What REALLY Happened on Mother's Day... :)

How did my Mother's Day weekend ACTUALLY go? Great, but nothing like it was planned, which is no surprise when you have a 3 year old. We did, in fact, end up going to Central California, as planned and had a great time! In the past few months I've had the amazing opportunity to watch 4 baby birds grow up and fly out the nest (literally). Take a look...

This is what the baby birds looked like in April.... Then we came back for Mother's Day and by the end of the weekend they had all left the nest!

We did NOT get to go to the Wild Things Ranch on Saturday, but instead decided to get plenty of rest...

We also had a chance to show the ranch to Zak, who of course, is fasinated by growing plants and vegetables. Although, I must say, Charles was right (*immediately bites her tongue*), it was a little difficult for Zak to ride his bike on the dirt roads!

In the afternoon we visit this very sweet and peaceful small-town library, which, coincidentally, was having a book sale! We, of course, did NOT walk out empty handed! Our purchases included a title by one of our FAVORITE children's authors: Mo Willems.

Our collection already has Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!and this time we grabbed There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)! I especially love Elephant and Piggie books because, in a sweet, loving way, they remind me of myself and Charles. This began when we first heard Mr. Willems, himself, read I Am Going! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) at our local Borders. For those of you who know the story I am Elephant and Charles is Piggie!

This was us just warming up to THE DAY (Mother's Day). On May 9th, itself, we started with a FABULOUS Banana Split Pancake Breakfast (I hope it will become a Mother's Day tradition because it was yummy!).

Then we headed out for a lovely BBQ by the river... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Finally, we ended my great day with Pizza and "How to Train Your Drago" in 3D (Zak insisted we see this instead of "Oceans" even though he has already seen it... how could I say no?)

HAPPY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Kindergarten... O My!

My baby is growing up... in fact, he's been a baby, a toddler and is now a preschooler... yet, I still refer to him as my baby. I refuse to let go and don't think it's such a bad thing. How long will he stay "a baby"... probably for a long long time...


This difficulty in letting go doesn't make searching to the RIGHT Kindergarten easy. In fact, it makes it much much harder.

Let me start with some unfortunate statistics:




Please note: 2nd grade was the lowest grade data was available for, which is why I chose to use it in relation to what my child can expect for his Kindergarten classroom.

Pros:

• Data EXISTS for the public schools
• The numbers are improving every year
• Half of our kids are at least "proficient" in Math and English
  

Cons:

• The numbers are improving SLOWLY
• What does "proficient" mean? And is it good enough?
• Half of our kids aren't even meating proficient levels, thus, we are not doing enough for about 50% of the children in our pubic schools!!! That's outragous and once you begin to consider educational budget cuts... it's scary.

District average:

• 20.3 student per class
• 3228 Teachers with Full Credentials
• 73 Teachers Without Full Credentials

TOP API RANKERS -- 2009 (from highest to lowest)

1. Alice Fong Yu Elementary


2. Claredon Alternative Elementary


3. Robert Luis Stevenson Elementary


4. Allamo and Clair Lilenthal Elementaries


5. Lawton Alternative Elementary


6. Ulloa Elemntary


7. West Portal Elementary

NOTE: All of these schools scored 900 or higher (the State goal is 800)

This is just the beginning... and tours don't start until October (call in September), with the exception of Claredon and Alamo, both of which allow you to visit and tour yourself from 9 - 4 P.M. (neither of these schools offer guided tours anymore and children are let out of school at 2:40 P.M. in case you are interested in observing classes in progress).

I will continue to post my findings, but for right now, I've developed a terrible headache... and a little bit of a heartache as well.

My Mother's Day Begins TODAY!

Yes, it's true, I have given my self permission to start celebrating today (with the help of my amazing family of course). Mother's Day has officially become my favorite holiday (more so than New Years, my birthday, etc). It's the day I get to celebrate the one thing that keeps me going every day no matter what... I love being a mom. Usually being a Mom is hard work, but on Mother's Day, or rather throughout my Mother's Day Weekend, I have some special plans to RELAX and be pampered! To start, we are leaving the house. I think this is an ESSENTIAL part of relaxation. And I don't mean we're leaving it to go out, no no, we are leaving for the weekend to Central California where there's nothing but ranches and fresh air. So here's the plan (not neccessarily in this order)...

1. I want to visit the Vision Quest Ranch. It's a privately own ranch that houses wild animals. Kind of like a small, personal zoo! It's out near the Ranch where we're staying this weekend and seems a little more natural than a zoo, although I will report back AFTER my visit to confirm my presumptions!
   
   
2. This Sunday I would like to to go see "Oceans" with Zak and Charles. I really feel like these kinds of movies are a lot better for kids then the somewhat absent minded-purely for entertainment-crap Disney and Pixar have been putting out recently.Thumbs up for DisneyNature for coming up with some more educational and slightly more original than the recent aliens, monsters, and flying meatballs. Let's see how my 3 year old responds. We took him to an IMAX movie recently with a similar topic and he asked for us to rent a documentary on African animals from the library -- both of which he responded positively too -- so I've got high hopes for "Oceans".
   
   
   
3. Finally, no Mother's Day would be complete without the ULTIMATE breakfast. My choice? Banana Split Pancakes, compliments of my live-in chef and extraordinary partner in life! If the picture of these doesn't make your mouth water, wait until you read the recipe and topping list! I can't wait!

For now, this is just a WishList -- of course it has been explained in great DETAIL to Charles -- but I am sure that most, if not all, my mommy dreams will come true this magical, memorable, Mother's Day Weekend!

A few Mom's I would like to personally honor this weekend (since I will be far far away from my computer):

• Баба Лена (also known to me as "Mom")
• Баба Алла (my Grandma, Dad's Mom)
• Вита Прус (my Aunt in Ukraine) Мы скучаем по тебе!
• Raquel Gonzalez (Feliz Día de la Madre!)
• Betsy Brandon
• Laura-Lee Cahill
• Polina Melamed (Congrats on your 1st Mother's Day)
• Anna Muchnik
• Dawn-Elisa Fischer
• Johanna Westeson
• Jessica Kissinger
• all our mommy friends who I am afraid to name as they may want their privacy

The great Moms I keep in my memory...

Баба Люба и Бабушка Поля

...мы будем вспомнив о вас всегда.

Activities to Print and Do at HOME!

Lately, I have been printing these fun, but educational activities the PBS Kids. Zak loves them because they don't take too long (so they hold his attention) and they have all of his favorite characters, which automatically attracts him to anything... the mind of a 3 year old :)

Today's good ones? Here ya go...

First, who wouldn't love to put together a CLIFFORD HOUSE?

Then, help you kiddo learn to count and the order of the alphabet with a connect-the-dot Calliou picture (Hint: it's Rosie on a TRAIN!)

Now if that took way too little time, color in the pictures and let your kiddo write his or her own story with the Caillou Story Book.

*TIP*: If you click on the images I have provided, it should open a new window with the original, larger image size! :)

What to do in San Francisco?

I tend to send out long emails filled with links and kid-friendly events to my parent friends. I have even created a "Mommy Friends" group in my Gmail "Contacts" tab so as to easly email all of my suggestions to our closest mommy (and daddy) friends. After my last lengthy email, a friend suggested I start posting all this information on a blog, perhaps so that others too, can enjoy my family event scavenger hunt finds. Great idea!

1. This week I was reading Parents Magazine and came across a great activity that teaches your little one about the world and has the added bonus of allowing them to receive something in their mailbox (I know I always wish I got something besides bills and junk mail in the mail)! So I visited Little Passports and ordered the monthly subscription for my boy (who is 3, by the way). They have various types of subscriptions to choose from, but I personally decided that paying month to month would work best for me, just the program didn't turn out to be everything we hoped and dreamed of! :) It's $12 a month (about $13 for the first month because of the shipping cost and the starter goodies you receive) and then you get a little suitcase (for play), a passport, world map, etc. Then, every month after that you receive a package form 1 of 12 different countries for your child to learn about and feel like they visited! For those of you on a budget, such as myself, this is a great way to teach your child about the world, even if you can't afford to visit 12 countries in 1 year! I'll let you know how this actually works out for us when we receive it...



2. Last Saturday (May 1, 2010) my dad kindly bought us tickets to go see Peter Pan the Show at a 360 theather. It was amazing, although there are a few scary parts. Zak sat through the whole thing in awe, with his mouth open. It was really cute. I highly recommend it for 3+ unless your child gets scared easily. Then I would wait.
   


3. Now, if you can't afford to dish out $30/person/session on a parenting class with the fabulous, but slightly pricey Parents Place, they offer free sessions Parenting Workshops at the San Mateo County Libraries. Some of future sessions we plan to attend include: Ready, Set, Go: Preparing for Kindergarden at the San Carlos library on May 12, 2010 at 7PM and at the Millbrae library on May 26, 2010 at 7PM.
   
   
   
   
4. We just signed our little one up for soccer classes at Soccer Kids in the bayarea (they have 3 locations, I believe). The summer session starts in June and classes are already filling up so I highly recommend that you take a look now. This is a great way for you kid to get out doors and do some physical activity with other kids his or her age. They offer after school and weekend classes as well, which is a bonus for us because I work FULL-TIME.



5. During the week we like to make frequent trips to the library, but unfortunately, the City of San Francisco, where we live, does not offer many after-work family programs. So, with a little investigating, I discovered that the Daly City Public Libraries all offer evening storytimes and even some in Spanish! We are now regulars on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and love the sing-alongs, stories and crafts we get to do with Zak. It's also nice because we are able to rent movies about animals for Zak to watch instead of the same old Disney Cartoons or PBS shows over and over again. On a side note, the San Mateo County Libraries also offer prequent evening story times, but they are a little bit of a drive for us and we only make the trip if they are having a special program such as Daffy Dave this past Tuesday at the Millbrae library (Zak couldn't stop cracking up!!!)



6. Our favorite Friday evening activity has become SWIMMING. We are now regulars at the Sava Pool in San Francisco. They have a recreational swim from 6:30 - 8:00 PM on Fridays and its really nice for us to get out with the little one to do some swimming... he loves it. It's pretty cheap too: $5/adult and $1/child.
   

Alright, that's all my poor fingers are able to type, but I will keep everyone posted on any other events we hear about and/or attend!

May 3, 2010: Lunch and Dinosaurs

Yesterday, I (Anna) made Zak's lunch in the morning. You see, I get up earlier than my boys do and, after a VERY busy weekend, I decided to give Charles a little extra time to rest. I decided to use the new sandwhich stencil I bought at the 5 & 9 store the day before. It cuts his little sandwhichs into 2 dinosaurs, provided that you use the utensil correctly. Unfortunately, I am not a skilled PB&J dinosaur sandwhich maker and one of the dinosaurs ended up with a crack down the middle and the other... decapitated. When I picked Zak up from school, our conversation went like this...

Anna: So did you like your dinosaur sandwhiches?

Zak: Yup.

Anna: Did they look like dinosaurs?

Zak: Nope.

Anna: I know baby, I didn't do a very good job, I will try harder next time.

Zak: How about Charles just does it...

He is too cute... but I agree, Charles does a much better job at lunches!