Chasing Bluebirds

Disney world 2013

even though i grew up near disneyland, i somehow missed the "collecting pins on a lanyard" tradition. i have seen people with them around their necks, but really didnt know what all the hype was about. let's just say collecting and trading pins was one of the highlights of the whole disneyworld experience for my kids and their cousins. i am so glad chris jumped in day one and bought everyone a lanyard and a starter "kit" of pins because it kept the kids happy and excited for the remaining week as they searched for new pins and picked up a few here and there each day. for the little kids it became a great way to motivate them to go on some of the scarier rides, they would earn a pin if they were willing to try. funny how some kids are scared to death of certain rides but not others, i am sure there could be a major discussion on the parenting styles of getting your kid on a ride they dont want to go on (to force or not to force?). how many times did a kid cry on a ride only to exclaim, " let's do it again!!" at the end? hmmmm.....




more photos coming soon...

Summer 2013

first up North Carolina: Topsail Island! i have been trying to plan an OBX beach house rental trip for years, i was pleasantly surprised by Topsail Island (we stayed with family and daytripped to the beach but i could imagine first hand how a future trip will play out). our family lives in Sneads Ferry, just a mile or so away from the beach, so jealous!

and miles and miles of wetlands!
yep, we finally did it. disneyworld. hmmmm. where to start? having grown up down the street from disneyland, i have to say that disneyworld was always some kind of dreamy far far away type place i would never ever see, too far and too expensive, not worth it. as a kid though, EVERYONE wanted to go to disneyworld, it was epic!! such a mystery though, even when i researched it online, i couldnt really grasp what it was going to be like? when we went to eurodisney (in paris) i remember it feeling like a tinier, edited disneyland. very cool, but not as big and just slightly "off" like you were in a dream or twilight episode. for some reason i had a hard time with the disneyworld website, it confused me and i didnt know if it was one big campus linked by, i dont know, trains or trolleys? why did people say to "stay on site" what did that mean? lucky for me, my sister in law is in the military and she booked us rooms at "shades of green" a resort hotel "on campus" so to speak. once we arrived there and drove into what is the "disneyworld campus" i could see how it was organized. basically it is four parks with roads and large patches of green space between each. there is epcot, the animal park, hollywood disney studios and magic kingdom. for those of you familiar with disneyland here is the comparison: magic kingdom is everything you have seen in disneyland (pirates of the carribean, small world, space mountain etc), the animal park is like a wild animal park with a few roller coasters and areas for little kids to ride smaller rides (it is dinosaur themed), epcot is like a tour of the world and future (similar to california adventure with some of the same rides) and the disney studios is like the hollywood studio area of california adventure. ok, so this is what my opinion is: it is nice to be able to tackle each park one day on a 4 day hopper pass BUT in about 5 hours you basically have seen all the major rides and attractions, leaving you with hours and hours of shopping time. no thanks. all four parks have massive areas of shopping which annoyed me to death. oh and downtown disney? yep, another HUGE shopping area to waste more money. Magic Kingdom was laid out much like disneyland but edited and smaller, just like the euro disney. no matterhorn and things like the small world ride were not housed in the elaborate building with facade you expect to see. it was similar (and adjacent to) the peter pan ride. ok, so yes we had a blast and yes we managed those fast passes to reduce our wait times, but i could have done with a little less shopping. i am sure really hardcore disney fans want to buy everything mickey mouse they can get, but i just wasnt into it. during our disney week we spent one day at the kennedy space center, worth every penny. it was so well done and we saw lots of foreigners from all over the world enjoying themselves. i was so proud of how well it was organized and how they shuttled you around to different displays all over the center. the information was presented in a very creative and innovative way that inspired me to think about the space past and future in a way i havent in a long time if ever. if you are doing a whole week in orlando, by all means break up the disneyworld time with a tour of the kennedy space center, you wont be disappointed!!



i was expecting heat but i'll tell you, in august it was hot hot hot! our trip started in north carolina (flying into raleigh) with a few days at the beach. we then took a drive down to "middleton place" in south carolina and another quick stop in savannah before landing in orlando for a week at disneyworld. middleton place was a wonderful surprise as it is a working plantation/farm which showcases local fresh food in it's restaurant. just walking the grounds was amazing and we spent most of our time there just walking around. i first read about the place in a sue monk kidd book (love it when something i read about finds it's way into a trip).

middleton place, south carolina: big thumbs up!!



i'll post some more pictures soon.

Sleep away camp: Wintaka time!!

My kids just returned from "sleep away camp", this is Emily's 6th year and Lizzies 3rd. I find it interesting how many of my friends are too scared to send their kids to camp, worried that something horrible might happen. Having gone to camp every summer since I was going into third grade, I couldn't wait to send my kids. I don't look forward to them being away, not at all, but I enjoy giving them this most magical opportunity. It is an amazing gift to give your kids a camp experience, I know personally that camp was one of the most important experiences of my life. It gave me an independence I never would have had without it. Here are a few things I have learned about sleep away camp:

1) Kids are forced to work out their squabbles. You can't get away from your bunkmates, you are together 24/7 for a week. If there is an argument, you must face it and work it out. This is something that doesn't happen at home with your school friends. You don't get to go home, talk with your folks, find a new friend etc etc. You work it out. What a great life skill! The roller coaster of being friends, getting on each others nerves, bickering, working it out and being best friends again brings kids closer together in a week than in years of going to school together. I remember truly "loving" my camp friends on a very deep level, which I still have today! School friends, not as deep.

2) Kids learn to be away from their parents, that it's ok to miss them. A whole week away seems like a long long time to kids and I think it's important for them to trust other adults to care for them. I also like that other adults are disciplining them and teaching them new things. It takes a village to raise a kid, I truly believe that! (It's also good for parents to let their kids go a tiny bit too, so hard sometimes!!)

3) Kids learn to follow a schedule, to do their daily activities (like brushing teeth, brushing hair, getting dressed) on their own. They follow the routine which includes meals, activities, getting ready for bed, sleeping... managing their time in a way they don't have to at home. I remember becoming very aware of how long an hour activity is, the time it took to walk down the hill to the lodge, being aware of the dinner bell ringing, watching the sun go down and knowing how much daylight was left. There is something about camp, without parents around, that teaches a kid to pay attention to details they take for granted at home.

4) Kids will look up to their counselors and want to be like them intensely. I remember falling in love with my counselors and I just could not wait to be one too! This is a totally different feeling than loving your parents. It is magical and more effective than being told "this is what you should do when you grow up." They see their counselor up there singing and they want to do that too. It is powerful stuff even though it seems so simple.

5) Last, sleep away camp FEELS so much more exciting than it really is. It is safe, organized and pretty routine, but to a kid it's like a trip to the moon. 

heading to camp, so excited!!

Returning from camp energized and happy, priceless!

Summer 2013

Where have i been? yikes! Another year of Camp Shiwaka has passed, this is the 7th year my first Camp Fire group has attended camp together with me as leader (actually one year I lead the Rocket Cats... but we were still all together). Next year my girls will be Day Camp Aides, wow! Where has the time gone? Each Spring we sign up again for the following year and I was so happy that all my girls signed up again for yet ANOTHER year!! Here are some highlights:

there was a science fiction theme this year... my favorite ever!
crazy time machine making (i love free form "make anything from a pile of crap" crafts for kids)
every day the kids do a challenge course that promotes team work and getting along in a group
we spent a lot of time cooking this year, out doing all the years past: a few items we tried were "shrimp and couscous hobo packets" and "real pizza" (we made homemade dough with a rise x 2!)
"pancake cake" via jamie oliver and pinterest for breakfast (with donuts and bacon too of course)

sleeping under the stars and our camp shiwaka sign photo tradition

a glimpse of my littlest having fun too
so another year down, about 4 more to go with my younger group now... looking forward to some quality camp time with them. i think it makes a difference all that sweating and dirt together.
we finally made it up to the cabin after a 4 month break (working weekends is making it hard to get up there)
even if it's a bit wacky, i am glad they are still playing with "toys"
happy 4th of july! we spent it riding to the beach, swimming in our "pool" and cooking over the fire...here's to checking in more regularly!

Springtime

We took a trip to Utah over spring break, I hope to have a full post on that trip with lots of photos. One of my favorites was this one:

we were beat but happy, can you tell? Utah is just so gorgeous and the springtime is a great time to visit because it's not too hot. I did one quickie painting and really enjoyed all the orange and blue combos with sky and rock. It is also the end of our camp fire year, end of the school year with lots of camp fire events going on:
not just cleaning up the wetlands, we are PLANTING now!!

my favorite wetlands event yet. we also had the camp fire grand council fire event that celebrates all the kids who make their "wo he lo" the highest honor in camp fire. 11 this year! wow!

Spring camp out was a hit too, this is a time for families to camp out together at camp shiwaka... not just with their group and leader



i'm pretty nuts for instagram these days!
an art installation at the wetlands
and i started doing cross fit, ouch but so much fun! i am really enjoying the new friends i have made and how much better i feel. more to come on our utah trip! happy springtime everyone!

Camp Fire leader 101 (x 2)

So when i started this blog, my plan was to document my experience being a camp fire leader (did you know that?) well my first year had some regular posts on all the mishaps and adventures i had trying to figure out what the heck i was doing. Can you beleive it's been 7 years now? AND i have TWO groups? The interesting thing is that i not only have two groups, am the LEADER of TWO groups, i actually run about every single second of said groups. The few leaders i know who have tackled having two groups aren't crazy enough to actually run them both without some serious help OR to be the co-leader of one while leading the other. i think it makes a big difference and why my journey has had more ups and downs than most.

so what have i learned? so much, so much. for one, i could probably be the ceo or big time manager of a corporation now. here is my list:  i know that you never ever ever say what you really really are thinking most of the time. i know that people will say they are coming, text you they are on their way and never show up. i know that some events with 30 people invited will have 2 attend and some have 45 (??) plan for either, that i have learned. i learned to spend as many hours as it takes in the summer at my leisure to plan the entire coming year AND actually write in every event on the calendar and just go with it no matter what. i learned that canceling a meeting makes some people grumpy and some people happy. i know now that in this economy, people aren't buying candy like they used to and not to take it personally. i learned that my passion to overcome whatever competition and downright hostility the girl scouts feel toward camp fire has burned out and i cannot build that bridge (at least for now). i learned to use every resource possible during a crazy out of control meeting (parents, older siblings, whoever) to try and bring it back together. kindergarten kids can only sit still and be quiet for a minute at a time and never the same minute as the kid sitting next to them. i know now that paint + kids = a horrendous mess that will find you picking paint out of your nails and hair for a week. i learned that a church who wants to do something for the community can up and dump you one week before your meetings start up again (after 6 uneventful years) because they dont have space for your 11 or so kids but will let the boy scouts continue to meet there with their 100+ kids. i have learned that when the leader of the group's child has a birthday party and she doesn't invite all of the camp fire kids (even if the plan is to keep it small, cheap, simple) and you post a photo on facebook of said party, that the kid or kids who weren't invited will most likely quit over the hurt feelings. there are going to be some parents who 1) say i favor my kid at meetings calling on them more than others 2) tell me i am too hard on my own kid 3) roll their eyes during meetings and i have to figure out what the heck i did/said to offend them 4) tell me i am the most amazing leader BUT they aren't continuing in the group 5) will tell me that camp fire isn't cool enough for their kid 6) will dump me AND my kid for not being cool enough in their attempt to climb the social ladder at school 7) will sincerely become my closest friends and stick with me for years and years through thick and thin 8) will spend miserable nights camping on the hard ground in the drizzle, dust and bugs to give their kids a unique outdoor experience here in the city 9) will bring me coffee at the crack of dawn after the countless camp outs we do each year 10) will bring bushels of ice, bags and bags of food and anything else i request during day camp. i am sure this list could go on and on... i think that's it for now. wo he lo!!

Italy

I know I wrote about our italy trip last summer but not sure if I truly laid out the things I learned about traveling to Rome with kids. I still think London, Paris, Rome are amazing places to take kids (Venice too, by the way) because there is so much to do and easy to get around. While researching for our trip I stumbled onto many wonderful blogs and one of them seemed to have tips that interested me more than otheres. I recently offered to share some of my Rome tips and was taken up on my offer. I didnt realize it would be posted word for word, but I think it came out pretty good!! Here is the link.

Ahhhhhh to be back in Rome! 

back to work

I am back to work, feeling the stress of a busy schedule again, ugh! we are finally getting our living room painted, it's more like a major restoration project and costing a small fortune. i am super excited and enjoy the progress. it is a bit of a mess though, kicking my OCD into top gear. since i had to work this weekend the kids went to the desert with their dad and cousins, here's a few shots sent to me: 

looks like everyone is having a great time! i have never been with them, working weekends is such a drag but i am sure i will get a chance someday. here's a photo of our living room in progress:
i love my house, really love it but it has a lot of quirks and nothing is a simple fix. the doors need to be replaced but the door guy says they weren't made correctly in the first place, the dimensions are off that hold the glass. so dilemma, do them right or keep with the design of the entire house? of course we need to to keep them the same but it's hard to tell a professional who knows what he is doing that. in other news:
i took a painting workshop and jumped right in, very fun and very inspiring. i found a local artist (who is also a yoga instructor, good move!) and she very kindly helped me get back in the groove. i am now back and ready to go! i splurged on some new paints from here and dug out all my old supplies. i had been wanting a new plein air easel/setup and splurged on that as well. everything is working as planned and i am so glad i spent a little more. i have had two cheapo plein air easels in the past that were wobbly and fell apart after a few years. at $100 each, really not so cheap when you add it up. i am hoping to get out to the wetlands asap and start on some of the paintings i have dreamed about for years now.

lots of walking around the park lately and happy my youngest is joining me now
i think that fitting into her older sisters running shoes might have something to do with it. :)

time warp

having a few more days off, i was ablet to FINALLY go through my iphotos and fix many of the goof ups that happened when i tried to put all of my photos from my old comuter onto the new. for some reason i had random duplicates all over the place, probably 1/3 of my storage taken up by this goof. i still haven't finished, but i have put a dent into it. along the way i came across lots of fun photos so i thought i'd do a little time warp for 2013:

photos of the mountains and our catalina trip from several years ago (that was a pet cemetery we stumbled on during a hike)...plus one of maggie as a puppy. healing up and getting ready to get back to it!

Slip/Fall

So i had a slip and fall accident this week in the shower (!!!) and rapped my head on our glass shower door (not recommended) thank goodness i didnt break it, but i came away with a nasty cut over my eye. At first i thought that was it, but by morning i had two black eyes and a goose egg over my nose. Unbelieveable! Very humbling to say the least and very very embarrassing. Sure people fall all the time but i have never injured my face like this before, never, even as a kid! I have instantly become house arrested as every day my bruises go from pink to purple to greenish and yellow and quite shocking i must say. The kids are nice and make their funny comments to make me feel better. Being housebound has had its ups and downs. For the first two days i was in too much pain to really do a whole lot, but by day 3 i was cleaning the house like a freak and trying to get through a zillion "to do" lists. Today is day 4 and i have cabin fever like crazy. I am supposed to be back at work in 2 days but i am so freaking scared these bruises will remain. I am not a vain person but to be honest i don't want anything to draw attention to myself. I prefer to just muddle through my work and get back to what i want to do each day. 

before my accident, i had spent some time walking with the girls out in the on and off rain to sell candy and stumbled onto some fun landscape ideas

I have only recently become a fan of this type of native gardening. I still have a love for the "tropical" look so i am trying to see if i can mix a little
I took a walk around our local park yesterday, for the first time really getting out of the house. Felt so good! Our weather has been amazing. I say it over and over again, California is best in the winter. Cool nights, warm days... just perfect!