Soaring on a Sunday

From SDFS at La Jolla Shores 4/12/11

We were truly "Soaring over San Diego" this week when we went to La Jolla Shores this past week and enjoyed time with friends and flying kites! Have you been to the San Diego beaches off-season? What's wonderful is that it is so much less crowded, easier parking, more beach to enjoy and the weather is actually quite nice, even during this time of the year. Hope you get a chance to enjoy before the busy summer months are here.

I missed posting Soaring on a Sunday this weekend, due to I was busy working a children's art booth at the Oceanside's Day of Art. It was a fun time helping kids make fish out of recycled wet suits. You too can enjoy some fun arts and crafts with Nature of Art Kids , check out their website.

So, here's some fun stuff coming up this week and next weekend. Hope you get a chance to enjoy an Earth Day Celebration (April 22nd) somewhere in your area. Lots of Easter/Spring activities coming up as well.

The Mingei Museum in Balboa Park will be hosting a San Diego Etsy Artisans of San Diego Meet-up this Thursday night, 4/21, more info here. If you're a local Etsy shop owner, we'd love to support you! Please post your Etsy shop in the comments.

Saturday, April 23rd, 7am, Earth Day 10K Carlsbad 10,000

Check out The Green Century/Re-cycle Artist:Ingram Ober, ongoing at the New Children's Museum in San Diego. Also going on at the children's museum is Night at the Museum on April 21st, you can make your very own night vision goggles in their Owl Eyes Workshop and on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd from 11-1230 is Toddler Time-An Artists Garden for kids 3 and under.

Don't miss the Butterfly Jungle through May 8th at San Diego Safari Park in Escondido. I know I'll be checking it out before it's over! Another great place to see butterflies is the Monarch Program butterfly habitat in Encinitas. We've been there with homeschool groups, and it's a great place to get up close to the monarchs and learn all about them.

Friday, April 22nd, 1pm-230pm, Tour Plant Walk of Presidio Park, Junipero Serra Museum, San Diego.

Easter/Spring Activities:

Saturday, April 23rd, 10-1130 and 1130-1pm, Spring Party with Bunny at San Diego Botanic Garden.

Saturday April 23, 10am, Easter Egg Hunt Festival, Ecke Sports Park, Encinitas, FREE

Saturday April 23rd 10am, Hip-Hop Bunny Drop Egg Hunt, Otay Ranch Town Center, Chula Vista, FREE

Saturday April 23rd 11am, Benito Bunny's Great Easter Egg Hunt, Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater, Balboa Park

Have a fun week and keep soaring (&landing safely) in beautiful San Diego!

Your Soaring Mamas,

Mandy & Dawn

Soaring on a Sunday

Untitled, taken by Mandy Sicard at Collier Park in Ramona, CA

Here's some fun stuff going on in San Diego this week. Feel free to add events in your area of San Diego in the comments!

April 10-17 4/15-4/17 Gem Faire , San Diego, Scottish Rite Event Center

12-17th Tues – Sat 10-4, Sun noon-4, $5, under 1 free, Imagination Playground at SD Children’s Discovery Museum, Escondido

Saturday, April 9th & Sunday April 10th, 9am-5pm, Encinitas Street Fair 2011, South Coast Hwy 101 between D & J Streets

Sunday, April 10 10-3pm, Pablo Sainz Villegas, guitar, La Jolla Music Society

April 9-May 8, Butterfly Jungle at SD Zoo Safari Park, Escondido

Sunday, April 10, Wacky Science Sundays, SD Natural History Museum, Balboa Park

Wednesday, April 13 @ 10am, Benito Bunny's Great Easter Egg Hunt, Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre, Balboa Park

Wednesday, April 13 4pm-530pm, Kids Cook around the World, Greece, Alchemy of the Hearth

Wednesday, April 13 @ 4pm, Children's Craft Project, Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa Library, FREE

Fridays, 4pm, Wii Get Crafty, Rancho Penasquitos Library, FREE

Have a fun week and keep soaring (&landing safely) in beautiful San Diego!

Your Soaring Mamas,

Mandy & Dawn

Soaring on a Sunday

"purple beauty from above" taken by Mandy Sicard at Big Rock Park in Santee, CA

Lots of great stuff going on this week. Be sure to check back weekly to find out what's happening in sunny San Diego!

April 1-30th, 9am – 2pm, Sailor’s Days, Maritime Museum of San Diego,Each day, adults and children can experience first-hand activities such as making rope for for sailing, moving cargo, raising and lowering huge sails, tying sailor’s knots, and climbing through a steam engine. Every child is invited to participate in a scavenger hunt around the museum's ships and learn about history while having a ball. When the scavenger hunt is successfullly, completed, the child wins a prize of his/her choice from our treasure chest.

Wednesday, April 6th ,4 & 7pm, Free first Wednesdays: The Perfect Gentlemen, Center for the Arts, Escondido

Saturday, April 9th 8am San Marcos Fitness Roundup 5K run/walk and festival

Friday thru Sunday, April 8-10th, San Diego Civic Youth Ballet Presents “Coppelia”, Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park

Sat & Sun, April 9 & 10th, Ramona Open Studios art tour, Ramona

Sat, April 9th 1-2pm, Oasis Camel Dairy, public tour, Ramona

Wednesday, April 6th, 10am, Straw Into Gold, Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre, Story of Rapunzel, Balboa Park

Saturday, April 9th, 10am-12, Kids at Lux, art program at the Lux, meet artist in residence, Encinitas

Saturday, April 9th, 10-4, Shake & Shout Family Festival, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego

Saturday, April 9th 9am 4pm, Spring Garden Festival , Cuyamaca College

Saturday, April 9th, Sweet Pea Day, 9-3, Summers Past Farms, Find your way through our towering fragrant sweet pea maze. Today we will celebrate the fragrant old fashion sweet pea flower in it’s full glory. You will cut your own sweet pea bouquets during this event while they last. The irresistible nostalgic beauty of these dainty, winged blossoms makes them a favorite. Bring the kids, walk through the maze and enjoy this perfect spring day. You can picnic on the grass area and enjoy live music in our coffee bar area.

Saturday, April 9th, 2pm-4pm Artful Gardening, Get your green thumb dirty when we learn about artful gardening and then create our own art.

Earth Exposed, Ruben H Fleet Science Center, New exhibit

Ongoing, Coronado Island Walking tours

Have a fun week and keep soaring (& landing safely) in beautiful San Diego!

Your Soaring Mamas,

Mandy & Dawn

Soaring on a Sunday

Desert Flowers taken at Anza Borrego by Mandy Sicard

Our new weekly post that lets you know about fun activities and events going on in San Diego and surrounding areas for Sunday and the upcoming week. Check back each Sunday to find out what not to miss!

This week, Sunday 3/27/2011-Saturday 4/2/2011:

• Saturday 4/2 9am-12pm, Family Nature Fun at San Dieguito Lagoon, San Dieguito Lagoon, Del Mar. Family Fun activities at San Dieguito Lagoon.

• Sunday 3/27 10am-6pm, 15th Annual Rolando St Festival, Rolando Village, San Diego. Community Street Fair with rides, food, music, kids corner & crafts.

• Mar 5-Sept 5, Art Aquatic Sea Life & Glassworks, Seasonal Exhibit at Chula Vista Nature Center. Also, at the Nature Center; Sunday, 3/27 11am-12pm, Gone Birding & from 1pm-2pm Composting Workshop.

• Saturday, April 2 (& 9, 16, 23, 30) 1pm-3pm, Soaring Science at Fleet's Discovery Lab, Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. Sunday,

• Sunday, March 27 9am-1pm, Family Swap Meet at Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley, San Diego.

• Saturday, 4/2 & 4/3, 4/9 & 4/10 10am-6pm, Escondido Renaissance Faire at Felicita Park, Escondido.

• Thursday, 3/31 Star Wars Miniland at Legoland, Carlsbad is opening!

• Sunday, 3/27 8am-12pm, Paws in the Park, Kit Carson Park, Escondido. Walk & blessing of the animals, entertainment, raffles, doggie kissing booth & more!

• Last day Sunday 3/27 noon-5pm, Julian Daffodil Show, Julian Town Hall, Julian.

• 3/27 10am-2pm, Vallecito Days, Life on the 1860s Frontier, last day, Vallecito Stage Station County Park

and here's one that I don't want to miss that opened recently.....

• 3/13/11-1/15/12 Maneki Neko, Japan's Beckoning Cats at the Mingei Intn'l Museum, Balboa Park.

Have a fun week and keep soaring (& landing safely) in beautiful San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Desert Flowers at Palm Canyon, Anza Borrego

Two lovely, unschooling lady friends of mine and I planned a photo-taking trip out to Anza Borrego to see the wildflowers in bloom. Up to the last day I really wasn't sure if we'd see very many, as last year I made it too late and didn't see many at all (but did see a lot of caterpillars and visited the awesome nature center!). But, oh, were we lucky! Beautiful wildflowers everywhere! The ocotillos were in bloom as well as many low laying desert wildflowers throughout the Anza Borrego campground area. We had headed out early and decided to do the 3 mile round trip hike up to Palm Canyon. I now know for sure why it's called Palm Canyon. So amazing and a bit unusual to see these magnificent palms at the end of our journey, at the end of trail.



The jutting rocks with bursts of yellow wildflowers shooting out like fireworks was so magnificent to see while hiking up the Palm Canyon.



I think the ocotillos will always be my favorite though.....



More photos from the day can be found here. If you'd like to make a trip out to Anza I recommend checking out the wildflowers report here.

Happy Soaring!

Mandy

About Soaring over San Diego

(Carried over from the former "Oh, the places" blog. Entries prior to 3/21/2011, were copied and posted here for reference purposes)

Inspired by California Adventure's "Soaring over California", "Soaring over San Diego" hopes to take you on a soaring adventure via our blog to some of the wonderful, some of the lesser-known, some of a little bit of everything that San Diego and neighboring counties in S. California have to offer. (That and the old blog name was taken!). If you've been to California Adventure's ride you know that California has many wonderful places to visit. We hope to take you to many of them (enter scent of oranges here).

Uniquely different from other travel/fun attractions blogs, this blog features an unschooling family's perspective and review of fun and exciting places we've been to and want to share about with others. This blog will review museums, attractions, rides, parks, guided & self-guided field trips, businesses and much more. As unschoolers, we believe learning comes from exploring the world around us by physically being out there in it, enjoying it, living it! We enjoy going to many places and meeting many new people of all ages in our explorations. Our personal family blog can still be found at 2nd to the right and will continue to share our family's experiences. This blog, however, is meant to be an informative place to learn more about the many amazing places that there are to visit in S. California. I will have occasional guest bloggers and will interview local business owners. If you know of a great, kid/family-friendly place that we would enjoy, feel free to make suggestions!

If you would like our family to post a review of your place of business, be it a small family owned business, museum, local attraction, tours, or anything interesting, fun, and exciting, please contact Mandy via the comments and we will gladly arrange a visit and come see you! Thank you for visiting and come again!

So.....grab a cuppa tea (or coffee), your reading glasses if needed (like me) and enjoy your virtual visits to the world we love to Soar & Explore!

About your soaring mama, Mandy Sicard....

Hi! My name is Mandy Sicard and I'm mom to two amazing unschooled girls, Violet & Olivia. I love to blog, take photos, enjoy nature, animals, enjoying all of these with my inquisitive, friendly daughters.

We love to explore and learn through experienceing life to it's fullest. I'm happy to share about some of our adventures with you here at Soaring over San Diego.

Feel free to contact me via comments. I love comments and feedback. No spam, or negativity about our choice in unschooling would be appreciated. If you'd like to learn more about unschooling, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll answer any questions or direct you to some great resources to learn more about it. I'll be posting some links to unschooling sites in the near future.

I love to feature guest bloggers who share our passion to explore and welcome your posts about recent travels in San Diego county and the S. Californian area that you have experienced. Contact me via email and mandaroo63@yahoo.com.

Thank you for visiting.