After the White House we walked down to the Lincoln Memorial by way of the World War II Memorial. It was hard to get a good shot, but this one is for Great Grandpa Hymas, our very own WWW II hero.
Here’s a fun little video of Liberty toddling around just for the Grandmas.
I was looking forward to the spectacular view down the mall from the Lincoln Memorial of the reflection pool, Washington Monument, and Capital. Unfortunately, this is the view I got to see. 
Do you see a reflection? Neither did we. That’s because there WAS No reflection pool!
I was pretty bummed. It’s under construction and so we couldn’t even go up to it.
So here, let’s all enjoy what it’s really supposed to look like for a moment.
Ahhh. That feels much better.
But the Lincoln Memorial itself did not disappoint.
Rock and Reagan are there on the grass.
Fun Fact-his thumb is as big as a football. And did I mention it has 56 steps?
(Rock didn’t bother to have Levi step out where we could see him. Such an amateur;)
We were, as you would expect, ready to drop by this point. And you have to admit it is quite miraculous that we got this far without any major incidents. So we headed back to the car by way of the new Martin Luther King Memorial. I loved this one.
You walk through a “cavern” to the front of the statue. 
I LOVE this picture. Alli took it and it and it speaks volumes. Makes me weepy all over again.
Scooby doesn’t make me weepy, but they’re still cute.
That was the end of our first whirlwind day in D.C. We ate dinner that night at IHOP which has actually become a tradition when Alli comes to visit. We ate dinner with her at IHOP on the 4th of July and this time we at dinner with her at IHOP on Easter!
Stay tuned for Part III
Mr. Hymas Goes to Washington Part I
Last week we took a whirlwind trip to D.C. so of course we had to learn all about it before we went. The boys learned the preamble to the Constitution in preparation for seeing the real thing. We also learned about each of the major monuments and made a 3D map of the Mall.
Obviously not to scale, but pretty darn good I think. We learned that it took more than 100 years to build the Washington Monument, that the White House was not even finished and the yard was a mud heap when John and Abigail Adams moved in. And we learned that the Lincoln Memorial has 56 steps leading up to it, a random fact that Cade reminded us of as we climbed to the top. How he remembers stuff like that I have no idea.
Then it was on to the real thing with Aunt Alli, who was visiting. We picked her up from the airport on Saturday night and woke her up bright and early the next morning to drive to D.C. Not long after we crossed into Delaware, Alli commented on the small size of the states out here, “You blink and you’re in another state!” Then about five seconds later we passed into Maryland. In one day we hit New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, D.C. and Virginia!
Our first stop in D.C. was the Jefferson Memorial which seemed to be everyone’s favorite, though for me the Lincoln is a very close second. 
Love this one!
You have to click on this one to get the full effect. We don’t remember what Reagan was reacting to, but we know Levi was trying out his newly acquired skill of winking. The girls are gonna go crazy.
Next was the Washington Monument 
Yes, it is two toned, that’s not just my camera. The lower portion is what they built before the the Civil War. It sat unfinished for years after that. We didn’t get to go up to the top because the Monument is closed due to cracks caused by the “earthquake” last year. 
Monumental Reflections
Stay tuned for Part II!
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
It’s been a beautiful spring here so far and what better thing to do than fly kites! Cade was thrilled to find a Peregrine Falcon kite and Reagan a Bald Eagle. Levi was happy with a standard shaped Transformers kite. Unfortunately we tried three different days with the kites and only Levi’s cheap kite worked well. The birds worked occasionally and were beautiful when they did, but mostly they just nose dived. Reagan was pretty disappointed. Cade on the other hand, was his typical happy go-lucky self and loved the fact that it dove to the ground all the time. “It’s just like the real thing!” he said. His kite was not flying 240 miles an hour like the real thing, but he was still able to see the silver lining. We did get a few good shots of our attempts though.
Reagan’s, one of the few times it flew.
Cade’s
Here’s Levi just standing and doing nothing while his kite flew. His brothers, who ran like crazy just to get theirs up in the air, were very jealous. 
He had a good time until he got all tangled up. 
Lesson learned:
Stick with the cheap diamond shape kite. It might be boring, but it works the best.
Chopsticks!
This week we’ve been learning about China and Japan in the middle ages. The boys have been doing Origami all week and I learned something about myself. I cannot STAND origami. “You want me to fold it how and then where and then what?????!!” I am just not spatial enough, apparently. I gave up after hopelessly trying to make Levi a fox. Cade, on the other hand was willing to spend hours trying and retrying the folds and he was great at it!
Tonight I made teriyaki chicken that rivals, yes, I dare say, even Happy Teriyaki, my favorite teriyaki place in Lacey, WA. We ate it with chopsticks, of course! And the boys made place settings written in Chinese writing.
Reagan wrote “dark”. (don’t ask me why?)
Cade wrote “fire”
Levi wrote “boy”
“Mother”
Even Liberty liked the chopsticks 
The Fortune cookies were the the best part, though. 
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
This week each of the boys picked three animals from the Bronx Zoo in NYC to learn about in preparation for our trip to the zoo on Saturday. Fun Fact: The Bronx Zoo is the largest Urban Zoo in the world. It’s been on our list to do before we leave and Saturday was the day! Reagan chose the Tiger, the King Cobra and the Anaconda. Cade chose the Giraffe, the Collared Lemur and the Poison Dart Frog. Levi chose the Lion, the Red Panda and the Snow Leopard. We learned SO much! And let me tell you, the internet adds so much to these studies. You can see almost any animal in action. We watched an Anaconda swallow a capybara WHOLE! We watched a man touch the head of a wild King Cobra with his bare hands. And we saw two giraffes attacking each other with their necks. WHAM!
Our trip to the zoo was a great success! You may think me silly for putting it that way, but taking four kids into New York City is never an easy undertaking. We are very grateful when all goes well. We had beautiful weather and we only had one kid get lost. We found him right about the time he started to cry. The zoo is huge and the animals were amazing. I am in awe of the creations God has made. I was just as excited as the boys to see many of these animals for the first time.
First stop was the Reptiles. I got to see an alligator for the first time! 
Next was the bears. First time I’ve seen a grizzly!
On to the Lions
This guy actually did some roaring for us! That was also a first for me! It was so exciting. Seriously, I felt just like a little kid.
Checking out the lions and Nyalas (see video) from a distance. Listen carefully to Cade’s request to “watch the video” and my response.
Taking a break to watch a Dora and Diego 4D film. 
Reagan complained about having to watch this very “uncool” video until he saw how cool the 4D effects were. He thought they were so cool in fact, that in reaching out to grab something from the screen, he actually fell out of his chair. We don’t plan on letting him live that one down. 4D was indeed fun and we even got sprayed with water as we went through a waterfall.
Levi’s Red Panda
Majestic is the only word to describe this guy. He was so beautiful and graceful. The boys watched him longer than any other animal. We couldn’t pull them away!
By the end of the day we were exhausted, but we had a great time. We even got to take home a tiger .
Dancin with Dad
Too funny. This girl is putty in her papa’s hands.
Note: Lest anyone think I am the perfect housekeeper, I did not clean up the floor before filming this video just so you could all feel better about yourselves! Aren’t I thoughtful?
Snakes and Snails and……
Big TRUCKS! Found this in the parking lot today.
“Look at the Monster Truck, Mom!!!” Hooray for little boys and their big loves.
Free at Last
Every fifth week we take a week off from school. We call it our “Free Week”. We do only what the kids want to do on those weeks. Sometimes all they want to do is play with LEGOS. And this last week they did spend almost three whole days working on their LEGO contest entries. The contest is to build a city vehicle that LEGO doesn’t already have. Cade is still working on his, but Reagan’s is a power company truck.
On Thursday it was so warm and beautiful we went to the zoo!
The Hymas family circus at the zoo.
Then on the way home we found a park with a wonderful hill to run and roll down. They were in heaven.
It was so fun to watch them run up and down the hill free as little birds. Wide open spaces are good for these kids. Here is a testament to that fact; we went on a nature walk today to learn about birds at a nearby nature preserve and when I told the boys that’s what we were doing for science Reagan said, “YES! Nature is my favorite subject!”
Robin Hood and Grandpa Neil
This week we learned about Robin Hood and the crusades. Reagan, who is always hyper aware of injustice in any form, was so enamored of this historical hero that he has already decided to be Robin Hood for Halloween-seven months from now.
To go along with our study I finally bought a real bow and arrow for the kids. We’ve had a few over the years. From the time they were tiny the boys would walk around in the back yard shooting an imaginary bow and arrow or finding sticks they could use to make one. The first non stick bow we had was from the dollar store that Reagan bought as his first purchase EVER. He was four. It broke before we got home from the store. Not a happy moment. The second bow was a sturdier one Levi earned for potty training that lasted a few months. This one is the real deal and the boys were in heaven!
As we were shooting, who should appear, but Grandpa Hymas who was here in NJ on business! He came out and gave us some pointers (no pun intended!!!).
By this time our fingers were frozen and the boys couldn’t hold the bow anymore, so we went in and played a good rousing game of Chutes and Ladders and Candyland with the kids.
Liberty warmed right up to Grandpa this time around. Glad we got to spend some time with him this weekend!
How Big is BIG?
Today we learned about Polar bears. Wow! We had no idea how big they really are until we did this project! We measured and drew a life size , though admittedly skinny, Polar bear and put him up on the wall in our family room (which happens to have a vaulted ceiling).
They are actually 10 feet tall when they stand on their hind legs. That is REALLY BIG! Especially when compared to our family’s heights. That’s what the boys are pointing to. We found that a Polar bear is twice as tall as Mom, and five times the size of Liberty.
Reagan drew the head all by himself.
This was one of those projects that was totally spur of the moment. It just grew out of their excitement and we went with it. The trick is being open to those moments!
