GAGA - Games, Art, Gardens, Artichokes

We were all happy to see Michelle and Karen on Sunday evening after their weekend with Nancy. While Zach and I were preparing the girls' room - making beds, etc., Prince curled up at the foot of Karen's bed and went right to sleep.

Prince is thinking, "I can't wait until Karen gets back..."

Winona's friend Julia P. was here when Karen and Michelle arrived. We barely gave them any time to put their things away before we had them playing games in the living room. The team of Winona, Michelle, and Julia P. beat team Rita, Karen, and Zach in a fun round of Pictionary (the traditional black box). Then we had two hilarious rounds of Apples to Apples. Even though it was late, Michelle, Karen, and I all met to discuss their blogs.

This morning, Karen, Michelle, and Winona went to Studio Claremont to do ceramics. This week the theme is animals, and each student was given the challenge to make a 3-animal stack with the clay. Each day the students will work on different projects using clay.

The artists - apres-class

As it was an uncharacteristically cool and overcast day for the middle of July - Bastille Day, in fact - we took advantage by visiting the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, which features exclusively California native plants and trees. Zach and I have been bringing Nicholas and Winona to these gardens since before they could walk. In fact, Winona took some of her very first steps in the gardens in the spring of 2003.

A Fruit Loops and water break by the oasis palms

The gardens are featuring a special exhibit - the Butterfly Pavilion - which is truly awesome. Hundreds of butterflies flitting around and chilling out inside a large outdoor room (screened).

The girls are learning about the life cycles of the different butterflies and moths

 These were some of my favorites - wish I could have gotten a picture of the California dogface...

The underside of an enormous pinecone

After the gardens, we went to Subway for lunch. Karen and Michelle ordered their own sandwich - tuna. I discovered that Karen loves ketchup :)

We took a short rest in the afternoon before having more English classes. Karen and Michelle are both doing great on their blogs. I can tell how much their writing has improved in such a short amount of time.

We had a very Mediterranean dinner of steamed artichokes and fresh tomato salad (with all the tomatoes and basil straight from our garden!), along with garlic spread from the Claremont farmers market. The girls had never eaten artichokes this way - steamed and dipped in either butter or lemon juice. Karen described them as "delicious." 

Here, Zach is showing Karen and Michelle how to get to the heart of the artichoke - the most tender and delicious part!

Had to get a picture of the brilliant tomatoes (this is the first year I've had success!)

See? Karen looks happy!

We wrapped up our fun day by learning two new games from Michelle and Karen. The first was a variation on Heat Attack - called Plus One, Minus One, and the second was called Vegetables, where each person chooses a name in a certain category - and players have to remember these names (quickly!) during the course of the game. We also played several rounds of Taboo, which was super funny.

Great job today, Karen and Michelle!