What an exciting, super busy week!!!

This week started with getting fully ready for school and then the first day of school for our B and little J!! B got just the teacher she wanted and has loved her first week. Little J I was a bit worried about but he did so super the first day and really seems to be enjoying being a 'big kid' in his big sisters school. Little A and I went to a park close to the school the first day and then went back to the school to have lunch with J; mostly for me to scope out where he was sitting, etc. I didn't want him sitting alone at a peanut table by himself but they were able to accommodate him at a rollover table right with his class while still maintaining a nut-free zone. Whew! I'll be a happy mommy if his allergies aren't pestered while he's away from me. Little A hasn't seemed to change much this past week except perhaps reminding me more than usual that she is the baby of the family. She plays well by herself and as the above picture points out she is still terribly adorable. I heard her sweet little voice one day and went in to find her with her 'working' goggles on from Lowe's on top of her spread out lovey reading her spider book. Goofy girl! We were hardly home this week and she was probably very happy just to do something quiet!

We also went camping this weekend on a church campout and Sat. morning went to a sculpture garden. They were having a free day in memory of 9/11. I had wanted to come for a long time but wasn't sure how it would be with the kids and all. We loved it! The rules are a little strict about outside food and such but we snuck in some snacks and taught the kids that sculptures with green labels were ok to touch but not red ones. The place was actually quite accommodating to children and we walked what felt like 5 miles. It is huge!! They had one fun, big sculpture where you could bang on metal with metal to make 'music' that the kids loved and a long snake that you could walk along and a tree house, several beautiful water garden areas and a few inside buildings with really cool exhibits. I liked both: one was sculptures made of rubber tires by Chakaia Booker (pictured above and linked for examples) and the other 3 dimensional thin people by Keith Haring. This place had something to look at everywhere we turned and we all had so much fun! I definitely recommend going if you are in the area!

Other than that I've stayed super busy between Young Womens at church, making playdough for J's class, baking A LOT, playgroup, B's first gymnastics this fall, going to the zoo for the kids day off school for Rosh Hashanah etc., etc. I've discovered a fun alternative to s'mores for little J and all the kids ended up choosing them over the s'more's themselves. B doesn't like the melted marshmallow with the crackers and chocolate and neither does her daddy. I made shortbread cookies and while they were still warm put Hershey's chocolate in between so it melted a little. Yummm!

Art and Science Weeks!!!

We joined some friends for the Crayola Factory! At first I thought, "Crayola Factory? That's what I feel like my house is sometimes with endless fun art projects to do, why do I need to go pay for this? But, then I saw it was also educational. They showed us how they make crayons and markers and we got free merchandise. The kids all loved doing the art projects they had there and easily could have spent much longer than me there. Also, our Crayola admission got us into the Canal Museum, which showed a little about how canals work with each child getting their own boat to take through the river. They also had ways to learn about pulley's and turning a boat. Then the kids spent time building with blocks and playing together. All in all it was a fun day! Little J started to get car sick but a few minutes outside the car and the books put away helped. Whew!

Cute little kidlets with Mr. Crayon

We also successfully grew our own crystals!! We tried once, but mostly failed--the crystals only grew on the string, not the snowflake. But, I reviewed the instructions again since it'd been a while since I'd read them and tried again. This time--GREEN CRYSTALS!!!! And we also made blue salt crystals so we could compare the two but there weren't as many of those so we didn't photograph it. But, the kids observed that the two types of crystals were quite different in size and shape so the experiment was successful! For these green crystals you just put 1 cup boiling water into a plastic jar and slowly stir in 1 Tbsp. Borax. Then you can color it with food coloring and put in this snowflake (or any shape) as shown and wait about 24 hours and voila! Crystals!! And if you need Borax I have a TON so come get some! The salt crystals work just about the same way but I think it was 1/4-1/2 c. salt to 1 c. boiling water and used a paperclip instead.

And, speaking of science, we didn't picture it but we went to the mall one day where they were having a guy, who was obviously very pumped up about this lesson, demonstrate how liquid nitrogen works. What?! So cool!!! The demo was quite a bit longer than we expected but worth it. The kids were so into it. At the end he made ice cream with the liquid nitrogen. He surprised me by adding the liquid nitrogen right into the milk/cream mixture. So cool! And the kids all agreed that it was super yummy!!! The way he presented it reminded me of the kind of science 'magic' some friends here did and I loved it! Thanks Wondergy science guy!