Library Sign-Ups

Tomorrow is May 1st and that means you can reserve tickets for Free Day at the Huntington Library in San Marino.   The Huntington Library hosts a free day once a month but you must have tickets in order to go.  A limited quantity are available the first day of each month preceding the month you wish to visit so the upcoming free day you are reserving tickets for is April 5.  Tickets will be available starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow and most of the tickets are gone within minutes.

Tomorrow is also the first day to register for programs & story times at Cerritos Library.

PDA USA

Last week my toddler and I went on a field trip to PDA USA.  PDA USA stands for the Pacific Diving Academy located in Santa Fe Springs.  If you are familiar with this area, it’s located in an industrial area on Shoemaker and Excelsior.  When we were given the opportunity to go on this field trip last year, I was hesitant to take my little one because I thought she would be too young.  She was only 1.5 then but surprisingly, she LOVED it!  The PDA is a gym that offers classes and training for tumbling, gymnastics, and diving.  Often times, when you enroll in tumbling classes through the City of Cerritos, it is through PDA.  There are trampolines, balance beams, a big foam “pool”, and an assortment of tumbling apparatus.  They have classes for children as young as one.  If you are unsure whether this activity is right for your child, they have open play on M/W/F from 10 a.m.-11a.m.  Once a month they also have “Parent’s Night Out”, where your child can play there from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.  The price is $15 per child and includes pizza and a drink.  Lastly, they also have summer camps if you’re looking for activities to keep your kids busy this summer.

PDA-USA Santa Fe Springs
15064 Shoemaker Ave
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670

 

Trampoline

Foam pool

Is it puffy outside today? Love this!

Mister G Kids

This one has a special meaning for me.

This happened on the second or third day ever of subbing, about five years ago.  When I first planned to start subbing, it was just to be a survival job, and I was ambivalent about children.  But when I heard this little boy say this, I knew little kids were special.  Pretty much at that point I knew I had a cool job and that kids are amazing and the cutest!

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Cerritos Spring Festival

The City of Cerritos will hold its annual Spring Festival this weekend.  The event starts on Friday, April 27 and runs thru Sunday, April 29.  There will be rides for all ages, game booths, food, and community service booths as well.  The main stage will also host performances by our local talents and little dancers from our community dance studios.  Our favorite part of the festival is the fireworks show to be held at 8:30 on Saturday.  We usually park on a quiet residential street where we can view the fireworks away from the crowds and freak out the residents. There is no admission for the festival itself but you will need to purchase tickets for the rides and food.  They sell $25 wristbands for unlimited rides or you can buy individual tickets for the rides.  They vary from 1 ticket for a funhouse to 4 tickets for a thrill ride.   A new feature I’m looking forward to this year is the addition of food trucks!  On Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., some yummy food trucks will be on site offering their yummy deliciousness…one of them being the preeminent Kogi Truck, who rarely makes an appearance in our neck of the woods.  See you there! (unless of course, you see us parked in front of your house around 8:30, then just ignore us, we’re harmless)

Cerritos Regional Park

19800 Bloomfield Ave.

Cerritos, CA 90703

Life at Warp Speed

App Store – Wee Sing & Learn ABC.

From the well known Wee Sing music based learning products, Wee Sing & Learn ABC app is available for free download for a limited time. Normally, this app is $2.99. This app is produced by iStoryTime.

This app does a good job of creating an interactive beginning ABC learning app. You have the ABC song, a play along with the song, interactive ABC animal and musical instruments flashcards, and an explore the letter names. The app is pretty interactive and engaging. However, it is not worth a paid app price of $2.99. There are apps that are far cheaper or free that accomplish the same things although not necessarily all in the same app.

Recommended for ages 18 mos to 4 years. Grab this while it is free!

L@WS

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SJSCC

SJS what? Yes, that stands for the Southeast Japanese School and Community Center.  This community center has been around since 1925.  They are a non-profit organization with a variety of activities that are open to anyone regardless of race or religion.  Even though they’ve been around for almost a decade, we just learned of this organization last year when my son participated in their Rascals program.  Rascals is a basketball program that teaches young kids the fundamentals of basketball. Kids are divided into groups by gender and age.  They have just started accepting applications for the Summer session, which begins on June 3rd.  If you are interested, applications are due by May 15th.  You can download the application from their website. Space is limited and this program is very popular so turn in your applications soon!  Don’t be lame like me–I missed the deadline last fall so my son didn’t get to play. oops.

SJSCC also offers a variety of other programs.  I have not personally experienced any of them with the exception of Rascals but my friends have and say they are a blast.

Atlantis Play Center

Over Spring Break we planned an expedition to Garden Grove to discover the lost playground of Atlantis.  Apparently, it’s not lost because there were plenty of people there.  Atlantis Play Center is a very large park in the city of Garden Grove.  They charge all guests over 3 a whole whopping $1 for admission.  As soon as you walk in, you hear the soothing sounds of flowing fountains.  Go just a little farther, and you will be greeted by the sounds of children playing.  There are many different play areas and play structures with the highlight being the serpent slide.  All the kids run to that as soon as they see it.  The park is quite large and spread out.  Fortunately we were with two other moms who helped keep track of each others kids.  Also on the premises are many picnic areas and a snack bar.  It’s an easy excursion with the little ones.  Here are the details:

Atlantis Play Center
13630 Atlantis Way
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 892-6015

COST:$1 (3 yrs and up)

FREE (2 yrs and under)
HOURS OF OPERATION

Tuesdays – Fridays:  10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Saturdays:  10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Sundays:  12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Backyard at Twilight: A Stella and Sam Adventure e-book app – Free for a limited time!

We love this series!

Life at Warp Speed

Backyard at Twilight: A Stella and Sam Adventure for iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Stella and Sam Adventures are a series of best-selling picture books and television written and created by Marie-Louise Gay. This series airs on Disney Junior in Canada which is why you may not be familiar with the books or the series. This is the 3rd offering in a series of innovative e-books (In the Snow and Rainy Days). This app comes to you from Tickle Tap, an award-winning developer, and is being offered for free download for a limited time. Normally, this app is $2.99. The app is designed to support both English and French languages.

This is a cute and engaging storybook app which is more a blend of a book and game app. This is a high quality storybook app with beautiful animated watercolor illustrations and is professionally voiced. I like how the…

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Wheeeekend

We’re getting our first shot of summer here in LA this weekend.  It’ll be nice and warm so here are some things you can do to get out and about.  I’ve tried to post the highlights of each event, but for additional information please follow the links.

National Park Week April 21-29: Free Admission to all National Parks.

Children’s Day at Heritage Park in Santa Fe Springs April 21: Experience the days of yesteryear at Heritage Park! Enjoy a fun- filled day of games, butter churning, arts and crafts — even pan for gold.  You can get creative with fun arts and crafts, feed the barn animals, or just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.  All activities are FREE!  Food will be available for purchase and plenty of parking will be available.  Here is the link to my original post for this beautiful park.

Heritage Park

12100 Mora Drive
Santa Fe Springs, California 90670

 

Earth Day at the Bay April 22: Celebrate Earth Day with OC Parks and the Newport Bay Conservancy. This event includes environmental exhibits, a scavenger hunt for all ages, puppet shows, stewardship activities, science discovery booths, arts and crafts, opportunity drawing and free electronic waste recycling courtesy of All Green Electronics Recycling. The Newport Beach Film Festival will showcase environmental film selections throughout the day in the Interpretive Center auditorium. Jason Freddy will supply live music, and food will be available to purchase from the Tamarindo Food Truck.

Event Fee: Free
Parking Fee: Free
Age: All Ages Welcome

Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve
2301 University Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Or just be lazy and head out to the beach!  It’s going to be a beautiful weekend!  Enjoy!!

Gone Bananas

Updated on 1/10/2013:  The consistency was always too thick using this recipe and they were always getting burned.  I’ve created a hybrid of this recipe and another one from Martha Stewart.  Cliff note of changes: omitted nutmeg, cut quantity of flour to 1 cup and baking powder to 1/2 Tablespoon.  Voila!  They’re perfect!

Ha!  I know what you’re thinking…she’s finally lost it…yes, I’ve gone bananas. As much as that may be true, I just wanted to share this great recipe I found to use up those overripe bananas.  If you’re like me, you always have a couple of bananas turning a nice shade of black on your counter.  Well, what to do besides banana bread?  How about Banana Fritters?  Mine are not pretty enough to show you but they sure are delicious.  Here’s the recipe from That’s So Yummy:

Jamaican Banana Fritters

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (I omitted this because I didn’t have any & they were still way yummy!)

1/2 cup of sugar

1 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 Tablespoon baking powder

Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Directions

Peel and mash the ripe bananas.

Beat egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Next, blend egg mixture with mashed bananas.  Make sure it is all incorporated.

Add flour and baking powder to the banana/egg mixture.  Mix it all together.

Add oil to a frying pan and place on medium heat.  Drop spoonfuls of the banana fritter batter into the hot oiled frying pan. Flip when you see the edges starting to get brown and golden.

Lastly, combine cinnamon and sugar together to create your cinnamon sugar.  This is used to sprinkle on top of the fritters once they are finished cooking and still hot.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

Enjoy!