Clarey

While we've been doing all these fun things, Clarey has been her wonderful, content, patient self - sitting quietly on the floor completely occupied with her toys.

Bird Nests

As the weather has warmed and we've seen more birds around our yard, the boys have become very interested in them. So today, we decided to build nests for our stuffed animal birds. We used pipe cleaners and felt scraps.

Levi built a nest for Baby Puffin.

Clayton was a little more methodical about it. He started with pipe cleaners.


At the end of it, all of us were impressed at the nests birds build. It isn't so easy to start with nothing and build a nice home.

Stomachs

Clayton was interested in the digestive tract - specifically, what happens when food goes into our stomachs. So we made some stomachs. We got a ziptop bag to be the stomach itself. We added a bit of lemon juice to be the acid. And, of course, some food. Then we scrunched and smooshed it all up. Then we had to set it on the counter for a few days to see what happened to it. Meanwhile, we read about what happens to food after we eat it. Clayton was a bit disappointed the food in the stomachs we made didn't turn into poop. But then, he decided, it couldn't have because we just made stomachs, not intestines.

St. Patrick's Day Crafts

We did a few crafts for St. Patrick's Day. First, we made leprechaun traps...that I didn't get a picture of! We painted McDonald's Happy Meal containers green and added a rainbow made from pipe cleaners to the top. We added a few golden circles and had a very enticing trap for the leprechauns. We also mixed yellow and blue paint to make green and later cut them into shamrocks.

Later, we painted some shamrocks and decorated them with different ribbons.

On St. Patrick's Day itself, we got the shaving cream. (The bottle just so happened to be green...)

A drop of green food coloring later and we had Leprechaun Cream!

Clayton dove right in!

"I just can't do it!" Levi said about putting his fingers in the pile.


It feels so good to squish it between your fingers...


And of course, we can't do anything without adding in a dinosaur or two.

Cinnamon Toast

Clayton has recently started making his own cinnamon toast. My boys eat at least one piece a day... Any guesses as to why he likes his better than mine? Could it be the 1/4 inch of cinnamon and sugar atop his???

Congratulations, Garrett and Anna!

A big congratulations to Garrett and Anna, who are now engaged! Okay, so I am really late in delivering this message...I'm Sorry! We're so excited for you guys!

Explorations in Print Making

One January afternoon, at the lunch table, Levi was completely intrigued by the prints he was making after dipping his finger in his peanut butter and putting it on his plate. The next day, our exploration of print making began.

Our first set of prints were made from styrofoam meat trays the boys etched with paperclips and brush handles.

They really enjoyed the messiness of inking and were amazed at the prints they made. The first observation from Clayton: Hey! My picture is backwards!


Next, (a few days later) we found these great scraps from our foamy floor tiles. They were perfect to experiment with.

Levi thought the prints from these scraps looked like tire tracks.

Our next project started with a scavenger hunt for objects to use to make impressions on our foam. (Of course, there had to be a dinosaur...)

Clayton preferred using the allen wrench .

Levi liked the impression the cookie cutter made. The foam we used for this project wasn't nearly as easy to work with as the meat trays were...

For our last project, we finger painted.

We blended colors, made lines with our fingers and finished the project by making a print.

It was all good fun.

Cheese!

A week ago or so, the boys were watching Curious George as they woke up. On the show, George visits a dairy where they are making cheese. "Mom! It's so easy to make cheese! You just take milk and add lemon juice and you get cheese! We have to do it!" Clayton told me immediately after seeing it on tv. A quick Google search later and we were in the cheese making business. Clearly, the boys are excited.

First we had to heat our milk.

Then we had to be cheesy.

We measured out our lemon juice.

Once our milk reached temperature, we added the lemon juice and watched the milk transform/curdle.

After letting it sit, we drained away the whey.

Then we had to be cheesy.

We rinsed the cheese and ate it. I have to say, it was okay. I've had much better cheese. My expectations weren't high as I didn't spend a lot of time searching for the best recipe. It did take a lot of milk to make a little cheese. At least the boys' curiosity was satisfied.

Hearts of Hope

Hearts of Hope
~ hoping she'll see a world where cancer is cured ~

I'm raising money to support the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. What better way than making something adorable for little girls?

Hearts of Hope hair clip/headband $3 ea.
Hearts of Hope t-shirt $8 ea.
Hearts of Hope tutu (solid purple or purple/white striped) $8 ea.

Combo (hair clip/headband and t-shirt or tutu) $10
Complete ensemble (hair clip/headband, t-shirt and tutu) $15

E-mail me at heartsofhope@rocketmail.com for more information.

Thank you for supporting the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life!