Thursday, October 31, 2013

Birthday Lunch


Our family celebrates all our birthdays with a birthday lunch or dinner. The birthday person gets to pick a spot and we all meet, eat, drink and have a good time! For the second year in a row I picked Padaro Beach Grill in Carpenteria. I love this place. Outside, beach views and really good food. And because we live in southern California the weather was gorgeous, even in late October.




I was spoiled by my family...





The whole tribe.....


A perfect way to start 36......

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Despicable Me Party!

Over the weekend we celebrated cousin Matias' 4th birthday! And he had a Despicable Me themed party! Our course Phi and Louie were in heaven! 

My Comadre Patti did such an amazing job with the theme. She even had a dessert table with Mud Pie and Coconutties! My kids loved the boxes of shame! 



And each kid was given a minion beanie made my Tia Mary (aka Tia Picos). She can whip one up super quick! I mean she seriously made Louie one right on the spot!


The star of the party. Besides Matias of course was the giant Bee-do pinata! It was awesome!



There were 2 fun games. Phi usually hates party games (ugh she is so me!) but was somehow convinced to play. She ended up winning both. In fact musical chairs ended up Phi vs Louie. I let Phi keep one prize and had her give the other away to Vivi (who was 3rd in musical chairs).



There were so many cute minion touches throughout the party!



Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Matias! We love you!



Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Homeschooling Week 10: Rain Forests, Looms, Character Analysis, and Number Patterns

Along with the assignments for Week 10 came our first report card. We were so nervous because all this work we have been doing has been turned in and we have had no feedback. We have gotten back almost nothing graded so I had really no idea how Phi was doing. The school has an on-line system where we should be able to see all scores for all assignments but Phi's teacher does not have it up and running. I am hoping that she will get it up and running eventually so that we have a really good understanding of what subjects we need to work on. With that being said we were very happy to see a straight A report card! 



One new thing that started up was PE homework. Yes physical education at home! Each week Phi needs to complete 100 minutes of physical activity. It can be anything from playing outside to taking a walk. Believe it or not, this will be a challenge for us. We are just not outdoor kind of people. This week we spent some time after work and before dinner riding scooters.


Phi has been learning a lot about different Native American tribes and on Tuesday her teacher made each kid their own loom out of a disposable coffee cup. The wove the yarn over and under each section. They brought the "loom" home and had to finish it. Phi loved this and because weaving is like a step away from crocheting I wanted to keep her passion for it alive. I went to my trusty Pinterest and found a way to make a small loom out of cardboard.


Phi read chapters 11-13 in Charlotte's Web. The reading assignments are still a bit to slow for Phi. At her pace I think a couple chapters a day would be better so that she gets more than 5 minutes of reading in 3 days a week. Anyways, the assignment this week was to pick a character from the book and make a character bag. On the front the bag she drew her character and wrote it's name. Of course she picked Charlotte. On the back went a picture of the book cover with title and author. (I love her sheep). On one side she had to list 3 physical characteristics of Charlotte and on the other side she had to write 3 personality characteristics. Last the bag needed to be filled with 5 things that represent the character. It was the 5 things that was the hardest part. We talked about what "represent" and what "symbols" were and then reviewed the traits she used to describe Charlotte.


She ended up with.
1. Pink Hamster = Cute
2. Strawberry Candy - Sweet
3. Black Hair Bow = Black
4. Mini Hair Clip = Tiny
5. Photo of Nana = Kind and Generous

For Math we worked more on multiplication and also on finding number patterns. The number patterns were easy but for the multiplication she is still using arrays to figure out problems. I really think that it's time for her to memorize the multiplication tables. I have flash cards ready and I think for next week I am going to add writing her times tables as part of her work. Also Tio Kelly told me about some songs all about the multiplication that I hope will help too.


For science the Phi learned about forest ecosystems. Her assignment was to pick a forest and write about it along with a picture. She chose the rain forest and did a great report about the different layers of the forest, what things are found there and a few on the animals that call it home. Here is her watercoloring of a sloth.


We also did about 10 worksheets on possessive nouns and a few spelling lists. This worksheets are sent home every week, but are not required to turn in. We try to do about 2-3 a day.

The weeks are starting to really fly-by! I anticipate that next week may be a little challenging with the 2 holidays in the week. Halloween with most likely cut our Thursday in half and Saturday is booked with Dia De Los Muertos Festivities!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Lili Plays Soccer

This year our niece is playing soccer for the first time. I finally got to a game with the good camera! 




We love watching you play Llama! Keep up the good work! 
We know that first goal is right around the corner!

Friday, October 25, 2013

ADA Walk 2013


Last Saturday we headed out really really early to join the rest of Team Garcia for the annual ADA Walk to Stop Diabetes. A 4 mile walk to raise money and awareness. 




This year we went with an 80's theme. The girls can really rock the 80's!


Of course we love the photo booth! 


The weather was nice and I always love getting to walk with my family and catch up. Of course Phi always seems to have a rock in her shoe so I stopped a lot with her.


This year our team was a little smaller than usual, but it was for a very good reason. For the first time my family also participated in the Annual Brain Tumor Walk in LA. You may know that my cousin Karina is a brain tumor survivor! You can read a little bit about her story HERE and HERE. And of course the walks were on the same day. So Team Garcia wore grey ribbons and Team Kari wore red ribbons. In was our way of being in 2 places at once. 


Our family is everything to us and I love how we can come together to support my Tata, my Tia's and our Kari. 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

36



I turn 36 today and even though I am now officially closer to 40 than 30, it's all good. That phrase alone ages me, but the fact that it was also my high school prom theme....well. I have an amazing husband who I adore depsite the fact that I never ever rub his neck. And I have 2 amazing kids, despite the fact that Phi cant seem to every hear me when I ask her to do something and Louie gets out of bed at least 3 times a night, they are the sunshine of my life and I am so honored and proud to be their Momma. And I have the most amazing family every. All 100+ of them. I am enjoying this stage of life, like I have enjoyed all the stages that I have gone through. Life is good.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Church Festival

On Sunday we pulled up to our church and found a festival in the parking lot! So after mass we headed over to enjoy some games and treats. 


 There was a dime toss booth. I spotted a cup I liked and joked with Phi to get it for me. She did. And out of the 5 tries she made 3 in!



Of course Louie wanted to try everything Phi did. Here is our tiny one with a sharp object.


Louie takes her games very seriously. She calls out her throw...


And lets it fly.


After games we stopped for a snow cone. And by some miracle I got a good photo of both girls! While we were sitting and eating our priest walked by in regular clothes. Phi was freaking out. It was so funny! 


This one takes of Grandma Josie and loves her some bingo.



 It was a fun way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Homeschooling Week 9: Charlotte's Web, Government, Multiplication and Ecosystems

What a great week! First off Phi started a new book. She got 9 chapters into the classic "Charlotte's Web".  Since it is not available for Kindle we lucked out when the teacher had a few extra copies. We will be focusing on fantasy vs realism in this story. 


Setting is important so this week Phi was assigned a setting map for Wilbur and his barnyard friends. We went back and read the section that described the barn. I love that she even added the flies.


For Math we are beginning to study multiplication. This week really focused on the concept. Her worksheet showed her 3 different ways to draw out multiplication problems. She could use groups, arrays or number lines. My favorite was the arrays, a simple concept of lines and dots. Last year we tried teaching Phi the concept of multiplication and she didn't really get it. I think after this week she is understanding it a lot more.



For social studies we read about the Haudenosaunee tribe and how they developed a government and laws in order to keep peace within the nations. We discussed what governments are and what they do. We listed 2 things that the Haudenosaunee laws did and 2 things US laws do.



For science we started a new chapter all about ecosystems. After a little searching on Pinterest I thought we could make our own little ecosystem. This was Joey and Phi's project for the week and they rocked it! First Phi drew up her ecosystem and listed the things she would need. We made a stop at Petco for water plants and small aquarium snails. The awesome Petco employee gave them to us for free! We also had to buy some gravel. Then we headed to BevMo to grab a bottle of Voss water. It was a great shape and clear, perfect for their ecosystem. Then a stop at ToysRUs for a $5.00 package of sea monkeys (brine shrimp). They put everything together in steps, after everything was added they put is a little bit of algae from a puddle in the front yard. 



This was such a fun project for Phi and Joey. They built a little ecosystem where all the parts of the community work together to keep the ecosystem going. She wrote a short paragraph about how each component works in her ecosystem for when she presents it to her class.




Week 10 includes a field trip to a pumpkin patch! Can't wait to find out what else we get to work on!




Monday, October 21, 2013

Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest

This following is a sponsored post by  Latina Bloggers Connect and WGBH.  


Remember as a kid how excited you got when a holiday special was going to come on TV? Mark October 28th on your calendars! PBS will be premiering an all new full-length Curious George Halloween movie! Filled with pumpkins, scarecrows, and costumes this movie is sure to be one your whole family will love! 

Louie loves Curious George. I think she understands him and his curious mischievous way. Last week we were sent a copy of this new movie. Louie was very excited!


Louie spends about 2 hours a day at the office with me and I am always looking for ways to keep her entertained while I work. Since this is the first year that Louie is really into Halloween she wanted to watch this movie immediately. So she settled in. Since we started homeschooling The Phi, it was nice to have something just for Louie.


What an adorable and fun movie. Curious George is spending his first Halloween in the country. George's friend Bill tell him all about the "Legend of No Noggin", a slightly spooky tale about a scarecrow who haunts the countryside on Halloween. Well George, being the curious monkey he is, is determined to find out if this legend is real. Along with his friend Allie, George sets out to capture a photo of "No Noggin". At the same time George needs to find the perfect costume for the contest at the Boo Festival!

Louie LOVED the movie.



Along with the movie we were sent a bilingual (awesome!) book "Curious George Goes to a Costume Party" and some fun activity sheets. We got to make our own Curious George mask which Louie of course wore around the office for a good 30 minutes.


Click Here to download your own fun George mask

Will George get his photo of No Noggin? 
Will he find the perfect costume?
 Don't forget to tune in on Oct 28th to find out! 

Can't wait for Oct 28th? The Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest is available on DVD now! 



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