Take a Local Train Ride!

    It was another glorious day in paradise and so we boarded the train for a roundtrip from the Boardwalk to Roaring Camp in Felton accompanied by four full carloads of locals, tourists, babies, children, grandparents and a group of five folks taking their six well-behaved dogs for a ride.  As we chugged up the hillside of the San Lorenzo River Gorge, our Engineer told stories about colorful local history and pointed out interesting sights.  My favorite was looking through the redwoods at the swimmers hundreds of feet down the hillside in the San Lorenzo River.  On the way up riders were awed by the tunnel under Mission Hill, and on the way back everyone hooted and hollered for that special echo effect!  Take a picnic lunch along!  Roaring Camp for tickets.

The Secret Garden

    We received a note about The Secret Garden from friends who comprise a talented musical and acting family.  The Secret Garden production is a Tony award winning musical. What a great outing for the entire family before school starts.  Who hasn't read the enchanting story of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!? It's so good that I cannot count how often I've read it!  You better reserve tickets now!

Dear Friends,

    "The Arns/Griscom family is performing in the musical The Secret Garden at the end of August (yes, all of us!), and we wanted to let you know in hopes that you enjoy musicals and would like to come.  Ethan, our older son, has one of the leads as Colin Craven.  Tom is Albert Lennox, Mary Lennox's father and a minor lead.  Nell is Rose Lennox, Mary's mother and a minor lead, for 3 of the performances (8/23, 29, 31), and she is Mrs. Shelley and Mrs. Winthrop (a schoolmistress for one very funny scene) for the other 3 shows.  Chris, our younger son, is in the chorus.  The music is beautiful, the story is classic, and we hope that you have the chance

to come!"  Tom Arns, Nell Griscom, Ethan Arns, and Chris Arns

    Look for next week's interview with Nell, Tom, Ethan and Chris about what it's like for the entire family to work together in a musical production!

Picking Up Is Rewarding!

    Have you discovered that you pick up one way when it's for yourself, but when company's coming over, you raise the bar on yourself!  Shannon McGinnis, author of the 10 Minute Tidy, has ten tips for making pickup more routine instead of a massive chore.  With school approaching in a few weeks, here are some tips for keeping home an inviting place to be!

Top Ten Picking Up Tips for Kids!

by Shannon McGinnis, Author of the 10 Minute Tidy

1.  Create homes for all of your children’s clothes and toys, both in their room and throughout the house and garage.  Make areas for containers for their toys and spaces for larger items to be stored so that everything has a home to be put back into.

2.  Choose containers that are easy for your child to use.  Allow your child to choose containers, baskets or toys that are easy for them to pick up and put away.  Hooks, shelves or over the door pockets create spaces for things to be put away easily.

3.  Label each area. You can together draw pictures and write the words to label each area.  For example, DOLLS go in this basket, BLOCKS here, CRAYONS in this bin, and LEGOS in this container.  Also label dresser drawers for socks, t-shirts, and pants.

4.  Make clean up time FUN. Play music or sing a song and have their containers colorful and easy for them to use.

5.  Schedule daily clean up time and expect your child to completely clean up every day, either before dinner or before bedtime. 

6.  Be a great role model.  Parents can pick up their things while the kids are organizing their room so that the entire house is clean and tidied within minutes.

7.  Build teamwork for mutual support.  When the entire family cleans up at the same time, this creates more harmony in the household.  Also, this alleviates resentments or arguments about who should do what rather than everyone picking up the entire house all at once.  Each child can take responsibility for their things throughout the house.

8.  Create a memory box for each child. They can keep all their artwork from the school year, knowing that at the end of the school year they may need to make decisions about what to keep and what to let go of. This also keeps the volume confined to what will fit in the box.

9.  Schedule major cleanups every few months. It’s especially important to do this before or after birthdays and holidays when a large number of toys are coming in and at the end of the school year.  Then you can teach them that there must be room for the new toys to be put away so that there isn’t so much clutter.

10.  Celebrate that your child is learning excellent life skills!  By teaching your children to be more organized and how to do this quickly and easily, they are learning life long skills that will help them be more successful in all that they do.

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Events!

SantaCruzParent Calendar

Fri-Sun, Aug 22-31  The Secret Garden, Theater in the Mountains

Reserve your tickets now!

Aug 7-10  Steinbeck-Mexico Festival. Over a third of John Steinbeck's work is either set in Mexico or features characters of Mexican descent. From 1932 until the mid-1950s, he wrote often about the environment, history, culture and politics of Mexico. Steinbeck Museum, Salinas

Aug 8, 5:30...  Campfire, Mission Santa Cruz Don’t miss the final campfire gathering of the summer! An evening full of fun for the whole family at one of Santa Cruz’s parks best-kept secrets. From 5:30 – 7:00 we will be cooking tortillas on the comal and enjoying live music by a local artist TBA. From 7-8 enjoy old-fashioned campfire sing along songs, stories, skits, and dances around the fire. Please bring a picnic dinner, lawn chairs or blankets to sit on, and tortilla toppings to share (salsa, cheese, butter...mmmm!).

SantaCruzParent Calendar

Fri, Aug 8, 6:30 & 8pm  Santana original lead singer Gregg Rolie - “Black Magic Woman” & “Evil Ways”, Beach Boardwalk

Aug 9 (and 23)  Starlight Evening Train Experience - Trains depart from the Boardwalk for a relaxing two hour round trip excursion along the San Lorenzo River Gorge and Henry Cowell State Park. See the beauty of the forest at night, hosted by Roaring Camp Railroads. For tickets contact Roaring Camp at 335-4484.

Aug 9  Lunar Observing, Quail Hollow Park, Learn more about the moon, planets, stars, nebula and other celestial neighbors with the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club.  Views of the mon will highlight the evening.  Indoor slide presentation by the club's resident "luna-tic" Craig Wandke will enhance the telescope viewing.  Dress warmly.  Rain or cloudy skies cancels the program.

Aug 9, 11-9:30pm Bigfoot Discovery Day II Bigfoot Museum

11-2 lectures at Community Hall, BBQ, Book Signing, Slide Lectures from four respected experts! Still not convinced Bigfoot is real? Come & hear the facts.  Featuring presentations by:Dr. Jeff Meldrum Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science; Richard Noll  Bigfoot Hunter and curator of the Skookum cast; Kathy Moskowitz Strain  Bigfoot in Native Culture; David Paulides  The Hoopa Project ...and bigfoot songs by Tom Yamarone

For ticket reservations please contact Michael Rugg

The museum will have a BBQ lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m,  $5

Aug 9, 9am  History, Nature, and Scenic Views: A Tour of the Grey Whale Ranch Area  This challenging guided three-hour hike will explore the natural and cultural history of the upper hills of Wilder Ranch State Park. Meet at the Wilder Ranch parking lot. Bring good walking shoes, lunch, snacks, and water. Hike is canceled if rain.

Aug 10, 1-3pm “Historic Goat Hill” Interpretive Hike. History runs deep in the Little Butano Canyon. Join Park Interpreter Mountain on a journey through time as we explore the popular Goat Hill Trail and its remaining clues to a homesteading past. Wear good hiking shoes and bring water on this 2 Mile Moderate Hike. Meet at Visitor Center Butano State Park

SantaCruzParent Calendar

Saturdays, Aug 9-30, 7:30pm  Summer Campfire Presentations, Campfire Center, New Brighton State Beach
Aug 9 Gold Standard Barbershop Chorus
Aug 16 Hawaiian Music and Dance with Michelle Kiba
Aug 30 The Amazing Mr. Domino and his marvelous magic show

Tues, Aug 12, 8:30-5  In the sport of gymnmatics/dance on horseback, beginners through National Champion atchletes and their horses will compete!  Fairgrounds, Watsonville

Now - Sept 7   From the Byways to the Highways - Photo Images by Rondal Partidge of California, from 1936-1969. Partidge has been photographing for over 85 years. Very interesting exhibit.  Take your budding photographer to see this exhibit interesting for both its artistic photography and history.