West Coast Fusion ~Custom Leotards

I recently made a new gymnastics leotard! Here is the link to my website: www.fusionleos.weebly.com
if you are interested please contact me at mugzoodle@gmail.com This leotard represents fire, here are some pictures that I took of Allie in it!

post by Micayla

Paradis Ice Cream

We recently went on a field trip to Paradis Ice Cream on 2nd street here in LB!  It was so much fun and super yummy!  We got a tour of their ice cream room in the back and even made our own chocolate sorbet!  Delish!  

Paradis is Danish an all-natural ice cream franchise.  They have 35 Paradises in Denmark, and only 3 in the U.S. in LA.  Paradis is known for their fresh and high-quality ice cream and sorbets (their sorbet is water based).  Using fresh fruit, the strawberry ice cream (oh my gosh SO GOOD!) has real strawberries in it, as does the blueberry ice cream along with all the other fruit ice creams and sorbets.  When they make the ice cream they use the smallest amount of cream possible.  Giovanni, the owner of the Long Beach Paradis, makes up to 12 flavors each day and with two people it can take up to 2-3 hours.  On the weekends he whips up 16 flavors and that would take 6 hours for one person!  

All their ingredients are imported from all over the world.  The chocolate sorbet recipe comes from Denmark, the dark organic chocolate comes from Holland and vanilla beans come from Madagascar.  To make the chocolate sorbet, we mixed up a danish mixture of crembrelina with cane sugar, 195 grams of dark chocolate and 1984 grams of water.  We blended it with a huge hand blender that was about the size of Nate!  Then we put it in the big ice cream/sorbet machine and it got it cold and shook it up to make the sorbet (the machine had to first heat up before it could cool down, like how they heat up the milk first for their ice creams to pasteurize it).  The machine also aerates it. The sorbet came out in big globs through a slated window at the bottom.  Their sorbet is water based so there is no cream!  

IT WAS SOOOOO DELICIOUS! 

Check out some pics below...

post by Carly

A Box or Two for Me and You

The Adventures of a Cardboard Box from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Simple pleasures...
Nate has a box that he won't let us get rid of.  Allie has one too.  They take them up and down the stairs, in and out of the house.  They've played with them and in them for hours.  When we saw this terrific short film recently it inspired us to share some photos of one of our favorite things - a cardboard box!

archery

I like to do archery because it is fun!  I like to pull back the arrow and listen to the sound when I let go; it whistles by.  It makes a great sound when it hits the target too.  My teacher, Janet, used to be in the Olympics.  She taught me how to hold the bow and arrow so I don't cut my ear off (once I cut my cheek though).
My sisters do archery sometimes too.  it is really fun.  i want to go every week.
(partially dictated and partially written) BY:NATE

The last time I went Janet moved me up to a bigger target!

*Note - Janet Dykman offers homeschooling classes in various locations throughout the week.  If you live in So. Cal. and you are interested, give her a call at 626-242-8870.

Happy Pi Day!

A few fun things for "Pi" day...



Make (and eat:) this amazing raw pie!

Read this great book - Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander

FIDM

We went to FIDM in Irvine.  My mom took us there because I have been designing the leotards that my sister Micayla has been sewing.  We thought it would be a fun place to check out.  It was a really neat.  When we first walked in there were TVs and couches and almost everything was pink!  We had a tour guide, Vivian, and she took us around the whole building.  We saw students working on designing clothes that will become the new fashion.  She showed us a sound proof media room, fashion magazines from the 1800's, and Trend Forecasters (from Paris) that predict what will be in fashion in 2014!  And she told us how students have catering trucks that come for their lunches.  The people who graduate there make their own hats that are awesome.  My favorite ones say peace, love, fashion, and fabulous!

by Allie