Our new goal is to visit all of Orange County’s Regional Parks. On Saturday we went to Mason Regional Park in Irvine, by UCI. It is not too big, but there are nice paths circling a lake, and a couple of play areas. We brought the scooter and balance bike for k and n to ride. k is still getting used to the bike, but both and she and n have become quite proficient on the scooter. n was going downhill pretty fast on some parts.

Turtle Rock–haha, some Irvine humor

Saturday morning we went to another Native Foods cooking demo. k was able to sit through the whole thing, but n needed to get his wiggles out.

On Monday of our Christmas break, we went to Adventure City, a small theme park geared towards little kids. Tickets are usually $14 per person (kids and adults), which is less than parking at Disneyland. Of course, it is a LOT smaller than Disneyland, but it is also a lot less crowded. We had a coupon from the Entertainment Book, so we decided to try it out. We were also able to get 3 free churros and hot chocolates by joining their e-club.

In all, we spent just over 3 hours at the park. For most of the rides there was no line. I think the longest line was about ten minutes. n was able to ride on most of the rides with us. There are two roller coasters. k went on the tamer one with me, but she didn’t want to go again, nor did she want to go on the scarier one. D and I rode it by ourselves, though, haha. The ride attendants were pretty friendly, too.

n’s favorite ride was the merry-go-ride. There was no line, so we went about five times throughout the day. k insisted on riding on the same horse everytime, though (black, with purple saddle).

k’s favorite ride was the School Bus. As you can see, D enjoyed it too. It made me a little nauseous.

This one made me even more sick! k cried the first time we went on this ride because she didn’t get to ride in the pink one. That was remedied the second time around.

Giggle Wheel

Giggling

Free Churros

Both k and n really liked this Rescue Ride, where they drove and the parents sat in back. I think this was my favorite of the day.

Afterward we went to one our old favorites from when we lived in the area, The Mad Greek. (Thanks Entertainment Book!) Still delicious as ever, and the portions actually seemed to be bigger to me, though I am not sure if I just do not remember. There were a couple of shady characters that came in, but they took their food to go, so it was all good.

I have an advent calendar that I made last year. The idea is to put different verses and activities for every day leading up to Christmas. However, I haven’t been able to get my act together and plan out the whole month. Maybe next year, right? Well, two weekends ago the activity I planned was to go see the Christmas lights in the Nellie Gail neighborhood of Laguna Hills.

We packed the kids up and bundled them in blankets. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived the kids were sleeping. (n just woke up for the picture).

I have probably seen more elaborately decorated homes (like the ones we saw last year in RSM), but this was the first house to have its own radio signal!

Notice the sign: Tune into 100.1! The music is coordinated to the lights! We just listened from our car.

We drove around the posh neighborhood to look at some of the other homes too. Next year I want to do a drive-thru nativity…hopefully the kids will stay awake!

This afternoon we used our free admission ticket to go to the OC Zoo. We went with really low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. There were Christmas decorations throughout the zoo, which k got really excited about. I think this is the first time that she really showed an interest in seeing all of the animals. n liked pointing to all of the birds and saying his word for bird.

The highlight for us. There are two bears and they are huge!

We went on our annual fall trip to Tanaka Farms with my mom’s group on Friday. Luckily, it wasn’t raining, although it was on the warm side. There were a ton of kids there. It seems to have become quite the popular field trip.

First stop: Petting Zoo.

I knew k wouldn’t be too excited about petting the animals, but I wasn’t sure about n. Turns out he wasn’t too thrilled, either. I was kind of freaked out myself when a goat came up to me and chewed my name tag right off my shirt. I guess we’re just not animal people.

Then we took the wagon ride tour around the farm. There was no narration, so I like the strawberry farm tour better in that respect. Then they dropped us off by the corn maze. We skipped it, even though they made it a lot shorter, height-wise this year. Parents could actually see over the top, unlike two years ago, when I was wondering if k and I would ever make it out. Instead, we went straight to the u-pick veggies: 4 radishes, 4 carrots, 4 green onions and 4 green beans per child. k had fun with this part, and n kept on wanting to climb over the rope that we were supposed to stay behind.

u-pick carrots that had already been picked. I think it is good for kids (and adults, for that matter) to learn how vegetables are actually grown in the ground. We become so accustomed to just seeing produced bagged up in plastic in the grocery store.

The last part of the outing was the main attraction, the pumpkin patch, of course.

This is the one we ended up bringing home. The rule is that the kid is supposed to be able to carry the pumpkin she picks herself. They’re not too strict with enforcement, but I was surprised when someone actually asked if she could carry it as we were leaving the exit.

n, on the the other hand, seemed to enjoy picking up the pumpkins and dropping them on the ground. Luckily, no damage was done to the pumpkins.

Our Little Pumpkin

We’ve been to Tanaka Farms too many times to count now. However, D still has never gone with us. I’m thinking we should try the watermelon tour next year. When k saw some of the leftover watermelons from the past summer, she commented, “green pumpkins”!

I am NOT enjoying this heat wave we are having…fall weather please return. On Sunday we had two outdoor events to attend: 1. Church service/Picnic at Mile Square Park and 2. OC Japan Fair.

Having church at the park was a nice change of pace. We brought our blankets and chairs and made sure to sit under some trees. Unfortunately, the sun shifted so that we were not completely shaded. Some might say it is distracting to have church outdoors, but if the distraction is God’s creation, I don’t really see a problem with it, especially since it is only once every couple of years.

Cookie pop! (She didn’t eat the whole thing…n and I had some bites, too!)

We didn’t stay for all of the games after lunch because it was just too darn hot and we were all really tired. We pretty much just crashed when we got home (actually, both kids crashed in the car on the way home). However, we had free tickets to the OC Japan Fair at the Great Park, so we went there around 4 p.m. for an early dinner. We ended up seeing people from church, some of whom went straight from the picnic! Craziness. We just found a couple of chairs in the shade, D sat with the kids, and I braved the heat to buy the food. I ended up with yaki soba ($5), spam musubi (2 for $3), beef teriyaki sticks (2 for $4) and a red bean pancake ($1.50). I thought the spam musubi was really good, maybe the best I’ve had. I liked how they put the big crisp sheet of nori on to order, so it didn’t get soggy. k liked it too. D liked the beef the best. The yaki soba was just “eh”. Surprisingly, n liked the red bean pancake! I think he thought the inside was chocolate, so he had a puzzled look at first, but he kept on eating it.

We also received three free boxes of tofu, so I guess I’ll have to come up with some recipes. This event would have been much more enjoyable if it weren’t so blazing hot. It improved from the year before…bigger venue and more booths. It is also interesting to see those non-Japanese japanophiles, like the girl dressed up as Sailor Moon.

Usually our weekends are pretty relaxing around here. Last weekend, however, left D and I pretty tired. On Saturday we went out to lunch, then went to look at houses at Woodbury East. They were having a free barbecue (hamburgers & hotdogs), so we took some food over to my sister’s place. They have their hands full, so I think the food was appreciated.

This is who is keeping them busy: our new nephew.

Our next stop was the Great Park’s anniversary celebration. There were a lot of freebies, but it was kind of hot.

Random animals for a petting zoo, don’t you think? There was also a tortoise that was stepping on all of the rabbits.

Next we went to a swim party/BBQ at our new small group leader’s house. They have a huge backyard, which I didn’t even think existed in Orange County.

k loved the playground equipment. She said, “They have a park!” and she was right. Apparently it took 4 days to build and had over 150 types of parts.

Sunday we went to church, a country fair in the afternoon and a piano concert at night. D was so tired he said he couldn’t wait to go back to work. Haha.

On Saturday we went to the Greek Festival sponsored by Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine. Parking was easy because they had a free shuttle running from Woodbridge Community Center.

Admission for adults was $3 and kids were free. There was some music, along with some members of the audience doing a group dance. However, our main reason for attending was the food, of course. Our family shared a gyro ($7), 1 spanakopita ($3) and “Greek-style” fish & chips ($6). The gyro was good, “better than Daphne’s” according to D. The spanakopita was OK, kind of pricey for one piece, I thought. But the fish & chips was what won k over to Greek food. She’s still talking about the “Greek fish” two days later. She said I should make it at home. n liked it too, surprisingly enough. We were able to find a table with shade since we arrived early.

Not sure what is “Greek-style” about these fish & chips, but they were yum.

We were still a little hungry, but none of the desserts appealed to us, especially since everything seemed to have nuts. (The kids are allergic). We even asked the ladies inside the room with all of the desserts/pastries if there was anything without nuts, and they could only come up with the chocolate chip cookies and a shortbread dipped in chocolate. So, we passed. (They had the Greek doughnuts, which we had at the International Fair in Orange, but that didn’t seem too appealing after we already had our fish & chips).

They were giving tours of the church during the festival. I might have done that if the kids were a little older. There was this mosaic of St. Paul on the outside of the church that was pretty impressive.

There was a handful of vendors and a few carnival rides, but not much else. We probably won’t go again for a while, but it was a nice family outing. I’m looking forward to many more this summer!