Our little scientist Gavin won first place in Turtleback’s science fair!
We are very proud of him and his hard work conducting the experiment, typing up the results, and putting together the board (with a little bit of help from Mom). I hope he continues to have a love of science as he grows up.
Photos by Aliciana:
We made the trip up to Bakersfield to meet up with my brother Nick and his wife Jessie. They flew in from New York to visit family up and down the West Coast.
Grandma enjoyed seeing my boys, along with everyone else. She is having a rough time, having broken her hip and having the mind of a 95 year old. We all love her very much and hope she gets better.
It had been several years since we visited Disneyland, so we decided to take advantage of the Southern California deal this year. As expected, there were way too many people at Disneyland, but there just isn’t a more magical place to visit.
We happened to visit the same day as one of Connor’s best kindergarten buddies. My monkeys, Connor’s buddy Sofia, and her big brother Diego all had a blast meeting up with each other outside of the classroom.
The boys always enjoy Family Sunday at the Mingei International Museum. This month’s craft was wooden peg dolls. After creating their little wooden people, the boys explored the museum while doing the treasure hunt.
Aliciana and I were excited to get to chaperon Gavin’s field trip to the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center. We all learned a lot of about the historical daily life of our local tribe of Native Americans.
I was lucky enough to get to take in the crafting chaos during Connor’s Valentine’s Day party, before having to head to work. The kiddos spread around a lot of love.
Craft stations:
Spreading the love:
We headed to the Fleet Science Center to explore optical illusions and walk though a new interactive exhibit about Sherlock Holmes.
Roughly once a month Turtleback gives out special awards to students from each class who represent the “Character Pillars” they try to teach the children. This month’s pillar was “Responsibility” and Gavin won the award for his class! At a school wide morning assembly he got to pick up his award in front of all his peers.
Every month the local Home Depot puts on a free kids workshop to build a project. This was the first one we had attended and the boys got to build toolboxes. Connor especially enjoys building but both boys had a good time hammering and painting.
We met Aliciana’s sister Kristel and all her monkeys at the zoo. Their cousin Xavi was in town, so they decided to show him the world famous animals.
The highlight of the trip was the baby hippo, who was swimming circles with her mom. Connor busted up when the baby kept trying to bite her mom’s butt.
We made a trip to Legoland so the boys could enjoy some special Christmas holiday events going on. They colored some Christmas tree ornaments and did a scavenger hunt to earn a few holiday pop badges.
Present unwrapping pandemonium with our boys in the morning, and in the evening with the whole Loera clan at Eddie and Sally’s house.
We headed over to Balboa Park for some Christmas cheer. First we stopped by the Dr. Seuss Christmas Tree (he was a local of La Jolla). Then we headed to the Timken Art Museum to check out a special display of hand crafted Christmas ornaments.
We also walked though the museum to look at the paintings. Connor really studied them, trying to figure out all the brush strokes.
Connor and the rest of the kindergarten kiddos did a great job singing at their holiday performance. Afterwards, they headed back to class to enjoy hot chocolate and build some fun crafts.
The kindergarten kids singing their hearts out:
Fun and chaos at the after performance party:
My family and I have visited theNat to see the special exhibit “Animals: Machines In Motion”. The boys had a lot of fun learning about how the bodies of various animals have adapted and work.
We learned a lot about teeth, how animals fly, and how a giraffe’s heart can pump blood all the way up to its head. We also marveled at the size of Sue, the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton yet found.
