Post Science Fair Entertainment - Snakes

After the science fair exhibit is over, the kids are invited into one of a few activities. Typically, the "Mad Scientist" makes an appearance, and so does a reptile handler. This year, the kids went to visit the reptiles, and Mia was called up to help hold a snake. They got quite comfortable, and she spent much of the event standing up in the front with her new slimy friend.

Science Fair

Science Fair time was a lot of fun in our house this year. 

Mia and Sophie conducted an experiment to see if people could locate sounds from various distances when they were blindfolded. We were all surprised that we weren't as good at locating sounds as we thought we'd be. They used my grandma Moni's bell to make the sounds and were careful not to make any other noises once the experiment began.

Testing their methods on dad. Mia is ringing a bell from the first of two distances, and dad is pointing to where he thinks the sound is coming from. Sophie is noting how accurate he is in their journal.

Zoe and a friend wanted to measure the distance that softballs would travel when hit by bats made from various materials (wood, plastic, metal). They each hit 15 balls with each bat type from a tee, and then averaged the distances from each bat.

Zoe hits the ball with a metal bat while her friend waits to measure and record it's distance. After they compared averages across the three bats.

A Day at the Farm - Sophie

Sophie and I spent a day at the farm with her class this Spring. None of the animals were as interesting as playing in the field of wild grass and flowers. A simple, beautiful day.

Mia - Another Tooth Bites the Dust

FINALLY! Mia, you had been writing the tooth fairy preemptive letters in anticipation of losing a tooth. That made the tooth fairy's job very difficult! She had to know when there was a letter under your pillow that needed a response before you actually lost the tooth. 

When you lose a tooth at school, they give you a sweet little tooth necklace to bring it home in. Needless to say, you were very excited!

Spring Sports

The kids spend most of their time outside of school wearing one sports uniform or another. Here's a quick run down of the Spring season. 

When not doing team sports, we try to go roller skating on the weekends. Sophie graduated to big girl skates this year and LOVES them.

Zoe's interest in softball grew this season as she really made progress with both hitting and fielding.

 And Mia is blossoming as a soccer player. She'll run any ball down and is super fast. 

For all the kids, they are more intent on the game and working with their team mates this season. That means that there are less on field cartwheels and hand stands and more planning and passing. Fun to watch!

Crafty Caregivers

There is a lot I could write about when I think of 'crafty caregivers'. We've had some absolutely fantastic sitters over the years and a few stinky ones too. I wanted to remember how crafty and generous our current sitter is. 

As one example, she spent one of her weekends preparing materials to re-introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in a new way. She painstakingly cut out tiny shapes out of felt for faces and wildlife and gave each of you a white sheet about the size of a large pillowcase to use as your landscape. There were hundreds of felt pieces so you could each create just about anything. I thought it was remarkable.

This is one of your creations:

Cherry Blossoms - Spring 2015

We made our annual family trek to see the Cherry Blossoms this April. This is one of my favorite places to visit, especially when we can go early in the morning when it's not too crowded. I love walking around the tidal basin and walking through the FDR memorial.

Posers

Virginia Beach

A first for us this year was a group family vacation. Four families rented a large 10 bedroom house on Virginia Beach for five days over Spring Break. The house had an indoor pool and was on the ocean. The Boardwalk was a short drive away, and we were close to a Children's museum, Aquarium and ropes course. I wasn't sure how the sleeping arrangements would go and whether we'd get that much sleep with all the kids running around, but it went surprisingly well. The kids had a great time together and so did the parents. In fact, we spent so much time hanging out and just enjoying, that we took nearly no photos. We even missed photos of the nightly kid productions that were put on after dinner most nights!