September 2010
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Summer Cup-date

oooooo...artsy-shot from our Cambria hike

We’re about half-way through the summer and about halfway through our Summer Cup activities, so it’s time for a cup-date on what we’ve been doing. Here’s the Calandro Clan summer so far:

  • Drive-Ins (saw Toy Story 3 for the second time ~love all three movies)
  • Cookie Day (each Calandro chose a recipe and we baked all day, then gave the cookies to our neighbors)
  • Downtown Day (a lovely day with Grandma Frog and Grandpa Ringo ~yes, we really call them that)
  • Blues Game (M1 got a foul ball and all three Ms participated in the dizzy bat race)
  • Avila Barn U-Pick Peaches (another activity with G. Frog and G. Ringo ~we made a cobbler at home with the peaches)
  • Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream (best ice cream on the Central Coast)
  • LEGO Day
  • Library (we go often)
  • Pool (swim lessons)
  • Bob Jones Trail (fit all four bikes in the van ~thanks Toyota! ~the LOML doesn’t have a bike ~that’s another story for another time)
  • Get doughnuts (don’t you judge me)
  • Mustang Water Slides (not one Calandro got a sunburn ~quite an accomplishment)
  • Avila Beach (awesome day with the Nielsons ~Panasonic LiHD family #12)
  • Cambria Hike (Harmony Headlands State Park ~we’ll do this hike again)

Some things still in the Summer Cup:

  • Many hikes
  • Park Day (A dozen parks in a day ~thirty minutes at each park)
  • Ice cream sandwiches for the firefighters ( bonus: awesome tour of the stations)
  • Hit a bucket of balls at the driving range
  • Lemonade stand (all the money goes to a charity TBD ~M2 wants it to go to a Children’s Hospital)
  • Kite Day
  • Sidewalk Chalk Day (one of my favorites)
  • Pismo Beach
  • Train Day

Our neighbor, one of the Grand Marshalls of the Bike Parade

Along with all this, we travelled to the Bay Area (and beyond, once) to hang out with our generous, awesome family, held a neighborhood 4th of July Bike Parade and Potluck Picnic, and had a mini-vacation to Monterey. Yep, we’re insane having loads of fun.

How are you spending your lazy days of summer? We hope your days are filled with wonderful Summer Cup-worthy activities!

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July 24th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: What I'm Talking About | Leave a comment

Toyota L-O-V-E

You know I love my Toyota van. Here are some reasons why:

L ~ is for Loooong road trips. We make a lot of them and our Sienna always gets us there.

O ~ is for On the go. The Calandro Clan is up and out all the time. We need a reliable car for our adventures.

V ~ is for Versatility. Our van lets me pile in bikes, surfboards, kids, and carpool with ease.

E ~ is for Every day. I’m in it every day and show it no mercy. It can withstand a beating.

If you love your Toyota you can visit their facebook fan page and share your Toyota story. And you know I love a good story. Hope to see you there.

“I’m participating in a Toyota/TwitterMoms campaign, which inspired this post. My opinions, thoughts and feelings are my own. As a TwitterMom, I’m eligible for a courtesy gift of $50.00.”

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July 16th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: What I'm Talking About | Leave a comment

Anyone Speak Toyota?

My boys and I always joke together: “If this van could talk it would never stop!” I feel relieved my 2001 Toyota Sienna can’t speak because it would probably report me for car abuse. Oil changes happen when I think of it (about every 30,000 miles), it gets washed when the color changes from white to grunge, and it usually gets cleaned out with a rake. I love cars, but I just don’t ever make the time to take care of my minivan. Other items of importance always push it low on my list of priorities.

Even though I don’t take good care of it, our Toyota has diligently worked for us even since I bought it, used, with 14,000 miles on it. If it could talk, our van would tell you about the summer we put 3,000 miles on it in one month when our friend came to visit from Australia, the carpool days when the noise inside is so loud it drowns out the screaming in my head, and the  classic rock that’s blared after I’ve dropped all the kids off at school. (A girl’s got to have her vices!)

I gave my Toyota some serious love the other day because I realized it wasn’t going to clean itself and it was looking pretty disgusting. An empty bottle of Folex and some serious elbow grease later, it was looking pretty good. Some scratches and stains wouldn’t budge, but after ten years and 132,000 miles I wouldn’t expect it to look like new. And until my van can talk, these signs of wear are just going to have to tell the story of all the adventures our Toyota has been on with my family. I can live with that. Maybe if my Sienna could talk, it wouldn’t speak of abuse, but about being well-loved.

“I’m participating in a Toyota/TwitterMoms campaign, which inspired this post. My opinions, thoughts and feelings are my own. As a TwitterMom, I’m eligible for a courtesy gift of $50.00.”

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July 13th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: What I'm Talking About | Leave a comment

LEGO Day ~After

The mini-figure bin got dumped. I could play with these guys for hours.

The rules for LEGO Day are simple:

  1. Pick a theme everyone can agree on.
  2. All Clanadro Clan members build with LEGOs all day.
  3. See what we have created at the end of the day.

LEGO Day is the brainchild of the youngest M for a Summer Cup activity. The other day we pulled it out of the cup and everyone cheered~let the building begin!

First, we determined the theme: it’s been foggy and cold here on the Central Coast of California which is not great beach weather. In honor of the time of year and in the hopes that the weather pattern will improve, M1 suggested the theme of “Beach”. We all agreed and quickly started naming elements we wanted in the design: sand, ocean, boardwalk, resort, tidepools, lifeguard tower, lighthouse, and people relaxing on the beach. Everyone had an idea to start the day.

Make way for LEGO Day!

We moved our couches to the side of the family room, took all the LEGO bins out of the playroom for easy access, and got to work. M1 started piecing the sand together, M2 fished through the bins for blue pieces to create the ocean, and M3 constructed the lifeguard tower. The LOML worked diligently on the pier and I made my beach resort dreams come to life.

In the middle of the afternoon, M2 and the LOML made a trip to see our pediatrician. Our middle M has been running a fever and coughing. After a quick listen to M2’s lungs and a run to the drug store for antibiotics, the Clan was back to our full building capacity. I’m happy to report, M2 is now fully recovered, and fever-free. He wasn’t diagnosed with walking pnuemonia as his brother, M1, was a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t whooping cough either. Just a weird bacterial bug that’s going around.

Finding a needle in a LEGO stack.

I felt so proud observing my boys working together all day, with only a few disagreements on how something should be made and who got what pieces. They negotiated with each other without too much screaming. Bonus! They encouraged one another and offered compliments on the items they created. I loved watching them work together to reach a common goal.

All day long, M1 (who has a super-scary, complete inventory list of every LEGO in our home catalogued in his brain) kept saying, “Where is that surfboard? I know we have one! I can’t find it. Where is it?” Of course, at the end of the day, as he stepped back and admired our work, he walked around the corner of the room to the stairs and there, on the floor, was the surfboard. “Here it is! Now where are we going to put it?” We looked at our scene and we all agreed: it was so packed with features it didn’t need one more thing. The surfboards we had made using other peices looked great just the way they were. It was official; we were done.

The finished product.

Our beach scene was complete with a pier, boardwalk, lighthouse, tidepools, sunbathers, a waterskier and ski boat, kayak rentals, surfers, breaking waves, a resort, lifeguard tower, parking lot with cars, metal detector-weilding beachgoer, ice cream shop, cabana, ocean, sand, and rowboat. Not bad for about five hours of work!

We never had a LEGO day before, but we will certainly have one again. Maybe next time some of you will join us and share your creations. Until then, happy building and may you always be able to see a LEGO piece on the floor before you step on it.

Onward!

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July 11th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: What I'm Talking About | Leave a comment
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