Second to the right...

Pomona, Corona, Ramona, next stop Sedona!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:43:00 +0000

From Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona AZ 2011

I just LOVE Sedona! I grew up in Pomona, lived in Corona, am now in Ramona and where else to go..... but Sedona. Really, though, I would absolutely love to live there. The energy they speak of there is so very real to me. It draws me there. I actually cried when we arrived there for a vacation recently. I don't know what it is, but I truly feel "home" there.

From Sedona vacation rental

We spent a week there over Thanksgiving week. First time in years that we didn't spend Thanksgiving with my folks, and missed them much, but we did spend it with family, my husband's mom and husband on Thanksgiving Day. We rented a house we had found online, the house's name was "Tranquility", how appropriate. It truly was tranquil, serene and spiritually a perfect fit for our family. On the west side of town, it was right below some beautiful red rocks and a short stroll away to the Amithabha Stupa.

From Amithabha Stupa in Sedona, AZ

From a flyer I picked up there, "Sacred stupas have graced the earth for over 2,600 years. Stupas are the physical embodiment of the Buddha's enlightened mind. Their blessings are immeasurable. Their presence, extremely rare in the West."

Also, "By seeing a stupa or hearing about a stupa, remembering it, visualizing it-any kind of connection'will imbue you with a blessing, will connect you to enlightenment."-Tulku San-ngag Rinpoche, master stupa builder of the Amitabha Stupa.

More information about stupas can be found here.

There you go, I'm sharing it with you, may it bring you kind blessings!

From Amithabha Stupa in Sedona, AZ

There was also a lovely buddha in the backyard of "Tranquility". My girls left her an offering of some drawings they had made.

From Sedona vacation rental

The house also featured a little pond and a very relaxing jacuzzi. We enjoyed it all so very much.

I really enjoyed just driving around, seeing the beautiful red rock formations; Coffee Pot, Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Courthouse and Chimney Rock. The town of Sedona has strict coding ordinances which include the colors used to paint the buildings. They all blend in nicely with the surrounding landscape, so much so you don't even notice the typical McDs or Walgreens (my husband drove right by it while looking for it!) And, no big box stores in this town! Which is wonderful, because there are so many wonderful little businesses that continue to be able to stay in business as a result of it. I don't think I saw any empty store fronts while there (unlike where I live, there are many right now). We enjoyed going to the new age shops where "vortex" rocks and crystals, Buddhas, and gems could be found. I went to a few bead shops and picked up some nice charms to use in the future. The galleries were wonderful to stroll and there was an art mall with many independent artists booths and a wide variety of goods to purchase. Small, independent toy shops and apparel stores were plenty. Alas, no Legos to be found!!! Livie made due with some fun little building type sets and we had fun with puzzles back at the house.

While we ate many meals at the house, we really enjoyed the CoffeePot Restaurant on the main road. "Home of the famous 101 omelettes" and we tried at least 1 each of them and went there twice during the week. We did a lot during our week there, which included hiking Red Rock Creek, visiting the old mining and ghost town of Jerome, going to a Chuckwagon and dinner show at Blazin' M Ranch, visiting Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is built into the red rocks in Sedona. I've posted some pictures from our trip below, and there's many more in my picasa web albums. I'll definitely be back to Sedona some day, hopefully in retirement, if not sooner.

From Red Rock Creek, Sedona, AZ

From Jerome, AZ Mining Town 2011

From Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona AZ 2011

From Blazin' M Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ Dinner and country show

It was great spending time with our family from Arizona and we look forward to seeing them again soon!

From Red Rock Creek, Sedona, AZ

A Week of Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:04:00 +0000

From San Diego Safari Park

Halloween seems to have become one of the most celebrated holidays lately. It has with our family anyway.... I actually had to turn down some events, it became too much. Anyone who even thinks of saying homeschoolers/unschoolers are unsocialized, obviously doesn't know my kids! We went to a Ghouls and Goblin LARP with our unschooling group the San Diego Funschoolers, an evening time Halloween Party, also with our unschooler friends, a neighborhood Halloween party, Violet went to an anime/Halloween party, trick or treating on Main St, and Trick or Treating on actual Halloween with some good friends in town. We also went to Oma's Pumpkin Patch and had a fun time being with friends and coming home with yet 2 more pumpkins!!! I wanted to get to a Dia de los Muertos celebration as there were several going on in San Diego, but we all came down with colds towards the end of it all and decided to spend a few days at home recuperating.

From 2011-11-01

We had fun growing our own pumpkins this year. What started as accidental patch (from seeds thrown over the fence the year prior), was soon added to and we ended up with about 11 pumpkins this year! The girls and Dan had a lot of fun carving them and made some really great designs! We also decorated the front porch even though we don't get any Trick or Treaters.....the house are too far and few between I think it must be too much for the neighborhood kids. We got to enjoy it though, and it looked great! We even had C.C. the rescued feral cat join in the decorative look.

From Instant Upload

The girls both got a ton of candies. When we were Trick or Treating on Main St, we walked by one store on our way back to the car and some ladies out in front (of a salon) asked Livie didn't she want some candy? Livie replied that her cauldron (candy bucket) was already full so "no thank you". They all started laughing at her (which I wasn't happy about and was afraid it would embarass Livie) startled that a kid would turn down some candy, I guess.... Livie was okay about it, she thought they were silly women. When we went trick or treating with friends, Livie was quickly done after a couple of streets and we headed back while Violet continued to have fun with friends Trick or Treating and checking out all the really cool and sometimes scary decorations in the neighborhood (this neighborhood really goes all out!)

It was a fun week. We also made a trip to the Safari Park with friends we don't see as often, so it was an overall wonderful week!

Hope you had fun as well!

Mandy

Road Trip and visit with good friends

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:58:00 +0000

Sunset at Moonlight Beach, Encinitas, CA by Mandy Sicard

i "heart" Moonlight Beach by Mandy Sicard

It's been a busy last two weeks, with a visit from our good friends, the Sabos from Corvallis, Or and a trip to the Getty and the Wigwam Motel in San Bernardino.

Buried alive!

Kai & Vi

We enjoyed a beautiful day at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. Clear, blue skies and a warm temps ending with a bonfire and illuminescent waves! Our friends came and stayed a few days and then we went up to the Getty with our unschooling tribe followed with a 2 day trip to the Wigwam Motel, an iconic motel on Route 66 also of which the Cozy Cone in the Cars movie was based on. My friend Erika, wrote a guest blog post for me over at Soaring over San Diego. Go check it out!

Olivia enjoying some s'mores at Moonlight Beach

Snickerdoodles!

We enjoyed some yummy Snickerdoodle cookies, which my friend Ginger (a master baker at Sunnyside Up Cafe in Corvallis!) helped the girls make and some fun times smashing pumpkins and watermelons with baseball bats.

Pumpkins and Watermelons from the garden

(Just the ones that we found were not ripe upon opening, or already cracked on the ground)

Moonlight bonfire s'mores

We also enjoyed some backyard s'mores and some fun with our Funschooler group's Ghouls & Goblins LARP (Live action role play) day at Big Rock Park in Santee.

The Getty Center

The Getty Center was gorgeous! I could have spent many days there, but we mostly just walked around enjoying some of the amazing artwork, the gardens, and the really fun Family Center where the kids got to create and a play and hang with friends.

Ginger and Kade with their masks on

The WigWam Motel was great fun. Mostly, because we just got to relax and hang out with our friends. Playing in the grass area, the pool, gaming in the rooms (it got really hot first day there, up to 100 degrees, and the pool wasn't quite warmed up yet with only a day or two of heat).

WigWam Motel in Rialto, CA

Parkour in the WigWam!

We also got a visit from my brother his wife and daughter while there, as they only lived about 15 minutes away from there and my brother is now working down the road from the Wigwams.

It was a really great time, and I'm going to miss our friends so very much but will see them next year at Life is Good Unschooling conference, if not sooner!

If you get a chance to visit the Wigwam Hotel, check it out, even if it's just to stop by their little shop with lots of great Route 66 memorablia and postcards to choose from. I think it'd be a great place for an unschooling non-con!

Who's in?! : )

Mandy

Halloween Time at Disneyland

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:19:00 +0000

Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resorts in Anaheim is always so much fun! We went recently and enjoyed all of the Halloween decorations and special Hallloween treats as well as all the rides that we always enjoy. One of our favorites at Halloweentime is the Haunted Mansion which is taken over by Jack Skellington and his crew. The mansion undergoes a transformation to Tim Burton's "Nightmare before Christmas" with lots of spooky characters and spooky music.

The Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, altars in Frontierland are one of my favorite displays to see during this time of year. A Mexican tradition which is a fascinating and festive display of color and culture with altars, sugar skulls, marigolds, and favorite foods and drinks to honor the deceased.

Also during this time of year is a visit from some of Disney's favorite villains; Cruella de Vil, Malificent, and Captain Hook!
The whole park is decorated in Halloween decor. Starting on Main Street you are greeted with a giant pumpkin and hundreds of pumpkins and other fall and spooky items to get you in the mood for Halloween. We enjoyed some yummy Halloween cookies and cupcakes while there.
Space Mountain Galaxy is also spookified, as if it could be any scarier!

Lots of great fun to be had at Disneyland and California Adventure. And, don't miss out on Mickey's Halloween Party. Advanced tickets are required and it's on limited days, see website for details. It includes a special Halloween Screams Holiday Fireworks Spectacular, entrance to the park, photos with villains, Costume party, candy stations, Pirate Palooza, Space Jam hi-energy dance party, Space Mountain ghost galaxy and Haunted Mansion holiday, and more....

Have fun and have a great Halloweentime!

The night the lights went out in San Diego....

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0000

The night the lights went out in San Diego we were attending the 2nd annual Good Vibration's Unschooling Conference in Del Mar, San Diego. The first one was 2009, with a hiatus in 2010, but to be continued annually going forward. It ended up being very eventful! Earlier in the week we had some very uncommon for September, wet, humid weather. Then, on the first afternoon of the conference was a blackout that affected almost all of San Diego, and parts of AZ. It lasted 9 hours at the Del Mar Doubletree hotel, where we were staying. The following days resulted in a sewage spill caused by the outage which closed the local beaches. Then, my dear little Olivia slipped, hit her head and had a concussion!
You would think it was a very bad week indeed......
However, being the amazing unschooling community that we are, the conference continued, in fact thrived and became one of the most memorable conferences that I'm aware of. While most were at the hotel when it happened, many continued to swim in the pool, hang out in the lounge and playrooms, hula-hoop by the pool, and continued with nerf gun and light saber play. Once it got dark, the hotel had handed out flashlights, the generator allowed the hall lights to stay on and some of us had beeswax candles we made from the art supplies room. So, many continued to play, hangout in the halls with neighbors, making new friends and making the most of an otherwise bad situation!

Before the power went out, Olivia had a Ninjago Funshop. For those not familiar with Unschooling Conferences and Funshops, prior to the conference, in fact many months prior, the conference organizer takes requests for Funshops. Usually someone will offer to do a funshop that involves something they are very much interested in such as Pokemon, an arts or crafts project (ATCs-Artist Trading Cards, Recycled material tutus, Sponge Art), Legos, Nerf Gun Wars, etc. That person would be responsible for the supplies or letting conference goers know what they need to bring for the Funshop. It's really just "strewing" your own interests and sharing it with others to enjoy and possible pick up a new interest.

The Lego Ninjago Funshop went really well. We had brought Ninjago Lego spinners and Ninjago spin-jitsus. We made arena boards to spin and battle them on. We brought some chopsticks for chopstick races, ninja swords, as well as light sabers, made ninja headbands, rice in a bowl-to pick lego pieces out of with chopsticks and some origami paper for ninja stars....and other fun origami ideas.
Olivia had a great time, and Violet helped out with the organizing and assisting in getting the games going.

Prior to the Funshop was a Knights, Armor and codes in Chivalry and an International Candy Tasting Funshop. The Knights Funshop was presented by Scott Farrell of Chivalry Today and he showed us his knight's armor, wearing it, showed us swords and other weaponry and displayed how it was used. It was really interesting stuff. The kids all enjoyed it immensely and had many terrific questions about it. Afterwards, some of the kids tried the armor on. It was so heavy!!! I'm amazed Olivia could hold it up without crumbling to the ground!

The International Candy Tasting was hosted by our friend Gardenia. It was such a hit last conference that she decided to do it again. There was so many wonderful treats, the kids as well as adults were enjoying trying all of the different flavors and textures, some from as far away as Japan & Turkey!

Later, there was the Pool Party and BBQ. Despite the blackout at that time, there was some delicious food waiting for us after a fun swim in the pool.
It was after the BBQ that Olivia hurt herself. She was over by the jacuzzi and slipped and fell back and hit the back of her head. She got a rather large gooseegg and was crying incessantly. I could tell it was serious. I took her back to the room and gave her ice and some pain relievers. It helped a bit and she was able to get some sleep for the night. The following morning she was still in pain and feeling nauseaus. So, I ended up taking her to ER and had her checked out and CT scanned. Everything checked out negative and she was diagnosed with a mild concussion. It is only now, a week later that she is finally feeling her back to normal self. She missed much of the conference, but had a really good time while there. Dan cheered her up with a new Ninjago lego set and lots of one-on-one daddy time.
Dan took Olivia home and took good care of her and I took Violet back to the conference so that she wouldn't miss out. I was able to attend the speakers talks and some of the chat circles. I kept in constant contact with Dan and Olivia via text and calls. The next day I went home for a few hours to help out and just sit and be with her. She mostly slept for the first 1/2 of the week home. While at the conference I really missed her and Dan but Violet really enjoyed herself and it was nice that we were so close to home (1/2 hour) if needed.

The rest of the conference included more funshops, more speakers, round table discussions and just being around good friends. Many of the San Diegans there were friends from our local unschooling group. I'm glad so many were there and that they enjoyed themselves and missed those that couldn't make it. Also missed those dear friends from afar that didn't make it this year (& looking forward to seeing you next month!!!)

During the conference there was a great space for non-stop art, it was the Nature of Art Creative Space hosted by my dear friend Spramani E'Laun. There was lots of art supplies available, some available for purchase, recycled art projects, mixed media, and a beautifully created Collaborative art project that was presented to the Conference Organizer, Flo Gascon.

Another part of the conference I really enjoyed was the Untrepreneurial Artisian Bazaar. Unschoolers brought their home-made creations and sold them during most of the conference. Adults and children alike made available some very creative products; crocheted earrings, pottery, bottlecap magnets, duct tape flowers, fiber dolls and so much more. I came home with a few goodies from both the bazaar and the Nature of Art Space shop.

Some of the funshops that Violet enjoyed were the Ace of Cakes Funshop, Upcycled Tutus, "Stone" Statues (made of sponges), Geocaching, TShirt Surgery, Rock Star Drama Camp with Amy Steinberg (which was sooo much fun!), and Nature Journaling. I was so glad she was able to stay and I appreciate the help that I recieved from friends who kept an eye out for her when I went home to be with Livie.

Violet and I also enjoyed Amy Steinberg's concert under the stars on the Conference's last night on Sunday. She sang many of our favorites, Exactly, Round and Round, as well as some new stuff off her newest album, Love Divine. It was such a lovely, evening outside. Dancing, singing being with good friends, seeing the little ones run around, hula hooping as background to Amy's singing. Singing Happy Birthday to our little confence baby Lena. Perfect end to an unforgettable conference.

We missed out on the after conference park day where they made nitrogen ice cream and hula hooped and had many hugs and other fun. Sorry if we didn't get to say goodbye, but I know we'll see you again at the next GVC and possible sooner to those of you closer by!

Thanks to my dear friend Flo for taking this on again this year and allowing my family and I to be a part of it. We're really looking forward to next year, can't wait to see how you top this memorable year!!!

Mandy

In the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:04:00 +0000

I've been really enjoying all of the wonderful bounty our gardens have been producing this year. We finally learned from the past and moved our gardens to better soil and mother nature did the rest! We've had lots of grapes, nectarines, oranges, tomatoes, and soon to have watermelons, cantelopes and pumpkins! I haven't done well with herbs, I think they need more shade, less sun, so will probably be trying them indoors and see how they do.

Our local natural food store had a garden swap recently, where locals brought home grown fruits and vegetables to swap and share. I came home with some squash, cucumbers, eggplants, & basil. People also brought eggs, goats milk, homemade cards, and other food items. I'll be joining them again soon, next time they do one.
I've really been enjoying our tomatoes. Enjoying making bruschetta, corn/tomato salad, pizza, and just sliced up with some dressing on them. They're so sweet and delicious!

We've also done some apple picking which I posted about here.

Not bad for a city girl. Having grown up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, we didn't have the amount of home-grown, local produce that we now have here. Though my mom and dad did have a little garden out back for many years. They still have a little one where they live now, as well as a lovely flower garden out back.

We've got some nice waterwise plants and flowers out front like lavender, rosemary, mexican sage, witches broom. I recently started to little potted cactus gardens as well which I really love and was able to utilize some old thrift finds (a soap making metal bucket and a tin milk container that Dan found).

I've been drying out some of the grapes and we'll have raisins to enjoy soon as well. It's been a great year for gardening and it's been great to be able to share our bounty with friends and family.

Hope you're also able to grow and enjoy your own little (or big) gardens this summer!

Mandy

It's been a fun & busy Summer!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:07:00 +0000

We've done so many fun and exciting things this summer. I'm just gonna bunch them all in one post and share many photos of the fun times that we've had.

We started the summer with a Zodiac LARP (Live action role play) with our Funschooler's (radical unschoolers) group. LARPs are always so much fun. Some kids dress up with the theme, some kids dress up in other costumes and some don't dress up at all. Sometimes moms (& dads) dress up and there's usually fun theme-related games, crafts, foods to go along with it. For the Zodiac LARP we had it at beautiful Big Rock Park in Santee. It's a beautiful park for role playing because there's a castle play structure, lots of trees and a creek that runs through it. I brought some Zodiac charts, which indicated your sign and information about that sign. Both the mamas & the kids had a lot of fun with them.

July 4th we hosted a Funschoolers Pool/BBQ Potluck and later watched fireworks from the local Jr. High School. There was lots of delicious dishes, many of them vegetarian and vegan, some international dishes, and some BBQ for the meat eaters in the group. The kids all had a wonderful day swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and playing with their friends. It was a wonderful way to spend the 4th, with great friends!

Also, in July we had another LARP, this one a Mythology LARP. We dressed up as our favorite Greek Mythology characters, had fun role-playing, playing board games, reading about Greek Mythology books that someone had brought and played in the playground. I brought some ivy vines, wire and floral tape and made some awesome ivy laurels (If I do say so myself!). Everyone loved them!

We went to Comic-Con for the very first time! A good friend invited us for the day and it was such a good time! Both the girls really loved it and really want to go again someday.

Olivia was in Lego and Star Wars heaven, and Violet was too as well, with the Vocaloid posters, dolls, as well as Pokemon, and other anime that was there.

We enjoyed a Good Vibrations Pre-con, non-con beach day with some unschoolers from the local SD area and also from the LA area.

We've enjoyed a couple of beach days with friends and lots of pool days at home and local with friends. We've been ice skating a couple of times, yes Ice Skating in August is the best!

We've had several visits to local museums like the Flying Leatherneck in Miramar, the Timken in Balboa Beach and the Mingei to see the Maneki Neko exhibit! Next week we'll be going to the Museum of Man with an unschooling group. We took a tour of the Lindberg Airport, where we actually rode a VIP bus on the road around the airstrip. It was amazing to see the number of airplanes coming in and out of that airport daily. They also have a new "green" terminal they are building. We got to see the Bomb sniffing canines in action through a demonstration that the airport tour included.

We've been to a couple of plays, the amazing and indescribable Festival of Arts-Pageant of the Masters, in which a new friend who is an unschooling mom, Tiffani Bearup was one of the models (from freelifeplay.com and also upcoming speaker at Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference. She so kindly gave us a tour of the backstage where we saw the backdrops, the make-up room, wigs, and actually met the director while there!

We've had fun creating rockets, lava lamps, fairy houses, and creating windchimes, jewelry, masks from clay. Had out of town friends visit and well as grandma & grandpa from Arizona visiting.

Such a busy summer!! And, we're really looking forward to the upcoming Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference in Del Mar September 8-11th. This'll be the 2nd year for GV and there's some wonderful Funshops, entertainment, Speakers and activities planned. Olivia will be hosting a Lego Ninjagos Funshop, so if you go please be sure to visit us! Entertainment includes the amazing Amy Steinberg. There will be beach parties, pool movie night, surfing lessons, open mic night, and a post conference picnic in the park!

OH, I'm exhausted just reading all this back! But, really, it's been fun, it's been full, and everyday is spent enjoying life and being fully in every single moment! Thank you dear friends for being in our life and thank you to my dear hubby, Dan, who doesn't always get join in on all of the fun, but is being supportive and joins in as frequently as he can!

Happy Summer!

Mandy

Life is Good conference (our 5th year!!!!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:13:00 +0000

It's already been a month since the 5th Life is Good Unschooling Conference. I usually blog about it and post a bunch of pictures, but have been busy with another blog lately. I've really missed this one and as I look through my flickr and picasa accounts I notice how much I've missed posting about. Life goes on whether you blog about it or now. But, I know my mom really enjoys seeing the posts as well as who knows who else....lol. Hopefully, other relatives that we don't see often are enjoying it.

So let me get on with posting about the conference. It is something the girls and I look forward to every year. Since our good friends, the Sabos moved up to Corvallis, Oregon last year we decided to pay them a visit for a few days pre-conference as well as spending the night with an unschooling family that we met online through our unschooling circles. One could probably travel all over the country stopping and visiting with other unschoolers if one wanted to. It's such an amazing and surprisingly large community.

We drove up to Felton, CA which is in Santa Cruz and stayed at this really cool house, a geodesic dome house up in the hillsides of Santa Cruz. We stayed with Matt, Brandi, Jacqueline and Joshua. Jacqueline had about has much energy as Olivia so it was great that they played together so well. They also love gaming and many of the same things my girls are into. They were wonderful hosts and it was lovely to meet and become friends with them. The also came up to the conference and we enjoyed hanging out and going to the movies with them while there.

We then made the long stretch up to Corvallis to visit our very dear friends, the Sabos. Jeff, Ginger, Kai and Kade who we became good friends with while they lived down in Carlsbad and were a very integral part of our unschooling community. We missed them dearly..... It was nice to spend down time with them, just hanging out, walking to the park, late nights crafting, playing computer games, wii. We had a really nice time. Thank you Sabos! We love you!!!

After a few days we headed up to the LIG conference. We had quite a bit of sprinkles this year but the temperatures really weren't too cold. The drive through Oregon up to Vancouver, WA is really beautiful. Everything is green and blossoms are blooming. Really, really lovely. Portland is a beautiful city. If ever there was a large city I'd live in it'd be Portland.

I'm always a bit anxious when I first arrive at conferences. It can be overwhelming as the masses start to arrive, some I know, many I don't. The lobby quickly fills up, you here laughter, see hugs, see free children smiling, connecting, re-connecting. I get through my anxiety as I start to see faces I know, recieve hugs, settle into our room for a little down time before all the real excitement begins.

There really is so much to do at the conference. There's numerous Funshops most hosted by kids and their parents sharing something fun, interesting, many times different to create or particpate in. This year there was fort building, candy sculptures, Hoopa-Rama (making hula hoops), Warrior Cats (hosted by Violet, Kai, & Astrid), juggling, skateboarding, geocaching, fingerknitting, Where are your Keys?(learning language), Mine crafting (they actually created a virtual LIG conference, so cool!!!) and so much more.....

There's wonderful entertainment. We had Amy Steinberg, Kimya Dawson, the Greybeards. We heard Patti Digh, author of Life is a Verb and blog, 37 days.

There were wonderful speakers talking about various topics, not just unschooling which included the Lovejoys, and the Sabos, Laura Flynn Endres. There were circle chats, a very entertaining Film Festival, Art Gallery, Untrepreneurial Fair where many beautiful, handmade items were being sold. Dances, talent show, picnic in the park. It was a very full weekend!

Presententation recordings will be available for sale for the 2011 conference, if you were not present at the conference on the website soon. And, prior year's are also available there.

This was the largest LIG conference yet. I don't know the numbers, but look at all of the unschoolers that showed up at the picnic on Memorial Day. Such an awesome thing to see so many happy, fun-loving kids in one place! (Olivia's down in the center in red). Violet was off playing as were many other kids, so this isn't even ALL of them!

Life is Good is such an inspiring, life-choice affirming, fun conference. This was our 5th and I'm sure we'll be back for as long as Mary Gold continues to provide it. Thank you Mary! And, all those that support her in making it happen every year!

Mandy, Violet & Olivia

Chicken Love.....

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Violet's been involved with 4H a few years now. The first couple of years we participated n the non-farm animals groups mostly like crafts, dog-training, cooking. We already had a couple of chickens, two frizzles we had been given by our neighbors and Dan had built a chicken coop for them from a kit. This year she decided she wanted to join the poultry group and raise some chicks. A good friends of our already has a a mini-farm going with chickens and goats and was putting in an order for some chicks so we decided to order some bantam sebrights with her order. They are delivered via the post office when they are about a day or two old! This really surprised me, but it was fun to go pick up our chicks from our friends home and bring them home where we had a cage set up with a heating lamp and everything else that they needed. The grew very quickly!! Within a week they were no longer the fluffy little chicks we had received the first day. They had longer feathers growing and were up and about....so very cute! The girls names them Coal, Lacey, Cheese and Fira. It turned out that they were all roosters!! What are the odds of that?

This is our Sebrights at about 2 months old. They have really beautiful coloring.

We really wanted some egg-laying hens, as we only have one right now. So, we ended up finding homes for them with a very nice family that we met at a chicken meet-up (backyard chickens group) that wanted some smaller chickens for their kids to play with. We currently have 2 roosters and 2 chickens. They are paired off and we keep them separate otherwise the roosters tend to fight over the girls. Sol is a handsome man with beautiful color and takes very good care of his woman. Hans Solo is a frizzle who found a new wife after the original frizzle died. They all seem quite happy.

This is Sol. Isn't he handsome?

Violet's been enjoying her 4H but decided not show at the fair this year. She continues to enjoy going to chicken meet-ups and seeing all the many different breeds and learning about them. She has a good friend who's also very into chickens, we call him the "chicken master" has he knows so very much about them and has cared for ours when we were out of town recently. We still would like to get some more egg layers, but for now our little farm is doing well.

This is a beautiful Silkie we saw at a meet-up. So fluffy and magnificent!

This black Silkie was also very beautiful!

Olivia enjoys loving on them too!

A Serama Violet made friends with. They're very sweet birds.

This baby emu we saw at another recent meet-up.....so cute!

Look at the size of the emu eggs compared to a regular chicken egg!

It's been a fun learning experience and Violet's learned how much work chickens can be (very messy!), but we all chip in and help out as needed.

May Faire Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:32:00 +0000

We went to the Waldorf School of San Diego's May Faire recently. There was lots of activities going on there. Crafts for the kids, vendor booths, clown and puppet shows, Maypole dance and more.

Olivia really enjoyed the petting zoo. She fed and pet the miniature goats, there were some exotic chickens and a giant rabbit.....I could not believe the size of this bunny! He was as big as the pygmy goats!
Violet enjoyed making a fairy stick out of a real stick, ribbons, & felt. She also made a flower crown, but didn't get a picture of it.

I loved this one, though, that I saw an adorable little girl in braids wearing....

and you know you're sure to see fairies, fairy wings or fairy skirts at a Spring festival....ah, I remember when Violet would wear these.

A very fun day indeed. Hope you're enjoying this lovely Spring time of year.

Mandy

Celebrating Earth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:55:00 +0000

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

We celebrated Earth Day by having our Funschooler's (unschooling) group over for some fun eco-friendly crafts this week. We had a good turn out of kids and moms and had a great time making ATCs from recycled boxes (cereal boxes and such), recycled paper(from old drawings, used construction paper) and added some nice earth elements-lavender, rosemary, rose petals, tiny weed flowers, seeds.

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

We also made "fish" from recycled wet suits provided by my friend Spramani, owner of Nature of Arts Kids. We decorated recycled bottle caps and added magnets to make fridge art magnets. We made picture frames from used puzzles. Rainmakers from toilet paper rolls. We altered some small children's board books. We also planted some seeds in used egg cartons.

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

There's so many things you can do to recycle, re-purpose, and conserve not only on Earth Day but every day! Even before we recieved recycle trash bins from the county, we were separating our recycles from un-recyclable trash. We mostly give our chickens our scraps, so they go to good use. I save bottles and use them as vases for flowers from our garden, they make nice gifts. You can alter the bottles with remnants of material, and other little "treasures" you come across around the house. It's fun to draw on them with Sharpies as well, and make beautiful designs on them.

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

We enjoy recycling tshirts. We have fun altering them and making them into something new and fresh! You can also make bags out of them. Here's a great book we picked up at the library, Generation -108 ways to transform you tshirt.

From SDFS Earth Craft Day ~ Apr 14, 2011

It's also a great idea to go on nature walks in your neighborhood and pick up trash while you're out. Or go out to the beach clean-up days that they have monthly.

Go Celebrate our Earth by being kind to it this Friday, April 22nd and everyday!!!

Mandy

Birthday Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:06:00 +0000

I now have an 8 year old and a 12 year old!!! Wow! Time just flies....

My joyful 8 year old.....

My lovely 12 year old....

More posts and catching up to come.....

(sorry for the delay, this was sitting in my drafts.....)

Pretty Spring Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:53:00 +0000

My friend Dawn needed support inspiring her to use her camera more often, so suggested a couple of friends to share a daily favorite. I was going to the park to meet up with some friends anyway, so brought along my camera and visited the beautiful little waterwise garden at Collier Park. It's so lovely. The kids enjoyed looking and smelling the flowers and climbing the rocks and playing with each other. And, I got to take lots of photos of these lovely flowers! Here's one of the kids and their friends:

All flowers are SOOC, except the two pink ones added a vignette in picnik, and cropped. More flowers here.

Gamer Day

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:24:00 +0000

From SDFS Gamer Day

Gamer Day with our Unschooler's group (Funschoolers) was in February, but I've been wanting to post about it here, because when I posted it on Facebook I received some questions about how it went.

One of our friends from our Funschooler's group has a daughter Olivia's age who's also very into gaming (much like Livie). She likes lots of the same games; Kirby, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, Mario Brothers and others. Her mom thought of this great idea to have a Gamer Day at her house, which also happens to be here in our town.

She set up 4 tvs, with 4 gaming systems; 2 Wiis , a Playstation & an XBOX. Kids were told to bring their personal gaming systems like nintendo ds lites, gameboys, etc. So there were all stations going at once and kids took turns playing.

There was also a trampoline out back, lots of Legos to play with and lots of snacks. We played for about 3-4 hours and the kids all had a really good time. Ages were from 2 all the way up to 13-14. Everyone played nicely together, took turns on their own, pretty much rotated around room participating in the many options that were available.

The day wouldn't be complete without the "gamer" snacks:

Livie's "up on the knees" technique works well:

From SDFS Gamer Day

The "over the head" technique works well too:

From SDFS Gamer Day

We're looking forward to the next Gamer Day which happens to be on April 1st, this week! Maybe we'll set up some Zumba, this time for the mamas! Game ON!!!

We've got chicks!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:07:00 +0000

From Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick-chick!

We actually picked up our chicks Feb. 18th, so they're already getting pretty big. Violet picked out 4 Seabrights from a catalog that our friend was ordering from. I think she got around 25 chicks all together. Ours are growing so fast! The girls named them Coal & Cheese (Olivia's ) and Fira & Lacy (Violet's). We had a fun day when we picked them up. We brought along some friends who were visiting, so all the kids had a great time handling the chicks, petting the goats and collecting eggs. I really love living in this little rural town in the outskirts of San Diego and that my kids are getting to experience "country" living. So different from where I grew up (outskirts of LA county-Pomona). Here's some more fun times from the day.....

Here's the whole lot of them....they're very messy!

From Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick-chick!

But, oh, so cute & fluffy!

Here's Coal today:

Violet thinks he might be a rooster, as he's pretty cocky!

This is our handsome Sol, we had hoped he was gonna be a hen, but ah well.....

This is Han Solo & Abigail. Abigail has passed on, she had a hip problem and could no longer walk or get around. They are frizzles mixed with something...

But we still have Han and he has a new lady, Taco. Here she is with Mimi, enjoying some pumpkin.

One of our friend's very friendly goats (taken on another day)

From Summers Birthday

We made some pretzels that same day (it was our little friend's 3rd birthday)

From Summers Birthday

Messy, but fun to make! I think this post is having a messy theme today...

From Summers Birthday

And, yes! They were very yummy!

Oh, where we've been.....

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:25:00 +0000

Well, if you've been wondering where we've been.....or not, I've created a new blog which has been taken up my blogging time lately. I haven't left here for good though, and plan to continue to blog our unschooling adventures here. The new blog, "Oh, the places we go", much like this blog, highlights some of the fun, interesting, local (local to San Diego) places, events, things going on and that we've been to recently. My friend Dawn, assists with weekly blog posts and shares her families experiences at the exciting, local places that they go to as well. We also highlight local businesses, especially local mom businesses who are also unschoolers or homeschoolers supporting their families with their businesses. There's a weekly post called LOL, which stands for Lots of Links which highlights upcoming events that are family-friendly, and mostly cost efficient for unschooilng/homeschooling families as well as anyone just looking for fun things to do while in San Diego. I plan to have guest bloggers, occasionally, to change the flavor and spice it up a bit. Feel free to visit, even if you're not local, to see the fun things that can be enjoyed here that are not necessarily the major amusement attractions and normal places one visits while in SD and perhaps you'll pay us a visit sometime ; ) and enjoy them with us! Perhaps you can guest blog for me while you're here! ; )

I hope to keep this blog more for sharing the unschooling aspects of our life with other unschoolers and our family, so should be a bit more personal and light! Oh, and to share my love of photography, of course! Hope you enjoy the beautiful sunset I took recently....it was a beauty, photos do not do it justice!

Thanks for your patience!

Mandy

Rainy days & fun with friends

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:34:00 +0000

Been lots of rain here lately!! Fortunately, we were able to get out and go to a Winter Solstice gathering with friends where we played, made orange/clove pomanders, played Wii, UNO, and enjoyed the company of some unschooler friends. Nice to spend time with friends during the holidays. We also went to a holiday gathering with friends in our Un co-op group. Many we had not seen in awhile and we enjoyed a wonderful potluck, some crafts, some dancing, some homemade Secret Santa gift exchanging and play, play, play!

bird on a wire collage (by Un co-op friends)

We also made marshmallow snowmen.....

Well.....some made snowmen.....and Livie made....

.... a marshmallow drill

We're so fortunate to have so many great friends in our lives.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Winter Solstice and just an overall Happy New Year to you all!

Mandy

Tis the season......for tamales!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:56:00 +0000

Violet's the foodie in the family. She definitely didn't get it from me . This last week she's made tamales, lasagna, brownies, cookies, pancakes, and probably more.... She's asked me about opening her own bakery. I suggested she make stuff at home and sell to friends and family and that yes, some day she should have her own bakery. It's a passion I believe she'll probably continue a long time. I think it's important to provide opportunities to develop interests and passions. I remember when she was about 3 years old, one Christmas she wanted "cookin' in the kitchen, cookin' in the kitchen!!" She was referring to the Easy Bake Oven she had seen on TV commercials. She got one that year and used it quite a bit. She's also always enjoyed cookbooks. When younger she enjoyed Usborne's Fairy cooking. Lots of yummy, tea party time goodies in it. She's so comfortable and happy in the kitchen. She loves trying new recipes and sharing them with others. She's been cooking with 4H this year and is really enjoying it as well. She helped make the lasagna for our community meeting's potluck and also some sugar cookies at home. It's a great organization which provides mentors (group leaders) to assist in learning more about things that they are interested in. This year Violet's in the cooking, poultry (learning about chickens), and dog training (we'll be taking Oliver, our rescue chihuahua). Me? I didn't inherit the foodie gene, but I sure do enjoy the rewards of her cooking and baking!!!

Yum! Raspberry covered brownies!

For Halloween, witches fingers!

My Sparkly girl

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:22:00 +0000

My amazing, sparkly girl! She had a blast at the Mom Blogger's reception at Disneyland last week. They had a DJ and she was dancing, doing her hip hop moves, the worm, just having a blast. She always puts a big smile on my face when I see her in action. She had fun making a video which was turned into a flip book while there. They had a table of dress up stuff; Mickey Gloves, sparkly hair, funny glasses.... We all had a great time dressing up then seeing the results of our goofy fun in the form of a flip book! So fun!

Here she is with her decorated cookie. She had about 2 bites of it and was done...

More fun photos from the day can be found here and here. Olivia is definately my creative muse, so I'm sharing this with Tracey and others for a BSM (Best Shot Monday)

Holiday fun at Disneyland!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:56:00 +0000

We are so very fortunate and excited to go to Disneyland again this year during this Holiday Season! We were invited to the Mom Blogger's reception and the parks to enjoy the opening weekend of Disneyland's Holiday Events.
Guests can enjoy the Holiday events and specially decorated rides and attractions Nov 12th through Jan 2, 2011.

We arrived at the reception and were introduced to some of the park's amazing chefs and got to try the many samples of Holiday Foods that are available at the parks. The kids both were so excited to see the Mac N Cheese and Peanut Butter Pizzas! Available at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel.

Some other scrumptious goodies they had were baked goods and pastries from Cafe Orleans and included mini-carrot cakes, espresso shooters, and Mickey Mouse biegnets. Ah, writing about it is making my mouth water!!! It was really great to get to meet and talk to some of the chefs from the Disneyland Resorts and parks. I was surprised and excited to try the tamales that chef Jesse Tiscareno from Rancho del Zocalo made. It was fun to share tamale making stories, as he's been making them with his family since he was young. The tamales did not disappoint, they were muy excellente!

The girls both enjoyed decorating and then eating some snowman sugar cookies. I see future Disney pastry chefs in the making!

Disney Media photo (Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland)

Other traditional Holiday favorites include It's a Small World, which is decorated in beautiful Holiday lights to celebrate the season, the Haunted Mansion becomes Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas, a combination of Christmas and Halloween fun together! Santa & his reindeer make the rounds at the park and can be seen at Santa's Reindeer round-up in Frontierland. The Christmas Fantasy Parade brings you many of the Disney characters enjoying the holiday spirit and the "Believe in Holiday Magic" finale fireworks show shown nightly completed with snowfall is sure to put many guests in the holiday spirit! Sleeping Beauty's castle is magically transformed into a winter castle with icicles and snowdrifts and is amazing at night.

Disney Media photo (Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland)

Disney Media photo (Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland)

California Adventure has many fun Holiday surprises to offer as well. Upon entering the park you are greeted with the large CALIFORNIA sign becoming giant candy canes! At night there is the World of Color nighttime water spectacular held in the Paradise Bay Lagoon. In the Hollywood Pictures Backlot there's a ElecTRONica nightime street party based on the new upcoming Disney movie, Tron Legacy. Guests will enjoy DJ-hosted music, live street entertainers, video games and an exclusive 3D Sneak Peek at the movie.

I was super excited to learn about all the exciting new changes and shows coming in 2011. "Guests will be magically transported “under the sea” with the debut of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure in 2011. Guests will experience a musical retelling of the classic motion picture as the best-loved songs come alive in magnificent scenes all around them. They will sing along with Sebastian and Flounder, keep an eye out for the evil Ursula, and watch the Little Mermaid fall in love." Also new in 2011 will be the new Star Tours adventures. I know Olivia, especially will love that one. We all watched and enjoyed the Jedi Training Academy for the first time. Olivia came home with a new psychedelic light saber that's been played with endlessly since we've come home!
Other new attractions to look out for in 2011 are the new princess Rapunzel, a new Mickey's "Soundsational" Parade, and Goofy's Sky School.

We had a fabulous time and I really enjoyed taking pictures and sharing the experience with those that are interested in going during the holiday season.

Wishing you a Magical Holiday Season this year!

Mandy

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:00:00 +0000

From Teen/Tween Bowling Miramar

Olivia enjoyed bowling for the first time without the "helper" about a week ago on a bowling day for Teens & Tweens (quite a few kids 11 to 16, plus siblings....) My mom called this one "shiny hiney"! LOL I love this photo, Livie's so rocker in her shiny pants and even wore her "bowler" hat there. It was a really fun time.

It's Officially Fall and time for some Halloween Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:53:00 +0000

Halloween is one of the most fun and favorite holidays of the year. The girls take weeks deciding on costumes, then re-deciding as it approaches. Violet changed her mind several times, choosing a mummy, a punk Alice in Wonderland, a fairy, and finally a hippy. Olivia was easy to please when she came across a Batman outfit she really liked. They both had lots of halloween fun dressing up for the annual Main St Trick or Treating, a dress up Halloween birthday party, and finally on Hallow's eve a party and trick or treating at our friends neighborhood down in San Diego.

We didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year, but really enjoyed picking some pumpkins out at our neighbors Russ and Lily's garden. We also got some colorful Indian corn, and some delicious tomatoes!

we met the new calf, Norman

and some new chickens....

Homeward with the bounty....

Later in the week they enjoyed designing and carving their pumpkins with Dan & I. Messy, creative fun!

Even the pets enjoyed some of the yummy pumpkin guts.....

Another fun Halloween was had, and it's actually feeling like Fall, with cooler weather, a bit of rain here and there, and beautiful Fall sunset skies. I'm really enjoying this time of year again!

Skywatch - Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:25:00 +0000

With the rain, comes some really amazing skies. I braved the rain (with an umbrella, of course) and went out front for this one. There was a beautiful golden glow resting on everything around. Nice to get some rain and cool weather after the recent hot ones that we've had. That's Mt Woodson in the background which is to the west of us.

Sharing with Skywatch this week.

Just a little backwards....

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:18:00 +0000

From Ruben H Fleet Science Museum with SDFS

Might have to go a little backwards with my posts, not sure exactly where I've left off, I think it was Summer and here we are into Fall already, though it doesn't really feel like it the last few days with 90-100s going on. I actually don't mind the heat. I wouldn't do well in cold, rainy weather and I figure 1 weekend of snow up in Big Bear per winter is enough for me! Plus, definitely can't complain about the sunny 70s temp winters we have!
So....we've had a few fun trips lately. Most recently being a trip to the Ruben H Fleet Science Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego. We've been before, but never tire of the fun had there. It's especially fun when we go with friends, and this time we were with a large group, our Funschoolers group (an unschooler's event/field trip based group here in San Diego). It's funny, when we walk up and we see one of our friends running around the fountain barefoot, we know we're in the right place. We carpooled up with some local friends and had a quick snack before going in. The kids get so excited, because there's so much to see and do. They go running from one exhibit to the next and then off again. Some of the favorites were....
The hyperbolic marble shoot

From Ruben H Fleet Science Museum with SDFS

Livie always enjoys these, there was one at Palomar Mountain Observatory which we visited last year.
We also really enjoyed the Keva blocks room, the fog "tornado" table, spinning disk table, and we all still enjoy the Kids Zone.
Such fun times.....we really love our unschooling friends!

From Penny Pickles SDFS

Okay, now for the backwards part....we went to Penny Pickles Workshop, a Children's Museum in Temecula last week. It was also with our Funschoolers group. Penny Pickles is such a fun, interactive museum for kids located in Old Town, Temecula. It'd been awhile since we've been there. I think Livie was about 4 or 5, so it was definitely a different experience for her this time.

From Penny Pickles SDFS

This time, since we were with a group, they had a science experiment demonstration, which was quite fun to watch. We also had fun in the black light room, and were prepared by wearing white and had glow in the dark hair dye sprayed on. Also, some of the kids had "bones" highlighted on their arms and faces which was especially fun to see in the black lights.

From Penny Pickles SDFS

Here's my Royal Violet Goddess in the big Violet chair. She looks at home, maybe we should get one for our home!

From Penny Pickles SDFS

Here's Livie playing a symphony! Who knows, maybe some day she actually will!

From Penny Pickles SDFS

Many more photos can be found here.

Lastly, we had a really awesome time in Corvallis about 2 weeks back. We caravaned up there with our good friend Erika and her 2 boys to visit our good friends the Sabos. We were invited up to help celebrate Kade's 8th birthday and stayed a few days to visit and play. Half way up we stopped and stayed in Sacramento for a day and two nights and visited the state capitol. We had a wonderful tour of the capitol and even got to go to Senator Kehoe's office and walk around on the Senate floor. It was such a great experience and exciting to learn about the capitol, the senate, and assembly, the political process and so much more.

the girls at Senator Christine Kehoe's desk

Lots more photos from the trip can be found here and here. We've done more since and I'll blog some more later. Always busy, and always enjoying this unschooled life with my girls.

Hiya!!!! Livie got her yellow belt

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Sicard) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Just had to share this as a separate post, as I'm really proud of her. Olivia had a desire to try karate even before we saw the new Karate Kid at the theater mid-summer, but we knew she was serious when we tryed it out and joined Premier Karate in Poway. She has been so dedicated, and focused in her training, practices all the time at home, and has a really awesome "HIYA!" and "TAE KWON DO!" It is such a joy to watch her at class and we were so very proud and excited for her when she got her first level yellow belt this past weekend! Way to go girl!