Old Borges Ranch

Today was my day to lead the tiger scouts meeting so I arranged a "Go and See It" at Old Borges Ranch.  Ranger Dan did most of the work and all the boys had a great time!  

The kids learned about the chores 7 and 8 year old boys would  do in the early 1900s

They pumped water from an underground well (Water really came out!)

They sawed wood for the fire

Fed the livestock ~ goats, chickens and sheep

Ranger Dan told us kids had about 3 hours of chores before and after school each day!

They rode horses

This was "girls work" ~ ringing the dinner bell ~ and cooking, growing veggies and sewing clothes

HIGHLY recommend visiting this place!  If you're into hiking, there are also many trails here, too!

Ornaments

 Daddy wants to set up our Christmas tree next weekend so today we started making our 2013 ornaments!  I wasn't very inspired this year, but we still managed to make a few different ones ~

This was a group project ~ we pinned sequins and tiny paper flowers onto a styrofoam ball (A lot harder than I was thinking!)

But they were both quite patient 

Here's our unfinished ball ~ don't you think it's going to be beautiful when it is done??

Next we painted glue onto a styrofoam ball and covered it with glitter

This was more up our alley

Bet you are wondering what we are going to do with them!

Next we painted our initial red (more to come on this one, too)

Buttons and bows (well, ribbon)

Our little man

We made mini button trees ~ CUTE!

Cupcakes!  Now that's where those glitter balls went! :)

Gregory just figured out an easier way to pin the flowers onto the ornament!  Put the sequin on the pin, line up the flowers on the ball and pin it to the ball!  Genius!  Guess we'll be able to make more than one!   (See Santa Baby? :))

Catching Up

Well, its been a busy week and I just didn't have the energy to post anything.  Here are a few things we did ~

Cub Scouts had their pack meeting at the fire station! (from 7-8:30p!?!   Gregory is in bed at 7pm!)

It was an amazing tour

The boys really learned a lot

And even got to watch the fireman save a "frog" from the top of a tree!

Basketball started this week.  

They'll practice an hour a week! (from 5-6pm on a weeknight!!!  What's up with that??)

Christmas is around the corner so we started making Christmas ornaments

This was just a quick project they could do on their own

Bailey made a mitten

Gregory made a tree. 

3 Bridge Day

Today the kids had a teacher inservice day ~ they don't want to deal with the kids after Halloween!  We decided to take them to San Francisco and play tourist for a day.  First we crossed the Bay Bridge and headed for the Exploratorium.  We played for a bit, hopped into the car and headed to JapanTown for lunch!  (And a little Daiso shopping).  On our way home, Daddy wanted to take the kids across the Golden Gate Bridge and stop at Vista Point for the view and then we came home via the Richmond Bridge.  Way too much time in the car, but our day in San Francisco was quite fun!

The kids favorite exhibit

Hmmm, who's who?

Daddy being goofy, as usual

Practicing for Thursday!  Basketball season starts!

FOG rolling in!!

Lunch at Izumiya

Golden Gate Bridge ~ used to cross that EVERY DAY!

Vista Point

Was a beautiful day

Richmond Bridge ~ By this time we are pretty tired of sitting in the car 

More Carving, The Dinner and Treating

Well, the day has FINALLY come to an end.  My family is home and I don't have to pass out anymore candy!

Today Daddy and Gregory finished up the carving of our pumpkins.  (Bailey broke out yesterday so she decided to stay inside with me

Jack Family

Well, I had planned to make our usual Halloween pumpkin meatloaf, but I have no oven!  (Its been broken for about a month now!)  But it was our lucky day cuz Grandma made us a pot of stew!

I managed to muster up some orange biscuits in our toaster and cut up some orange kaki too!

Ready to go Trick-or-Treating!

Let's be off!

SO MUCH CANDY!  I think we have over 100 candies!  Our neighbors topped off their buckets!

It's still noisy out but we turned off our lights at 8pm.  We still have a lot of candy left, but I closed up shop before the hoodlums hit!  This year I think we only had about 10 treaters ~