Halloween Events

Halloween Carnival at Northridge Rec. Center.

Today we went to the Northridge Rec. Center for their Halloween carnival.  The kids were entertained with about 15 different carnival type games.  They also got to decorate Halloween shaped cookies of pumpkins or ghosts, make giant hands out of popcorn and plastic gloves, make a Halloween sticker scene and collect candy along the way.  The tick or treat village was neat where kids could go onstage to different houses to trick or treat.  The girls did not want to participate in that though.  They also had a costume contest but we didn't stay long enough for that.

Richard Rioux Park Halloween Event

We grabbed some lunch and went to the next free Halloween event at the Richard Rioux Park.  This is very small, low key, low budget event.  They had a few carnival type games outside, a bouncer to play in and a costume contest.  The girls were here for a short amount of time, then wanted to play at the playground.

Ronald Reagan Libary July 4th Celebration

Ronald Reagan Library
Monday July 4th, 2012
10:00 am -3:00 pm

To celebrate our Nation’s 236th birthday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is hosting a day full of family-fun activities. This year’s celebration includes patriotic concerts, family entertainment, games, crafts, and more. All outdoor activities are free; however, regular admission rates apply to visit the Museum and exhibits. Schedule of Events.

Memorial Day- Fiesta Days, La Canada

ANNUAL MEMORIAL WEEKEND FIESTA DAYS LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Saturday, May 26 Vintage Car Show – La Cañada Memorial Park – 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.   Family Flick, Memorial Park – Movie Puss & Boots at 8:30 PM (as soon as it is dark enough) Sponsor: State Farm Insurance, Barbara Marshall and other local businesses   Bring your blanket/chair; no host snack bar will be open. Sunday, May 27  La Cañada High Jazz Band 6:30 p.m  Fireworks Show Sponsor, Allen Lund Company – Thank you!!  Fireworks Show – 8:45 p.m. (as soon as it is dark enough)     Monday, May 28  Afternoon In The Park (Food Court, Games, Music and more) La Cañada Memorial Park - Noon – 3:30 p.m.  Food Court – La Cañada Memorial Park – 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Music in the Park – La Cañada Memorial Park – 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Sponsored by the City & Valley Sun)

Free Toy's R Us Lego Friends Event - Feb. 4th

http://www.alexslemonade.org/lego-friends-event-toysrus-stores-february-4-2012

LEGO® Friends Launch N’ Build Event at Toys R Us
Friday, February 4 from 12pm to 2pm
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to experience LEGO® Friends - the brand new building craze - and create a complimentary lemonade stand to take home and add to any LEGO Friends set! For each stand built, LEGO will donate $1 to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation* to help fight childhood cancer.

Please note: This event is intended for children ages 5 and up. Parental supervision is required at all times. All event materials are available while supplies last and are distributed to participating children only. Limit one stand per child and quantities are limited. *Up to $10,000.

Free Museum Admission

Museums Free-For-All’ Saturday-Sunday, January 28th and 29th, 2012.
http://museumsla.org/news.asp

Participating Museums:

* The Annenberg Space for Photography - Both Days
* The Autry National Center - Both Days
* California African American Museum - Both Days
* California Science Center - Both Days
* Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles - Both Days
* Fowler Museum at UCLA - Both Days
* The Hammer Museum - Both Days
* The Getty Center - Both Days
* The Getty Villa**- Both Days
* Laguna Art Museum- Both Days
* Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial
(Both Hollywood & San Pedro Locations)- Saturday, January 28th Only
* The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) - Saturday, January 28th Only
* Museum of Tolerance - Sunday, January 29th Only
* Museum of Latin American Art - Both Days
* Pasadena Museum of California Art - Both Days
* Santa Monica Museum of Art - Saturday, January 28th Only
* Skirball Cultural Center*** - Saturday, January 28th Only
* Zimmer Children's Museum - Sunday, January 29th Only

*Regular parking fees apply. General museum admission only. May not apply to ticketed exhibitions.
**Timed tickets are required. Visit http://www.getty.edu.
***Timed entry to the Noah’s Ark exhibition will be on a walk-up, first-come, first-serve basis on this date.

Kid's Day

Today we spent the afternoon at the Newhall Park for the annual FREE Kid's Day event. The girls were entertained by various vendor booths, many of which had a game or craft for the kids. A few of our favorite vendors who give out free admission tickets were not there this year; but we did get some coupons for free mini golf at Mountasia. My youngest spent a lot of time at a preschool booth, playing with all their learning activities. The girls also expelled some energy at the bouncer and at the park playground. We ate free hot dogs, free Chick Fil A chicken nuggets, and snowcones. We also participated in a free raffle to try to win Disneyland or Magic Mountain tickets. We had to stick around for 2 hours to see if we won but of course we didn't win anything :(

Zimmer Children's Museum - Free Admission

On the 10th Anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, we decided to take a breather from all the memorial services on TV by going to the Zimmer Children's Museum for FREE. We had never been here before and had to go since they were offering free admission today.

The girls had a lot of fun playing in the waterway exhibit and swimming in a shipwreck ball pit. They spent the most time in the grocery store shopping, cleaning, organizing and eating. There was also a synagogue, a bookstore and a bagel shop which they didn't spend hardly any time in these areas. They did have fun playing hopscotch in the pretend park area. It was a good couple hours of Free fun!

The museum does have another Free admission day on Sunday, September 25th, 2011. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is also that week. So they are throwing a big party! Join them for a day of reflection and celebration as they welcome a new year with friends and families of the Zimmer! There will be activities for all our Zimmer families to learn from and share with one another. The Zimmer will be open normal Sunday hours from 12:30pm – 5:00pm.

Painting & Creepy Puppet Show

Today, there were a few different free activities going on; so we decided to them all!
First, we went to Home Depot's Kids Workshop to build a valet organizer for Father's Day. This would actually be very useful for hubby. My husband always comes to help; so this was not going to be a surprise Father's Day gift. Plus, the girls had other plans for their organizer. The oldest wanted to use it as a museum for her Playmobil set and the youngest wants to use it for her doll house. So much for being a gift for dad!

After the girls got home and painted their organizers; we stopped at Beverly's craft store for their rock painting event. They were showing them how to paint a ladybug. Of course, my youngest had to go against the flow and wanted to paint a puppy. Hubby helped her with that while I browsed the store.

Our last free outing of the day was to the Puppet Festival. The outdoor festival had a variety of puppet performances which included marionettes, ventriloquists, and a session where kids could play with different types of puppets. There was also a couple craft tables to make butterfly and caterpillar puppets which the girls enjoyed.

A giant 15 foot scary lookin' pink fairy puppet thing came walking around on stilts from time to time. It was definitely an attention getter; but not our cup of tea.

The shadow puppet show was the grand finale of the night. They encouraged people to stay until the end to see this award winning show and we were looking forward to watching it. Then they mentioned the performer had based the story on her survival of cancer. Since, the majority of the audience were children, I thought it would be a celebratory story. A story that might include butterfly, birds or some type of friendly,renewal images. But nooooooooo! It turned out to be CREEPY. The performer came around the seating area waffling this awful incense around. Then, the show began with eerie organ music. The 1st shadow image was a bird, a friendly image, then a tree (OK, not so bad). Then, she started talking about herself getting sick, she needed to find a doctor, she was being eaten up inside. She was dying, dying, dying as a shadow of an old lady that looked like death appeared during her narration. That's when I said it was time to leave. We were the 1st of several families with small kids who left. I don't know who decided to show this material at a place where kids are the majority of the audience. Aside from the giant pink fairy & the shadow performance, the festival was entertaining.

Placerita Canyon Open House

My husband had a meeting in the morning/afternoon; so I decided to take the girls to Placerita Canyon's open house. My youngest got to wash clothes like they did in the Pioneer days. They also gave opportunities to saw wood and make a quilt. We saw all kinds of animals, such as snakes, a porcupine, opossum, hawks, and even a baboon who was grooming one of the docents. The girls wanted to go on a hike. We did the same hike we had done a couple months ago; but we had a different docent leading us. So we got some new info and he took us to the stream to look at tadpoles. After about an hour of hiking, I paid $2 so the girls could pan for some fool's gold.

Kids Play Day

Our local college, College of the Canyons, hosted a free play day for kids. We have been there once before and the kids had a good time. This year, it was so hot when we got there. Despite the heat, the girls enjoyed making crafts such as hand print flowers, ladybugs, a cape, squirt bottle painting. They played games such as a bean bag toss, ring toss, and spin the wheel for prizes, They hula hooped, watched a volcano erupt, played in sand and water boxes. One booth had this stuff called Flubber. It feels and looks kind of like slime. They hung it on a strawberry basket and it just oozed out of the holes and came down so the kids could cut it, roll it and use cookie cutters to make things. The play day is mostly geared towards the preschool and Kindergarten age; but my 6 year old really enjoyed it.

Hop to a Loss of Patience

This weekend's free event led us to the Grove where the upcoming movie, Hop was being promoted. The girls enjoyed finger painting on big wooden easels, getting an airbrushed design on their arm, coloring, and taking pictures with the Hop rabbit and chick. They also had a Hop mural where anyone could finger paint using a paint by letter method. My oldest had fun painting a small section of the chick.

The girls earned a reward for having good character at our house. Good character means being nice to each other and share. They picked ice cream for the reward. They were excited to see an icecream place at the farmer's market part of the Grove. We stood in line for about a second while I'm scanning the menu board for prices. The smallest cone was $3.75. Almost $8 for 2 icecreams would be breaking the frugal challenge. Sharing 1 cone would just be asking for trouble; so we quickly left the line.

So, on we go on a hunt for cheaper icecream when we decide to ride the trolley first. We were the only ones there when the trolley stopped. I, the one who has patience at the moment decide to wait and let people get off before I got on. But then, a swarm of people just cut right in front of us and filled up the row. We missed the trolley. What just happened here? I told my husband we should have just pushed the people right of the way and not let them cut in front of us. Thankfully, my 6 year old put me in check from my ranting. She gave ME a lecture on how it is not nice to push people and I should be be kind to others.

We left the Grove to what I thought would be a quick stop at Toys R Us. I ordered something online; so I could just be quickly in and out of the store. They looked up my order and saw it was cancelled. CANCELLED!?? Apparently, the store didn't bother looking at the order to fulfill it, so it got cancelled. I spent about 10-15 min. waiting while they made phone calls to resolve the issue. They told me they credited my account and I would just pay for it again. I gave them my gift card that I used and they told me it has a zero balance. It will take 24 hrs. for my balance to return to the card. Now I have to pay for the item, go back to the store after 24hrs so they can cash out my gift card. What a huge waste of time! So much for ordering online. At this point my patience is wearing thin.




Next stop - The Northrige Mall on a shoe hunt. We go down the escalator where we are convinenlty let off where the Happy Animal Rides are. The girls wanted to ride; so that became their reward instead of icecream. They charged $5 for 1 child/1 animal or 2 kids/1 animal for 6 minutes. There was nobody there to take my money. Afer waiting a few min. someone finally comes. She's on her cell. I'm holding $10 in front of her. Then, someone else comes, hands out money and the lady takes it. Am I just invisible today?? I just got so upset, I put the money literally right up to her eyes to make sure she could see I was trying to pay. Still on the phone. She doesn't give me back change. I put my hand right in front of her face to show her she needs to give me $5 change. My girls picked out the animal to ride. My youngest gets on first. Then, the oldest was trying to get on. Before the oldest gets on, the lady turns on the animal. I said no, not yet. Still on the phone. She doesn't hear. I then yelled at her, TURN IT OFF!! My oldest got on and they happily rode their animal. Still on the phone, she just left to talk in the department store. She was nowhere in sight. She must have been gone for 10 min. She comes back, helps a couple more people that had been waiting then leaves again. This was the worst customer service I had experienced in a long time! I just couldn't believe it. The girls animal just kept going. They must had been riding for about 15-20 min. More people showed up waiting and the girl was not there again! I lost my patience with her and I just started turning on animals for whoever wanted to ride again.

Here's the trick to getting free Happy Animal Rides if you ever get an incompentant employee who's not there doing their job. Find the switch under the belly, turn it on. Then, turn on the switch on the head. Have Fun!!

Dr. Seuss Party

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at our 2nd annual Dr. Seuss party at Lakeshore Learning. This year, they decided to skip out on the face painting and birthday cake. They girls had fun making a few crafts such as a Dr. Seuss bow tie, hat and book. They listened to a story, played a bean bag toss game over and over and over again and were entertained from all the floor display toys.

Fire and Ice

Went to see a Mad Science show at the Valencia library. It was entertaining and the girls enjoyed it. He experimented with fire and special paper, Low and high air pressure with balls, and used dry ice with "potions" to create science experiments. My 6 year old was excited because he was using science terms of gas and liquids that she's learning in school.

President's Day

The Ronald Regan Library normally has a couple good free events during the year; so we thought we check it out for President's Day. It was not a good event in terms of free activities for kids. I guess that was not the emphasis though. The main attraction was the museum; which we don't visit. Because what 6 & 3 year old want to visit that?

If you don't get there when the event starts, then you will have to park down the hill and wait for a shuttle to pick you up. Well, we got there about an 1 1/2 later and we had to park at the adjacent park. It took about 25 min. for the shuttle to pick us up. Luckily, we were at a park, so the girls could just run around. They were also entertained when the family in front of us found a caterpillar. Finding a caterpillar is very exciting when you're waiting in line that long.

Finally, we get there and there is a huge line waiting to get into the museum.
I think some people thought it was free; but it wasn't. We found the activities for kids and were disappointed. There were 2 crafts to make a president's hat and a penney necklace. There was also a table to make a Lincoln log cabin. The girls had fun making the 2 crafts and then we sat and ate our sack lunch while listening to George Washington tell his life story, followed by a jazz band. The highlight was making the Lincoln log cabin.

I could have just bought some Lincoln logs at the store and used some construction paper to make the crafts at home. If it wasn't as far, I wouldn't have minded because I like to just get out of the house and do something different. Now, I know for next time, that the museum is the main attraction on President's Day. I'll stick with coming back for their 4th of July event.

Candyland-Japanese American Museum

The Japanese American Museum's Target Free Saturdays have not failed us yet; so we had to check out their candyland event. No, not the candyland board game - just a bunch of free candy to help celebrate Valentine's Day.

We got there and immediately stood in a line to get to the candy buffet table. They had an assortment of candy from different countries around the world. The girls got to pick 3 pieces to put in a box. If they wanted more, they could get back in line. As the line got shorter, we went back a couple times so they could get candy that is not very common to get in US stores. It was fun to try candy from the different countries. A favorite was the Taiwan(I think)Jello type candy.

The girls had fun making candy leis using 8 pieces of candy, a long cello bag and some yarn. They also made a cupcake flower using paper cupcake wrappers and a pipe cleaner. Last, was the sweet message box, where they took a wooden circle to decorate and wrapped it like a piece of candy, put it in a box to decorate to give to their Valentine.

They snuck in something healthy among the candy fest. How dare they! A table to make your own fruit kabob lined the wall. It was full of bananas, apples, strawberries, and pineapple. My youngest, who loves fruit, put everything on her stick and gobbled it right up. My oldest, who is not a fruit eater, just made hers from apples, took a couple bites and gave the rest to me.

Another highlight was the photo chocolate lollipops. We stood in line to have the girls picture taken, then we could watch as they printed their picture with edible ink onto chocolate lollipops. They girls have not eaten their faces yet. They look to cute to eat.

The last treat of the day was a Japanese dessert called Mochi. He demonstrated how they make it and gave out samples. It is made from rice and looks and tastes like a rainbow marshmallow. But unlike marshmallows, I could only handle eating just one. The 1st one tasted good; but not so much after that.
The girls only had one complaint with their fun filled candy day. Which was, I want more candy!

Jam Packed Day

There were a lot of little things that I wanted to do which made for a jam packed day. To start the day, Barnes and Noble had story time for kids. Biscuit the puppy made a visit to the kids. My youngest loves dogs and Biscuit; so she was very excited to see him. They also listened to Biscuit stories and colored a Biscuit page.

After story time, we went to Home Depot to do their monthly Kids Workshop. They were making heart shelves. My oldest loves hearts and she was very excited to build her shelf and paint it when we got home.

We ate a quick lunch and back out again to go to the Animal Presentation at Placerita Canyon Nature Center. This did not appeal to my oldest; but my husband was interested in checking it out. It is an hour long presentation and brought out and talked about some kind of bird, a snake, taranchilla, and a skunk. It was interesting; but both the girls were bored and wanted to leave. We didn't stick around for the last animal.

After the animal show, we went to McDonald's to get the girls a chocolate fudge sundae treat. We are doing 'Kids of Character' at home to be kind. My oldest got enough stamps to pick a treat; and she chose ice cream.

Once the ice cream was scarfed down, it was time to go to Castle Park for a birthday party, where the kids had fun playing skeeball, eating pizza and cake and golfing.
After all the days activity, the girls still had a ton of energy in the evening. I guess all the sugar they ate didn't help any.

California Science Center

I had just found out that the California Science Center has FREE admission with $8 parking. It was a rainy day; but decided to take the drive anyway. I think this place is the best FREE place for the family; especially kids.

There are a lot of interactive things for the kids to do, such as building bridges, making buildings with Tinker Toys, learn how solar energy works when driving a car using a remote, touch an ice wall, building structures to make them earthquake proof and more. They had an earthquake simulator as well. I don't know why anyone would want to wait 15 min. line to feel and earthquake. I guess it's a good experience for kids to know what one will feel like if they never felt one.

They also have a couple play areas for kids. One area is for kids 7 and under and the other is for kids maybe 10 and under. The aquariums filled with fish and sharks as well as the small touch tank was fun to see. You can also pretend you're a barnacle trying to catch food (ping pong balls).

The place closed before we got to finish. We spent about 3 1/2 hrs there and could have probably spent at least another hour. We will definitely be back for another visit.

We Need CHNOPS! Comet at Griffith Observatory

I had not been to the Griffith Observatory in a very long time. The last time I was there was before the remodel and when the laser shows were around. I would really like someone to bring back the laser shows!

I thought my 6-year-old daughter MIGHT have some interest in watching a presentation on how to make a comet using household ingredients while exploring the nature of water as well as where we might find water or other life in our solar system. Here's a little science lesson that I took back from the presentation. We need Chnops! No, I'm not talking about the drink. Although some may need that too. In order for life to exist we need Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphate and Sulphate. The last 5 minutes of the presentation was spent on making a comet from water, sand, charcoal, Windex and dry ice. It was an interesting and fun presentation that my 6 year old actually enjoyed. My 3 year old on the other hand barely got through it as expected.

The girls also enjoyed looking through the telescopes, weighing themselves on each planet, determining who got the better constellation that appears on their birthday month, watching the different phases of the moon and learning about eclipses. The views are great! My oldest kept trying to spot our house which is nowhere to been seen; but she insisted she saw it! She also enjoyed getting a closer look at the Hollywood sign. She seems to have a fascination for Hollywood. I don't get it. Hollywood is overrated and it not pretty to look at IMO.

The observatory has free admission except for a few shows, and free parking. If you go on a weekend, be prepared to walk at least a mile to get up there. We sure got our exercise.

Winter Wonderland or Not

We decided to check out a free event in Castaic which they titled winter wonderland which consisted of games, crafts, snow, food and Santa. When we got there, there was no snow, no games and no food; unless you count the boxes of chocolate bars that were just sitting on the floor assuming you could take some. They did have Santa, which the girls sat on his lap and took a picture. Craft materials were on the tables to make a paper plate wreath, popsicle stick picture frame, and pipe cleaner candy canes. They also had face painting which there was no line for since there was not a lot of people. The girls had a good time making their projects. It was a rainy day; so it was nice to get out of the house and do something indoors.

Snow Day

I'm not a big fan of purchasing snow clothes that the kids will grow out of in a year or driving over an hour to find snow, then hear the kids say it's too cold after 5 min. of snow play. My alternative was to go to the local mall and participate in their man-made snow day.

We only drove about 15 min. and the weather was the warmest day in December - about 80 degrees. The girls had fun sledding down a small snow slope and making snowballs to throw at daddy. There was a sign as well as employees telling everyone not to throw the snow. What's the point of the snow if you can't throw snowballs? The mall also provided free treats to the 1st 500 kids which consisted of cookies, cotton candy, pretzel, popcorn or a churro. We stood in line for cotton candy. There were about 5 people in front of us before the machine stopped working. There was a bit of sulking; but the girls quickly chose something else to indulge themselves. We didn't bother waiting in the long lines for face paint or balloon animals that was provided. We spent about 2 hours playing in the patch of snow and headed off for our quick 15 min. drive home.