A Funday Sunday

I get Westways magazine from the Auto Club and they have a calendar with upcoming events. Under the Halloween happenings section I saw an exhibit for "BUG INVASION" at the Discovery Science Center aka "The Cube" in Santa Ana.

So I called the kids, Lacey, Brandon, Dean, Amanda, Keith, Ryder, Kristen and they were all up for a day of adventure. We met at 11:30 (some of us were late, hahaha).

Off of the 5 Freeway in Santa Ana there is this huge cube. I always wondered about it. Here's a little information about the Cube. There are three perfect 3D geometric shapes in nature: the sphere, the pyramid and the cube. Architecturally, the sphere has been built at Disneyworld and the pyramid has been built at the Louvre, the Luxor in Las Vegas and the California State University, Long Beach basketball arena.
The Cube has not been built before. Thus, Discovery Science Center architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Arquitectonica thought that The Cube would be the perfect icon for Orange County’s science center. The Board of Directors concurred and it was incorporated into the center’s plans.
Go to the web for more information. www.discoverycube.org I highly recommend taking your kids there. Or you can just borrow someone else's kids if you don't have any.

A replica of the Spaceship Endeavour sits in the parking lot.

Dean, Bubba and Lacey.

We waited for a while for Keith, Amanda and Ryder to show up. That's OK, the weather was great. I gave Dean the gifts from Mel, Craig and Ruby and he held onto them waiting to give Ryder his gifts. A Kiwi bird and a Rugby ball.

Finally Batman (Ryder) arrived and got his goodies from Dean.

On the schedule of events on the web, they listed a "Halloween Spider Mash Dance and a Costume Parade" at 2:00. The Ryder wore his Batman costume and looked very strong. Unfortunately he was the only kid in the place with a costume on, but that didn't matter because he WAS Batman. As we were leaving at 1:30 kids showed up in costume, but by then we were starved and wanted to go.

The girls, waiting to get started.

The mandatory "gift store" on the right and a dinosaur hanging from the ceiling.

The first activity was the "bed of nails" Bubba went first.

Then Kristen.

Very brave of her.

There was a screen and you danced in front of it.

Bug Invasion - a HUGE Praying Mantis. I think Ryder was shocked.

He wasn't sure about going in there.

That thing was about 25 feet or more. Here's Kristen.

There were all kinds of bugs on display. This is an educational place, hence the "Science" in the name.

Giant carpenter ants. Bubba happens to be an exterminator, so it was pretty funny.

You put on 3-D glasses and walked through a fog curtain to a maze of flourescent 3-D flowers and bugs on walls.

Amanda in the 3-D room.

Rats to pet. NO THANKS! The kids liked them.

This is a smoke ring maker. You push down on a large rubber ring.

And a huge ring of smoke (dry ice) flies up to the ceiling.

Dean and Bubba made the smoke rings too.

Water ran over sand to show erosion.

We went inside the Cube and there was a rocketship capsule

This is a wind tunnel. The wind shot down at 78 mph. Lacey said it was really a strange feeling, dried out her eyes.

Keith and Ryder went in.

Then Dean and Ryder. They loved it. They weren't crying, that is an excited face.

Dean borrowed the batman mask for a while.

Simulated Hockey game, Keith was the goalie. He would watch a screen in front of him and a hockey player would shoot a puck at him and the puck would shoot out of the wall. Keith caught a couple of them and blocked some. I think maybe one slipped by on the ground.

Amanda the Zamboni driver. The Zamboni is the machine that resurfaces the ice rinks. Sort of moves like a forklift.

Here she is on the Zamboni, wearing the Batman mask. Big fun!

Ryder was a hockey player.

Not sure about this face. I think it may be nap time.

So we left the science center and drove down the street to the Block at Orange and had lunch at Dave and Buster's. It's basically a funzone with all kinds of electronic games, but with bars and dining tables all through it. The food was great. The boys attached their Kiwis to their straws.

After eating, they played some games. Here they are on a motorcyle simulator.

Then they went on a Jet Fighter simulator.

I had a wonderful time with the kids, old ones and little ones. We should get together again soon, maybe a bonefire at the beach before the weather cools down. Thank you guys for hanging out with this old broad. Love you all.

Kathy

The Bonneville Team Party 2010

It's Bonneville Team party time. I went to Sprouts for some veges, mainly the cabbage. Shannon told me that I should eat more vegetables, so I loaded up on them.

A boring video for most, but I'm sure that Shannon will like it. You have to remember, the purpose of my blog is to keep in touch with my daughter, who moved to the other side of the world. This way she can see what she's missing here. Miss you sweety, especially at party time.

The Party is ready to start so I thought that I'd take a video of the pre-party house.

Donnie - what a peach! Ribs and chicken from Famous Dave's BBQ. The best!

The Margarator hard at work to quench the thirst of us, well, me especially.

The ladies, Lynne, Sheryl, Sherry and Linda.

Mike and Pat

Famous and Fast race car driver, Kenny Hoover, joined the guys for the feast.

Carl... chatting and bar-tending.

Everyone wore their colorful shirts.

Dennis, looking very hip and cool in his Foster Grants.

Dad, Thanks for providing the vehicle for all of us to get together and be a team. You are the nucleus of Team 777, it's your drive, desire, creativeness, ingenuity, passion and of course dollars that provides us all with a fun time at Bonneville. I wish you weren't hurting so badly.

And me. Kathy. The historian, wife, mother, margarita drinker, party host. I enjoy having friends here at our home. The time flys by so fast. I'm preparing, then I'm saying good-night. Wham!

We had the perfect weather for the party. The guys sat in the back yard and the gals in the house.... as it should be.

AAAhhhhhh, this is the life.....

Pretty ladies.

Thanks everyone for coming. We watched the video of our time at Bonneville at Speedweek, the high times and the low ones. All very entertaining.

That's it! Kathy

Watercolor Class

Tuesday evenings I take a watercolor class in Claremont. I've been taking that class now for about 5 years or so with the same instructor, Aida Hughes. She's great! I've also taken a few other classes with different instructors.

Tonight I painted from a photo I took on Friday in Oceanside. I'll give this one to Mary and Per.


Three weeks ago I painted this fruit stand from a photo I took at Pike's Market in Seattle, while on our cruise vacation.


Last week we painted sunflowers, this is my original painting. The next version of this painting is just tweeked a slight bit in Photoshop, using the levels adjustment.

Photoshop of same painting. Pretty cool.

We always start off the class by painting pears. I added a different background this time to change it up a bit. I call it Three Pears and the Milky Way.

Next week we will be painting a landscape. Hmmmm.

Kathy

Oceanside

Weird weather we've been having in So-Cal these last few days. First it was 106 degrees, then the next day it got cloudy and we had rain and lightning strikes. On Thursday I came home from working at the Fair and the helicopters were dipping into the reservoir for water to put out some spot fires in the hills, caused by the lightening.
This picture is of the sunset Thursday, it is not a fire.

Another shot of the sunset from our backyard.

On Friday, we drove down to Oceanside for the day and stayed at our friend's condo right on the sand. It's located between the pier and the harbor. The weather was perfect. We spent the entire day and evening out on the balcony.

Fairly large waves.

Best view!

Great wave photo, I must say.

I took about 50 photos of waves. I tried to paint "plein Aire" while there, but I cannot paint waves. This way I can practice with the photos.

Little Sandpiper birds are so cute, they dig for sandcrabs when the wave goes back, then run from it when comes up. I can watch them for hours.

A pod of dolphins were playing in the waves. I didn't get the picture, but we saw a dolphin surf the wave.

More waves.

Mary and Per, who own the condo, came to have dinner with us. It was great, they brought the dinner with them. Carl and Per barbequed steaks, Mary made baked potatoes, and I tossed the salad she had made. I did make my own Vodka Tonics, and had a few of them.

Later, I was taking pictures, can you see me behind the glasses through the mirror?

Me and the flying dolphin.

Carl with a dolphin on his head.

Saturday morning, a huge amphibious Navy craft drove from the water onto the sand. It looked like something from Waterworld.

Here is the condo.

We love it down there. Thank you Mary and Per for letting us stay the night.

Kathy

Bargain of the Week!

Shannon asked when I was going to change my blog. She's bored with the Alaska entry, and with my orange background. So I thought, what's new around here. Then I remembered the pile of clothes that I bought for her for the upcoming birthday. I already showed them to her on Skype, just to make sure she wanted them all.
Kohl's was having the season clearance sale, where already marked down items were marked down an additional 80%. You won't believe what I paid for the lot. See answer below....

Four summer dresses, oh ya, and the sales here are timed perfectly because in New Zealand, the seasons are opposite of ours. Summer is coming there.

And a cute skirt!

Two lightweight cover tops.

Love the back of the black one, it has two ruffles.

Casual tops for the beach.

different angle.

Black tops, can't have enough of them.

The one on the left has sequines on the straps.

Grand total for 4-dresses, 8 tops and a skirt ==$106.00

Amazing, I saved $368.00 from the original prices.

I started my watercolor art class again last week, we always start with pears. I must have 10 paintings of pears. So this time I changed it up a bit. Pears and the milky way??

Well Shannon - are you happy now? Love you. MOM