Black Star Canyon Guided Hike with Kids
The New Children’s Museum
A couple of weeks ago friends invited us to join them for a play at The New Children's Museum. It had been a few years since I had taken the kids there so we jumped at the chance. I thought it might be a little busy on the weekend, but we parked right out the front and didn't have to wait to participate in any of the fun activities throughout the museum.
As soon as we arrived the kids ran outside to play with clay, and paint a car.
Hiking at Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve
It's amazing that you can live in an area for a number of years and not know that a 15 minute drive from your house is a 4000 acre preserve and around 10 miles of hiking trails within that space.
One afternoon while trying to avoid freeway traffic, my husband suggested we take a back road that uses occasionally, which is not a route I had driven before, however we passed a sign and parking area to the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. As soon as we got home I researched the area, and then arranged to meet with our kids to do a 6 mile hike there that weekend.
I printed out a map from the San Diego Parks & Rec website and we with drinks and snacks in our backpacks set off. This is the route we took.
Map of route via Runkeeper
At the 3 mile mark (halfway through our hike) we arrived at the waterfall. If you are thinking side of a mountain water falling, that is not what you will find here, it's more large rapids and a small drop off as you will see from the photographs below that run through volcanic rock. Our hike took us along one side of the creek, we crossed over at the waterfall and then returned to the parking lot on the other side of the creek.
5 Christmas Activities at Balboa Park
Legoland Holiday Snow Days
The Santa Train in San Diego
Pomegranate Days at the Oasis Camel Dairy
SeaWorld Halloween Spooktacular
Barbie’s Trip to Bates Nut Farm
It's not Fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch. So when the kids had a half day at school recently, we took the opportunity to head to Bates Nut Farm for the afternoon with friends.
Face Painting Ideas for Kids
This past weekend we celebrated Marisol and Flynn's 6th birthday at Legoland. They decided to do this instead of having a birthday party, but we are already members of Legoland so I wanted to make their birthday celebration there a little more special. I found a great Plum District for two nights accommodation in a villa with beautiful ocean views at the Grand Pacific Palisades, which is right across the street, and then we told the kids they could each invite a friend (and their friend's family) to join us at Legoland for a day of fun. Thankfully our Plum District deal also included tickets to Legoland and with a recent Klout Perk in hand too, we were pretty much covered for tickets for our guests.
On Friday afternoon Legoland was attempting a world record for having the most vampires in the same location at the same time. Unfortunately we fell short, but with over 700 vampires in attendance, it really was quite a sight. Of course the kids and I dressed as vampires to attend. This was a great way to kick off our weekend of fun.
Now, I don't profess to be an expert when it comes to face painting. I can whip up a quick costume, but I don't have a terribly steady hand so I normally stick to the basics when it comes to painting faces. However there is a bonus to being a Klutz Books Ambassador, they sent me the Face Painting book which comes with make-up, a sponge, and a brush. A bonus, was they had a tutorial for making a vampire face that was perfect for the little man.
