Girl Scout fun and cookie time!!!!!

We recently went ice skating with our girl scout troop. It was Livie's first time, and she had so much fun! She used one of these "helpers" that assisted her in getting around the large rink. She must have gone around 5-6 times. Olivia had so much fun that she asked afterwards when the next time will be! So, looks like I'll have to plan another trip there soon.
She had fun hanging out with her friend AJ as she went around and would take little breaks in between. A great thing about our troop is that it is a homeschooling troop so we have about 15 girls now ranging from Daisys to Cadettes. We meet during the day and do many of our activities during the week which allows us to miss the crowds and go to some really fun places. Also, siblings (little brothers and sisters) are included in most of our activities and we have much parent involvement. We couldn't ask for more!





The girls also just started selling girl scout cookies. This year they received the cookies up front and are walking the neighborhoods selling them to the neighbors. A couple of the girls in our troop walked around a shopping strip mall recently. They sold a few boxes of cookies, but mostly had fun hanging out together and having lunch together afterwards.




They've done so many fun activities with their troop this past year. They've gone on some really interesting and fun trips and had some great times camping. Girl scouts is also really big on helping out the community and this year they not only helped the local community but made a donation to the Haiti Earthquake fund. We've got a group of really big hearted girls who have become really good friends. Be sure to support your local Girl Scouts when you can!

Tower Room with a View

There are so many interesting, fun places to go to in San Diego. And, the desert is the perfect place to go in the winter time, when it's not hitting the 110s and higher! It was a lovely mid 60s when we went to the Desert View Tower in Jacumba this past week. It's about an hour east of San Diego and well worth the drive which was another 1/2 hour for us. Built in the early 1900's it was a stage coach stop for early settler travelers and for Native Americans a way station for 100's of years. The tower was actually built from the old planks from "Old Plank Road".





The girls and I had a great time exploring the boulders there. There were some painted boulders with interesting faces and figures painted on them. The rocks were painted in 1933 by an unemployed engineer named Merle Ratcliff during the depression. Great place for imaginative minds. Olivia was overheard playing Indiana Jones with her friends while Violet had a great time hiking up the hill to the springs with some of her friends. Don't miss the springs while there. It was a great place for me to have fun with the camera and sit and enjoy the beautiful desert with friends.



The views of the desert were amazing from the tower. There was rose quartz to be found all over the grounds and some very friendly well-cared for dogs and cats. There was beautiful cactus found everywhere. And we spent the day with some really great people (A new unschooler's fun group which explores and gets together all over San Diego-ask me about it if you're an unschooler in S.D.).







More photos of the day are in my flickr set Desert View Tower. More info about the tower and boulders can be found here. It was an awesome day and a place we're sure to re-visit!

Catching up (part 2 of 2)

Early December we went Scripps Birch Aquarium's Homeschool Day. I was very pleased with the way it was run. They had many hands on activities where kids and adults both, young and old, were able to touch the tide pool animals, do experiments, learn about sea animals and sea life and walk around the aquarium freely to see all the exhibits. They also had graduate students there with tables where they had their various projects they we working on like Biomes and Netfishing, overfishing, etc. They were great with the kids and the kids (& I) were really interested in their work. The docents and event coordinators were all so very nice and respectful to the children. A special "There's something about seahorses" exhibit was on display, many beautiful, exotic looking seahorses were seen. We were able to see the sharks fed and see the beautiful coral displays and starfish and other amazing displays. Such a fun time. We really look forward to more days dedicated to homeschoolers. More here.

December also brough a fun Winter Fashion Show hosted by the cadettes in our Girl Scout Troop. The girls all looked so pretty and "cool" (Olivia's description) in their Winter's best.
Violet went down the runway in a festive, red sweater dress.



While Olivia sported a red ski sweater which she wore with some shiny red pants and her jazz shoes (see Robin & Martin's wedding in Pt 1). She WORKED it, with some ninja moves and really got the crowd going!



We also got to make some tasty tamales at a friend's house. We made some sweet pineapple and dried fruit tamales, some chicken, some beef and pepperjack cheese tamales! Yummy!



We managed to make a late afternoon/evening trip to the Wild Animal Park and Dan was able to join us. Which was a treat. And a girl's sleepover. A busy month, indeed!