Pet Rock

Another simple, fun craft.

The required googly-eyes LOL!

Lawry's

I am sooooooo behind in posting!  This was months ago! One of Chris' longtime clients/friends came to town and wanted to take him and I out to lunch. We went to Lawry's, which was fabulous!  Great company and great food!

NHN Celebration

Here in NV we're very blessed to have been able to pass homeschooling laws that are least restrictive. Our governor has also signed a proclamation 2 years in a row, declaring the first week of April Home Education Awareness Week.

This last year Nevada Homeschool Network hosted a city-wide event with various speakers and things for the kids.

Here was (at the time) North Las Vegas Mayor, Mike Montandon, talking with a teenager.

Here's Senator Joe Heck (now running for US Congress), talking about his stance on education and homeschooling in particular.

We had the Fire Dept bring out their Smoke House and the Fire Safety Program...Stop, Drop and Roll, as Elias is demonstrating

The kids are learning about what Firemen sound like when they come to save you.

Here's the smokehouse!

The Las Vegas Mounted Police came

And here are Amy Carder and Laura Siegel, helping represent NHN & Las Vegas homeschooling!


It was a great day! Hope to do another one this year. Thank you to the Governor for recognizing this important time, and homeschooling in general.

Orange Ramp

Left to their own devices, with various supplies, kids can come up with the most amazing things! 

Here, Elias and his friend Zanthippie made ramps for oranges.

Puerto Vallarta Misconceptions and Education

Somehow Chris and I had a lot of "americanized" maybe, misconceptions. One thinks of Mexico, as old cars, laborers, natural birthing, poor, etc.


We were very surprised by so much we saw and learned. They are more in time with medical things than we thought...LOADS of cosmetic dentists down there, women who get C-sections on schedule, boob jobs. Really?! It was amazing.


It was also very industrious. Families encourage their children to start working at 8, and moving up in the business. Chris' friends owned and ran 3 different businesses, simultaneously! We saw people working hard and WILLING to work.


It totally changed our perception of the laborers standing outside Star Nursery etc. At least they're WILLING to work, instead of sucking off of welfare.


The thing that surprised me, as a female, was the bathrooms! Often there were no toilet seats, and except for in the hotel, you are not allowed to flush toilet tissue. At first I didn't quite understand this, "please put your paper in the trash"...well, duh! Then I saw it every where, and.....sometimes the cans had toilet paper in them...hmmm.....


Yes, when there is no sewer, you don't want to clog up your pipes! I am so glad I only had to go #1 in public, cause I don't think I could leave dirty toilet tissue in some of those garbage cans. EWWWWWWW


Would I go again, you betcha! Would I recommend you go? You betcha!

Halloween 2009

 For the last 2 Halloweens we've been in FL..and they were great, but not the same as trick or treating with friends around your neighborhood. This year, Sebastian was excited to dress up and Elias was uber excited about everything! The countdown began at the beginning of October and by Halloween Day we were getting into the hours and then minutes, till Trick or Treat time!

Brian got up early and went over a friends house to start decorating a Haunted House. He stayed there all day and through the evening.  (I'm still waiting on pictures!)

Elias and Zanthippie spent the morning carving. We started off with pumpkins...

 

 

Then we moved on to Apples! We carved them to make Dried Apple Shrunken Heads. We'll have to see what they look like in a few weeks...but I think they will be pretty cool looking!

 

Then, finally, it was time to dress up! Elias as BumbleBee (Transformers)

We went around with some of our friends. Started the night off going with Zanthippie  (Grapes) and her brothers.  Sebastian is Spiderman

It was just perfect weather! A perfect evening! Elias topped off his evening by spending the night at Jill and Austin's. Luckily their mom kept a tight reign on the candy bags!!

Puerta Vallarta Pt 2

We took many trips, on our own, on guided tours, and with Chris' friend Martie and his wife.

We saw the malecon...boardwalk, which is surrounded by a downtown shopping area. A bit further, a huge, many streeted flea market, where we bought many of our purchases.

We took an all day trip, all over! The tequila place, scenic coastlines, etc and a nice outdoors lunch at a local restaurant.

We went to Las Marietas where Chris was able to scuba dive and we got to frolic in the beautiful water.



 At the Marina, an enterprising soul brought in this Sea Lion...which of course Chris loved and had to get his picture with!


We had an all day tour to Las Caletas, an island paradise complete with dinner buffet looking out over the ocean. At this location Chris went Scuba Diving again while I got a peaceful massage. We met up for an afternoon of rest and tanning, and dinner.  It was beautiful!

Private beach at Caletas


What a beautiful setting for dinner


Should have seen us trying to take a photo of ourselves...this is probably the 15th try!


Nap time after dinner!


The tranquil massage room!




Another thing Chris really wanted to do this trip was Parasailing. I was somewhat open to it, until we got there. All the directions flipped me out. Pull here when we whistle once, Do this when we whistle twice...ACHH!!  I'd be in the ocean! But Chris did it and had a blast, and I took pictures and sunbathed!

A big thing on my to do list was an Oceanfront Massage. The massage I got at Las Caletas was nice, but not on the ocean....I was envisioning the tent with flowing white curtains, the sound of the ocean, waves slapping the sand......and I found it at the second hotel we stayed at! It was all it was hyped up to be! Fabulous!!!!

We tried much of the local cuisine, and many local little mom and pop cafes. I particularly liked Sope-bread with meat topping.

A restaurant we went to 2x was Pipis. It was downtown. The service is unexplainable. They are right at your elbow, cleaning up crumbs, whisking away plates....and it is very reasonably priced.

This is the street outside Pipis


Here we are: Pipis!


I loved walking around downtown. It was so beautiful and old. These are the types of buildings we'd see:

We also tried some local places such as Carlo's tacos in Fonavitt and Dona Tere Pozole's- close to the Sheraton and Cafe San Angel-their version of Starbucks- in Old Town.  All very relaxed, very family-run, very patron oriented...everyone knew your name!

Along the theme of "animals as an attraction", like the Sea Lion, while we were at a restaurant, there was a man who led a horse around and allowed you to ride it and take pictures wearing some cowboy gear. Chris doesn't understand a word of Spanish, so when the vendor was talking to him, Chris went over  (Sucker!!)  That's ok, it made for a great picture (and a snickering wife)


At another location someone had their humongous Iguana...$1 for a picture
Yeah, we are suckers!


Really...we were helping the economy!




Overall, it was a fabulous trip and we'd encourage anyone to go there!