The Best Kid Hike in SB

One of my favorite hikes to do with children is Tucker's Grove. To get there, take the 101 north to Turnpike exit and turn towards the mountains. Once in the park, drive all the way to the end and park near the trailhead. Here's Lyr, on our way back, with a little friend she found on the road:

Get Camping

There are so many beautiful places to camp near Santa Barbara, and it's not as hard to pull it off as you might think. I didn't camp for years after having Isla, thinking it would be too difficult without Ryan, who was busy working and building our business. Now that the girls are 4 and 2, I've taken them twice, without the hardworking hubby, and both trips were surprisingly easy.

Our most recent trip was to Big Sur, which was an easy 3 hour car trip away (ok, maybe 3.5 hours since we had to stop 4 times to go potty!) We stayed at Plaskett Creek, on the Southern side of Big Sur.


It was a great spot, with lots of room for the kids to run and climb:



...and a very short walk to the bluffs and beach:





Because we were only staying one night, and setting up/taking down a tent seemed like a lot of work to me, we camped in the Prius!



We didn't bring a stove, (which we will be sure to bring next time!) so I just brought a cooler and a big basket of easy food like fruit, yogurt, nut butter, rice cakes, corn cakes, gluten-free pizza, prepared gluten-free pasta, prepared oatmeal and agave, prepared rice and beans, cold chai for me, coconut water, salami and turkey for my carnivorous children, avocados, lots of veggies like carrots and zucchini, etc. I will admit, we met some of our dear mamatoto friends there, and Emma made us a gourmet dinner that night, but we arguably would have survived without it...

We left home at 6am, arrived by 9:30, played all day, ate Emma's homemade gluten-free s'mores around a campfire, slept in the car, packed up, and headed home around 11. Both girls were happily exhausted and slept the whole way home, so we made it back by 2. An entire vacation in 31 hours. Success!

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

There is something about being under big trees and around water, flowers, lizards and squirrels. Although I prefer "wild" nature to the more groomed variety, I still love the Botanical Gardens.

Blueberries!

If you take the 101 north, just past the tunnel you will see a big sign with the words, "BLUEBERRIES" painted on it. It takes about half an hour to get there from SB, but it is very worth the drive.



We go picking every year, at least once and usually with the other mamatotos.



They open at 10am and it is pretty key to get there as early as possible, because it gets HOT. It's really sweet at the farm. They have little nostalgic metal pails for everyone to use while picking, and have some adorable farm animals on site to visit with.



We finish off each day by reading "Blueberries for Sal" and making a pie, topped with coconut cream.

Here are some of the "Little Sals" trying to sneak blueberries out of Ryan's pail:

Paradise, This Place We Call Home...

Isla was really excited to surf the other day, so we got her all suited up and she paddled out with Daddy.





While they surfed, Lyr and I played in the sand and cheered them on:



After they caught about a dozen waves...







...we spotted dolphins! How exciting. I love being out in the water with dolphins, so I was thrilled my daughter was having that experience:



But wait! Did you see that? Three WHALES decided to cruise on by. Now my child is absolutely living my dream. I have never been that close to a whale, and she gets to have the experience of literally feeling the mist from their spray in her face! This is one of the best moments of my life, to see my sweet four year-old out in the ocean with three beautiful whales:









She will only realize the magnitude of this experience when she's older. Right now, it was fun and maybe a little magical, but only as magical as nearly everything is to her at the moment: a minute or two after swimming with the whales, she ran up to me on the beach, breathless and beaming, proudly proclaiming, "Mommy! You'll never BELIEVE this...I dunked my HEAD underwater!!!" Ah, yes you did, you amazing little person. You dunked your head under the water and that was awesome, too.


**All photographs, besides Lyr as Sand Centipede, were taken by Mike Billgren, and I believe he and his wife Alma also take family portraits in fun settings. You can find them on Facebook, or leave a comment here.**

Tide Pools

NatureToto - How to Start Your Own Group

Our mamatoto group is so incredible! I feel so lucky to have these amazing mamas and little ones in my life. I think I already posted about the Nature-toto group we started, but I have been asked so many questions about it lately that I thought I'd post again. We have a set time each week and meet in a new spot every time. We've gone apricot picking, blueberry picking:



on wilderness adventures to places like Ellwood, the beach, Cold Springs, Rocky Nook, and Lane Farms:







to go apple picking and mini donkey brushing at Seeing Spot Farms:



and, to top it all off, we went on a mamas and kids only NatureToto camping trip at Big Caliente!





I highly suggest creating a nature adventure group with your circle of mamas and little friends. What we've learned works best is 1.keeping it consistent. This means same time, same day, so it's easier to remember. 2.keeping it frequent. This is key. If you try to make sure everyone can go, you will hardly ever end up meeting. If it's every week, then it's not a huge deal if somebody can't make it. 3.create a groupMe texting circle, so you can all keep in touch for any last minute changes or check in about the location.

Happy adventures!

Home, Sweet Home

Yesterday was absolutely unreal! There was snow up in the mountains of SB and we took the girls up there for some sledding and snowman-making. Amazing, this place where we live.



Today was another magical one. Ry had the morning off and spent it in the garden with the girls. Then he made the bamboo frame for our giant backyard teepee! The girls played with their neighbor friend and then we had a tea party//picnic/circle time under the geodesic dome. I played the flute for them, and we sang Spring songs. It was windy so we read a couple of chapters of "Mother West Wind." For art, we painted and made play-doh cupcakes (Isla's idea! - we used real cupcake papers and our homemade play-doh). For cooking, we made chia-seed pudding. Then we harvested greens and veggies from the garden. The curly kale, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower became the better part of our dinner and the swiss chard, dandelion greens, and flat kale we steamed and blended, and poured into ice-cube trays to freeze for later use in smoothies, soups, and rice dishes. Tonight's bedtime snack was fresh strawberries Ry came home with after work, story was "Nobody Rides the Unicorn," and song was "Rest Your Heads, Little Sleepy Heads." Before dinner the girls put on a special puppet show for me, using their wooden rocker as a puppet theater. (That thing is probably our #1 toy - so many uses! We purchased ours from www.bellalunatoys.com)



Tomorrow I hope to start making some alphabet cards for Isla to play with (in a couple of years...) and maybe get another lecture done for homework. Then in the afternoon I get to go to a study group on "The Kingdom of Childhood." Our homework from the last group was to do a form drawing while we tell a story. I better practice that one on the girls! Today I kept flashing on how like a homeschool our average day is over here. I just purchased Melisa's curriculum for early childhood and kindergarten (www.waldorfessentials.com) which has been so affirming. (I highly recommend it, by the way...) When I don't have to get too much work done during the day we have the most incredible time! I'm trying to figure out how to have just one job (ideally the jewelry business) and get 99% of it done when the kids are asleep. Wish me luck!