Monday, July 29, 2013

Crystals

Truthfully I don't remember what sparked this experiment.  One day we decided to make crystals.

The kids made some shapes out of pipe cleaners while...

I gathered an array of crystal forming ingredients.

Oh my goodness!  The excitement for this experiment is overwhelming.  Memories in the making.



So 22 days later I get around to documenting the results.  Sydney's hypothesis was correct.  If you want to make crystals, use borax.  Do not use sugar.  Salt was ok but took more than 2 weeks for the water to evaporate.


Rub-A-Dub-Dub, 3 in the tub?

Have I mentioned that the dog likes water?
She dove in one night after her walk.  
And ran around the carpet upstairs and splashed water all over the bathroom and ran around the carpet upstairs and left a very small amount of water in the bathtub.  After the first dive into the tub all I could do was embrace the moment and run for the camera.  It was too late to stop the destruction.


This is mid-leap out of the tub.




Thursday, July 18, 2013

Here fishy, fishy!

For years the kids have wanted to fish.
They finally got their chance.

Step 1: put on your worm
"Do you want to do it Scott and Sydney?"  "NOOOO!!  Ewww!!  Gross!!"  Seriously.

Step 2: Drop the line in the water.

BAM!!  You catch a fish!  I didn't even have time to say Step 3.

Step 2: drop the line in the water.

BAM!!  There's another!

Take a picture of sister...

Fish!



By this point Sydney was successfully fishing without a worm.  This was not your typical fishing trip.  But the kids had a great time, caught some fish and checked another one off the bucket list.

Speaking of bucket lists...Bria and I unhooked our first fish.  Woo-hoo way to go Bria!

The Lake

For Grandma's birthday we went up to the lake for a bit of swimming and fishing and birthday celebrating.
It drizzled the whole way.  It was the first day that it might of not hit 80+.  Was this going to be a successful lake trip?  Cake and UNO were a sure thing.  But will we swim?  Will we fish?  

Oh we will.

I missed his jumping in, his true experience in a Minnesota lake. 
 He was all good until he was swarmed by a school of minnows.

This one braved the water on the pink raft shown in the background.  

I wasn't going to but how can I not.  It had been 7 years since I'd been in the lake.  
This is proof that I did jump.

Fishing was next and will get it's own post so it's on to dryer activities.


The stand-in birthday candle...

Opening gifts with quite the audience.

A Minnesota Summer

The kids and I took off for Minnesota to visit family while Eric was in Japan.  We were a little busy, a little lazy and a teensy bit hot sometimes despite what you might think when you think Minnesota.

One day we hit up the Fargo zoo and children's museum.
At the zoo I managed to take pictures of a variety of animals:

Peacock in pot

Statue of peacock? I'm stretching a bit...

Peacock walking


After a hearty McDonald's lunch we were off to the museum where they...

Rode the train (loud in the tunnel).  
**Note: Children are not in the tunnel when picture was taken**

Got down on the farm.

And enjoyed some fantastic painting among other great things.

Now when we weren't off somewhere else you could bet your bottom dollar we were either:
A. playing baseball in the backyard
B.  Eating homemade cookies
C. playing UNO

Friday, July 5, 2013

4th of July



I don't remember which emotion Sydney wanted to display but thankfully this was not a display of her mood at the time. 



  Eventually the glow sticks were opened.  They came in little black tubes perfect for a sword fight.


Goal Accomplished!!

Sydney is swimming under water!!
After several weeks of swimming to us but with her head above the water she's taken the plunge and just as I  suspected she loves it!

Just pop on those goggles...

and away she goes!


Swimming together...



Museum of Natural Science

We headed up to the museum last week with some teacher friends.  This museum is where Sydney went on her field trip this year so she insisted on wearing the same attire.  She was disappointed that we were not arriving in a school bus.


The butterfly garden.  If you look really really close you might see one or two.