Our trip to Mexico

We'd had quite enough of this:

So bright and early the next morning we hopped on a plane and headed to Mazatlan! Well, we didn't actually leave because of the weather, but it was a nice coincidence that we'd quite fortuitously planned the trip to begin on the weekend of the latest snowfall on record since 1972.

Almost two years ago, my dad and stepmom decided to retire to Mazatlan, and this was our first trip down to see their new digs since the move. We spent 8 days with them, and they were wonderful hosts and tour guides during our stay. Below are a few photos from our trip...


Our first night in town, we went down to the machado and had dinner at Pedro y Lola's. The kids were happy to see chicken fingers and fries on the menu! Although, our typically non-soda drinking kids were a little distressed that lemondade is generally served made with sparkling mineral water in Mexico - they didn't like the bubbles. We learned to order limonade natural by the end of our trip. Many vendors strolled past our table - little girls selling roses, a little boy selling chiclet, musicians, and this balloon sculpting clown.

We also visited the small town of El Quelite, about an hour drive outside of Mazatlan. We had a fantastic lunch at a nice restaurant, again dining in an outdoor courtyard, surrounded by tropical trees, plants, and wildlife.
We also walked over to the catholic church (in the background)
Stopped by the ranch where fighting cocks are raised
We also went into a little bakery where they were pulling fresh mexican pastries out of the oven. We picked out a variety to take enjoy back at Dad and Sharon's the next day. They were all delicious, but the pina, and cinnamon rolls were our favorites.

We visited the orphanage where Dad and Sharon volunteer their time. Sharon, Natalie and I helped hang laundry on the clothesline, and then our kids went to play on the teeter totters where they were joined by a couple of the girls from the orphanage. Most of the girls were in class that morning.
In the middle of the photo below, you can see a covered area. That's the washbasin where they wash all of the children's laundry by hand each day, and then they hang them to the right to dry. Never again will I complain about the piles of laundry I have to do in my washing machine. The orphanage actually owns a washing machine, but the cost of electricity is so prohibitive that they can't afford to use it.
We drove up to Playa Bruja, hoping to see some surfers, but taking in the tidepools instead. We were delighted to see beautiful fish swimming in the shallow pools - creatures we're used to seeing in tanks at the petstore, or at the aquarium; the kind that you just don't find in the cold, coastal waters of the western United States. It's amazing how a little warm water brings out a more dazzling array of colors in the residents of the pools. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the yellow-tailed damsals, or the stripey fish we saw (lol - I have no idea what it was, but it was cool). We also found sea slugs, and all different varieties of crabs, including baby hermit crabs.


We also had the opportunity to help feed some baby parrots who had been rescued after being stolen from their nests by a couple of guys who were trying to smuggle them to the US to sell them up here. To learn more, you can go to Dad and Sharon's blog, or to this other one where they have photos and video of these gawky squawking birds.


While in Mexico, we also saw a lot of brown pelicans and iguanas...


...and here's a banana tree - I've never seen one of these before!

One morning we went to the Aquario de Mazatlan, where we saw all kinds of interesting flora and fauna, and took in a sea lion show. The kids sat in the splash zone, and here they're about to get a lapful of water...


But mostly we relaxed in the pool


It was a great trip, and we'll definitely be going back someday!

We are free to leave the country.

Our passports arrived today, so we are good to go for our trip to Mexico in April! Kudos to the passport agency - the turn abound time on our passports was only 3 weeks. Hubby is having a crummy time at work and is threatening to stay in Mexico, indefinitely. ;P

We're back!

The kids and I flew down to southern California on the 18th. We spent a day at The Money Trap, er... I mean Disneyland (aka "The Happiest Place on Earth", but I'm not quite certain how it got that reputation). My 4-year-old declared that he hated it there after spending hours of his life standing in line for rides. I think they took away more good memories than bad, so all was not lost.

I was also able to go watch my very good friend L. being awarded her black belt. I am so proud of her, and she earned every last thread of that thing! We also got to visit with many of our old friends. It was our first time back to CA since moving from there almost two years ago, and it was decidedly too long to have been away. And just to make us feel right at home, the Santa Anas rolled in and put on a firestorm for us! Not necessary, but thanks anyway! Fortunately, all our friends are safe. The fires are still not completely out, and we're continuing to keep all those wacky Californians in our thoughts and prayers.

This past weekend, we all went to a halloween carnival at the local YMCA. The kids went in costume, and I donned a witches hat (I asked hubby if he thought there'd be anyone dressed up as members of the Village People, but he only rolled his eyes at me). We met my sister and nephew there, too. The kids came away with bags of candy and toys, and N. even won a cake in the cake walk, which totally made her day.

As this whole entry is full of unrelated topics, I may as well throw in a recent observation I made about little A. Up until very recently, he had never drawn a picture of anything looking remotely recognizable. He would throw a couple of different colored scribbles across a piece of paper, and announce to me that it was a drawing of fourteen bunnies in space suits riding on the back of a runaway train heading straight for the open mouth of a T. Rex. I always had to kind of take his word for it, ya know? Well suddenly, like in the last few weeks, he's become a very detailed artist. He passed briefly over drawing people as a single circle with dots for eyes, and went straight to drawing people with a head, neck, body, hair, ears, clothing, etc. in a matter of days. Apparently he didn't read the part in the child development books that said he was supposed to be doing crude drawings a couple of years ago. Last night he drew a tiger with a head, neck (necks are very important to him for some reason), body, tail, legs, hair, stripes, and whiskers. Where did this come from? I'm tempted to take it as a sign from the Unschooling Gods who would remind me that, given the opportunity, all children develop the skills that they need at the time when it is right for them, not at the time we think it should be right for them. The fact that I wasn't stressing over the observation that my son was "behind" in his drawing, yet we frequently freak out over our daughter's delayed reading skills, also speaks volumes about the things we value as a society. LOL, back in pre-historic times hubby and I probably would have been pulling our hair out with worry that our male child would never be able to make a proper cave drawing! ;P

Home again

The kids and I went to Neskowin with my Mom and Grandma for 4 days. N, A and I all agreed that it was one of our best vacations ever, and that the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have their Daddy there too.


Our first order from Rainbow Resource Center arrived! I went ahead and ordered enough to get the free shipping, throwing in a couple of things that I know we won't need until later in the year, but it was worth it to save $15. I'm really excited about the TOPS Lentil Science Kit that we'll be using. I love that it's inquiry-based, and fairly open-ended, and especially that it's something the kids can work together on. I must admit that upon first glance, the prep for it is a little confusing. I think I just need an hour to sit down and focus on which supplies we've received, what we still need to gather, and how I want to proceed from there. I'm debating about whether to photocopy all the job cards. It would obviously make sense to do that if we were a classroom of students, but I'm thinking that the two of them can just use the book - though it may be more cumbersome that way. Still thinking on that one.

I'm also really excited about using Ambleside Online's booklist for our literature this year. So many wonderful works there to expose the kids to, and it will be nice to spend time reading aloud to them each afternoon. Not so different from what we do now, but I appreciate the resource for ideas. I'm really looking forward to the Holling C. Holling books. I'd purchased Minn of the Mississippi at Value Village for .69 cents a few months back, and we'd recently been reading it at bedtime. It looks deceptively like a simple picture book, but it's depth is impressive. We only read one or two of the short chapters per night - the language and content is somewhat challenging. N. is really enjoying the story of Minn's journey down the Mississippi, but A's attention is more fleeting. I love how geography and science are woven together into such a captivating story. There are four of his other books on our list for the coming year: Pagoo, Tree in the Trail, Paddle-to-the-sea, and Seabird. I'm sure I'll have comment on this in the months to come.

I keep plugging things into our homeschool tracker lesson plan. Husband actually asked last night if I was worried about being overscheduled. LOL - he's about the last person I was expecting that question from! He's been politely quiet about the quantity of visible work our homeschool produces, and I thought he'd be delighted that I'm attempting a more structured approach this year. I think his real concern is that after all the planning and scheduling, I'll burnout before we've even begun. I hope I won't. I really want to make a commitment to our plan. Of course, the schedule doesn't take into account the weekly parkdays, occasional fieldtrips, and the gymnastics class I'm about to sign the kids up for. Sigh. I need more days in my week!

Oh - almost forgot: N's swim teacher recommended she be promoted to the Advanced Beginner class for the next session! I'm so proud of N for all she's accomplished and how far she's come since the beginning of summer. 8 weeks ago she was crying and clinging to the wall, with a pile of floats on her back, and now she's one of the fastest swimmers across the pool. I love watching her long arms coming up out of the water as she zips along. Now I'm trying to figure out where to find year-round swimming for her, LOL!