My Big Ass Family

At Easter we took a big group picture. 51 people and yes I can name them all. Even the cute yorkie.

Angelica, Louella, Melody, Sophia, Liliana, Felix, Betty, Romeo, Gus, Matthew, Isabella, Cassandra, Joaquin, Karina. 

Gabriel, Karina, Javier, Matias, Jose, Angie, Ruth, Mercy, Ruth, Leo, Arnoldo, Concha, Erika, Jose Jose, Martin, Adan, Cassandra, Elissa, Joey, Patricia, Jovan, Andres, Felix ,Miguel, Mary, Nicholas, Selina, Josie, Arnie, Carissa, Luis, Mercy, Kelly, Chris, Monique, Nick, Grace, Grande. 

And here is the thing, this photo is missing almost half of us. That's right there are about 40+ people missing from this picture. That's right, this is just about half of our family. My Mom has 7 sisters and 1 brother and that means that from the day I was born I have had a big family. I was the second grandchild and since then we have just keep growing.......and growing........and yes we are still growing. The thing that really makes us different is that even as we grew and moved and we have stayed close. We still celebrate holidays together and get together as much as possible.

So what's it like to be a part of a family like ours....

• LOUD! yes it's at loud as you would imagine it would be. Lots of laughing, singing, talking, babies crying and giggling. 
• BUSY. Our schedule is always full. With so many people there is always a birthday, holiday, baptism, communion or graduation party happening for someone. 
• SUPPORT: one of the best parts is that you have a whole big group of people always cheering you on. If you ever need someone to talk to, bounce ideas of off, or just hang out with there is always someone there for you. You have a built in cheering crowd of about 100 people. As you can imagine we can be a loud bunch at things like graduations. 
• LOVE: there is a heck of a whole lot of love. So much powerful love. And we are also an affectionate bunch. Every gathering starts with hugs and kisses to everyone there. Trying to leave a party on average takes about 30 minutes. All four of us have to say bye to everyone with even more hugs and kisses. 

I hope one day soon the moon and star and planets will align and the whole entire family will be in one place at one time for one amazing picture! 

Homeschool Week 28: Almost done with Despereaux, Plane Shapes, Using Money, and Separating Mixtures

This week was a bit light because standardized testing starts today! We still had some fun things we studied. 

We are so close to being finished with the Despereaux book. This week we read chapters 43-49 and worked on a few worksheets. The story is getting exciting and we are anxious to see if sweet little Despereaux will be able to save the Princess Pea!

For math we continued working on geometry. We worked on different types of quadrilateral and naming

different shapes. We also learned how to find the mode of a set of data. I have to admit I had to look up how to do that. I had completely forgot!

For social studies we talked about using money. We looked at different money from different countries and talked a little but about how values are different. We also talked about the difference between using money and bartering. The main idea I tried to get across is that when bartering the other person had to want or need the item you are bartering. We used the example of sitting at the lunch table and wanting to barter a bag of carrot sticks for a cupcake. You would need to find someone who wants carrot sticks in order to barter. 

Science was all about mixtures and solutions. We talked about different ways to separate a mixture. Then we talked about the difference between a mixture and a solution. We used alphabet soup as an example of a mixture and we used salt in water as an example of a solution. We also talked a little bit about how there are ways to separate a solution. You can leave a solution of salt water out in the sun and eventually the water will evaporate and only the salt will be left behind! 

We have testing the next 2 weeks so I assume that assignments will be on hold. Once we get back we will be counting down to summer! 

Easter Recap

We celebrated Easter Sunday in Santa Barbara and Santa Paula. It was so nice to have all the kids together for Easter morning. The bunny came and left his mark like he does every year. And all the kids baskets were lined up on the mantle. The bunny even left Joey a 2-liter of soda and a new cb radio for his cruiser. 

Then it was off to find all the eggs Nana and Tata hid!

The eggs of were filled with CASH! Best Easter Egg Hunt Ever!! Chone found the big prize egg!

After we all got ready we headed out to Santa Paula to celebrate with the familia!

Here is my Nana with 6 out of her 9 kids!

I love how many beautiful babies there are in the family right now!

I swear Mathme just gets better looking everything I see him!

Tia Mary got all Pinteresty on her potluck dish. How adorable are these deviled eggs?

The original 3 grandkids! I love my primas so much!

The whole family was so excited to see cousin Walkin and his wife and daughters. I was a baby hog and got to hold Isabella!

All the Young Dudes!

Super cool Mathme.

There was another egg hunt for all the kiddos..

And there was lots of confetti eggs!

I love the colors of Easter!

Elaine has the technique down! Always cover the beer when being attacked.

And lets end this post with 2 more pictures of 2 of the cutest babies around!

Taking a Family Photo

Before we headed out to the big family Easter party my Mom wanted us to take a family picture. The end photo turned out great! But when you are working with 13 people, 3 dogs and a self-timer on a camera it is a process! 

First we have to gather everyone in one place.

Then we have to figure out where everyone should go. And no Cari and Luis you cannot stand there.

Okay everyone is in place. There is a space for me. Lili is obviously ready for her close up. All eyes on Llama!

 
As I get the camera all situated the kids as always get antsy.  So do the dogs. I am working as fast as I can people!

Okay so first attempt did not work. 10 seconds is not long enough for me to get down the steps and into the picture in heels. Time for plan B. Kelly can get back down in frame fast enough so a quick tutorial for Kel. Here is a practice shot. This one may be my favorite!

So now I am in place and Kelly hits the shutter button and runs.

click....




AND SUCCESS.

A frozen moment in time that took about 20 minutes.

Homeschool Week 27: More Despereaux, Countries Working Together, Polygons and More Shapes, Floating Egg Experiment

Week 27 has come and gone. On Friday Phi's school had a Bunny Hop field day and Phi won the big prize! Go Phi! 

We are STILL reading The Tale of Despereaux. I really hope that we get to finish this book soon. This week Phi's teacher put a big emphasis on writing complete multiple sentences and lots of details. So this week we did just that. The work we had been turning in for the handouts answered the questions posted by the worksheets. The worksheets were created by another teacher and are just being downloaded and used for Phi's class. Phi's teacher is specific on the type of work she wants from the kids and I think worksheets being used are a bit to vague for what she wants. I felt like Phi and I had to really had to reach to give detailed answers to the questions asked. 

For Math we moved onto different types of polygons. We tried to make it a little more fun by working on a coloring page of tessellations! 

For Social Studies we talked about how and why countries work together. Phi wrote a great essay about the reasons why it is important for nations to work together, and talked about how treaties, ambassadors and the United Nations work.

For science we got to choose a simple science experiment to try and write about. Phi choose the floating egg experiment. We went through the experiment process by starting with a questions, giving a hypothesis, writing down observations with photos and coming up with a conclusion. She basically concluded that by adding salt to water you can get an egg to float. This was a fun and super simple experiment!

We are in the final weeks of school! I can't believe we are almost done. We have STAR testing coming up and one more field trip next month! 

Land Cruiser Adventures: Big Bear to Pioneertown Part 2

We finally made it to our destination... Pioneertown. In the 1940's this place was made as a movie set. The show Cisco Kid was filmed here. It was a cool little stop with lots of photo ops..

The whole crew heading into the "town".

Pretty sure Louie attempted to rob this fake bank.

And somehow Karla and Phi landed in jail.

 And the kid gets away with it.

 
Just put some chaps, boots and a cowboy hat and Joey would fit right in.

My cool Joey with a cool cactus.

We tried to have dinner at Pappy and Harriet's. It looked like such a cool restaurant and smelled super yummy but it was an almost 2 hour wait. 2 hours for a place in the middle of no where. So instead we headed out to Joshua Tree and had dinner at Pie for People. Giant slices of pizza!

It was a long and fantastic day and we can't wait for our next adventure!