Sunday, July 18, 2010

Arrr! A Pirate's Life for Me

Arrr! It was that time of year when the pirates come around to Ventura Harbor Village. Pirates walk around the village, perform magic shows, sing, and put on small shows. One pirate had a couple parrots that my youngest loved. She was more excited when he put one on her arm! She also enjoyed a pirate sing along where kids formed a circle to listen and dance to pirate songs. She loves to dance; so it was a perfect opportunity for her to ham it up.

The girls went on a scavenger hunt to look for treasure. Holding a map in one hand and a compass in another; they searched for clues around the village that lead to where X marks the spot. They found the treasure which included stickers, tattoos, gum coins and bracelets.

We brought a picnic lunch to eat at the village to save money and the kids shared and devoured a cotton candy ice cream cone as they watched a sword fight pirate show. After the show, they rode on a carousel, played a game and happily left for home sucking on a lollipop they won with their game tickets.

The event is free as well as the shows; but they get you with the opportunity to buy tickets for rides, games, bouncers, pony rides and scavenger hunts. We ended up spending $12 for the day on 2 scavenger hunts, 1 ice cream cone, 2 carousel rides and 2 games which equaled 2 happy girls.
Ventura's 80 degree weather was also a nice escape from the 105 degree valley weather. A fun and cool pirate day!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Up turned into The Thief of Baghdad

We decided to go down to the outdoor venue in Pasadena again because they were showing UP. We thought the kids would enjoy watching a movie outside. We packed their fold up couch/bed, brought their blankets and packed the popcorn for a fun evening out. My husband took my daughter to the restroom and when he came out, the Thief of Baghdad was playing. I thought it was just going to be a short movie clip while they got ready to put UP on. But no, this was the movie that was going to be playing. We were really disappointed; but the girls didn't seem to care. They just like being outside watching anything on the screen and eating popcorn. We did leave after an hour. What was really disappointing is that they didn't even show a good substitute movie. If they couldn't show UP, then show another family movie. Anything would have been better than the Thief of Baghdad, even the Music Man was better and that's not saying much. This movie makes it to the top worst movies on my list. I think we are done with the free outdoor movies in Pasadena.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th!

Today, we are celebrating the 4th at the Ronald Regan Library for their free family event. We went there last year and the kids had a great time. If you don't get there early, you will have to park way down at the bottom of the hill. Of course, we did not get there early and parked at the bottom. Fortunately, they have a shuttle to take you up to the top. We got very lucky, because we just got out of the car ran to the shuttle a few cars down and off we went.
We get to the top and the 1st thing the girls see is a bounce house obstacle course. My 2 year old was a little small; so daddy had to do the obstacle with her. She had fun; but daddy got very tired after a couple times.
The girls did a couple crafts like making a flag with tissue paper and a USA beaded necklace. Their favorite activities were the games and then getting a small prize after each play. By the time they were done, I had quite a collection of patriotic pencils. We played a water balloon toss and then the girls played another game where you can collect as much candy as they could. Just what they need - more candy!
They also had free all you can eat watermelon. My youngest ate about 4 slices. She loves that stuff. My picky 5 year old had issues with a seedless watermelon because of the little white seeds. She insisted on picking those out which just took forever for her to eat.
We saved money on lunch by bringing our own and sat at their tables. We enjoyed listening to the band playing music while we ate. My youngest like it so much she started dancing and put on a show for the person next to us. She just added more entertainment and was quite comical.
This event really wears the kids out and they knocked out in the car on the way home. I knocked out at home. An hour later we had to be up and ready for a BBQ at my parents house. We stayed there for a little while, came home, bathed the kids and rushed off to see fireworks at the local mall. We always go to McDonalds for the $1 sundae to eat while we wait/watch for the fireworks. The line was out the door this year; so we decided to go after. Luckily,I bought some pop snaps for the kids to throw to keep them occupied while we waited. I also got them glow in the dark necklaces at the dollar store. I mad a note to try to sell these next year. People were asking where we got them and someone was actually selling the bracelets. After the show we made it to McDonalds. They barely let us in because they said they closed at 9:30. What kind of McDonalds closes at 9:30!? I think they just wanted to go home early. We did get our sundae but they eventually kicked us out to close their doors. All in all it was a fun 4th!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Dead Fish and the Music Man

We decided to check out a Japanese Festival because we didn't have much else planned and it was free to get it. I enjoy learning about a different culture and expose the kids as well.
They had a game where you can win a fish and the girls just had to play. My oldest has been wanting a fish; so here was her chance to win one. The game was really inexpensive; so they each won a goldfish for $3 worth of game play. Then, they played a couple other games, we looked at some bonsai trees, ate some homemade sugar donuts - I forgot what the Japanese call them; but they were good! We weren't there long enough to see any entertainment because my husband and I were on our way to see an outdoor movie of the Music Man at an outdoor venue in Pasadena.
Neither of us had seen it and it was free so we gave it a try. They showed the newer version and it was not very good. It probably doesn't make much of a difference if it was the old or new version because I didn't think it was a very good movie either way. We left after an hour to pick up the girls.
By this time, the goldfish were in jars and looked like they were hungry because they were blooping (when the fish open and close its mouth) according to my 5 year old. So, at 10:45pm we go to Vons to find fish food so the fish won't bloop anymore. It was the only thing we were buying and the cashier says "Oh, you're fish are hungry?" Because who goes out at almost 11:00pm to try to feed their goldfish.
We fed the fish, and about 3:00 in the morning I got up to tend to my youngest who needed a drink and found the fish floating. I hoped he might be sleeping and I was too tired to really check. I knew he wasn't sleeping when my oldest was crying about the dead fish in the morning. The 2nd fish died a day later. Winning a fish seems great at the time for the kids; but then you got to find somewhere to put it, get fish food, and take care of it, all so it can die in a day and leave your kids upset and crying.