Is This January?

The weather around here has been very un-January like. I'm not complaining. I know this won't last too long though. (In fact it is supposed to be cold today.) Lily and I have been taking advantage of this nice weather though while it lasts. We took a long walk yesterday and ended up at the park. No trip to the park would be complete without a run up and down the hill:

We made it to the park at last!

After playing we started back home. Lily was excited to see her friend Reese (from across the street) was outside too! Reese ran up and gave her a BIG hug!

These two crack me up. They are both 4 and they both are a little on the bossy side. :0) But they love each other. Reese ran up to me and said, "Lily is my best friend!" So sweet!

We stayed outside another 2 hours with Reese and her mommy. It was such a beautiful day. I know that these days are going to be few and far between for awhile, so I am glad Lily & I were able to take advantage of it.

Riley, The Bug Maker!

Riley got this cool bug maker from his Uncle Aaron and Allison for Christmas:

Bugs & gooey stuff? That's right up Riley's alley! He was SO excited to use it. First he used the gel bug eggs to make a bug by putting them into the bug maker. It melts the eggs and then he was able to squeeze the liquid eggs into a bug mold:

After he was done filling the bug mold, we let it cool. He got this cool jelly bug when he opened the mold:

You can make plain bugs, or you can make bugs that are hollow. You can fill the hollow ones with bug goo. Which one do you think Riley made? Yep, the ones you can fill with goo....

He filled the syringe with goo, injected the bug with it, and got a goo filled bug. He was so excited. Why was he so excited? So he could do this:

He smashed the bug and goo went everywhere!

He's such a boy! =) I see many more goo filled counter tops in my future......

Thanks Aaron & Allison for the cool present!

Zach, The Science Wizard!

Zach got this cool science kit from his cousin Ares for Christmas:

He has been loving doing experiments with it! The first thing he had to do though, was make his wizard hat and magic wand. The magic hat was easy enough, he just had to decorate, cut, and tape it. Then came the wand part. First he had to put water into a test tube. He wanted to make his wand purple, so he had to figure out which color tablets he needed to use to get purple. He dropped in a blue color tablet. Then he decided that red was the other color he needed.

After he changed the blue water to purple water, he added dried "crystals" to the water. After an hour, they were full crystals! He carefully added them to his wand, put the cap on, and....

Ta-Da! Instant wizard! =)

(Yes, I realize he has a Halloween shirt on in this picture.....it really was after Christmas...)

Another experiment that he did used acids and bases. He filled 2 test tubes with water, added red cabbage juice to both, which turned the water a purple-ish color, then added citric acid to one and baking soda (a base) to the other.

The acid turned red and the base turned blue! Then, using a third test tube, he mixed the two together, and got this reaction:

It foamed up! He thought that was pretty cool.

He has done several more experiments with his magic science kit, and he loves it! Thanks Ares!

2011 Year in Review

Happy New Year! 2011 was a wonderful year for us!! So many things happened and we were able to do a lot of fun things. Here is our year in review:
January: We celebrated 2011 by letting the kids stay up until midnight for the first time; Lily began ballet/tap classes, Zach received his First Reconciliation; Zach and Riley both raced cars in the Pinewood Derby.

February: We helped Jeff celebrate his 35th Birthday; had fun in the snow; Jeff taught Zach how to cook on the grill.

March: We were in the St. Patrick's Day Parade with Grandma Logan; the leprechauns visited us again this year leaving footprints and gold; I turned 33; and we added a patio in the backyard.

April: Riley turned 6; Zach got glasses; we celebrated Easter; and helped celebrate at Aunt Amy & Uncle Sam's wedding.

May: Zach received his First Communion; Lily got her first "big girl" bike; Zach was a narrator in his play at school; and Riley graduated from Kindergarten.

June: We set up our backyard pool for some summer fun; Riley & Lily ran in the Tot Trot; Zach & Jeff went to Scout Camp (Zach's first overnight camp); and Lily turned 4.

June/July: Since we were in St. Maarten in both June & July, I put these pictures in their own collage. We had fun swimming in the ocean, playing on the beach, and exploring the island!

July: We celebrated the 4th of July with lots of fireworks; had a water balloon fight with the cousins; and participated in the Summer Olympics that Aunt Dianna organized.

August: We went to the Sternberg Museum; attended a Chief's game (Lily's 1st); and the boys started school (Zach in 3rd grade & Riley in 1st grade).

September: Lily & I (with Aunt Mary & Johnny) went to Botanica for the 1st time; Lily started in the Dance Academy at the YMCA; Zach started back in scouts as a Bear Cub; Riley started scouts for the first time as a Tiger Cub.

October: We started October by Jeff fixing our swing set; we went to Walter's Pumpkin Patch for the 7th year in a row; the kids had a sleepover in a tent in the backyard; for Halloween, Zach was a pirate, Lily was Rapunzel, and Riley was a vampire.

November: In November, Jeff & I went to Texas to meet our new niece Madison; we celebrated Thanksgiving with family; we also had Zach's birthday party.

December: Zach turned 9; Riley got his very own library card; Lily had her first dance recital; and we celebrated Christmas with our families.

We ended the year on New Year's Eve with our own little celebration:

While this covers a lot of what we did and what happened, we were blessed with so much more. 2011 was a great year, and we look forward to 2012!

Baking With Lily

Lily got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. She has been asking & asking for one. She was pretty excited when she was able to bake with it the other day.

Her oven came with 2 things to make; chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes. The cupcakes came with all of this stuff:

I think it was the pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles that sold her on the cupcakes. ;0)

She measured the water, stirred up the mix and water, and put the batter in the mini cupcake pan all by herself!

Then she put the pan in the oven.

Pushing the pan all the way inside with the cool tool the oven came with:

Checking to make sure the pan is inside all of the way:

Finally after 10 minutes of baking and 5 minutes of cooling, they were ready to come out. (That's a long time to a 4 year old!!)

While they cooled even more, Lily made the pink frosting!

Frosting cupcakes by yourself is fun!!

RAINBOW SPRINKLES!!

All done!

And they were quite delicious, if she does say so herself. ;0)

Next up: chocolate chip cookies!

Life-Sized Candy Land Game

On Tuesday, we went to the library to play the life-sized Candy Land game they had set up! The boys had a lot of fun!

Aunt Amy was there too. She was the librarian calling out the colors for the kids to go to on the "board". Each child was a piece on the board and they walked to the color that they drew.

Two news stations were there taking video of the game! Channel 3 & 10 were there.

They got to play twice. Poor Riley didn't get very far on the board either time. He kept saying, "The board doesn't like me, and I don't like the board." He's so funny. Zach cracked us all up too when he asked, "Hey! Isn't Candy Land copyrighted??" Aunt Amy explained to him why the library could use it. (something about not charging to play, so they could.)

During the second game Zach was just a few squares away from winning.

But then he had to go all the way back to the beginning because he drew the gingerbread man card which was close to the start. =( He was a really good sport about it though.
After the game, they went over to the craft tables. First, they made King Kandy crowns.

Then they made scepters using pretzels, frosting, and sprinkles.

They had a lot of fun playing candy land as the pieces and making fun and yummy crafts afterwards. They also got to be on the news! On channel 3 you could see them for a few seconds playing the game, and on channel 10 you could see them doing crafts in the background. They were pretty excited to be on TV! =)