a task than his peers, but he is academically on par and with that in mind, they recommended he mainstream into General Ed the rest of the year.
The Boy came home from his first day of General Ed talking up a storm about his new teacher. I emailed the new teacher to see how things went, and he said it was no problem and that The Boy just dove right into the new class full of people with no hesitation.
Fittingly, The Boy camped at Joshua Tree National Park over the weekend with Y-Guides and among other things, climbed to the top of some very big rocks. I am reeking of Proud Mama because, well, look at him:
