Summer Outings..

.. a whole weeks worth of them :)

Summer is my favorite time of year, not because my children don't bicker constantly, they do - but because its time for me to play teacher.

I love exposing my kids to new people, places and things.

So I've come up with a loose schedule for the summer where the the kids and I alternate who gets to pick the outing.

Here is what we did this week :)

Chuck E Cheese - ok, so I hate this place and really it has no redeeming qualities.

Token bank

But the kids chose it so what am I going to do??  I spent $30. on tokens and set them free.  The tokens lasted about an hour,

Las Vegas for kids

then we traded them in for about $2.98 worth of crappy toys.   On the positive side, we've done Chuck E. so no need to go back the rest of the summe - yes!!

Prizes we redeemed about 1000 tickets for

After Chuck E. Cheese we all needed some fresh air and where better to find some fresh air than the summit of Turtle Rock?

I chose Turtle Rock because I love hiking and it was free!  Something to consider with a large family like mine.

Heading up to the never ending staircase

This hike can be quick or pretty long, its up to you.  We headed up the face of the hill, the kids love scrambling over the rocks.

The kids and I heading up

Once we got to the top all of Orange County was at our feet, talk about some great views.  We hiked down the ridge a while then looped back.  There is a nice playground at the foot of the hill, so the kids played a bit and then we headed home.

SoCal at our feet

Next up was the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach.  The kids were free and it was $12 each for Nadim and I to get in.

The kids were not excited to see the museum until we pulled into the parking lot and they saw the sculpture outside.  Yes, that is indeed a very large un-nuetered male dog peeing on the side of the building.  The boys of course LOVED it.

"Bad Dog" sculpture outside the building

The Museum was Nadim's idea and he did a great job of making the art inside interesting and relevant to the kids.

My favorite art installation

The OCMA has a great collection and the museum is small enough that you can see everything without the kids going nuts.

Very, very detailed painting

The kids favorite's were the pieces that were performance art based.  The best one was entitled "Open Doors", be sure to check that one out if you take your kids.

Modern tapestries

Finally we visited Sherman Gardens and Library in Corona Del Mar, Son 2 wanted to see some animals - he is my scientist.

The kids were free and my admission was only $3. The Gardens don't open until 10:30 but we showed up at 10am and wandered in.  They were nice enough not to kick us out :)

Heading inside

The gardens are beautiful.  They don't seem to get many children visitors as all the staff were oohing and aahing over the kids.

Heron sculpture

The whole site is about 2 acres and there is a lot to see crammed into the fairly small space.  Take your time and pay attention to all the small details.

Koi pond

The kids loved the koi and the turtles best.  The staff told us that there are also 5 tree frogs by the koi, but we didn't see them.

Turtle pond

We headed into the library last.  In the car on the way over I had discussed what a Resource Library is with the kids and we guessed what kind off books might be in there.

Resource Library

No we didn't find any Sponge Bob or Fancy Nancy books, we did find some phone books from 1910-1940, Sunset magazines from 1911 and other old, old books.  There was even a journal from one of the Father's who came up and founded some of the California missions.

Looking up "posterior"

Son 1 found this dictionary and thought is was hilarious to look up "posterior", you know another word for butt, and leave the dictionary open to the page.

Definition of posterior

The kids liked Chuck E Cheese best (no surprise there) but running a close second was the Sherman Gardens and Library.  Who knew??

Keep me posted if you try any of these outings (well, I don't really care about Chuck E Cheese :) and let me know how it went.

Have a great week!

Appreciation..

..in the form of lunch. Otherwise known as Teacher Appreciation Lunch :)

Of course our school has changed it to "Staff Appreciation Lunch" but the basics remain the same.

Our theme was "Sweet 16" since our school was ranked number 16 in the county, pretty impressive really.

Teacher's lounge

 I would like to make it known that I had nothing to do with the decorations,

Teacher lounge

other than choosing the colors when I made the invite a couple of weeks back.  You can find that blog entry here.

Tissue balls were fabulous

I love all the tissue balls!

Great tissue balls, made by a PTA mom

My part of Teacher Appreciation Lunch, was, the lunch.  Yes, I picked up the phone, called Corner Bakery and placed the food order.

Food from Corner Bakery

Somebody had to do it :)

Teacher rant

Ok, so I'm mad.  Really, really mad.

So mad I want to drop F bombs and all other sorts of inappropriate language, but I won't.

Thursday is "conduit" day at school.  A conduit is basically a big envelope filled with the students work for the week.

Daughter's conduit had a surprise waiting for me.  A Habitat book, a trimester long project, that was given a score of 1.

Yep, 1 out of 4.

Here is the description of what a score of 1 means:  "1 point is incomplete or incorrect.  I did not follow directions.  I did not show that I learned about different habitats."

Now, I'm the first to admit that the quality of her work is sadly lacking and very sloppy.

What infuriates me is that..

The teacher never bothered to let me know that Daughter was not doing well on the project during the 2 months they worked on it in class.  Not one peep.  Not once, during the 13.5 hours I volunteered in her classroom, did one word cross her lips.

Not only that, as it turns out Daughter didn't do well in general during the second trimester.  Do you know what the teacher had to say when I asked her about it???  Apparently, the teacher decided to sit Daughter at a table with some kids who needed a role model.  Guess what happened?  Daughter's quality of work sunk to the other kid's level.

Now why the teacher would allow this to go on for the entire second trimester I have no idea.

I'm also really mad at myself.

I should have been more on top of things.  Daughter didn't like her new table and I should have listened harder. 

I thought the woes of the second trimester were over, Daughter has been in a new seat for 3 weeks now and seems to be doing better.

Until today.

Grrrrrr.