Aunt S Is Here!
Daddy's sister came to stay for a long weekend, and we all had a great time. The fun started before she even got here--when we went to pick her up from the airport! The girls have never been in a big airport before, and we've already been talking about the flights we'll be making over the holidays. While we waited for Aunt S's plane to arrive, I gave them a quick tour of the whole process from the ticketing counters and kiosks to luggage check to security lines and metal detectors to baggage claim. They were pretty fascinated and are eagerly awaiting their chance to experience it all.

Of course, we had to do some fun touristy things with Aunt S! We finally caught the local history museum on an open day, and got to learn all about town's history from it's ancient native American roots to the Spanish mission era to the U.S. takeover. They really had great displays--especially for a tiny place with only a $3 entrance fee for adults! Admission also covered a visit to the historic customs house next door, set up as it would have been in the early U.S. years with a large room piled with merchandise from overseas and cattle hides to trade for it, the customs official's office, and his upstairs living quarters. Both locations had park rangers on hand to answer questions and let us know about the unexpected things to see out the back door: a series of beautiful little courtyards and gardens as well as the Casa de Oro--California's first general store (now a non-profit gift shop) that still contains the safe the original owner installed under the stairs.

(left) Peek-through playing cards based on historical playing cards from the Mexican-American War.
(right) The entourage watching the fish in the museum's courtyard fountain.

After all that we crossed the plaza to one of our favorite local tourist locations: the wharf. We got to see the sea lions and harbour seals, eat lunch at a seafood place with a few of the seals, and visit the girls' favorite sea shell hunting beach. We enjoyed some quiet time that afternoon, and topped off the day by enjoying a fire pit and s'mores with friends at church.

We really wanted to take Aunt S to the beach, and the weather cooperated! Saturday was sunny and just warm enough for us to be willing to don swimsuits and face the waves. The excitement at the beach this time was watching a couple groups of kayakers. The group was an obviously experienced bunch decked out with river kayaks and fully-geared up including helmets, who popped back and forth across the surf for awhile before heading up the coast en masse. The second group was made up of beginners and didn't even seem to have a guide showing them the ropes. I attempted to help a struggle newbie stay steady enough to get past the breakers until we realized her ocean kayak was filling with water and sinking. Aunt S helped us drag it farther ashore and try to empty it. The girls were fascinated, but we did our best to help them steer clear of the kayaks landing unpredictably.

(left) Goose's favorite treasure from the beach by the wharf
(center) Building sand castles with Aunt S!
(right) Bug decided to bury herself up to her waist.

On Sunday Aunt S got to take part in our usual events: Sunday morning church, lunch out with friends, and pizza and a movie in the evening (Turbo proved a highly popular choice); and then Monday we returned to the airport to send her back East.

Baptism
Sunday morning's church service was a new experience for Monkey and Bug as several members of the congregation were baptized by immersion in what our pastor jokingly referred to as "the holy hot tub" (a portable, heated pool set up in the middle of the sanctuary). We talked about what they were doing and why, and both girls seemed relieved that they had been baptized as infants and wouldn't have to face being dunked in front of everybody. Goose wasn't around for the baptism, but she did join us for the first half of the service for the first time! She was very excited and handled it beautifully (at least until it was time to leave, then she had to be convinced to return to the nursery instead of sticking around for the sermon).

Walking with Dinosaurs
I don't usually do unit studies (studying all subjects under the umbrella of one topic), but we decided to do a mini one this week about dinosaurs. We read through a big book about dinosaurs, wrote sentences about dinosaurs, completed dinosaur themed math worksheets, colored dinosaur flash cards, watched the Magic School Bug episode about meat-eating versus plant-eating dinosaurs, and watched a documentary about the process paleontologists complete from finding fossilized bones at a dig site to piecing together clues about their lives to creating CGI models. The real highlight of the week though: getting to go to a real movie theater to watch Walking with Dinosaurs! The girls had never been to a theater before, and they were really excited to watch a movie on the big screen! The movie itself was a bit intense for Monkey (the protagonist was a baby herbivore, so he did spend most of the movie escaping one form of mortal danger or another; I kept having to remind her that we should stay so she could see the happy ending), and our experience involved lots of questions and commentary (all relevant to the movie of course). Fortunately, it was a weekday morning matinee for a dollar per person, so the crowd consisted almost entirely of small children having equally dramatic and inquiring responses to the film.

Library Day
We made it just in time to catch the last half of storytime this week, and the girls bravely found seats among the kids on the floor while I grabbed a chair at the back of the room (this independence is a big deal!). The theme this week was foxes, wolves, and coyotes with the librarian sharing lots of classic stories with the kids. Much to the librarian's amusement, Bug coincidentally wore her "What does the fox say?" shirt that day. We came home with these books:
Faraway Home
Alphabeasties
Matthew's Dream
Swimmy
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
Who Took the Farmer's Hat?
Leo the Late Bloomer
Hula Lullaby
Open This Little Book
Poco Loco

Fun at the Mall
A trip to the mall falls under educational? Absolutely! At least it did this week. I recently discovered that Williams-Sonoma occasionally offers free cooking classes for kids, so I had Monkey and Bug signed up to learn how to make smoothies and milkshakes on Saturday morning. The girls were a bit disappointed that it wasn't more hands-on, but the poor chef did end up with more kids than he had on the roster. They did get to actually use several of the specialty gadgets he had on hand and sample three different concoctions--strawberry smoothie, mint chocolate milkshake, and a creamsicle shake. Bug made sure to grab a copy of the recipes, so we can try them at home sometime. (Meanwhile, Goose and I went next door for gourmet cupcakes. Yum!) While Goose and I were waiting for the big girls class to be done we discovered mall employees setting up a kids festival for the afternoon, and we decided to bring Daddy back for lunch and more fun. The girls got to ride ponies, eat free snow cones, scoop rubber ducks out of the fountain, play with tinker toys and magnetic building sets, and watch a gymnastics school demonstration. One of the biggest things though was getting their mall "passports" stamped (a card with three stores listed; the girls could receive a small prize at each store on their card). Of course, for the mall it was just a marketing ploy to get everybody to walk into their businesses, but for our girls it was a challenging exercise in confidence and social interaction. The girls had three different cards, and they each had to enter the stores on their list (with either Daddy or I), find a salesperson, and ask them to please stamp the passport loudly and clearly enough to be understood.

Fleas :-(
So, we had an unexpected science and health & safety lesson toward the end of this week: our cat--and therefore our house--have fleas. So gross. We talked about fleas and why they bite, we learned to spot them, we learned about veterinary medicine and how to apply said medicine to a very large cat, we learned about flea spray and bug bombs--how to use them and why little girls aren't allowed to be part of that process.  All told, it was a highly educational week!