A Day At The Mission

Today was a beautiful, sunny... winter day? Well, yes. Here in the OC one would expect no less. And since we are on our last few days of winter break our family decided to make the short drive out to San Juan Capistrano to enjoy the sights and going ons.                                                             

We began by heading out to the mission and letting the kids be our tour guides. We enjoyed the usual Koi and butterfly gardens as well as the architecture. We seemed to have come at a good time because there was a children's activity being offered for the day. So for $2 each our little ones kept busy making clay containers with air dried clay. Was it messy? Yes. Did I need my husband's help to fix the help I originally gave to my youngest? You bet. But it was well worth it. Here's a picture of the girl's getting ready to dive into their craft.                                      

After the mission we grabbed lunch at my favorite little taco stand "Senor Pedro's". Note to anyone going there, one bag of chips will more than feed a family of 4. You have to love that. Once our stomachs were full we took a walk down to Zoomar's where we used our discounted tickets for admission, 2 train rides, and 2 gem mining tickets. If you haven't been to Zoomar's before it's a wonderful little place to take the kids. Here you'll see my youngest feeding the animals in the feeding area.

There's also pony rides, larger animals, gem panning, and train rides. But you may have guessed that from my following photo.

Plan on giving your kids a good window of time to play here as there is also a playground and a sandbox minus the sand and filled with corn kernals instead. Who would have thought kids would love playing in corn so much!

Once you're ready to head back home give yourself a moment to stop in at the Hidden House Coffee shop. It's right up the walk and definetely worth a trip. The coffee and hot chocolate are delicious and the service is great. It's a 4 1/2 star coffee shop. So I say give yourself a little treat for being such an awesome parent and grab a drink and/or bite.

Here is where I conclude our day trip to San Juan Capistrano. I hope you make the visit yourself sometime and enjoy it as much as we did.

January Crafts

Hello All!

It has been almost a year since I last blogged and I cannot begin to tell you how much I have missed it. Life has had its up and downs this year, more downs than I would have cared for, but we have all survived to live and love another day.

January is almost upon us and I am excited to greet it with new ideas for your children and mine. Some of the things we will be doing this month are felt story boards, bird houses, winter worksheets and printables, and activities for Martin Luther King Jr. Day as well as Chinese New Year. Each activity will detail the items needed and step by step instructions as well as photos to help you along your way.

Our first craft will be the felt story board. Our goal is to create one story a month so as to have 12 hand made stories by the end of the year. Of course, you are always welcome to create more for your little ones. As they say, the more the merrier.

Besides crafts I will also be posting local activities and outings you can do, or take, with your children. Books, movies, toys, and so on will be reviewed and who knows what other fun lies ahead.

I look forward to seeing where this blog, and this year new year, take us.

Happy Holidays to you all!