Science Fairs and Birthday Parties!

That is the run down on my week...

My Itty-Bitty tried so hard to make a nice science project for her school science fair.
She came up with it all on her own, growing green beans with different soils to answer the question:

"Which soil will make the plants grow the fastest?"

She had three soil samples and labeled them: Fertilized Soil, Potting Mix, and Dirt (from our backyard). Then she wrote a prediction; The bean seed in the Fertilized Soil will grow the fastest and largest.
Unfortunately, her initial soil samples had too much water in them and the seeds floated to the top...
She pushed them back into the soil and finally they began to grow! Part of the experiment was to be exact in her watering and to measure, regularly, the growth she observed. We were all so excited for her as the sprouts began to break the surface!

I'm not sure exactly what happened then .... to make it veer terrible off in the wrong direction.... but veer it did. It might have been the cats, who love to sit in the window and paw at stuff. It may have been the little brother.... who was a little too over zealous about pulling touching the new growth. It may have been the really amazing tip the Little Scientist found in a gardening book. Apparently, putting eggshells in the soil is a wonderful fertilizer. Knowing that she couldn't add extra items to one soil without also adding to the others, she haphazardly carefully dropped piles of crushed eggshells on the tops of the soil. On top of the teensy-tiny little sprouts. *shakes head* Thankfully, we pulled enough off of one to get a decent shoot, but it didn't do enough to save the project. In an effort to salvage the project, she: planted a new batch and made new predictions, she put together a wonderful project board, and turned in the whole thing. She didn't win any awards, but she felt good about what she learned and she was happy to see the projects her friends did also. It was a good learning experience for all of us.

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On the other end of the week, our focus and planning has turned to the next celebration in our home.

The seventh birthday of my sweet little boy!

When it comes to birthdays, I always have amazing, grandiose ideas.... however, they rarely come to fruition. *sigh* This time, I didn't plan anything at all.... until 9days before the "friend party"... And I called parents and blamed their lack of invitations - on the shoddy mail system out in our little town!

Yes, you can vote for me as Mother of the Year here!

So, anyway, in our family, the most anticipated part for me is the telling of each child's "Birth Story"! Last night, I snuggled my great-big little boy on my lap and retold the whole beautiful event.... in appropriate terms, of course! Fritz really loves to hear about when he was a baby, baby. It makes him all sweet and cuddly again, so I always love it as well! After a sweet family prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for our sweet little boy and our beautiful family, Nana and I finally got those big babies to sleep. Sister set her alarm for 5:57am and of course, Itty-Bitty woke up to it and ran to wake the Birthday Boy!

Another tradition we have is The Birthday Fairy. She ... I'm sure it's a she, although I've never actually seen her.... is related distantly to the Tooth Fairy and the House Fairy, so I hear. The BF comes in the night (duh) and leaves a specially wrapped little gift for the child to open as soon as they wake up! I am not sure exactly how she came to visit our home, but not a single birthday goes by without the children anticipating her return. Fritz received a Kre-O (like Legos) Transformers set today, and when I went to get the kids up, he was sitting on his bed with Itty-Bitty building Bumblebee! After getting dressed, we celebrated Master "Fritz's" birthday today, eating pancakes for breakfast, bringing cupcakes to school, having his special meal (Reuben Sandwiches with potato salad and chips), etc.

We opened a few gifts after dinner.... he was very grown-up and good-natured about the two pairs of long johns and t-shirts. He really is getting big! He was so much fun when he opened his new Hex Bug Nano "environment" that we decided to give him all of the pieces we had been saving for the big party! The kids were all having a great time snapping together the different pieces of track and watching their bugs "battle". Even the cats and dog got into the action! It was after 9 o'clock when I finally got him to take it all apart and get into bed. We ended the night with simple prayers and a customary lullaby. Hush Little Baby, was the request tonight.

Gosh, I love this sweet little man. I am so grateful for all of the wonderful blessings he has brought to our family. I don't know why Heavenly Father lets things happen the way he does, but I am eternally grateful for His wisdom in bringing this special spirit into our lives, we love him more than we ever could have imagined. I will forever be a better woman because I am raising one of the Lord's Stripling Warriors!

Science Fair Blues

Sister Suzie has a Fifth Grade Science Fair project due the week before Spring Break.

Great.

No Problem... Except, there are a MILLION AND ONE rules for the stupid thing and I.can't.stand.complicated. BUT.... being the good, involved, uber-savvy mom I am, I immediately snapped my fat mouth shut attitude in check and set to work finding experiment books for kids on our local library website. I think we checked out seven or eight.... we ended up coming up with an interesting twist on a time-honored classic.



Setting up the experiment
(don't mind the date-stamp LOL)



THE POTATO CLOCK!

We looked at diagrams online and I was pretty sure we could set this puppy up with NO PROBLEMS! HA!

Every explanation I found listed two frustrating pieces of needed equipment. A 1.5-2v  LCD clock, and alligator clips. Now, these are fairly commonplace items... not hard to find at your local hardware or big box store. Except, based on the comments of the type of batteries used, I assumed we needed a little tiny travel clock. And based on the *ahem*not-so-helpful-employee*ahem* at the hardware store, the alligator clips are FLIPPING HUGE! HA!

This meant that tonight's initial set-up of the project took significantly longer than my estimated "throw it together, 30mins - tops" exclamation, and included a tantrum or two... mostly by me. I know. I'm hanging my head in shame. Despicable.

The up-side to this wildly, adventurous scientific journey is that we FINALLY got the stupid rigged circuits to work and Sister Suzie is well on her way to a decent grade - despite my ineptitude!

Here are a few pictures of her work.



Set #1



Set #2

In-home Science Center

I'm A Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinner!!!!

HOORAY!

Kari at U Create sent me an email last night to tell me that I won the random draw for her Say It On The Wall $50 giveaway. Can.You.Believe.It.????

I posted earlier that I was following Texas Type A Mom in her quest to enter giveaways... what you don't know is that I was saying to myself, "I need to enter eleventybillion, because I never win those things..." Well my dear readers (all 6 of you!) never say never!

So, $50... in vinyl... that's like good chocolate for my walls!!!!  Here are a few of the things I am looking at purchasing:

This is the HIL-AR-IOUS saying that I commented on for the contest.

Those of you who know me personally, you KNOW how true that is! LOL and at $10, I think it will be the perfect little tongue-in-cheek hanging for our front door.

I also really like this one - for my girls' room ($12)

And this for THE Boy's room ($15)

I've been looking for something to go over our piano... something about practice... angels... music.... blessings... I don't know...

Maybe this ($18)

That could fit on a 12x12 tile if I aske for it resized a bit.... or I could ask her to widen it a bit and increase the font.

This one is a great one as well ($8.75)

As you can see, I've got a decision on my hands. Which ones do you think I should get - Yeah, I know you are going to say *ALL of them* but really, I only have $50!

Visit Sayitonthewall.com and tell me which ones are your favorites as well!

Don't forget to follow her blog too!

Day of rest...

So, my girls are at their dad's for the weekend... I should be enjoying myself right? WRONG! I am never completely myself when my girlies aren't home. Sure, Fritz and I had lots of fun with Nana and some cousins at McD's yesterday. We did all the good fun stuff yesterday ... like... fixed breakfast, he broke my camera, dumped out all the cinnamon and sugar.... wait... "He broke your camera?" you say. Oh yes. He did. My new one.... my fancy, first one in 12 yrs one.... BROKE! played at McD's, got a toy at McD's, shopped at Wal-Mart, got lost from Momma at Wal-Mart.... Yup... Lost. Called the Manager type lost. Shut the doors type lost.... and what did this sweet boy say to me when he was found???
"Momma! Where were you? I was looking everywhere for you! You should find me next time."

We won't even go into the lovely episode he had in Church today... or the mess I just had to clean up.... Wasn't this post supposed to be about Sunday being a day of rest? Riiiiiiiiight - not if you occupy my world it isn't. It's just LIFE!

But, alas... I do love it so. Sometimes.... gotta go... Fritz just said uh-oh....Again!

Picture Perfect

We haven't put the finishing touches on just yet.... the hills need trees and the village usually has a river>waterfall>lake>skate pond but we haven't 'built' it yet. That is on the agenda for this week....
Anyway, here are my pics! Enjoy, we sure do!


It's hard to believe that the mess that was my living room could turn into ... THIS!!!!

The piano is beautiful, so simple and elegant I think. I bought these candle holders for my mom last year and they are so fun to decorate for the different seasons.

The little tree is a musical cookie jar! The little trains on the base go around the tree.
What a perfect fit for our home!

This little piano belonged to my brother when he was a baby, every grandchild has enjoyed it's precious music. As you can see by the lack of the right leg, it has been well loved in it's 34yrs!
I bought this Santa's Advent calendar last year and really think it's cute. Putting it on the "little piano" means that it is just the right height for getting out little treats as we count down the days until Christmas! I made the Family picture at a Super Saturday for our ward (congregation) last month. Above that is a plaque that simply reads "Pray".



My mother's curio cabinet is full a beautiful things, but nothing is more precious to her than the collection of Napoleon hand crafted porcelain flowers that my father used to buy for her each Christmas. Always wrapped in a special package; no tag necessary, everyone in the family knew exactly who the beautiful gift was for. She placed this one at center this season. It is remarkable.

Close-up pics of the top.

"The Littlest Christmas Tree", it's just right for us and with the 'stars' to light the night, who could ask for more ?

AND NOW..... The Pièce de résistance!!!