the red tide

 

Last night the kids and I headed down to the boardwalk to watch the sunset and see the red tide.  Masses of algae in the ocean have bloomed to form what is known as the red tide during the day.  It occurs at all hours, but when these things are jostled, they produce a blue light that is best seen in the dark. 

A friend first showed it to me earlier this week before an early morning run.  The light glowing from the ocean waves is spectacular.  I wanted the family to see it so the next morning before an early yoga class, I took some photos and made a video.  Of course, none of these turned out.  The next best option was to take the family to see it at night.  This means keeping the kids up past their bedtimes, but it's really something to see and worth it. 

We watched it with friends last night but there was too much light being produced from the street lights to get a really good view.  We did, however, catch the gorgeous sunset and two pods of dolphins swimming up the shoreline.  After leaving our friends, the kids and I drove down the coast towards home and stopped in a couple of places.  The best viewpoint was from a locals-only surfers' beach called Beacon's.  Parking is atop a cliff and in the middle of a residential area.  Nobody goes there and there are no street lights along this cliff-side street.  It was perfectly black at 8pm and the show from the glowing ocean was awesome.  The kids loved it.     

Not my photo, but this is what the glowing ocean looks like.

playdate

Meredith and Brian: she says his kisses are bubbly and slimy

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This afternoon Meredith and I hosted a playgroup playdate at our house.  The last time we hosted one was in June and that was an ice cream social at the park.  We haven't hosted one in our house for quite some time.  I think it's natural as the kids get bigger and into different activities to host playdates outside the home, esp. when it's a group of them.  We had 5 other moms with a total of 7 kids so today's playdate was perfectly manageable.  They kids enjoyed the Halloween craft, festive snacks and two hours of playing while the moms enjoyed spending the time sitting around the dining table with each other.  It's rare to have such a low-key playdate so today's playdate was esp. nice! 
 

Tiger Cubs

Last night Thomas joined the Cub Scouts!  Our family attended the first official Pack meeting together at Thomas' school.  He's very excited to be involved in this group and participate in the varied offerings.  It's infectious.  His Den has about a dozen boys, all in first grade, but from a couple of different schools.  I think there are just two others from his school.  I can see Thomas really enjoying this because it suits his personality.  I wouldn't be surprised if he does this for many, many years to come.

afternoon walk

Today's treasure hunt walk objective: To find leaves and flowers that make up the colors of the rainbow.  I thought it'd be fun for the kids to find a variety of plant life in all the rainbow colors and then afterwards glue them onto a piece of paper in a rainbow shape.  They LOVED this.  It made for a nice walk around the neighborhood.  We met a new family.  Greta had a nice hour long walk.  And the kids had a blast.  Once home, they came up with a different project to do with their findings (there was a lot of sorting and gluing).  

costco

This is how Meredith does Costco without Thomas along...

Carlsbad ArtSplash!

kids crafting harmonicas

Buzz Lightyear, chalk on asphalt

another chalk artist (she's only 16 years old!)

Hullabaloo - every San Diego County kid's favorite

(can you find Meredith?)

Oceanside's Harbor Days

The harbor in Oceanside is an area we haven't really been to so it was fun for us to hang out at the Harbor Days celebration this afternoon.  There was plenty of good street fair fun, roaming pirates and a rather large military exhibit.  Both the Marines and the Navy had a variety of their vehicles/boats parked on the beach for curious visitors.  I'm pretty sure this was Thomas' favorite part of the fair.

walking to preschool

Fall crafts

This afternoon we spent a couple of hours working on craft projects.  We decorated ghosts to hang throughout the house, made some paper bag pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns, put together some pom pom owls, and started the shrunken apple heads pictured above.  It's never too early to start on the Halloween projects, esp. the shrunken heads since they take weeks to dry! 

Mad Science

Mad Science in the Cafeteria -- yes, it's outside (this is So.California, afterall!)

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Thomas' elementary school offers a variety of after-school "enrichment classes".  Not all the schools in our district offer them so we feel fortunate to have these available to Thomas.  Actually, there are so many offerings that the students at his school have to pick from several that are offered every single day.  There are at least three every day which makes it difficult I'm sure for some to decide if they want to do tennis, golf, yoga, or whatever the offering is that day.  For Thomas, however, it was a no brainer.  The boy loves science so today that's where he spent an hour after the school day had already finished.  I was afraid he might be tired from this additional activity, but he wasn't -- and he loved it.  Yay Thomas!! 

homemade applesauce

We picked about 10 pounds of apples yesterday.  The kids would happily eat them all, but I thought it'd be fun to do some new things with them.  This afternoon's project was homemade applesauce.  It's easy and the kids enjoyed helping.  We were able to get them on the stove right before dinner so about 15 minutes after we had finished dinner they were ready.  We added a touch of sugar and some cinnamon to the mashed apples.  The warm applesauce made a nice dessert for everyone tonight!

girl hair

Meredith, like nearly every four year old, absolutely adores older girls.  She studies their movements, their outfits, their hair, what they say, etc.  We carpool to school with another first grade (female) friend and this morning was our day to drive.  Meredith looks forward to these days when she gets to sit and stare at Kaitlyn in the backseat next to her.  Today she studied how Kaitlyn wore her hair and what she wearing for school pictures today.  After dropping Thomas and Kaitlyn off at school, we returned home.  She immediately asked me to fix her hair to be like Kaitlyn's.  I'm not complaining because I love seeing Meredith adopt a desire for more "girly" things like ribbons in her hair, using a curling iron and wearing skirts.  It's fun. 

[Note: She wore her hair like this all day and received lots of compliments at preschool.  She's already asked me to do it like this again tomorrow...]

apple picking in Julian

Our apple picking excursion today was a huge success!  Last October we stopped at an orchard near Zion National Park in Utah and picked a small bag of apples.  It was totally unexpected and fun.  I've been wanting to take the kids again because I knew they'd absolutely love it -- and they did!  Mike needed the day to get some things done, so I invited a friend to spend the day with us in Julian, Calif.  It's about an hour and a half way, at a higher elevation right on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert.  It is absolutely beautiful out there.  Today it was a warm 90* but the kids had a blast eating lunch at a diner in Julian, picking a variety of apples at the orchard, and then stopping back in Julian for the town's famous apple pie and apple cider.  It was a day full of apples and good friends!  A highlight for all four of these kids today: the simple joy of plucking an apple off a tree, cleaning it up on their shirts and eating it right there in the middle of an apple orchard.  They also loved that they could throw the core on the ground when they finished.  Such simple joys!  

college fund

Thomas says this bag of money is for college someday -- or at least most of it is for college.  Glad to see he's already saving for it!

summertime classic car shows

Meredith: "The blue one is perfect for Thomas and the red one for me!"

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Last night's Classic Car Cruise-In along PCH in Encinitas was the final one for this summer.  Our family always enjoys these so we're sad to see them finish up.  However, with the cooler evening temps and the crisp nip in the air, we're looking also looking forward to changing gears and enjoying our favorite Fall activities.

learning the dinosaur dance

m-dinosaur dance from cherl willardson on Vimeo.

Cub Scout?

I don't know where Thomas learned or heard about Cub Scouts but he decided recently that this is what he wants to do.  I think Cub Scouts suits him and his personality perfectly -- and I can totally see him continuing all the way to Eagle Scout.  His excitement is infectious.  This evening the whole family went to an informational meeting for Cub Scouts at his school.  The Pack has boys in grades first thru fifth from three local schools, yet is still fairly small.  His Den (first graders) could potentially have 10 to 12 boys.  He's excited so we're excited.  Mike participated in the Scouts and my brother was involved in it, too.  I think it'll be a very good and fun experience for Thomas, with nothing but good results in every way imaginable.     

carpool

Our school district does not operate a bus service so all the kids in our town either walk or are driven to school.  Maybe it's not so bad at some of the schools, but Thomas' Elementary School is next door to the Middle School.  They share a one-way driveway and parking is extremely limited.  It wasn't an issue last year because the Kindergarten kids started/ended at a different time from all the other kids, but this year we're experiencing the congestion.  The grade levels at both schools have staggered start/finish times to ease the congestion but it's still very congested.  Carpools are a must and we were pleased as punch to start a carpool with Thomas' friend Kaitlyn.  It's just one less car but they all add up... 

Lake Poway

This afternoon our family enjoyed a picnic at Lake Poway followed by a short hike.  The kids, the dog, the adults... it was a fun afternoon for everyone!

the Southern California blackout

kids ride with our good friends on the little train



Yesterday we lost power around 3:40pm and did not get it back until after 10:30pm.  It was a little crazy not knowing what was going on, why the power was out and when it was going to come back on.  Fortunately the kids and I were at home and had just finished decorating Mike's birthday cake.  Mike was at work but left soon after our power went out.  He was able to avoid traffic congestion up north and had no problems on the Interstate so he really only had to deal with the 1.5 miles from the Interstate to our house.  We got lucky. 

Immediately after the power went out the kids and I gathered up our candles, lighter, flashlights and headlamps.  We chatted with our neighbors and learned that the power outage was actually quite widespread.  It's one thing to have a small area (like a neighborhood) lose power, but an entire region?  It is unnerving, to say the least.  Early predictions said we would not have power back for a day or two.  We were lucky to have it back after 7 hours.

The entire County closed public schools today but some of the private schools were open.  While Meredith was in preschool during the morning hours, Thomas and I joined friends at Legoland.  After picking her up from preschool, we went back to Legoland for a few more hours.  For a day with nearly every school in the County closed (and all the vacationers have gone home), Legoland was surprisingly empty.  It was one of our best and most fun days spent at the park!

Daddy's birthday!

The kids make birthdays and celebrating birthdays so much more fun than they used to be.  We can no longer let them slide by with a simple dinner out.  No, now there needs to be an actual birthday cake, presents, cards, decorations...  They were excited to make this special cake for Mike's birthday this year.  They were very specific about frosting color and all the decorations.  And for once, the cake actually turned out -- and tasted good, too! 

[It's a good thing we finished the cake early in the afternoon because within 10 minutes of finishing the cake we lost power.  It didn't come back for seven hours!]

painting the master

This morning Meredith and I started painting the master bedroom.  She loves to help me paint so I try to find ways to let her do just that.  Today she alternated between short periods of painting and longer periods of playing by herself.  She makes it easy for me to get some things done around the house these days.

Santa Monica trees

swings

Neither of these kids enjoyed the swing as a baby but Meredith now claims it is her favorite thing to do at the park.  I think she could swing all day long.

cheering

 Meredith before the cheerleading pom poms



Meredith has recently been interested in cheerleading.  Sure, it is a sport, but really?  Cheerleading??  I came up with excuses and flat out avoided buying her pom poms, but during an outing with Daddy this afternoon she got pom poms... 

Meredith after

birthday officers



Just one day before receiving the invitation to the kids' friend's birthday party  BOTH had asked me to take them to PlayWerx again.  It's an indoor, softly padded, climbing structure with ball pits, slides, virtually any child's dream obstacle course.  The kids absolutely love it and get really, really worn out playing here.  So, as luck would have it, their pal Griffin celebrated his 6th birthday here this afternoon.  They had a BLAST.