March was a Macho month.
It began with Ellie and Ryan competing with Kayla and Rich Pixton and their Destination Imagination team the NEON NINJAS at the Regional Competition at Olympus Jr. High.
After many hours of preparation it was great to finally have competition day!
The Mission of Destination Imagination is to develop opportunities that inspire the global community of learners to utilize diverse approaches in applying 21st century skills and creativity. The Destination Imagination program encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts and service learning. Our participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process. Teams may showcase their solutions at a tournament. http://www.destinationimagination.org/
It's a cool program!
Their first event was the INSTANT CHALLENGE.
They were nervous and decided to take time to meditate while waiting for their team to be called.
For the instant challenge they went into a room with only judges and a facilitator.
They are judged on how they work as a team, their creativity and management of time and resources.
They practiced many instant challenges together to prepare.
They did a great job!!
After Instant Challenge we headed home for pizza, getting costumes on and the set, and headed back over for the CENTRAL CHALLENGE.
They had chosen as a team the SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGE called
GOING TO EXTREMES.
The skit they created included scientific facts and a depiction of scenery of a real extreme environment and gear designed to help them survive there.
They picked the planetoid Ceres which is the largest in the astroid belt. The Dawn Mission salelite launched 8 years ago is scheduled to arrive to take pictures of Ceres next February so they set their story in the future when the satellite arrived. Rich and Ellie are scientists who explored the planet on their space scooters, and Ryan and Kayla are aliens that they found living in the ice there. :)
The title of their skit was "Surprise on Ceres!"
It was awesome! They did such a fantastic job!
Ellie liked her braid and asked me to take a picture of it. :)
We then headed home to change (gratefully we only live 4 minutes from the school) and they headed back with Tiffany Pixton for the DJ and the award ceremony.
They didn't win anything, but they had a great experience and definitely have the awards of gained knowledge and skills.
Way to go guys!
Pictures of Brenna and Sterling after church.
Cuties.
The first week of March our family took a day trip to the
Monterey Bay Aquarium
before our passes ran out.
We like taking advantage of being a home school family and going on an off day when no one else is there. :)
This was the coolest thing, a shark egg!
Can you see the pouch hanging in front of the light?
You can see the baby shark swimming around in there! Amazing!
Sterling asked me in all honesty if he hatched out of an egg the other day. ;)
Ellie didn't either, believe me I was there.
Amazing Ocean views!
Sterling loves the stamps that are at every station!
Super cool albatross!
Love this crew.
Very rare siting of the Trevor fish...
Super interesting Sunfish!
Ellie and Jelly.
The octopus was out!
We had never seen him out before! Totally amazing!!
He even posed for a picture with Ryan.
What an awesome adventure!
OTHER EXCITING MACHO MARCH MOMENTS:
Trevor the athlete was counting days until baseball started!
He's on the Nationals team with a great coach and he's doing awesome.
He hit a home run on his first game!
Orange rolls. :)
Rob's aunt Carol and her husband Keith stopped by for a visit while in town.
It was wonderful to have the chance to visit with them!
Brenna the cool cat.
I took lunch over to Rob at work one day during Brenna's nap (one perk of having older kids home during the day).
Costa Vida salads, horchata, key lime pie, and great company. Loved it.
Ryan had an awesome
PINEWOOD DERBY!
He is the oldest in the Bear den, so he was asked to come up and talk about things they have been learning.
He's a natural leader and does a great job in front of a group!
Ryan and Dad had a great time making
Flame Claw together.
All Ryan's hard work and Dad's axle expertise paid off.
He took first place!!
Way to go, Ry and Flameclaw!
Ellie and I got to go to the General Women's Conference for our church together for the first time!
I'm a blessed mother. Ellie is almost as tall as me now and has grown up in many ways this year.
Love you, Ellie girl.
Bike rides!! Thank you daylight savings!
We love biking in the evening before bed now that is light out.
Brenna making playdough while the boys help Mom bake.
I love these little helpers. They are so sweet and love helping, especially when we're making treats.
Ryan had an awesome birthday! Double digit man, can't believe he's 10!
He has loved having all his new adventure and hiking gear in his backpack.
One day Brenna wanted a back pack like "Ry-o" so he helped her pack up things in her backpack like him. :)
What are you up to Trevor???
All ready for Ballet.
Bike ride to the park!
Brenna likes taking turns walking Zara.
Sweet sleeper.
Zumba party for the Young Women!!
Brenna trying to be like her big brothers.
Ryan made a super cool box report about a Civil war Patriot her read about.
I absolutely love when history comes alive for my kids!
ST. PATRICK'S DAY HAIR for dance.
St. Patrick's day fun.
The leprechaun brought things throughout the day...
like rainbow marshmallows.
(Good thing I had them on hand because this leprechaun was caught unaware by the holiday this year. You do something once and they expect it every time!)
Sterling and Trevor drew pictures of the leprechaun.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON WALKS
are a favorite for our family to pause and get some fresh air and after church wiggles out almost every week.
We feel blessed to live in such a beautiful neighborhood!
Game night!
Dancing Diva.
Sterling loved watching the seeds grow that he got form his Primary teacher at church.
Brenna headed out with Sterling's shoes on. I love how she lunges down to open this huge door. Nothing stops this little woman! She's going places.
Trevor's first baseball practice!
Sterling and Mom had a date during the practice. We played catch and tag and then he fell asleep on my lap while I read. :) Love this sweet boy.
Sterling in enjoying making shape crafts at Preschool!
Above is his robot and below is his unicorn. :)
Brenna plays in her playhouse everyday. :)
Trevor has become an expert photo bomber...
We had a fun outing checking out the park for Ryan's birthday party.
Love the weather in March in California!
Not too hot and not too cold.
We had a wonderful trip the the
FOLSOM ZOO before that pass expired too.
We were blessed to have our friends Soomi and Aiden with us, what a beautiful day!
We love heading over to the park for snacks after the Zoo.
Brenna and Sterling decided to walk together.
He is learning about being a big brother and taking care of Brenna.
(Sometimes he needs some reminding...just like most big brothers).
We've loved all the blossoms and flowers spring brings!
DOG PILE!
These little three have such a blast together.
The dragon and the knight!
What will she think of next?
Brenna decided Zara needed a ride in her shopping cart.
Love how she is just tickled with herself. :)
Off the the store with her baby in tow. She is a very caring little mother.
Sterling is loving learning to read!
We have a box of reading games and try to play one with him every day.
He loves speed readers best.
Sterling and Trevor had fun picking out new shoes.
Sterling's are Lightening McQueen of course.
He said the cutest thing,
"I want to grow up and be a Dad, but I don't want to grow out of my new shoes."
Maybe they make Lightening McQueen shoes in Men's sizes. ;)
Ryan's cool Y carrot.
We had our sweet friend Alex over on her birthday!
We had cupcakes made for her and her doll, Molly, who is always with her.
Happy 18th Alex!
Ryan took a picture of the bubbles in his cereal bowl. Sweet.
Brenna is getting very good at finding mischievous ways to get what she wants.
She pushed this bucket in from the pantry to unlock the door to go outside.
We have a fun playgroup every Friday afternoon. Our Korean friends have been joining us and it's been great to play in the sunshine together.
Brenna and Aiden are just a month a part, but he is much bigger and eats a lot more!
(He will down that whole thing of 2 apples in one sitting ;)
Daddy came home for lunch one day. Brenna loves her Daddy!
We had a fun night ride in the cul-de-sac when Dad was working late. It's nice the weather is warm in the evenings now.
Sterling is our pickiest eater of all and it's a daily battle (unless I use sneak nutrition which I often do) to get him to eat a balanced diet. He'd eat chicken nuggets every day if he could!
Ellie is rainbow loom maniac!
She has learned all kinds of new ways to make jewelry with it.
She loves color and design!
Zumbalicious!
Zumba on Wednesday nights was a blast in March!
Love these Zumba sisters!
Busy, busy body Brenna!
Ryan made a giant marshmallow gun when taking down the set from the Destination Imagination skit. Rad Ryan!
Brenna wants Zara on her lap all the time.
You can tell by the picture how they both feel about it.
TJ the DJ.
That was our Macho March.
I thought last month was long post...
