Our Annual Ritual ~ Orange County Fair!!

We had a blast today going to the Orange County Fair! Hubby and I loved going to the fair since our dating years, and still went before and after the kids were born! This year, well, this morning, hubby went hiking at Mt.Baldy ~ leaving before sunrise (and had just returned) so I took the kids to a 6-hour excursion to Orange County Fair ~ where "The Beat Goes On"!

The kids loved seeing "Al's Brain in 3-D" for the 2nd time in a row, and we saw lots of really cute farm animals too! (Which confirms our decision to have a chick & a duckling next summer....stay tuned!)

Kids Pet Goat ~ Caleb offered to pet the goat, which is significant since he's allergic to dogs.

But he felt ok! Now we know that he's allergic to dogs but not goats....so maybe we should get a goat!

Giant Steer

I've always enjoyed the Alaskan Pig Races, but due to the economy, they're no longer handing out "free 1 lb. bacon" coupons from Ralphs like they used to. But that's ok 'cuz who'd want to eat 1 lb. of bacon anyways? Besides, at the food stands this year ~ they offer "Chocolate Covered Bacon" for $5.00 a piece.

Caleb helped me stroller Abbie around the fairgrounds all day, which I am very grateful for. And he was awarded cotton candy 'while Abbie got a pony ride!



The funny thing was, the show they enjoyed and fixated on (for 45 minutes) was the "waterless cookware cooking show"! I guess they were just waiting for the free chicken/veggie samples that came after the show!




The best part was that....after the fair, they automatically pass out in the car!!

So Enjoy the fair everyone! You won't regret it!

Hummingbirds, Catepillars, and our Fishie choking on a worm ~ Life with Wildlife!

When Kobee was a baby bird, he'd pick up a chicken drumstick with his claw and eat it with his beak. It has been 8 years since we had time to bring him in for dinner w/us, and this day, he tried our El Pollo chicken drumstick. He looked very suspiciously at the drumstick and tasted it. I think he's camera shy and froze when we videoed him. So, who says birds can't eat chicken?



Today, the kids and I hung out at the front porch. I was appalled to see a yucky, juicy, green, fat catepillar sleeping on my tomato tree. He looks EXACTLY like a leaf, with a pointy butt.

Gingerly, with a sunflower branch, I threw it onto our driveway and the kids played with him. It was grosse but also fun to see our kids actually interacting with nature (wildlife).

Caleb helped me scoot the yucky catepillar onto the street, where he met his untimely demise. Sorry catepillar, this is indeed "A Bug's Life"!

In the meantime, we also saw a cute hummingbird eating our nectars! He guards this tree fiercely, 'cuz he claimed it as his own!

Mr. Hummingbird Guarding his nectar tree

While gardening, I saw a squirming little earthworm under the sunflower soil.......And I remembered that fishes love to eat bloodworms, brime shrimps and other delicacies. Since it costs $5 a pop, I went cheap and decided to cut up our own garden worm to feed Mickey and friends. I didn't expect her to get a hold of the worm before I had a chance to cut it up! She was choking on the worm! I learned today to never....ever....bite off more than I can chew!

Ok, so with my handy paperclip, I finally cut up Mr. Worm to 3 tiny pieces, but Mickey is now afraid to eat it! The dismembered worm body parts dropped to the bottom of the tank! [And I do apologize for the bouncing videoclips....as our photographer Abbie seem to be a bit 'out of focus' today!]



After 10 minutes, however, Mickey does eat all the body pieces!  I think she will explode 'cuz she's pregnant-looking and the worm pieces are still pretty big (compared to her mouth)! When she did manage to eat each part, piece by piece, huge puffs of dust exploded out of her lips as she swallows her delicacies! I guess 'earth'worms really ARE made of 'earth'!

~ ~ You Are My Sunshine ~ ~

This spring and summer, I had the pleasure of planting sunflower seeds at the request of little Abbie! 

They were just tiny seeds when we sowed them, and 70% of them got eaten by catepillars! Thankfully, some of them made it, through rain and bugs, and grew gigantic! I am so proud of them!

The biggest one is Mr. Sunshine below, who blossomed thanks to the daily full sun he gets at my front porch! 

When I heard that my dear Cathy, my sweet friend at church, delivered a beautiful baby girl yesterday, I was so happy! So this morning I told Mr. Sun that this is his chance to shine!

Abbie holds chopped Mr. Sun!

Abbie and I cut his head off and made a beautiful bouquet with the flowers in my front and back garden. I am so happy that these beautiful flowers can become a blossom, I mean, blessing, to others! 

He had a big, heavy head, and though his petals started to fall before we got the bouquet into the car, he still smiled brightly as we prepared him to meet mommy, daddy, big brother, and baby Olive!!

Mr. Sun held up his head proudly (minus 5 petals)!

Thank you, Mr. Sun ^ Friends, and Congratulations to my sweet sister Cathy!

Lazy mom, Pasta Bird, and more tomatos! (^_^)

Today I figured out how to get my chores done AND keep the kids entertained! Actually, it started Sunday (3 days ago) when Caleb mysteriously became a tidy angel, surprising us with making everyone's beds and even folding his laundry. And I mean ALL of his laundry, all in the 5 drawers of his dresser! I don't know what possessed him, but whatever it is.....it is GOOD!

Today, Abbie said she wants to be like guh guh (big brother) too! So....how could I refuse? I let her do the dishwashing (I only asked her to was her new plastic Dora cup but she decided to go the extra mile!)....and ALL of the (non-breakable) dishes in the sink! Now THAT is a milestone in our family circus! It's not only a Milestone, but a MIRACLE! So I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts! I'm sure it won't happen in teenage years, that's for sure!






We also had someone join us for dinner EVERY night! IT's our very own Kobee bird! Abbie and I built him a perch, and he eats everything we do! Hubby cooked spaghetti dinner and Kobee loved it! Pasta and Parrot do go well together!

And hummingbirds are starting to visit our front yard because of the flowers and our nectar feeder too! Enjoy your buffet, guys! Happy July!

Drink 'till you drop!

It's great to feed the birdies! 'Cuz they bring us surprises like tomatoe seeds, which became a great big tomato plant 3 months later! We are so blessed!

Today I harvested 6 organic, sweet tomatoes! Yummy!

       I found a picture Julie took for me....at my bridal shower 12 years ago! I was so young back then!

Three Amigos (Pita, Fajita & Doritos) & One Panda fish!

Today we had to exchange Blue Baby (platy) for another platy because she is too nippy! Abbie and I went to PetCo to see who we could trade her for.

Mickey meets Panda

After an hour, we decided to get (Kung Fu) Panda, a panda platy! The store owner said that tetras need to swim in a group of 3, so we got 2 more Pristella tetras to keep "Pita" company! The "3 Amigos" tetras' names are ~ "Pita, Fajita, and Dorito"!

"3 Amigos" ~ Pita, Fajita & Dorito

Welcome home guys! Now we have 7 in our Underwater Family! (^_^)

Here's Abbie taking a bath with our Senegal parrot, Kobee! He's been taking baths with us lately and loooves to get wet! Don't try this at home, guys!

___________________________________________

Post Scriptus: Two days after this was written, we brought Panda back to PetCo 'cuz he wasn't looking too well. He stayed on the bottom corner of the tank all day. We figured he needed a fish doctor so we brought him back to the store. We decided to hold off getting more 'cuz 5 fishies and 1 shrimp is pretty close to capacity. And Mickey looks like she may explode and give us tons of frys (not french fries, but baby fishes) so we'll keep the tank open!

Blue Baby, Pita Tetra, and San Diego Zoo!

Over the weekend, we added 2 more babies to our Water world!

It was very exciting to bring the kids to Petco and pick out 2 more friends for our 3 water babies. We added a tetra Abbie named "Pita". Caleb picked out a Blue Micky Mouse platy, which we decided to name "Blue Baby".

As it turned out, they got along quite well on Day 1, but then Mickey started to hog up the food when it was feeding time. I have to tap the tank so the others get some food too!

It is very relaxing to just sit there and watch the cute creatures simply "BEING"....not doing much, but being who they are. That's a big lesson for me to learn ~ Just be Me, and enjoy who I am and where I am at this stage in life. We don't need to perform or achieve, but just simply... BE!

Abbie also brought me something she found in our front yard....our first 2 tomatoes of the season! They looked a tad green but were VERY yummy! The best part was...we didn't even plant this huge, healthy tomato plant! Some bird must have brought it and so far it has 16 tomatoes on it! The tomatoes were just 'hanging in there', and got delicious treats! That's something I should do more often 2!

I also told Caleb that the fishies 'dance' when he plays piano, so the past week he has been playing without putting up a fight! (^_^)

We went to the San Diego Zoo yesterday. It was cool to see the galapagos turtles eat TONS of bok choy and spinach clusters! If you want your kids to eat veggies, let them watch this video....several times a day!

Our favorite was the Bird Show, and the birdie we love most is an Amazon parrot who sings his own remix of "Old McDonald Had A Farm"!! (^_^)

Summer is Here! Kung Fu Kids, Ballet Recital, and our New Babies!

I cannot believe it's already July! Where has this year  gone? The kids have been off from school for just 11 days and it felt like a loooong time ago! We all went to Abbie's Ballet Recital, and saw little "pixies" dancing on stage!



We also watched "Karate Kid 3", and the kids tried a free lesson of "Kung Fu Martial Arts" down our street! It was hilarious to see them defend themselves against the master (who unfortunately wasn't my teen idol Jackie Chan....). Oh, and we also watched Toy Story 3. It's REALLY good!

                                 Attack the enemy!

                                Defend yourselves!


Three days ago we also welcomed new babies into our family! We now have a mouse, a cat, and a shrimp! Yes, we have adopted into our home (after 2 weeks of research and tiresome cycling of the fish tank...) a Micky Mouse Platy, a peppered cory Cat fish, and a Ghost shrimp! Micky, Pepper, and Casper are all getting along so well! Below is Micky's first hour as she settles into her new nursery/home!



Mickey ate a lot! I guess she's not shy or afraid of her new home! Abbie picked an boogie-eyed, open-mouthed, red-lipped yellow
fish for Mickey to hide, but I think it looks pretty scary to me....

Our Little Girl ~ Mickey, who loves to kiss Casper and Pepper. Can you see Mickey mouse silhouette on her tail?

Our Tiny Ghost Shrimp ~ Casper

Our Little Catfish "Pepper" ~ who is funny

and a bit neurotic at times

We also (finally!) harvested our beans, which took 60 days to grow from seeds! Our parrots Kobee and Jubee enjoy feasting on them!

Yummy Beans!

Kobee likes it!

Jubee 'purrs' while eating her favorite veggies!

Show your kids how yummy veggies are, moms and dads!

The kids love playing in the yard!

Now our family is not only a circus, but also a Zoo! We have fishes that swim in the water, animals that walk in the land (in the picture above), and the birds that fly in the air (well....walk in the cage)! I definately have my hands full!

A Gift for You All ~ Our Home Grown Flowers!

Happy Summer,  folks!