Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Our latest component for school, "Cold Wars, Warm Hearts", has covered modern history from about 1950- present day.  What better place to learn about a lot of this time period than at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library?  We love it there and it is always worth the long drive!

Learning about economics through these interactive games...

Playing in the Berlin Wall...

Horse back riding with the Gipper...

Feeling grateful for the Freedoms we enjoy in America while looking at the real Berlin Wall...

Showing reverence and respect for a man who stood for Freedom...

Both my mom and I felt a bit of sadness going through this Museum and recognizing the dignity and integrity of President Reagan's life while thinking about the current state of our political world which lacks those values. The gift shop had shirts that read "Ronald Reagan for President 2016".  I wish that were possible!

And, taking selfies to keep entertained on the long ride home...

Team Tanner

We walked for TEAM TANNER at the CCFA Take Steps Event in Pasadena.  It is a fundraising and awareness event for Crohns and Colitis.  Thanks to many generous souls, we raised enough to be the "freshman" class winner!  We got a tent with snacks at it all to ourselves!  It was a fun afternoon.  The best part was meeting and talking to other people who are going through the same thing we are.  This is a nasty disease.  A lot of people do not respond well to medication and/or diet and it is nice to know we are not the only ones going through all this!  CCFA is researching and bringing hope to many and we were glad to be a part of this event!  

5 Months

Felicity turned 5 months this month.   She is getting chubbier and cuter every day!  She rolls from back to tummy, "talks" to everyone by gurgling, LOVES when she catches those siblings with her eyes, and has discovered the joys of holding a toy and putting it in her mouth.  She takes a pacifier only when tired-but it is magic for getting this sleepy girl to sleep!  She went about a week solid of sleeping through the night but has decided its more fun to hang out with mom in the nice quiet nighttime-we are working on that because Mommy is turning into a zombie! She weighs 15 lbs 5 oz and 23.5 inches.  She is healthy and doing great! We love our little Miss Felicity with all our hearts!!

Hunter is 10!

Hunter turned 10!  How did my baby boy grow up so fast?  We celebrated by having a "friend" party. I took a couple car full of boys to the trampoline park to jump around for an hour, then we came home to pizza and cake and ice cream.  The local family joined us for the cake and ice cream.  It was a little hectic to get the timing right with the trampoline park, family joining us, and getting half the kid off to scouts in time, but it worked out and I think everyone had a fun time!

 My mom outdid herself with this cake..

Hunter is our perfect middle child.  He goes with the flow, for the most part.  He is sandwiched in between two strong personalities and he has been dubbed the peacemaker in our home.  He loves Minecraft and Legos and is my social butterfly.  Whenever there is a chance to play with a friend, he jumps on it! He loves all babies and is "overwhelmed with cuteness" when playing with Felicity.  Hunter always does his best to choose the right and puts others ahead of himself.  We LOVE our Hunter Bear and can't imagine our home without him! 

Happy Birthday Hunter!

To Eternity and Beyond

We finished our first component of the school year:  "To Eternity and Beyond!"  This focused on recent family history, and our personal history.  I also included an anatomy unit since it is part of science we have not covered in detail for awhile, I thought learning about our bodies was appropriate while writing personal history, and I added in some genetics which I thought went well with Family History.  We made life size figures of ourselves...

 The kids added organs (lungs, heart, etc) to their bodies as we learned about those parts.

Learning about the skin and how to protect it with UV beads...

Learning about how our lungs work...

And using a stethoscope to listen to our hearts after a lesson about the heart...

We read LOTS of fun picture books about family trees and family traditions/stories from the library and Miss Charity got these cute glasses from the librarian which we call her "librarian" glasses...

We carried out our own family/school tradition by going to the LA County Fair during this component.  We met with our school group there and each child gave a short presentation about their Living Hero...

Hunter and Tanner both chose to talk about their Dad and Charity chose to talk about her Mom and Grandma because "they love me."

Here are some other fun pictures from our day at the Fair...

 This princess knows how to protect herself...

 The Dinosaur Planet was really cool...

 Ladd and Tanner getting a massage. I think this might become a Fair tradition...

I took the kids to the CA Science Center as a culminating activity for our Anatomy unit.  We had just learned about brain cells (neurons) so it was fun to see this giant replica...

 Learning about the heart and blood...

 We spent a lot of time in the Body exhibit.  I have learned that when we go to a place like this that has multiple things to do, always start at the place I want the kids to get the most out of!  So we spent a good portion of our time learning and reviewing the different body systems.  Next, we explored the space part of the museum.  Our next science unit will cover space as we cover the Space Race in history, so I knew I wanted to expose the kids to Space exploration...

We also enjoyed our other favorite parts of this Museum...

 Notice Charity's shoes.  Halfway to the Museum, Charity exclaimed "I forgot my shoes!"  I was not turning back, so once we got there we searched the car and found one right shoe and one left shoe from different pairs.  She wore these all day but her feet were protected!  Good thing she is so cute so can get away with such a fashion statement!

It was a fun family trip and we are looking froward to traveling further back in time as we prepare for our next component!