Lemon Picking

My real estate agent has not found us a home yet, but she always has ideas for some activities! She asked me if the kids would like going to lemon picking in Rancho Sante Fe.  For those of you who don't know RSF, its home to the filthy rich! Homes there are in the millions minimum.  We drive through this area every week to go to the masjid and we always see these beautiful estates with lemon and orange groves.

Anyways, I told the agent sure why not. Something different for the kids to do and it sounded like fun! We drive up the house. The owners are away in the "desert" not really the desert but Palms Springs, they call it the desert. Apparently the owner had a second home in the "desert"! She reluctantly told me that the owner of this home was the CEO of a major retail chain store, Ross Stores.

We walked around the property and picked lemons and oranges. They had 5 different kinds of orange trees including blood oranges. My kids were fascinated! They had so much fun, we came home with 4 bags of citrus fruit and we didnt even put a dent in the grove!

Beautiful house with a gorgeous pool area. It was a very nice afternoon and the weather was perfect! =)
Pictures to come....

Tide Pooling

Imagine being at the aquarium and being at the tide pool exhibit...but instead of the aquarium you are actually standing in the Pacific Ocean around the tide pools. There are so many places to explore to your heart's content. So what is tide pooling. When the tide goes below a certain level it creates these small pools of water along the ocean floor where there is a depression in the ground, like holes. In these holes there is a whole different world! It is AMAZING!

HA they think they can push this rock off the cliff....

We started off the day taking the kids to Islamic school on a rainy and chilly day.  I did not think we would make it down to Cabrillo National Park to explore the lowest tide this year due to the weather.  The lowest tide was from 2:33 pm to 4:30 pm. Around 1:30 the sun started breaking through the clouds and we decided (even though we were not prepared to go tide pooling~actually I was the one not prepared I wore the wrong SHOES) to go anyways and if the weather had gotten bad then we would come back. The weather was actually pretty ok, a little overcast and sun here and there but very windy!

Excited! This is the walk down to the pools.....

The drive down to the tip of the coast was really nice. If it was a clear day you would be able to see so much.  I have decided to invest in some binoculars! I feel like i am missing so much because I cant see that far!  =D haha.
So we pull in to Cabrillo National Park and drive straight to the tide pools.  It was a great day to go tide pooling according to the Park Ranger. The tide was extremely low. The low tide is only for 2 hours. As soon as we stepped on the the rocks to climb down it was like Umair's dream come true...to be an explorer..and what a great place to explore.

Found our first pool....

whats that?

hmmm....this feels squishy! Its a sea anemia!

We climbed down the rocks to bottom of the ocean floor and the first pool we saw the kids had thier fingers in the pool with absolutely no fear. One of the park rangers walking around found us and started telling the kids what they were looking at and where to find the sea stars the octopus and varies other creatures that live on the bottom of ocean!

Its a hermit crab, that stole a turban snail's shell

Sea Star, so pretty!!

Amazing animals that live there and all have a purpose. SA! We spent a good 2 hours searching for sea stars and octopus and searching caves. This was the most fun I have had since I moved here...sorry kids I dont like Legoland that much! =)

close up, pretty purple and pink!

 

Cave explorers

we just didnt see the octopus! they are tricky to see.

To end the day the kids got to be Junior Park Rangers! :)

My junior park rangers!

Off to the fire station....

School field trip for Haseeb again, poor Umair thinks that Haseeb has all the fun. =/ This is never going to end is it? Anyways, we went to the local fire station with the class.  The fire station was a pretty slow station. They said that they only have 2 calls a day and they were acting like it was a bad thing. I guess fire fighters like to be in action at all times. The fire chief was telling the kids about what to do when you are in danger you are supposed to call 911 and then he asks what do you do if you call 911 and hang up....Haseeb's teacher, Ms. Connie, says oh they should know this we went over this and some kid blurts out, " We go to jail!" ahahahahaha! Was not Haseeb! hehehe.

firefighter showing the kids how they would rescue them!

look at the view! Love it! 

They proceed to give us a tour of the fire house, it was very new. First stop state of the art kitchen with granite and stainless steel, WOW.  Then to their media room, they had theater seats and 2 tvs. After that we followed the firfighter to the balcony...let me tell you guys, they had a million dollar view of the Pacific Ocean. Amazing. I could sit on thier balcony for hours. They also have thier gym equipment on the balcony (it was a big balcony) We followed them down the stairs to thier "sleeping quarters".  Haseeb's question to them was, there are only 3 of you guy so why are there 5 bathrooms. =) haha

Next was the best part, down the pole, not the kids the fire fighter and off to see the shiny red truck, Ooooooo.
Ahhhhhhhs, WOW! They pulled out the chain saw from one of their compartments and one kid asks him to turn it on! I swear this is a crazy bunch here!

 

Haseeb is loving every minute of this trip!

WOOOOOooooo Sirens!

Fire fighters to the rescue!

They make it to the back of the truck and then next thing we hear is the fire alarm go off. The fire fighters asked us all to move to the side, they had to leave to answer a call for a commercial fire. And off they went leaving us just standing around.....

San Diego Zoo Twice

We went to the San Diego Zoo two weeks in a row and we still didn't see everything.  That place is HUGE! and its not a straight shot walking through! You have to literally go up a 45 degree inclines and declines. Its a HIKE!

First time we went it was non productive, We did not realize how far everything was and we had to see it by Express Bus quickly.It was too much walking for the kids grandmama!  It was fine because it ended up being an overview trip....

We came back the following weekend.  We targeted whatever the kids wanted to see.  They said Polar Bears, Panda, and the Tiger.  So we were on a mission! =) 




We started off at the petting zoo with the kids.  Didnt realize how scared Haseeb is of aminals! It was funny to see him pet the goats from far away! =)
Then we jumped on the Skylift, thank God for that.  Takes you from one end to the other and it dropped right off at the Polar Bears! Perfect!

 Umair trying to tackle the poor bear! hahaha!

My two little seals popping up thru the thick ice! 

and here we have the polar bears! Amazing animals! I could sit and watch them for hours...if they are active. While they are sleeping not so much fun! This polar bear was eating a carrot and he had a really big bone to chew on ......

This polar bear was napping, so many ppl staring at it while it was napping...I'd be freaked out if so many ppl were watching me nap, no wonder the poor thing woke up! 










 They have a GREAT bird exhibit! Bueatiful eagles and condors, amazing birds. Birds you never would think to see actually! 

Now we could not leave the zoo wiht out seeing the panda bear. Panda Bears are adorable.  They are like celebrities at the zoo, the line to get a glimpse of these guys is LONG! But so worth it!  

My little purple monkey wanted me to take a picture of the panda and him hanging upside down! I should have just left Haseeb at the zoo, he fit in soooooooo well! 

Last but not least, the zoo smelled very unpleasant! hahahah=) but was so much fun! 

pee-eww!

December Nights

Each year around this time Balboa Park has this HUGE CRAZY 2 night festival.  There is something for EVERYONE there..Even though it is holiday season...you have all your tree lighting and carolers and Santas...but in addtion to that, Balboa Park opens all its museums for free in the evenings and to top things of there was a carnival with a whole midway of amusement rides in the middle of it  If anyone ever wants to visit us around this time next year, iA make sure we take your to December nights at Balboa.  So much fun to a part of the insanity! Loved it and so did the kids.

We walked through 3 museums before we had to call it quits.  Or at least our feet were tired. We went to the Air and Space (of course), then we headed over to the Automobile Museum and then lastly we went to the Art Museum.

Going to the Air and Space with my boys is always a blast.  They aspire to be something different as we move through the museum. We first saw all the planes from the navy and they wanted to be Navy Men.  Then when we saw the rockets and space shuttle stuff, they changed in to astronauts! =) They can be whatever they want....

Haseeb is ready to go!! 

my goofballs

Oh wow family shot, very rare! =)

watching a super cute 4-D movie..Haseeb wouldn't lean back! haha

cool mural

OOPS...Pushed the EJECT button! 

The Automobile Museum was so so cool, they had  amazing antiques or "olden time cars" as my kids call them! The most interesting car was Louise Mattar's fabulous car.  This guy made this car so you dont ever have to stop...not even to use the bathroom or even fill the tank.  It was designed so if the car happened to get a flat tire you could change it while the car was MOVING! Crazy, right? This guy went from San Diego to New York and back with out stopping, thats over 6,000 miles.  

This car even had an over, iron, fridge. amazing!

Olden Time Cell Phone!

Shower WHILE driving...there's a thought!

Fabulous Car

Haseeb's dream for age 7!

Look how many rear view mirrors...this was the MTV Vespa!

The Art museum was our last museum stop...we kind of got pushed to that corner because of the flow o the crowd of people...by this time it was 7pm and there were SO MANY people in the park! We literally were there for I think 15 mins. There were many reasons to just u-turn it somewhere...haha and we did  at the right time because lets just say the next exhibit was not rated G! =S

There was a great exibhit in the center of the madness.  So many countries set up cottages about thier cutlures and had food tents.  You could get authentic Polish food, turkish, indian, English, etc..the list was endless.

It was a fun night. Funny thing, when I asked other people about this event, they would tell me they went once and it was soooooo COLD and they wouldn't go back. Between you and me....IT WAS NOT THAT COLD! haha. Dont worry next summer we will be shivering in 55 degree weather.

I just realized I didnt take any pictures of the lights! Oh well, there is always next year.

Haseeb the Pizza Maker

Haseeb went on a field trip for school to a restaurant called Pat 'n Oscars.   They specialize in breadsticks and pizza. There were 12- 4 year olds making 2 pies, one cheese and one peperoni. They kneaded the dough, spread the sauce, and sprinkling cheese. After 3 minutes of making pizza, Haseeb declares, when he grows up he wants to be a PIZZA MAKER. His teacher says to me, did you hear what Haseeb wants to be when  he grows up...I told her I chose to IGNORE IT! hehehehe!  All the kids had alot of fun making their own lunch and touring the kitchen and the best part the ginormous freezer!

kneading the dough

Adding the sauce

sprinkling the cheese

Tadaaa- cheese pizza

Brrrrrr, its cold in here.

Say Cheese

SeaLife

While everyone was baking, frying, roasting a turkey....we went to......drum roll please... Legoland, SeaLife! Look we are desi we have to get our money's worth out of our season passes. People take thier kids to the playground on a lazy afternoon, we head over to Legoland! =D haha.

So..SeaLife is a part of Legoland.  It is an interactive aquarium and great for younger kids. I thought it was just another aquarium, but it was so much fun with the kids and Dadoo(grandma) had equally enjoyed it, maybe even more =),  There was a slide sliding over the aquarium. You could see the octopus up close and personal. Have conversation with the sea stars.  There were lego creations through out the aquarium, like divers and xmas trees in the water and the fish swimming around. The kids and dadoo had fun petting the sea stars (they are not called starfish) the crabs, and sea anemone! 

Some of the exhibits looked like snow globes with fish in them, too bad I couldn't pick them up and shake them! We ended up spending most of our time in the Shark Tank.  IT was really neat. They made a tunnel out of glass and you felt like you were walking with the fish.  Feeding time rolled around while we were watching the fish swim over us.  It was amazing to watch sting rays eat lunch and sharks eat lunch. Watching the big fish snatch food from the little fish.  The little fish should be happy the bigger fish are eating their food, otherwise they will be lunch!

I personally love seeing tropical fish. They are so bright and so much fun to look at!

mother and son!

fish tank on the right and left and haseeb sliding through the middle.

Proof of legos

lego xmas tree in the tank

Umair and Haseeb in the snow globe!

Sea Star, NOT starfish!

Octopus!!

Head of octopus

petting a rock crab

she loved every minute of this...

trying to pet a stingray

hammerhead shark

All of us in the glass tunnel

snow globe with clown fish, found nemo!=)

=D

Just lyin around

another snow globe Haseeb

exploring