Science Fair

Sara and Tim have been working for weeks on their science fair projects.  I am superbly happy that it is OVER!  They learned a lot and enjoyed working on their projects, but boy did it take up a bunch of time.  They both kept very detailed project journals on all that they learned during their research and experiments.

Sara learned about the mineral hardness scale and chose 10 minerals and rocks to test and make her scientific guess as to where they fell on the hardness scale.   

Tim learned about the pH balance of 6 different liquids. He had a mason jar for each liquid and placed an egg in them.  He tested to see the effect the liquids had on the eggs over a 3 day period, journaling about it several times a day.  It was really quite interesting to watch what happened to the eggs.

Vinegar

Water, the egg got cracked during the experiment.  oops!

Peroxide

Windex

Lemon Juice

Coke

 This picture made Richard and I laugh.  This girl was talking to Sara about her project, but it looks like Sara is trying to protect Laney from a bully that is ready to punch someone's lights out.

It was a good experience for both of them, but I think they, as well as me, are glad to be done with it and getting a bit more sleep.

Laney turns 6

Laney has been eagerly awaiting her birthday.  Her birthday was on one of the busiest days we have had in the last month, with tons of homework and projects going on, piano lessons, scouts and a girls camp meeting.  We had her birthday dinner as requested, homemade mac and cheese and  managed to squeeze in 10 minutes for presents.  We will be making and having her birthday cake belated this weekend.  She was a good sport about it.  

 She got exactly what she asked for, new white Sunday shoes,

 Polly Pocket sized Ariel and sisters for bath time,

and lots of Legos from the new Friends line for girls. (Finally girl Legos!)

Laney is beautiful inside and out.  She has a big heart and loves to please.  She is a hard worker and super smart.  She is truly a ray of sunshine in my life!

Preschool Graduation

Susanna loves preschool.  She gets lonely being at home with just me during the day.  She is always trying to read things and is reading lots of short words now.    She is SO ready for kindergarten, but alas, she still has another year. 

She is already missing her class.  She asked me this morning if she had preschool or play group today.  When I told her we were done with both of them for the summer, she asked me if she was going to kindergarten today.  Poor girl.  Only two more days and she will have lots of siblings to play with.

Daniel's Birthday Party - FINALLY

Poor Daniel!  His birthday was in March, but so is everyone else's apparently, because there were no free weekends to have his party.  We tried for April, but again, just too many activities until the last Saturday of the month.  We were good to go, and then Daniel started throwing up the day before.  So, after a few tears and lots of patience, we finally had Daniel's party at the beginning of May, two months late.

It was Cinco de Mayo so we decorated with big fiesta flowers.

Dandi, and all the kids, helped clean up the extra frosting.  They are so sweet!

I don't know why, but I get stressed out about entertaining younger kids at parties.  I can feed them and decorate for them, but I get overwhelmed with running a party and doing the games, so I called up my dear sister Dandi.  She loves party games and is great at making it fun for the kiddos.  She is wise too.  While having them play pin the head on the lego guy she also had an "I Spy" the lego men game for them to play.  No standing around bored while waiting for your turn.  

They played Pass the Parcel.  It is basically layer after layer of tissue paper wrapped up, a different color for each layer, and a gift wrapped in each layer.  It's like hot potato with music, and when it stops who ever is holding the parcel gets to unwrap one layer.  Inside the layer there is a prize and a slip of paper saying some silly thing you have to do to keep the prize.  We worked it out so everyone got a prize.  It was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures of the kids doing the silly things to get their prizes.

Ttrying to do a handstand

 Flapping his arms while saying, "I can fly, I can fly"

I can't remember if he had to be scared or if he was scaring us.

Giving her arm a zerbert

I have no idea what he was doing, but he looks rediculous!

Jumping like a frog

Doing push ups

Being a zombie

Daniel had a wonderful time with all his friends, so I claim success!  I really am grateful to Dandi for being the fun master.  It made it possible for me to take pictures and enjoy watching Daniel.  And thanks to everyone who came.  We love having you as a part of our lives!