End of the School Year Happenings

We've been busy  CELEBRATING the end of another fantastic school year.  It's fun reviewing what we've done throughout the year to realize we actually did do A LOT and learned A LOT in the process!  We did a final concert/pizza party/art game with some families in our school group:

We had another BALL to close the year out.  We started with a fancy ball at the beginning of the year to introduce the year's theme to the kids, and made a full circle with another ball at the close of the year.  This ball wasn't quite as elaborate, but just as much fun.  The kids had a good time seeing friends they've made throughout the year.  The Scarlet Pimpernel was there, again, to reinforce his mission to the kids of seeking  Truth, Beauty, and Goodness throughout their lives.

When the kids weren't eating teh delectable desserts, or playing games with friends, there was dancing!

THe Scarlet Pimpernel and Lady Blakeney...

Beautiful Edwards Mansion in Redlands...

At the end of the night, we watched a slide show.  It was fun to see pictures of what other families had done to make for a meaningful school year for their children.

What a handsome looking bunch...

Julie, my mom, and I trekked with the kids out to The Getty Center in LA.  I took the kids there the first week of school when we knew nothing about art, so it was really fun to go at the end of the year when we felt like art experts.  That place really is beautiful and I am impressed at how kid friendly they can make a Museum that is filled with paintings that are worth millions of dollars.

This "Sketching Room" was really fun.  There was real art work all around, but the kids had an opportunity to get quality art paper and charcoal sticks and sit and sketch the artwork.

A highlight for everyone was the "Family Room":

Lots of photo opps at the Getty:

 Watching a duck with her 4 little ducklings...

We were able to find at least one painting by each of our featured artists throughout the year.  They did not have a Leonardo on display, but they did have a painting done by one of his students at his workshop, so that counted.  No Durer was on display, but we decided this giant version of his stag beetle with a pin through it was close enough.  It was a really fun way to review a year full of art!  The kids don't realize how lucky they are to live within driving distance of so much beautiful, original art!  Although they may not remember all they learned this year, I sure hope they have developed an appreciation for fine art and classical music, I know I have!

Monet's Garden

We have had a fun time learning about Monet.  There are so many fun kids picture books about him that we've enjoyed reading.  We made these flower vases in his style for our mothers day gifts...

 And got to spend some time painting outside just like the Impressionists.  This was a very calming experience for the boys, I will have to remember this activity!

We've also been working a bit in the garden.  We have had caterpillars, watched them turn into chrysalis', and then butterflies.  We let them free in our garden this week...

This one got away right as I took the picture...

Maybe one day I will have a garden that somewhat resembles Monet's in Giverny, won't that be the day!

Surprise, Tanner's 10!

Tanner celebrated his tenth birthday this week.  This is big time, DOUBLE DIGITS!  The night before, on his "birthday eve", we went to Ferrell's, where everyone has fun on their birthday.  Tanner got the Indiana Jones version of the birthday song sung to him, and he loved every minute of it!  He also said he is not going to eat ice cream again for a long, long time!

      

On Tuesday, we had a SURPRISE party for him!  I wasn't sure if we could pull it off because Tanner knows everything that goes on in this house.  While he was at scouts (he goes to Webelos now), I headed off to the park to get it all set up.  Family and friends met us there while we anxiously awaited the birthday boy.  Ladd picked him up from scouts and told him we had rescheduled his tennis lesson for that night.  His tennis lessons are at the park where the party was.  He was kind of bummed he had to do a tennis lesson on his birthday, I think his exact words were "Can't I ever get a break?".  He told Ladd he wanted to play tag while he waited for his tennis coach, so he came running out of

the car, while this group was hiding...  

As Tanner ran by, the all ran out yelling "SURPRISE!"  Tanner turned around with a look of fear and then started running as fast as he could!  He thought he was being chased by a group of strange kids.  When he looked again he realized that he actually knew all these kids and was super excited about his surprise party.  He kept saying they almost gave him a heart attack.  Before bed that night, he wrote in his journal that it was a terrifying and super awesome birthday.  So, I guess he was surprised! 

 Describing his heart attack...

My mom made him this cute Minecraft cake.  Minecraft cakes are a little tricky to create, but Tanner LOVED it!

 Make a wish!

It was a very fun party and I loved that it was at the park and kids of all ages were perfectly entertained the whole time without any doing on my part!  

I am so proud of my sweet Tanner.  He is turning out to be such a diligent, creative, and loving young man. I can trust him with many responsibilities and he makes my job a little easier (usually).  He is a wonderful older brother.  He finds friends wherever he goes, loves people, and continues to have a boundless curiosity.   He is developing his own testimony of the gospel and starting to see why it is so important.  I feel so blessed to be his mom and love Tanner so much!  

Degas and the Dancer

Two weeks ago, the same day Charity got her stitches, we were scheduled to see Inland Pacific Ballet's Cinderella, with our school group.  Even though I was in Urgent Care with Charity, Julie took my boys  to the ballet.  What would I do without her?  Tanner said it wasn't as exciting as the Nutcracker but it was okay.  Neither of them were too impressed with the Prince's outfit though.  Since we were studying Impressionist painters, I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to study Degas.  We did...

And, I invited my sister over to meet with a few of the families who went to the ballet.  Monica danced professionally for years.  She started at Inland Pacific Ballet, went onto Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, and spent the last 6 or so years of her career at Nevada Ballet Theater.  It was fun to hear her talk about her dancing.  She did a great job talking to the kids.  She taught the kids a little waltz, but some of the boys had a hard time dancing with girls.  So silly.  It was so fun to watch a few of the younger girls mesmerized by a real ballerina.

 

After Monica's presentation, a few of the families headed to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena where we saw many Degas paintings and sculptures on display, as well as many other Impressionist paintings.  Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, they were all there!  Unfortunately, Charity is turning into a real 2 year old and was not on her best behavior.  Hunter, Charity, and I spent most of the time out in the sculpture garden while Monica took Tanner through the Museum.  I sure was grateful for an extra adult with me!  The garden was beautiful and had a huge lily pond (can you say Monet?)  I had so many great ideas (go out to lily pond, paint it in fashion of Monet, then go look at his actual painting, etc, etc) to do at this Museum next time we study Impressionist painters when my 2 year old is like 10.  That will be the day!  Anyways, the museum had many rules, one of which was that I could not keep my small sling type purse in the museum, so I had no camera during the whole trip.  But I did snap a few shots in front of the museum...

  

 Re-enacting the sculptures...

Rodin's "The Thinker"

Don't let those cute looks deceive you, Charity is FULL of mischief...

It was fun teaching my kids about ballet and Degas even though they may never be all that into this beautiful, demanding art- at least they will have an appreciation for it!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 In Cub Scouts, we've been learning about conserving energy, recycling, and taking care of our planet.  I took the boys to our local Recycling plant for a field trip.  They were very impressed with the business-like board room they got to go to that had huge windows that overlooked the plant.  The manager told us about what they do there.  It was very interesting.  We couldn't go on a tour of the facility because the boys were too young and it is a pretty dangerous place.  But, the boys still said the field trip was "Awesome" so I am glad it was worthwhile.

Here they are checking our a giant cube of crushed cans...

 And trying with all their might to move this stack of cardboard boxes...

Hopefully this trip will help them to take care of their little space on this planet!