Sand castle competitions

I wrote about this topic in 2008. Here's updated info for 2010 about sand castle competitions in the Bay Area:

• September 4 in Capitola: Begonia Festival.
• September 5 in Point Reyes: Sand Sculpture Contest.
• September TBD in Carmel: Sand Castle Contest.
• October 2 in San Francisco: Sand Castle Contest.

T-ball in Palo Alto starting from 5 years of age

Children who are as young as 5 year-old may participate in this league. See http://pabaseball.org/info/faq_tball.php#ages for details.

in reference to: Welcome to Palo Alto Little League (view on Google Sidewiki)

Goats and May Fête Parade

Bay Area weather doesn't look promising this weekend but there are some interesting events going on this weekend.

• May Fête Parade on Saturday (May 2, 2009) in Palo Alto should be a lot of fun. This year’s theme is "Dream Green".
• Fantasy Faire on Saturday in the Los Gatos Parent Nursery School is a smaller event but if you live close to Los Gatos and don't feel like driving to Palo Alto, it's good option too.
• Last but not least: goats! This is not really an event but I saw them today and it's an amazing that one can see so many goats in Mountain View. Read more about it in the Google blog post.

Advent calendars and the Children's Theatre

Last December we bought for Avril a chocolate advent calendar at Trader Joe's.  In case you've never had one, an advent calendar has a small window for each day in December until Christmas and under each door there may be something hidden – in our case a small chocolate.  The calendar was a big hit.  Avril loved counting the days and to our surprise she showed a big discipline, never wanting to eat more than one chocolate a day and remembering which day would come next.

The second part to background of yesterday's story is that we live close to the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre and that theatre has a series of shows called Second Saturday Participation Plays.  As you can guess from the name, on the second Saturday of every month, there's a children's play in which audience participates in the story with the actors.  The idea is great even if, as in our case, your child is a bit shy and usually opts for sitting next to the parent rather than participating.

So, now the story that is the reason for this post:  Yesterday, Avril and I went for a stroll and we were walking at some point from the big tree that a few days ago fell down in the storm to the zoo.  As we were walking past the Children's Theatre, I asked Avril: "We came here to watch some plays.  Do you remember what story we watched?"  Avril's response was "No.  You tell me!"  For a while I tried to get her to tell me the name of the story but eventually I gave up knowing that she either really forgot or had her own reasons for not wanting to tell me the name of the story.  So, I said "we watched Jack and the Beanstalk".  Avril's response blew me away.  She said: "Yes, and on that day I opened the chocolate number 13".  As she said this, I didn't remember when exactly we went to see the play but after I got home I checked and Avril's recollection was perfect: we watched Jack and the Beanstalk on December 13.  I am still impressed with this.  I mean... Avril wasn't even three on December 13 and that performance was over two months ago!

I guess that the moral of the story (other than the fact that people can remember random things) is that tying in new skills like counting days into every day activities that children enjoy can be very effective.  So, all those things like counting how many Toyotas there are in the preschool's parking lot may have many unpredictable benefits.

I would like to end with a longer plug for children theatres in general and the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre with its many programs including Second Saturday Participation Plays.  You have to make sure that you go the plays appropriate for the age because sitting through a long performance is hard for toddlers but if everything works out, they are great fun.  Here's the list of Second Saturday Participation Plays this season:

• Cinderella, November 8 – 10:30am and 12:30pm
  
• Jack and the Beanstalk, December 13 – 10:30am and 12:30pm
  
• Beauty and the Beast, January 10 – 10:30am and 12:30pm
  
• Little Red Riding Hood, March 14 – 10:30am and 12:30pm
  
• The Tortoise and the Hare, April 11 – 10:30am and 12:30pm
  
• Snow White, May 9 – 10:30am and; 12:30pm
  

There's only one downside of the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre I can think of: it is very popular and the shows tend to be sold out weeks in advance.  We haven't yet planned any trip there long enough in advance, so we have to show up early to be near the top of the waiting list for returned tickets.

Bay Area Trains Map

My coworkers suggested a few more trains in addition to what I wrote about earlier in the blog, so I decided to create a map of all those trains.  First, the list of train rides:

• Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad
• Mini Train in the Central Park in San Mateo
• Roaring Camp Railroads
• Little Puffer at the San Francisco Zoo.
• Gilroy Gardens: Coyote and Redwood Junctions Railroad Train Ride
• Sonoma TrainTown
• Redwood Valley Railway in Berkeley's Tilden Park.
• Niles Canyon Railway in Fremont

And train exhibits:

• California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento
  
• Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History in Santa Clara
  

View Larger Map

Carol of Lights Festival in Campbell

We go to the Carol of Lights Festival in Campbell every year and really like it.  It's an opportunity to see snow in the Bay Area (the build a snow hill on one of the streets), take a picture with Santa and see many other holiday-related things.  The event used to be in the evenings but this year they decided to move it to the afternoon.  It will take place on Saturday, December 13, 2008 from 2pm to 5pm.  Immediately before the Carol of Lights, there's the Christmas in Campbell event, 11am-2pm featuring music performances.

Here's a picture of us on a pony ride in the 2007 Carol of Lights Festival.

Little Puffer

In my post about trains, I completely forgot about the Little Puffer at the San Francisco Zoo.  Our daughter and other children we know love this train.  Here's a picture from one of our visits there.

Trains in the Bay Area

Since ningning mentioned trains in a comment to my post about the Holiday Train, let me write a little about trains for kids in the Bay Area.  I'm sure that I don't know all of them, so if anyone knows more, please let me know.  Here are the ones that we know.

Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad

This train in the Vasona Park in Los Gatos is loved by all kids I know.  The train ride is great and there are many other attractions in the park: the carousel, playgrounds, and ducks.

Mini Train in the Central Park in San Mateo
I don't like this one too much but if your child is really into trains, it may be worth checking out.  The train goes in a small loop.  Adults cannot be on the train because it is a very small train.  The Japanese Tea Garden in the same park is very nice.

Roaring Camp Railroads
This place close to Santa Cruz has two train: the beach train that goes to Santa Cruz and the steam train that goes in a loop.  Both are very nice.  There are also some events there, like Day Out With Thomas, and Holiday Lights Train.

Bay Area Holiday Train

We went to the Caltrain's Holiday Train in the past and we will surely go this year.  This year the train event will happen on December 6 and December 7, 2008 (note that different stations are served on each day).  You can get all the details on the Caltrain web site for Holiday Train 2008.

This is a very fun activity for small kids.  The train stops at the station and you can watch performers on a platform car.  Some characters (Santa etc) will get off the train and mingle with the crowds.

If you choose to watch it in Santa Clara, make sure to check out the train museum there.  The kids will love it!

The Holiday Train is also about giving.  If you can, please bring new toys and books.  Your gifts will be donated to U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots Program and the Salvation Army.

Fun Pumpkin Patches in the Bay Area

It's this time of year again.  Small children love to go with their parents to pick a pumpkin, especially if there are other activities that can go along with getting a pumpkin: hay rides, train rides etc.

My favorite place to visit is Uesugi Farms (on Yelp).  They have lots of pumpkins to choose from and many activities to choose from.  This is where we went the last two years.

But this is not the only place.  Here are a few other places for pumpkins:

• Webb Ranch Farm in Portola Valley.
• Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch in San Jose.
  
• Art and Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay.
• G&M Farms in Livermore.
• Joan's Farm in Livermore.

Here's a map of those places:

View Larger Map

You can see a really comprehensive list here.

Fern flower tale

I was browsing DVDs in the children section of the Palo Alto library and noticed a movie based on the Fern Flower Polish folk tale. I got the DVD and really liked it: the animation style is very interesting; the story is told well and some elements of the related customs (like jumping over bonfires, floating wreaths of flowers with candles) are shown. I recommend it!

This DVD is a part of a 32-volume Animated Tales of the World Series published by Schlessinger Media. You can buy it separately or get if you're lucky, get it from a library that bought the whole 32-volume edition. If I understand OCLC correctly only six public libraries in the US have it but luckily for me one of them is the Palo Alto one.

Sand castles

The sand castle competitions start in the Bay Area next weekend. The first event is the Sand Sculpture Contest at the Capitola Begonia Festival. This will take place 8:30am-12noon on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at Capitola Beach. The following day, there will be the Annual Sand Sculpture Contest in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The third event I know of is the Sandcastle Classic that will take place on October 4, 2008 at the Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Do you know of any other sand castle events in the Bay Area? Let me know!