The Conejo Valley Guide "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, highlights of local things to do, compilations and other items. Focus is on information relevant to Ventura County and surrounding areas, including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara and Moorpark.
The Conejo Valley Guide® "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, local things to do, holiday event compilations, announcements and more.
The latest work of Camarillo artist Chuck Trunks entitled "Snow Daze" depicts a snow man looking frazzled over the transition from winter to summer. We all feel some degree of discomfort when moving out of our own comfort zones; and sometime all we need is a little push. See Trunks' other work on Conejo Valley Guide by clicking here.
My kids are LEGO® fanatics and I'm constantly being nagged for new LEGO sets. Our house must have thousands of dollars of them. So recently we visited the only LEGO store within an hour range of the Conejo Valley, at the Glendale Galleria. To make it a full day, we stopped by the Los Angeles Zoo and Griffith Park for mini-train rides. Needless to say, they loved the LEGO store and we spent quite a bit of time exploring.
Some amazing facts about LEGO bricks and products (Source: Lego.com):
The name LEGO originated in 1934 when Ole Kirk Kristiansen took the Danish words LEG GODT "play well" and created the name that has become a household word. The LEGO Group is very protective of its brand...they require the following:
ROCK ON, LEGO!
This is George. He was a good little monkey and always very curious.
These words are emblazoned in my brain as I've read Curious George books to my kids hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
There are so many great kids books to read but something keeps bringing me back to Curious George. Many books I find painful to read after awhile, but not Curious George.
Maybe it is the predictable storyline of the books:
Thousand Oaks locals, Meredith Madnick Cornelius and Anne Byer Marquart decided to create a summer camp focused on service-learning after they wanted to send their own children to one and realized there were none available for younger children.
From that realization, Camp Helping Hands™ (CHH) was born. CHH is a co-ed summer day camp for kids ages six to 13 with service-learning as its core theme. Service-learning emphasizes both service and learning and requires participants to use their knowledge and skills to address real-life needs in their own communities.
At Camp Helping Hands, campers will do just this by following the four phases of the service-learning process: investigation, planning, taking action, and reflection. When campers are led through this collaborative process, they share and invest their ideas and skills and feel truly committed to the project and to making a difference. Local organizations from the community will join as service partners, and local college students will lead the groups as CHH counselors.
The theme for 2011 is “Living: Our Place in the World,” and the three-week session will be hosted at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. During week one, CHH campers will work with Waste Management to see firsthand how a landfill can be transformed into a pollinator garden. After a brief facility tour, which includes an up-close visit with Avian Entertainment falconers and their bir
Guest post from one of my favorite local bloggers, Leslie Rosenthal, who grew up in Agoura and now resides in the San Fernando Valley. She is a single mom who writes in a way that I think any parent can really relate to. Check out her blog at www.leslierosenthal.wordpress.com.
There’s a line in the movie Rocky V where Rocky talks about Mickey being an angel watching over his shoulder and there is a flashback scene where Mickey says, “If you ever get hurt and you feel that you’re goin’ down this little angel is gonna whisper in your ear. It’s gonna say, ‘Get up you son of a bitch ‘cause Mickey loves you.’ “
I know this because I have seen every Rocky movie about a zillion times and if you know me, you know that I am a hard-core Rocky addict.
The movie series Rocky is a classic underdog tale where incredible people come into Rocky’s life and make a difference forever. Mickey, Apollo, Adrian….to name a few. Perhaps that is why I like it so much. The notion of people making a difference in one’s life.
As you all know, my daughter and Coach Wooden had a special relationship which I have chronicled here before. It would give me great joy to think that perhaps he is whispering in her ear his infinite wisdom on a daily basis; “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” Or perhaps he is just reminding her how to tie her shoe laces the right way…or his way.
Today, I think that angel of Coach Wooden might have been present.
I took Shayna out to an unexpected lunch today to where else…yes, our favorite neighborhood coffee shop, VIP’s. Also known as Coach Wooden’s favorite coffee shop.
It was quiet there and we had the place almost to ourselves. Karen, our favorite server was there and she knew right away what Shayna would want because it was after 12 noon, which is Shayna’s cut off time from cheese eggs and turns into time for a Patty Melt.
When the yummy Patty Melt arrived on rye bread, I had a feeling something might happen. Something big. Something that would make this meal one we would never forget. Shayna just might lose that loose tooth – which would be her first tooth ever.
A few bites in, it happened. Just like I thought. I looked over and the tooth was officially “snaggled” and there was some blood in her mouth. I didn’t say a word to her. I waited. Quietly. Patiently as she chewed on that meat. And then it happened!
“MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!” I turned casually to her as she screamed, “MY
Conejo Valley Guide covers events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas.
Conejo Valley Guide® covers thousands of events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County, California and surrounding areas.
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