Happy 104th Birthday, Ronald Reagan!

Quick blog tonight, because, well, it's been an exhausting (but mostly fun) day, and I currently have Hayden's birthday cake in the oven for tomorrow. But, I didn't want the day to go by without a proper nod of his own blog to our 40th president, the president of my childhood. Luckily, you guys (should) know a decent amount of things that went on during his presidency, so you won't have too much detail here. We did add a few things to our Ronald Reagan. He is holding a bag of nuts from Camp David, which he often collected to feed to the squirrels at the White House, a 'Hello my name is... "Dutch" and "The Great Communicator" to acknowledge his nicknames. His arm has been strategically placed where he was shot while president, we added a pocket to his pants and put a few jelly beans in there (he LOVED them), and gave a quote bubble for a couple of famous Reagan sayings. 

Asa was in the office so Peyton took some pictures for me during the first part of the toy time line. Reagan was born in Illinois. For the purposes of our timeline, he is depicted by Captain America. 

He had odd jobs as a teenager. He was a lifeguard(he saved 77 lives!) , he dug out foundations for houses, he even worked for the circus when they came to down. His least favorite job though? Sorting potatoes on a box car in the summer heat, picking out the rotten ones. 

After college he went to Iowa to be a radio announcer for the Cubs (they announced not from the games, but in a studio with information being sent on the telegraph to them) 

Then he moved to California to become and actor. He acted in somewhere around 50 movies, one even starred a chimp. 

Lull in the pictures here, apparently. But, he got married to an actress, Jane, and then got called up for the war after Pearl Harbor was bombed. But, because of his poor eye sight, he didn't see active duty, and actually didn't even leave the U.S. He loaded boats up, before voicing training video for WWII bomber pilots. When he came home from the war, he became president of the Screen Actors Guild, and even helpef the FBI sniff out communist sympathizers within Hollywood. He really enjoyed the politics of it all, Jane did not, and so they got divorced. 

He met Nancy (she had been confused with someone else, a communist supporter) and needed Reagan's help. The two fell in love, got married, they had a couple more kids. Ronald became governor, and then eventually ran for President against a pretty unpopular Jimmy Carter. (Seen here as Woody).  Reagan was elected (like, really elected- it was a landslide), and he and his VP, the first George Bush(seen here as Dr. Dufenshmirtz-- I actually see a slight resemblance) headed to Washington. 

We touched on the hostage crisis in Iran, but I'll probably put that more under Jimmy Carter's presidency, since they were released at the precise time Reagan was being inaugurated, after being held captive for 444 days. 

Shortly after being elected, John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate the president. 

This vantage point is pretty fun. 

And then we talked about the Cold War, the War on Drugs (and the 'Just Say No' Campaign), his second election- the won by the largest margin in history,  the Space Shuttle Challenger, the Berlin Wall and the Iran-Contra Affair, leaving Washington D.C. and heading back to California, and his Alzheimers. I'm lacking pictures in this department, because my batteries died. 

That was the story of the day, I charged them for a bit, and then pulled them back out. Our activities today were both STEM Challenges, so we could knock our monthly STEM day off our list too. 

Since Reagan loved jelly beans, I figured this one was appropriate. They had to build a geodesic dome using all the jelly beans. 

Our second STEM Challenge went along with the Berlin Wall, or sort of- sometimes you really have to make a leap with these activities. Basically you get four index cards, a ruler, scissors, and three inches of masking tape, and you have to come up with a design for a Cinder block to sit a half-inch off the ground/table. 

Success! 

We made our usual cards. 

We made Ronald Reagans favorite for dinner and dessert too. He was a big fan of monkey bead. 

And Nancy's Mac & Cheese recipe was the best I think I've ever had. 

We added a big red (for Republican) 40 above Ronald and noted his presidential issues and some fun facts. He was the only professional actor turned president, the only president to have been divorced, and he was the oldest president ever elected. 

The boys were quite impressed with Reagan. He got a #Ineverstop and #Teardownthiswall

Today was also yet another free frozen yogurt day, and we couldn't miss out on that. 

And there's been lots of birthday prep. Hayden likes to find his presents via treasure map. I know, I'm not the best artist, but I do what I can. 

Calib liked it, and said it was easy to read. 

And we wanted to make his presents themselves look a little more like treasure. 

I also had this fun little jelly belly 'treat' for the boys. You spin the spinner and select that jelly belly. It could be blueberry, or it could be toothpaste. It actually gets much worse than that. 

But, my boys are adventurous, so I knew they'd like it. I didn't try it though. I don't even like normal jelly beans. 

And we played 'name that president' with our buzzers tonight. 

I am off to do some cake frosting, play some spy alley and catch up on some TV with Asa. 

Next Up: A certain Hayden is turning NINE!