OC Great Park

The second week of school, the girls, Papa and I went on a little field trip to the OC great park. It was our first real outing without Jack and boy did it feel weird. I can't even tell you the number of times that I looked for him that day. I still feel guilty because Grace and Maggie have been on the balloon and he hasn't. I know there are tons of things that he got to do before they came a long, but it's not like they could have participated anyway. Either way, I'm starting to get used to him being gone, but I'm not sure it will ever totally feel normal. None the less, we did our best to have a good time.

Obviously the balloon was the part that gets you there, but Grace was super excited about the carousel.

Then we quickly ate lunch and raced back to pick up Jack... What a circus... At least we're trying to do it all. :) And we have Papa to join us!

Candy Factory

Not too long ago, we went on a little field trip to a candy factory. The kids got to wear silly hats:

 And eat candy right out of the mixer!

 Grace listened very carefully...

It was lots of fun ~ though not quite like Charley and the Chocolate Factory...

Billy's Egg Farm

The other day we had a field trip to Billy's Egg Farm. It is located close to home in Chino. The front of the farm has a drive through store where you can buy fresh eggs that were collected the same morning.  Behind the store is a gate. Once you walk through the shoe cleaner and put on your booties (keeping both you and the chickens clean), the kids got to visit the chicks.

 These chicks were just a few weeks shy of moving into the big girl pens so they could start laying their own eggs.

 Farmer Billy let them pet one of the chicks. This is where we learned that brown chickens lay brown eggs and white chickens lay white eggs. Neither one is healthier than the other.  But brown eggs cost more because brown chickens are bigger and they eat more.

 After visiting the chicks we got to check out another pen and the kids filled up the chicken's trough with food.

 Then it was time for them to collect the eggs! Jack found one that was still warm!

The chickens have little pens with a "slide" and a ledge. Most of the time they hop up there to lay. How do you train a chicken to lay their eggs in a pen? Put golf balls where you want the eggs to end up and they'll figure it out ~ pretty smart!

We also got to see some eggs that did not have shells. The chicken may not have had enough calories to make a shell and the egg just has a membrane. They're all squishy and soft but totally the same inside. Farmer Billy says you can eat them, but I'll just take his word on that.

If the eggs are broken, he sells them to local bakeries. They use the eggs so quickly that it doesn't matter that they're cracked.

 Once the eggs are collected, they get washed, sorted and boxed. Here's Jack checking out the "car wash" part of the process.

 The eggs are sorted by size and boxed and sold. Different sizes have different prices.

This was seriously one of the best field trips ever! We had, fun learned a lot and had a lot of new experiences. And the eggs that we bought are delicious!

Joy School Visits Chino Hills PD

 

The Joy School kids got to visit the Chino Hills police department.  They had a great time! The officers were wonderful and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

They got to see the motorcycle and a regular car. Can you find Grace in this picture? She loves her "big" boys...

They got to sit in the front seat and each one got to turn on the siren! This was by far their favorite part. After that they got to have a nice question and answer period. One of the boys asked him if he had been eating donuts all day and Jack told him that his dad has guns. Ugh!

 Then they got a little tour. The got to see the holding cells and talk about the lack of privacy. They got to see the detective offices and the briefing room. Then they got a nice McGruff goody bag.

So for the past two weeks Jack has decided that he wants to be a police officer, but don't worry about Grace, she still wants to be a princess. :)

Butterfly House in Newport Beach

Last month we went on a fun field trip to the Butterfly House in Newport Beach.  It was a lot of fun and educational.  I loved the lady that headed our trip because she presented the information right at the preschooler's level.  She had a lot of hands on activities, pictures, touching and hand movements.  The kids really enjoyed themselves.

After the field trip, we visited Daddy's work.  The kids had a great time surprising him and loved seeing where he spends his days.  They were so excited to see pictures of themselves and drawing that they've made him at his desk.  It was really cute!