Last California Christmas

And it was certainly a memorable one~

"Christmas Eve at the Barn" was a highlight for us this Christmas. The 100-year-old barn is located 1/2 mile from us - also in the midst of the strawberry fields where we reside. It was such a sweet service, and the animals in the pen outside (goats, chickens, rabbits) were a hit with our crew - especially our rowdy 20-month-old who wasn't especially keen to sit through the service.

The kids got to dress up and sing "Away in a Manger" from the front stage, and the monkey elected to be a king. (The other two declined to participate - this time.)

 Our Christmas tree, all decked out and waiting for Santa!

We had a lovely Christmas day... The kids delighted in their gifts, and we enjoyed having HF's friend/colleague Joe and his girlfriend Andy join us for our traditional calzone dinner. Very nice day.

Doing December

We have scaled down our advent and December activities quite a bit this year. We aren't doing a Jesse Tree this year - way too time and gear intensive. There is not enough room on our little kitchen table to break out our advent wreath for our Sunday advent dinners, so we just use a candle. And, while we are decorating amply (the kids, especially Monkey, could not have it any other way), we do not have a tree. Correction: we have a bonsai tree for our Christmas tree. See photo below.

The rationale for this is:  a) we are moving exactly 9 days after Christmas and are thus awash in moving-related activities (mostly administrative related to home-buying, mover-coordination, and travel arrangements), b) we have virtually no extraneous space in our house, and c) we still have an 80-lb dog with a massive cone on his head who cannot fit through the doors (much less into his crate) and knocks children over willy-nilly at all times of days. It's a crazy time.

We have managed to listen to Christmas carols at every.waking.moment.of.the.day. To bake and decorate sugar cookies and a gingerbread house from scratch. To have our annual Scherrei-Arico Christmas dinner (last one of its kind, sniff sniff.) And tomorrow night we are going caroling with our friends the Coopers. So I'd say we're doing pretty well still, all around...

Yesterday was the kids' last day of school, rounded out by a lovely luncheon potluck that included parents, siblings, and teachers. They said their goodbyes and took their photos with friends and such... They - and I - really enjoyed their school and will miss when we move.

Maker of bags

I don't sew... but HF most certainly does. Not only does he patch our clothes when necessary, when they are too far gone to patch, he makes them into bags for our kids. Exhibit A: formerly-Daddy's-khaki's-bags. That's a cool dad.

While he had the sewing machine out, he also assembled our fourth child stocking for the mouse... He sewed the other three last year, and this one was cut and ready to go, but not yet done. But now it is. Seamster extradordinaire.

(And go, fab 4 at Yuletide...!)

Here we go again...

Six days before we left for Virginia on our house-hunting trip, Angus' ear started swelling. He has chronic ear/yeast infections and has for years; we treat them periodically as the need dictates. Well this was different. Big.

The day after Legoland, HF took him in to the vet to find he has a hemotoma. We began extracting fluid from his ear with a special syringe, once to twice daily. Not fun - for him or us. When we left for a week, our friends/neighbors the Jamisons took over the job as part of their care of him (now are those good friends or what?)

When I got back though, it was no better and was in fact much worse. It was like a triangle shaped balloon sticking out of the side of his head, full of fluid and infected.
Next stop was surgery, we knew, so yesterday I took him in for the procedure. When I picked him up at 5 pm, I had to lift him into the car - and could barely make it in there because of his cone (which has to stay on for at least two weeks). He bumps into all the walls and door frames in our tiny house... Awkward.

Never a dull moment with this one - surely among the highest maintenance dogs, health-wise (and possibly overall) we've ever known. But we love him!
Get well soon Ango.

House-hunting

Whirlwind week for the PCW crew! Whew.

Last Monday night I dropped Monkey and Roo off for their first ever friend sleepover at our dear friends (and fellow homeschoolers), the Coopers. Josh, age 6, is one of the monkey's closest friends, and we all enjoy his older sister Michaela (9); mother Jenny is a good friend of mine. They kindly and graciously hosted our oldest two for 5 nights so that the remaining five family members could fly east for a Virginia househunting trip. We flew at 8 AM on Tuesday and met up Aunt Katie in Baltimore shortly after landing, over dinner at Chick-Fil-A... She and her crew kindly and graciously hosted Goose and Mouse for 4 nights and 3 1/2 days. At that point, kid-free, HF and I drove south to the Fredericksburg area and rolled up our sleeves.

We spend three days house-hunting all over our soon-to-be-new nearby town, visiting every single listed house with 5 or more acres. Our realtor is friends with a widow who is vacating her home - the house where she got married (right in the front yard!) and raised her family. Though it wasn't listed, he thought it was perfect for us - and he was right. It's a fantastic fit - the house we visited first and last. We wrote up an offer on the third day, and she accepted and signed it the same day. We were ecstatic.

It's a 1916 farmhouse with several updates and additions, and it's on 20 gorgeous acres. Four or five bedrooms and 2 baths, a large eat-in kitchen, a front porch and a screened in back porch... We both love it. It's more than we could have hoped for.

It will need some updating and a few projects - wood paneling and shag carpets to replace; pink bedroom walls to paint over; some flooring to upgrade. But even right now it's a lovely place. Some photo evidence:

Everyone did well in their respective homes during our days in VA, and we're back home at the mircofarm, amidst clouds of paperworks being gathered for our lender. The move is supposed to occur around Jan 4... And it finally is starting to feel like it's happening! Just four more weeks here in California before the eastward journey.

Final CA Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Dibiases in Pasadena this year. This was the third Thanksgiving we've done with them in the five we've done in CA; they are like stand-in family and we love being with them.

We potlucked it and brought/made potatoes, homemade maple cranberry butter, bread, gravy, and pumpkin whoopie pies for dessert (of course). They did turkey, stuffing, beans, and drinks. The meal was, I must say, delectable. Three of our combined seven children were napping when we ate it, so we kept the chaos and spillage down to a minimum as well.

Our three girls wore beautiful cranberry colored dresses that their talented Aunt Katie made them... You can see glimpses here. Love them!

We upheld our new Thanksgiving tradition of shooting at a pumpkin, though because our bows and arrows are packed we used darts. The rules were slightly beefed up this year, as were the prizes. Jed won handily - impressively hitting the pumpkin with all three of his darts in both the practice round, and in the real deal. That kid's got aim... For his prize he got a small plastic snake and a second pumpkin whoopie pie!

Lark at Legoland

Well we made it to Legoland. Four and a half years into our time in California, and a mere six weeks before our exit, we managed to get ourselves there. It's a widely touted and acclaimed attraction among the 4- to 8-year-old set, and our kids have been quite keen for some time. Tickets are generally $78 per adult and $68 per kid... But happily, we were able to coordinate a homeschool outing- a special they run on Mondays for groups of 10 or more homeschool folks. Thus we paid a paltry $21 per person, excluding the mouse who was free. A steal.

Legoland is more than an hour south of Los Angeles, and we're an hour north; it's 2.5 hours roundtrip when traffic is light. So we left at 6:20 AM and made it down there an hour before opening. We stayed 10 AM till nearly 2 PM, at which point everyone was flagging and the two little girls had clearly had enough. And were home again, home again lickety split (hardly) by 5 PM.

The kids adored it. It was their first amusement park experience, and really -what's not to love? They did perhaps 5 or 6 rides each (though the goose was below the age/height limit for many) and were, overall, in heaven. HF and I had fun, though admittedly we are not really "theme park people"... And the administration/oversight aspects of an amusement park with four little people under age 8 are significant. We were very glad we did it though; it was well worth the effort.

A few highlights:

Monkey staring at one of the many, many Lego-made people populating the park.

Mouse trying to shoot Lego animals with a water cannon

A pirate ship ride, with HF as an escort

It was a very wet ride...!

Mouse frolicks with a Lego knight

HF and the big two did a spinner ride... Went better than anticipated.

Nutcracker!

Special Mommy-daughter date with Roo to the Nutcracker on Saturday... Fun day! New dress, sewn by Aunt Katie; Starbucks treat first; fabulous ballet; nutcracker ornament souvenir to boot. Roo even made it almost to the end of the second act. :)

Our own unusual suspect

There's a TV show on the Discovery Channel called "Unusual Suspects" - a documentary-style show in which detectives discuss some of the "toughest investigations and how justice was served." One of the episodes they filmed this season involved a case, more than a decade old now I think, from HF's agency. HF has some experience consulting to TV shows that relate to his vocational field, and he was asked to assist on set for three days. He was happy to comply.

HF's only prior experience was working on set for a major network show (CBS), and since this was a Discovery Channel show, it was significantly lower budget. Evidently the difference was pretty notable.

On one of the days, the directors needed someone to play a law enforcement official assisting with interviewing a suspect, and HF was invited to participate. He accepted, and now he is officially- in his words - a Hollywood actor. Or he will be if they don't end up cutting his scene...! It's slated to be the season finale   this year, so keep your eyes peeled...

Seven is sweet

So we officially have a 7-year old. On Thursday (the actual day), he took a bag of gluten-free pumpkin muffins to school to share with his class to celebrate his birthday. I asked if we could send muffins and was politely rebuffed because of the school's healthy foods policy. They suggested fruit salad or veggies. I asked if healthy pumpkin muffins might make the cut. Yes - so long as they were gluten free. And voila, the selection was made...

That night we celebrated for real with homemade chocolate cake and pumpkin ice cream. The monkey was beyond ecstatic over his two Lego ninjago presents, definitely the favorites. (The poster below was spearheaded, colored, and glued on entirely by him to decorate his Lego ninjago party.)

Happy birthday Monkey! We love and adore you!

Here's to Halloween

We went to our old street on Oct 30th to take part in the afternoon pumpkin carving/painting party they throw each year. (Meanwhile a mild brush fire was occurring a mile from our new home on the far side of the farm fields... Exciting! Out within a few hours.) The pumpkin-carving party was a fun time... Here's an action shot of Roo painting a pumpkin:

The kids wanted to wait to carve our own large jack-o-lantern with dad when we got home. The whole family got in on the action:

On Halloween proper we went back to our old street for our fifth annual parade and trick-or-treat extravaganza. We had pizza dinner beforehand with our beloved Scherreis. I forgot the camera and had to made poor cell phone shots work for the evening. A group shot, including most of our corporate crew with a few others added in as well:

Our own crew had a ninja, a girl ninja, Supergirl, and (not pictured) Snow White. HF and I (also not pictured) even got in on the dressing up-action this year! Fun.

Resident ninja and his party

 So there's this thing called Lego Ninjago... About which, up until about August, I knew absolutely nothing. Not so anymore. The boys in our neighborhood are besotted with this new movement in Lego ninja, and the monkey is very into it. For his seventh birthday, he asked if he could have a Lego Ninjago party. We have never held a proper themed birthday party before for any child, but since we now have outdoor space to host - and since we will be moving soon and will soon be apart from these friends - we decided to go for it. 7 seems like a good year for a real birthday party anyway.

I went online and found an ridiculous and frightening extensive amount of ideas and activites related to little boy ninja parties. So I lifted a few of them, and we spent a day or two preparing. Attendees were the families in our farm neighborhood, our two close neighbor friends from our old suburban neighborhood, and the monkey's good friend Josh - his closest homeschool buddy. About 20 kids, ages 1 - 10, and 11 adults, comprised the attendee population. We pre-made pizzas in the brick oven pizza yesterday and served slices as our main "appetizer" for our 3 - 4 :30 pm party (a hit).  Attire was "ninja optional."

Yesterday, when the monkey and his pals were creating ninja-themed decor, our soon-to-be 7-year old took it upon himself to write up some rules for the party. After all, "weapons" were going to be involved (darts and origami throwing stars), so protocol was necessary. The list:

Here's what we ended up with:

a) Looking the part (here the monkey is decked out alongside his close friend Josh):

b) Dart practice: throwing darts at balloons which contained pieces of candy in them

c) Crafts and names: making construction-paper ninja faces (simple, and I had pre-cut the pieces) and finding out our "ninja names" using a handy dandy short-hand code I found online

d) Throwing stars. We distributed throwing stars made out of construction paper (which I pre-made, origami-style), and we lined the kids up and had them throw them as far as they could to see whose went farthest. The monkey, happily, won two out of three.

e) Pinata: note the Ninja "star-thrower" shape...

f) Lego count. Guess how many legos are in the (Ninjago) container?

g) Ninja cupcakes!

 Of course in the midst of all that, there was also time to sit around, hang out, and eat... Photo evidence on this for the oldest and youngest party-goers.

Notes from Natural History Museum (LA)

We rounded out our October museum-going blitz with a trip to the LA Natural History Museum on Wednesday, where they were having a "homeschoolers day" with free admission and events on the topic of Bugs and Botany. While the billed events were lackluster, the museum itself was pretty cool, and we enjoyed touring it with four friend Ventura families.

Monkey petting a walking stick insect

Roo and new friend Abby in the dinosaur exhibit

Goose surveys a polar bear

Three Los Angeles museums in eight days! A new record perhaps? It was worth it - we had a good time. And made it through our 'fall break' week with gusto.

Scoping out the science center

This week is "fall break" for schools in Ventura County, so Monkey and Roo have no Tuesday/Thursday classes... Nor are we expected/required to do our normal daily schooling activities. Thus I've arranged a full week for our crew including kids' medical appointments (3 doctor, 3 dentist); museum visits (2); and gatherings with friends. And last night we got together with our neighbor/friends the Jamisons to watch the third presidential debate, so we're throwing some civics into the mix as well...!

Yesterday we hit the California Science Center, about an hour away in Los Angeles. Even though many of the concepts and exhibits were over the kids' heads, there was still a good amount to entertain and delight the crew, especially the oldest two. Few samples:
a) A little chemistry experiment--

b) The very favorite feature, Computer Center games in the learning labs:

Happily, the mouse was able to hang in there for the nearly three hours that we lasted. Overall, fun way to spend the day.

Vertebrate Zoology, round 2

On Saturday the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, right here in town, had its annual open house. Since only three of us visited this local gem in August, we decided this was the perfect opportunity to attend en masse. The taxidermy show-and-tell was a sufficient dangling carrot to get us all through the door:

Learning about ostrich eggs

The mouse - true to her 18-month-old ways- lasted approximately 33 minutes before she made polite attendance impossible, so the visit was fairly short-lived. But still entirely worthwhile!

Getty-goers

Virtually every time we have driven past the Getty Museum, shuttling a guest to/from LAX, the question as to whether we've ever visited the museum has arisen. And why shouldn't it? It's an amazing museum. But going to the Getty would entail schlepping a crew of 6-and-unders along - a feat that I'm not sure I'm ready to undertake. So to date, we have not gone.

This post helped me change my mind. Family room? Art detective cards? (I already knew about the tram). Like it. Also like the close proximity (45 minutes) and free admission - just have to pay $15 for parking. The final two things that pushed me over the edge were: 1) the kids have no T/Th "school" for 1.5 weeks, so we are in free-flow-schedule mode, and 2) we're moving sometime in the next few months, so we're nearing our last opportunity... And simultaneously, we are feeling antsy and transitional and need things to do.

We went for it.

I kept my expectations lows and anticipated staying just a couple hours and spending precious little time in the actual exhibits. On both counts, I was right on. We were there for 2 ish hours, including lunch, and we were in the exhibit rooms for probably a combined total of 13 minutes. Most of which was spent trying to teach, and re-teach, my museum-goers the appropriate distance from which to point one's finger at a component of a painting. They kept returning to 2 mm as a default (and I am not exaggerating).

But it was worth doing and (sometimes) fun. They liked it, all except Roo who was in a glowery mood and claimed not to be able to think of one part she enjoyed, and I was glad we went. It's a worth-doing LA experience, and I'm glad we did it while we were here.

The mask Roo made in the "family room"

We glommed onto a school group to learn about a sea monster sculpture

Monkey using his 'art detective card' to find a lizard

Action shot kids

Mouse is officially 18 months, as of yesterday. Loves to climb!

Goose loves her hair in a ponytail (and happily has a much tougher head than Roo's)

This new dress of Roo's is her favorite - would wear it daily if she could

Playing guns with his buddies on the play structure. Turning EVERYTHING into a gun these days!