Title: Lincoln's Back-to-School Dragon Kicks Subtitle: Oh Crocs, you may be a fashion faux pas to some but I will always love your shoes for my childen!

When I saw these I HAD to buy a pair of Dragon Crocs for Lincoln's back-to-school shoes!  So excited was he when they came in the mail that he slept with them on his feet the first night he got them...unused, of course!  He claims his favorite parts are the nose and horns but it also has glow in the dark eyes and teeth that Jack loves to drag Lincoln into the closet to see.

Say what you want about Crocs but from a mother of three kids these shoes are like manna from the heavens.  These shoes can withstand daily use on toddler feet, day after day of sandbox abuse, the raging waters of a garden hose, toxic mud that would stain other shoes with one foul step and yet still serve one to two years of faithful foot service!  My heart pitter-patters with the cuteness of Vans and Converse, and the kids have multiple pairs of each, but they just cannot stand the rough and tough world of toddler life and a couple months of hard play until they're toast!  

While I'm on Crocs, I have to also add that from spring to summer there has been only one pair of shoes that Maggie did not either wear out or grow out of and those are her little red  Alice Crocs.  Here she is sporting them as she explores the floor of the great Yosemite Valley this summer.  So much do I love these that I am in negotations with Mr. Rogers over just how many more I may purchase in hopes of getting each size increment until Maggie goes to Kindergarten....hmm, now that I write it out, I realize just how ridiculous that sounds but they're on sale for fifteen George Washingtons right now....ahhh, so hard to pass up!

Back-to-School with Einstein and B. Franklin ...

Back-to-school is in full swing around here!  Jack is starting Kindergarten, Lincoln is starting pre-school, and I'm starting my ninth year teaching this week!  WOW!  Hey, what says back-to-school better than historical figure t-shirts....NOTHING!  I'm not sure how I ran across the shop Katy and Zucchini, it's very possible I was doing an Etsy search on Benjamin Franklin as I've been known to do, but I'm so glad I did.

Since visiting the East Coast when Jack was three he has been very interested in the Revolutionary War and the Founding Fathers, so when I found this tee I knew I had to get it for kindergarten.  Of course, I can't get a cool Benjamin Franklin shirt for Jack and not get something for Lincoln.  Really, I wish I could say that I taught Lincoln all about Albert Einstein but his passion for Einstein more comes from the Einstein bobbleheads in Night at the Smithsonian, one of the boy's favorite movies.  I'm just happy he's happy to get an Einstein shirt as opposed to Spongebob Squarepants!

Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein Toddler TShirt

These shirts are made by a science teacher, of course, a woman obviously in love with the subject matter she teaches.  She is super fun and I'm secretly hoping she is in her silk screening lab making a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood t-shirt ...while make loud evil cackles, of course!

Sea Horse Roller Skate Romper

Hmmm, I don't know if I have shared my secret athletic talent with my readers...it's roller skating!  I'm a real bad ass on those four wheels, well eight total!  Five years ago when we moved to this area I found a roller derby club but it was about 30 minutes from where we lived.  Sadly I felt committing to something like that was just too selfish since practice was multiple times a week, and we were on super tight budget - I stayed home that year and gas prices were at $2 a gallon (outragous at the time!).  Jack was a newborn then but still after three kids I'm afraid I can only fill my roller derby desires by watching "Whip It"... and now by making these sweet Roller Skate Rompers for Maggie.

Roller-Skate Romper Pattern by Katie Varela on Etsy

My heart first palpatated for this fabric back in April/May not sure what I was going to make with it but I HAD to have it for Maggie.  So excited was I at the cutting counter, while eagerly awaiting my turn, that it didn't dawn on me that the warming sensation that I was beginning to feel on my arm while holding Lincoln was going to stop me dead in my tracks.  Ah yes, the wonderful sensation of child fecal matter bursting into their shorts...and on to my arm!  To the van I dashed with the kids, where of course the diaper bag was out of wipes and no underwear was to be found.  Since the boys had just been at swim lessons, there were some spare pieces of clothes lying around the van that I had to use to remedy the situation.  Unfortunately for Lincoln there were only wet swim trunks so I wrapped a shirt in Mowgli Jungle Book fashion and drove back 30 minutes to our house!  Some time in June/July I finally made it back to that particular fabric store to reclaim my sweet sea horse fabric for Maggie!  It contrasted perfectly with this mustard knit with precious white and black flowers!  I love it and I'm going to teach Maggie how to roller skate in it after she gets up from her nap...just kidding!

A note on the pattern - Knits are a little challenging to work with and making your own bias tape can be a daunting task but not hard.  The pattern walks you through this process.  The first romper I made was the 12--18 mo. but was as tight as a leotard on Maggie so I ended up making a 2T on her.  I also added additional bias tape around the leg hem.  Pattern was simple to follow and romper was easy to make, highly recommend even for a beginner seamstress.

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Mission San Miguel de Arcangel

If only I had a picture of Mission San Miguel from my fourth grade mission project to share with you right now!  All I can remember is that I made it out of styrofoam because it was white like the mission.  Living in Orange County at the time, it seemed sooooo far away to get up to the mission for an actual visit but it has always been a place that I wanted to go to.  FINALLY, hmmm let's see...how old are you even in fourth grade...perhaps it's safe to say that after twenty years from building that mission I was able to visit it! 

The sixteenth mission is just off the HWY 101, 5 minutes north of Paso Robles, and is clearly visible as you drive by from both the north and the south.  The first thing I noticed was the extensive adobe wall built around the property.  It is obvious that this mission has suffered much at the hands of multiple earthquakes from when it was built in 1797 to the most recent in 2003.  They are currently in the process of raising funds to restore the mission but I almost loved it more in its rough form.  Most missions allow visitors to wander the outside grounds with little limitations.  It was disappointing that at San Miguel the huge courtyard is inacessible to visitors that made our total visit about 30 minutes.  However, San Miguel did have part of the mission open that allowed visitors to walk through into some of the dark adobe rooms which was really neat.  Unlike other missions where you look into the room, here you could walk right through it and smell the tanning room or the tallow from making candles, very cool!  One hallway in particular still had tools laying on the floor along with some wooden wheels.  It was odd because it didn't seemed staged but more like they just hadn't cleaned it up since the last time the missionaries had used it...two hundred years ago!  The church is an active parish and anyone can attend mass.  The front courtyard made me smile with its beautiful fountain filled with fish and lilies...Jack was slightly obsessed with this fountain. 

Visiting all twenty-one California Missions is not for the light hearted and requires a high summoning of one's inner nerdiness but we seem to have embarked on this adventure as a family and we love it!  Although, you probably had to summon your inner nerdiness just to read through five blog postings about missions, lol!  Never underestimate the power of historical sites ... especially outdoor ones.   A couple of years ago we sat with Jack, then 3 years old, and Lincoln, 1 years old, waiting for our tour of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.  They chased birds and ran on bricks and although Lincoln doesn't remember anything, Jack does and so the Declaration of Independence has become a part of family conversations as well Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams.  Never would I have thought about teaching that to my three year old but he was intrigued by where we were and it really started a great interest for Jack.  Understanding history helps one to understand the world and as a new school year looms on the horizon it brings me deep excitement to be a part of enriching more lives as we expose the many layers of our local history, our country's history and the history of the world so that we can be more responsible humans and contribute to making it better. 

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Pacific Coast Highway

Mission San Jose - Mission Santa Ines - Mission La Purisima

Mission San Luis Obispo

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Mission San Luis Obispo

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was built in 1772.  While the West Coast was still only populated by indigenous Americans, things were really progressing towards the American Revolution on the East Coast.  With the Boston Massacre occurring only two years before Sam Adams began organizing the Committee of Correspondence.  This committee became a major organizer of opposition against the British Crown.  Meanwhile on the West Coast, Father Junipero Serra had established the fifth mission along the California coastline to convert the indigenous people to Christianity, really the only European presence in California.

Downtown San Luis Obispo is charming.  A small college town with a lively downtown area that you can walk, shop, eat and visit a mission in!  Also, in the downtown is a great craft store with lots of wonderful fabrics called Beverly's.  The mission is just off the main downtown drag and sits adjacent to a beautiful grassy knoll and a hidden river that could be easily missed.  It is quite tranquil down at the river, and large boulders serve as a little bridge to jump across the river, hmmm, now that I think about it maybe I should say it is more like a stream depending on what time of year you go.  Just expect a pathetic little stream and then you won't be disappointed!  Regardless, it is fun to just hang out there and it seems like during the winter there is a small carousel as well.

If you can be there to hear the bells then you should!  We visit this mission several times a year and this last time we had the good fortune of hearing the bells boom from right below.  The flip didn't quite capture their deep bellow but you could feel the vibrations and a non-Californian might have a moment of panic fearing an earthquake ha!

Jack's Flip Video

 Mission San Luis is an active parish so we weren't able to snap a picture of the church as the noon mass was in progress.  However it has a luscious courtyard with a well, fountain, bells, adobe bricks with visible flecks of straw, pomegranate trees, fig trees, grape vines and a huge BBQ spit for church events...that always makes me laugh! 

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Pacific Coast Highway

Mission San Jose - Mission Santa Ines - Mission La Purisima

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Mission La Purisima de Concepcion

La Purisima is a MUST mission but take your hiking shoes because this mission is like no other mission.  It is designated as a California Historical Park and was restored by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's and 40's, part of Roosevelt's New Deal.  Built in 1787, the eleventh mission, it originally sat on 330,000 acres, yes that's right, three-hundred and thirty thousand acres....say what?  It is the most extensive mission with numerous buildings including the actual mission, all the living and work quarters, and even a classroom used to teach Native American girls domestic skills.  Original furnishings are found in the majority of rooms ranging from the tanning and candle making rooms to the foreman's bedroom which is much nicer than the Father.  Corrals are still active with longhorns, horses and pigs and the rugged ground is home to many four legged furry friends and not so four legged furry friends such as the horned toad the kids wanted to take home as their new pet.  After you have toured the grounds, there are hiking trails from the mission into the surrounding areas.  Mr. Rogers and myself were only armed with flip-flops and were not about to hike in them with three kids ....maybe next time!

La Purisima is only a hop, skip, and a jump from Solvang (15 minute drive West before Lompoc).  It's location, just north of Santa Barbara, makes it a fantastic weekend get-a-way for those living in both Southern and Northern California.  All California children study the California Mission System in 4th grade, usually visiting their local mission, but truly Mission La Purisima has to be the most exciting of all 21 missions (don't mind my somewhat unwarranted claim as I have only been to half the missions)!

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Pacific Coast Highway

Mission San Jose - Mission Santa Ines - San Luis Obispo

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Mission Santa Ines in Solvang

Do you know how many times I've been to Solvang, a delightful Danish village, and failed to visit or even realize that there is a mission there....shame, shame, shame on me!  The mission is located just off the main village area...I'm talking not even a block walking distance!  Mass is still held in the mission and the grounds are full of winding paths with different areas for the kids to run and explore around. 

...and just for good measure...

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Pacific Coast Highway 
Mission San Jose - La Purisima - San Luis Obispo

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Mission San Jose (but really in Fremont)

A vacation to California is easily consumed by 20th century attractions ... Disneyland, Universal Studios, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Lego Land, perhaps a family might fit in some natural wonders such as the Giant Sequioas, Yosemite and of course the beach, but really how many embark on the most historical buildings in California... the Missions.  Most anywhere you go in the state you can hit about 3-4 missions but most tourists, let alone Californians, are not aware of this.  On Jack's favorite postcard, also known as his "map", I went ahead and put the missions into zones that the missions fall close together and would be accessible on a weekend trip or a day trip...depending on how hard core you are!  Also included are some rough locations of popular California destinations that I just sort of eyeballed and stuck in there just to give an idea of where these missions are in context to major cities and theme parks.  Shame on me for not including Yosemite and Seqouia National Park on here, they are right about where the "a" in California is located.

Every Rogers family vacation we try to attend a baseball game and visit a handful of historical sites. Since the Oakland A's were on the road we got a little crazy with the historical sites and as we made our way from Six Flags Discovery Kingdown (on the map) down the California Central Coastline and we ended up visiting FIVE missions on our trip....crazy, I know! It wasn't planned but we just sort of gained momentum after Mission San Jose and kept going mostly because the kids were soooo into them and I'm not even being sarcastic!

The missions in red are the ones we visited on our get-a-way

Every mission is totally different due mostly to what seems to be two factors: Earthquakes and Mexican Secularization.  Completely un-reasearched and mostly picked up from casual data collecting in the two hundred year existence of the missions, most of them seem to have been re-built several times from various earthquakes.  Each of them also suffered varying degrees of take over and neglect under Mexican Secularization beginning in 1834 to the 1850's.  Considered part of the Mexican Era in California, it ended with the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846 which eventually led to the annexation of California by the United States of America in 1848.  So, some missions you get there and are just like "This is it?", while other missions have beautiful grounds with fountains, rose gardens, orchards, secret nooks and nichos.

Seriously, why these missions enchant me so much behooves me.  Not that I condone slave labor, but it is something about being in these buildings that just reminds me of my Santa Fe roots.  Although not Catholic myself, all of my Spanish orgin family are practicing Catholics so I have spent a fair amount of time attending Mass, singing Spanish hymns, kneeling in the pews while EVERYONE in my family takes communion except for me and hearing my cousins repeat "Hail Mary's" after getting too rambunctious when we were children.

Mission San Jose, the fourteenth mission, was beautifully restored from the outside and the grounds were impeccable with wonderful indigenous California succulents, olive trees and the like.  Located on a quaint street in Fremont where you could stop for lunch and breakfast while visiting the mission would make for a perfect little activity.  The mission itself is not too extensive and we were there maybe 30 minutes.  Mostly the church built in 1797, a crude courtyard with more concrete than plants but it did have a fair collection of artifacts including building tools that the kids got a kick out of.

Not purchasing anything at a gift shop is torture to me  ... it was really hard for me to pass these up!

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Pacific Coast Highway
Mission Santa Ines - La Purisima - San Luis Obispo

More history on the California Mission System

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - Pacific Coast Highway

The best views of the Pacific Ocean in Northern California are from riding shotgun southbound along the cliffs of Pacific Coast Highway.  Don't even bother driving north because it will be all the car sickness minus the incredible views.  Instead, drive north on HWY 101 and stop at the California Missions then loop south on PCH.  It takes 3-4 hours to wind your way south from Carmel to San Simeon, home of the turn-of-the-20th century newspaper tycoon,William Randolph Hearst, that Orson Welles based his trademark film Citizen Kane on, but it is well worth it!  The route starts with Mission San Carlos de Borromeo Carmelo and ends with the breathtaking Heart Castle.  Sandwiched in between are beautiful redwood forests, rivers, hiking trails and hippy villages in Big Sur, shores of sleeping sea lions and the iconic Bixby Bridge built as part of a series of bridges by Roosevelt's WPA in the 1930's under the New Deal umbrella.  One could easily spend a whole day just slowly perusing down this section of the coast that encompasses such natural beauty and rich California history. (Here is a super nerdy read on the development of the area)

Quaint stop in Big Sur.  Jack took the picure of Mr. Rogers and myself

...might I add we married nine years ago yesterday!

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Mission San Jose - Mission Santa Ines
La Purisima - San Luis Obispo

Our Last Get-A-Way Before School Starts - The Family Friendly Six Flags

Six Flags and death defying roller coasters are synonymous with each other in my book. On a whim, Mr. Rogers and I put together a little get-a-away for the family and guess what was at the top of Mr. Rogers list of possible destinations? Maybe it just happens to be the Six Flags Magic Mountain that I have frequented the most but I’m not about to take my kids there: dirty, not family friendly, less than desirable clientele and run-down. Having grown-up on Disneyland, Magic Mountain looks like it's poor white trash step-sister. Let me just stop there because I was delightfully surprised with Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Will we ever get a picture when everyone is looking at the camera at the same time?

In fact, I would even entertain the idea of annual passes! It was clean, the crowd was well mannered and it was reasonably priced (purchases tickets online and they are all at the kid's price). There was an Orca show, dolphin show, sharks, seals, tigers, giraffes, elephant rides, Thomas Town (that is where we spent much of our time) and tons of rides that all three kids could go on. Of course, we had to accompany Maggie and Lincoln but they just made it all the more fun, not to mention comical, with all five of us on each ride. We stuffed the kids with food before we entered the park, smuggled in Maggie's weight in snacks (actually they never checked our bags so we could've brought in more water), didn’t buy any souvenirs, and were sucessfully able to stay within our budget - which pales in comparision to a day at Disneyland!

Of course, a Rogers get-a-away isn't quite complete without a baseball game and historical sites!  Unfortunately, the Oakland A's were away while we were there but we did manage to squeeze in some of the latter....actually a lot!

Read about the rest of our get-a-way here

Pacific Coast Highway - Mission San Jose - Mission Santa Ines
La Purisima - San Luis Obispo

You Never Know What You'll Find in Someone's Bathroom....

....it's not like I was snooping but upon a simple glance

through the shower glass door in my in-laws guest room 

I couldn't help but notice horse shampoo.  What?!?!?!?

"Directions For Human Use" is my favorite part because I know when I am using animal care products I often stop to ponder, "Hmmm, how might I as a human use this product for myself?" Sure, in a pinch I’ve shared nail clippers with our now deceased and quite obese guinea pig, Mr. Franklin, or have eaten fish food in a desperate rage of hunger! Really, doesn’t everyone just use the kitty litter box when they can’t make it to the toilet on time?

So maybe Mr. Ed doesn't need to be staying in the guest room for Mane N' Tail to be stocked for usage....maybe!