Memory Trove: Lots to tell !!

It was a wonderful past few days !

BBQ
We have been watching the residents here head down to the grill every single night, so we thought we would do the same. Hubby invited his two other friends and wife to BBQ too so it was a lovely cheery affair and we had chicken wings, lamb chops, salmon on the grill and home cooked chicken rice, and settled ourselves on a picnic table overlooking the San Diego Bay.

Really, what could be better ?! Gosh we were eating from 6 - 8 pm, and enjoying the sunset !! And thank goodness too !! Cos' guess what we saw next ???!!!

Dolphins !!!! Right within eyesight ! Not in an aquarium or Sea World but in their natural habitats ! The girls and I leapt from our seats right to the banks of the promenade for a closer view and it must have been just God's grace that i managed to catch this shot of one of the dolphins (there were 2 of them) leaping from the waters ! Ahhhh... breathtaking... a close-up ...

On the home front, we made exciting progress too ! The books i ordered from Amazon finally arrived - Hillyer's "A child's history of the World" and Voskamp's "A child's Geography" are simply amazing, and i'm the one totally fascinated. We lost no time in checking them out and i loved Voskamp's style and wonderful lesson ideas. Here's what the kids did in trying to understand how big Earth was, in relation to where they lived, and concepts of states, countries, and continents ....

R's version
(think she attempted to draw in Disneyland in California too)

C's version
(guess in C's mind, Pooh, Piglet and company all live tog with us !)

Cool huh... i'm pleased... and they are already asking when can they do 'that Earth Book' (that's C speaking) again, and start on the history one... :)

Junior Rangers

We headed to Point Loma today with the intention of a hike. It is a rock face that we peer at daily from our side of the Bay, and the spot where the first European landed in 1564, on the west coast of America, and where Lighthouses were built to guide the ships into San Diego harbour then, still stand. This was the view that greeted us...

And what do you know - it's Junior Ranger Day, and the museum and visitor center was abuzz with activities. The girls had free muffins and then got to get Junior Ranger Badges, a Certificate and their names announced over the loud hailer too !

But all this, only when they completed the activity books with little quizzes about the exhibits.

C had to complete 3 of the activities and R, 5 of them, and they set about their tasks with much enthusiasm....

(R trying to figure out where we stayed through the binocs. The patch of light brown in the background is in fact the airbase where J works...)

(... R trying to get those answers down ...)

C here getting help from Papa.
These two have been really bonding very well.
On weekends they are really like Uhu glue ;P

The girls even had to take a pledge that as Junior Rangers, they would do their best to protect and preserve the park !! It's really been great exposure for them, as before this i don't think they had a clue what Rangers did...

here's R taking her pledge...