gare: a photo sequence

LA natural history museum: gare and the polar bear

home schooling is cool: LA natural history museum

home schooling is cool. have i told you that already? once a week we get together with an awesome group of kiddo's and mama's (sometimes the papa's too) and go on a really cool adventure. on this particular week we headed out to LA to visit the natural history museum. this was our first time there and it was a lot of fun. take a look...

we saw real (stuffed) buffalo, which was cool because we are studying about buffalo bill for history and this just made it more realistic for us.

this is just one of the giant dinosaurs we saw.

there was ample photo opps in this place. such a cool building inside and out.

a skeleton of a whale. (i forget what kind of whale). that's what happens when you are chasing a 2 year old around.

lunch time with friends. but, i really just included this picture because it made me laugh that my little germ-a-phobe daughter has her hand sanitizer front and center of her lunch. like mother, like daughter. (that could be good or bad).

this photo is a little blurry, but i was super in love with these gold doors.

like i said, ample photo opps.

then the most amazing room ever was this hands on exploration room. first of all the light was amazing in this room, with the bright white walls, and vaulted ceilings, it was gorgeous.

i'm really not a fan of dead animals, but this display just caught my eye.

i would probably never hang anything like this in my house unless it was something like this. but, like i said it was eye catching.

the stuffed polar bear was big. and he liked it. (see my next post)

another thing i loved was the dash of color they put in this all white room. again,

ample photo opps.

we definitely will be going back. there's so much more we could see and do. we didn't even explore outside and it looks like they are doing some upgrades or additions out there so, yes we will be going back.

home schooling is cool: LA county fair + beach

i know some of you may not agree with me, but home schooling is cool. let me tell you why. home schooling is cool because we are just now starting our fourth week and we have already been to a handful of super rad places. we've visited the LA county fair, been on a couple of fun hikes, visited the natural history museum and an apple orchard. take a look at our trip to the fair and one of our beach hikes...

the fair

this little fella loved the building full of collections (aka cars) and spent a lot of time drooling over them.

but, the dinosaur exhibit...that's another story.

he did not like it and pretty much latched onto the mister through the whole thing.

i'm not kidding when i say latched. look at the grip around the mister's neck.

however, these two little girls were not afraid one bit.

my little miss even got to go on stage to identify a real dinosaur bone.

they dressed up as knights.

of course, this was on the mister's watch because my germ-a-phobic tendencies would not have allowed them to put on those hats.

first thing i thought of when i saw them dressed up was lice. yes, i am a germ-a-phobe! thankfully, my kiddo's came home lice free and the mister was spared.

woods beach

we walked through a cool tunnel

climbed up on the rocks

made necklaces out of sea grass and cool shells

jumped off of rocks

and played in the shore break.

i love these little adventures because it just makes reading, writing and arithmetic a little more bearable throughout our week.

cool right? stay tuned and i will show you some of the other fun places we have been to real soon.

gare: two photo sequences

I love this kid. just look at these pictures, you'll see why...

sequence one: la county fair - "cars collection"

sequence two: woods beach

see, i mean really how could i not love this little fella? he's just too darn cute!

nutcracker 2011

this little ballerina was just casted as an angel in the 2011 production of the nutcracker. this will be her second year performing in the nutcracker and we are so proud of her.

she glows on and

off the stage

have fun my little miss and you truly are my angel.

love, mama

what he's wearing

much to the mister and my dismay, this little fella is obsessed with sports. not one sport in particular, but all of them. which is funny because the only sport that happens in our home is surfing. seriously, the mister doesn't play sports and he certainly doesn't watch them on t.v. let's put it this way the first baseball game he went to was with me like two years after we were married, which he hated because 1) he lost his favorite pair of sunglasses there and 2) it was boring as heck. he knows nothing about football, and if you told him there was a goalie in basketball he would probably believe you. i'm not telling you this to insult my mister. no, never. it's what i love about him. i love that he would rather go to the beach on the weekend, than stay at home to watch the game on t.v. i love that i don't have to buy him clothes plastered with his favorite sports team. i love that he is NOT a sports lover. but, his son, that's a different story. somewhere, somehow we got a sports fan on our team. i don't know where he came from or what we are going to do about it, but this kiddo is all about sports. so much so, that he thinks his jammies (an over sized bob's big boy t-shirt and a pair baby gap pj bottoms) are a football uniform. oh (sigh), let's play ball!

i promise (to cut or not to cut)

i'm still having issues with my little fella and his hairstyle. if you don't remember my first post "to cut or not to cut?", you can read it here. like i said before, it's really just that i can't get him to sit still to give him a decent cut and though i have decided that i like his hair a little longer this is what i've come up with...

james taylor - long hair looks cool on him

garebear - not too far off from looking like a mini james taylor.

but, then as we were walking around the fair the other day i spotted this little guy and i made myself this promise...

i promise that i will never, ever let garebear's hair get this long. (even though this little boy has gorgeous red hair, you gotta draw the line somewhere)