Chasing Bluebirds

grand council fire and spring camp out

a whirlwind of events right now, spring camp out (where families camp together at our local day camp)
emily finished her sixth year of camp fire, wow!
my goofy middle schoolers, such fun!

i never tire of seeing my girls up there singing... the camp fire law this time
love all the tents, watching the sun go down in the middle of the city...
lizzie flys up to adventure level (and will attend grand council fire next year... no more winging ceremony which is just for kids in k through 2nd grade)

lizzie liked when i pointed her out during my little speech

we are just weeks away from our trip to italy...been really addicted to this site and daydream of visiting all the places she writes about. ciao for now!

fast forward

man, i have had such bad luck with computers lately! really, i spent at least 8 hours this past week making slide show dvds for my camp fire kids and at the last second of burning the discs had an error message i couldnt fix. back to square one. then i just typed up a heartfelt meaningul post here only to have my "new" computer lose it in all it's flashiness. good grief! i am out of time so instead of the post about how my trip is hurtling itself at me along with end of school events, lots of work, tons of camp fire bustle, i can only post a few photos of the kids playing with maggie (who is getting a lot more attention these days!)

oops ball stuck in the tree! no problem with the avocado picker at hand

i better sign off before something else happens!

Olive

feisty little olive left us yesterday, it was a relief but still very sad. she will be missed.

april 2012

its like i need to just put the date up there because time is flying by and my blogging is lagging, geez! right now i am: swimming twice a week, riding my bike almost every day down the river to the beach (in crazy wind with these recent storms) and feeling so much better! when i was younger i could do three or four hard workouts in a week and be down a size no problem. well at 44, i guess it takes more than a few workouts to see a real change but at least i have swung that weight gain pendulum swinging in the other direction a bit. so on my bike ride today (the river runs right through the wetlands) i was surprised to see this at the end of the trail

the most beautiful, lovely sign dedicated to the wetlands we have been desperately trying to save!!! on the other side is a sign about the san gabriel river channel describing it's route and characteristics, also very well done. in other news, lizzie has been taking tae kwon do (sometimes 5 days a week she loves it so much) and she just had her first belt testing yesterday. it was really cool and i enjoyed watching the other kids too, especially the tiny kids getting really high level belts. this was exactly what this kid needed!!

(poor olive wants in) unfortunately we had a loss of a family member this week but the flip side was lots of visiting with extended family bringing us all closer and reminding us how important family is, how fast time flies. jump stated me planning an east coast visit to finally see all those cousins on the east coast and scout out my favorite state: north carolina. happy spring everyone!!
hanging out with aunt heather

12 years... time sure flies!

my first born is 12! wow!

we spent the day at knott's berry farm

still trying to figure out my new camera, feels really awkward, hoping it gets easier. lizzie struggled a bit, being too little for most big rides and too big for the little rides...
with my squeamish stomach, i took advantage of our time together waiting for the big kids. we shopped and had our own adventures, i treasure these fleeting moments shared with her alone. happy birthday emily!!

Love A Sea Turtle

we recently had a sea turtle meeting that was inspired by a nonprofit organization on the east coast (north carolina, yay!) called Love A Sea Turtle. it was started by an 11 year old girl who was so inspired by a visit to a turtle rescue facility, she decided to raise money and awareness to save sea turtles where she lives. luckily for her, sea turtles nest along the east coast so they get to see them lay eggs and can help protect the nests. we made a donation and requested a dvd to use at our meeting which the kids were riveted to. i did a little lecture on sea turtles (happy i found a great book on our own bookshelves!) and we took notes in a little sea turtle book. i had a craft for them (turtle collage) but with all the good question and answers going on, our discussion took up too much time. love when that happens! so we will continue to learn about sea turtles (specifically the green sea turtle we have here in southern california) and work with our sea turtle friends on the east coast too. 

here's my little guys and another link to Love A Sea Turtle. so happy to find ways to link our local wetlands to an organization all the way on the east coast via a migrating sea turtle! so cool!

los cerritos wetlands évent x 2

i wanted to include something we did at the last los cerritos wetlands event that was totally unexpected! we made and tossed seed bombs! now if you have read my blog in the past you know i am crazy for seed bombs! we have made them at camp and made them at a meeting last year (spreading them all over our local parks full of california poppy seeds) there was something so satisfying in making and throwing all in one go, the kids loved it!

perfect weather and just enough hands on to keep the kids happy. looking forward to doing this more often!

los cerritos wetlands

another awesome event! a special camp fire wetlands walk and restoration

taylor giving us the ground rules and telling us what to expect on our walk
for any of my faithful readers who have heard me lecture on the necessity of saving the wetlands (rants maybe?) we are finally seeing some real work being done to do just that. last week i attended the second of six community meetings designed to get the public involved in the restoration. it was run by eric and taylor, just like a lecture you would expect to hear in a college biology or ecology class (love!!) i will include the link here so you can check it all out. what i love is how formal and REAL this all is, people actually make a living doing research on this stuff and spend their days counting birds, testing water samples, watching the tides, collecting seeds and on and on... (career change maybe??)
the los cerritos wetlands has a few areas that are pristine but much of it is heavily degraded... still the animals and plants exist here. can you imagine how a fully restored wetlands will look?
so here is lizzie along the river channel looking for sea turtles, yes sea turtles here in long beach! they are attracted to the unusually warm water coming out of these electric plants (they use the cold water to cool their "engines" and pump warm water into the channel. this is the bike path i have used to get to the beach my entire life and its been only recently known that turtles are here. these are juvenile green sea turtles, and they are stopping here on their way up and down the coast. we would normally never see them so this is a real treat. the biologists say this is a way for them to avoid predators and they eat the algae produced by all the warm water
last week i had a sea turtle meeting (we have hooked up with the love a sea turtle group from north carolina, more on that later) and those kids really knew the answers to the questions taylor and eric asked them (felt good they remembered!!) so if you are local, plan on coming out to one of the wetland events. this is really happening folks and if we want to save it all, we need everyones help! i still have a few more things to share about todays event... coming soon!

camp wasewagan

most of my camp fire kids had conflicts with our second trip to camp wasewagan (the camp next to yallani) so i had just three rascals to hang out with last weekend. we weren't sure what to expect this time of year, last time it was november which was cold but no snow. there's something about snow that makes kids go crazy and mine spent every waking hour making a snowman and having snowball fights. here is our cool cabin:

the weekend was designed to have discovery level kids from our councils mingle together and work on activities challenging them in areas of trust and communication. i was in charge of an orienteering (sp???) nature walk where groups of kids wrote up a path using a compass (pacing and putting out markers for guidance) and then the groups rotated to follow the paths the other groups mapped out. it was FUN! and the kids (including me) really learned how to use a compass.
up behind the camp was another deserted camp with retro cabins that i became obsessed with

really fascinating... old style like i used to camp in. wasewagan cabins are heated and can be used year round which is great but my heart loves these old tent/cabins too!
here is our little pack of discovery kids
and the snowman that took two days to build
and a trend my daughter started:
tails to go with their animal hats!! :)

el dorado nature center

an oasis in the city: el dorado nature center. i grew up going here many weekends with my dad and walking the one or two mile loop trail. lots has changed here, more native plants and a more manicured path but fun all the same

my big camp fire kids held an "environment" meeting here, hosted by three kids, part one was our walk today and a craft and lesson will complete the "trail" at mondays meeting
winter time is the best time to be in california, the mountains can be seen (with snow too!) and the days are cool, windy and sunny
one of the first outings our group did together was visiting the nature center and it's been 6 years since! wow!
i couldn't help myself with all these group photos, such a wonderful way to spend a weekend morning
and one more....

thanks for six wonderful years together girls, i can see the bright futures for all of them shining in their eyes. what a great feeling!
i am heading to work and hoping to share more about our new "garden club" at the kids school i am FINALLY getting started! more to come!