On March 5th we tried on crazy St. Patty's Day hats at WalMart.
On the 7th I had my preschoolers make Mardi Gras masks. Faith made one out of the leftover supplies after she got home from school that day. I love how she made blue fluffy eyelashes out of feathers!
Faith brought home this cute pretzel cabin that she made at school for President's Day. I love the added touch of Lincoln (on the penny) in the doorway!
This had been hanging up on our metal decoration where we post cards and crafts. It's the Savage family Valentine card:
front
We were so surprised and excited! Recently we found out the baby is a boy and they've been thinking about names. Brandt, Mason and Enoch are the front runners at this point. I'm so looking forward to meeting the little guy this fall and seeing if my doula/hypnobirthing skills work just as well this time around!
On the 12th we stopped to feed the ducks at Barnes Park,
We even did their black light mini golf this time!
The 14th was Pi day (π = 3.14...) so we had chicken pot pie for dinner and pie for dessert. Actually, I'm not a huge fan of most pies so I made a chiffon cheesecake in a graham cracker crust pie shell and had frozen mixed berries for the top :) (Christian is not unhappy, this is just one of his many "cool" looks that he likes to try when mugging for the camera!)
That night the kids put together an amazing and very intricate leprechaun trap:
Here is the description of how it works:
Unfortunately, the little bugger was too sly for us--he was in the trap but somehow escaped. He left behind his little footprints as well as confusion from having traded the items in our drawers and cabinets (especially hiding the silverware and kids' bowls), switching around our pantry (moving the cereal boxes up to a high shelf), and coloring our milk green. What a tricky guy!
For Fun Friday on the 18th I decided to do experiments having to do with ice, liquids and surface tension. First, I had a big block of ice I had frozen in a tupperware container. I sprinkled the top with salt and then dripped on food coloring. The salt melted cracks in the ice which the coloring seeped into making a really cool art piece! Next I passed out cups of water and ice to the kids along with some string and showed them how the string didn't stick to the ice at first, but after laying it over and sprinkling with salt, the top melted and refroze the ice to the string. I got these ideas from this blog.
Next I had a large vase filled with hot water and a little pimento jar (thanks Jenn, you're a lifesaver!) filled with cold water and a little blue food coloring. After I lowered the small jar down into the vase, we observed that the blue water stayed in. I then dumped both and filled the vase with cold water and the small jar with hot water and red food coloring. After lowering that one in, it looked like a water volcano, with the red water erupting out and up in the cold water! This picture is the closest thing I could find online, but here is a cool video of something similar.
After that I did the experiment where water gets sucked up into a jar. I started with colored water in a pie plate, a burning candle in the center of the water, and then placed a mason jar over the candle. As the flame heats the air, it expands and escapes out of the bottom of the jar. Water gets sucked in as soon as the air starts to cool. Here's a pretty good video of the experiment.
Next I did the colorful milk experiment. I poured some milk into the pie plate and then dropped food coloring onto it. I got dish soap on a q-tip and put it into the milk, making the coloring swirl around. Part of the reason has to do with breaking the surface tension, but the real action comes from the properties of the soap breaking up the fats in the milk. Check it out!
Lastly, I showed them water droplets on waxed paper and how they have a spherical shape. I passed out pieces of wire to the kids and had them make bubble blowing wands out of them in shapes instead of circles. We took them outside and found that they still made round bubbles! They weren't the greatest wands, the bubbles tended to pop just as they left the blowers, but still fun! (That's Spencer, Faith's "friend" looking at the camera and Faith and Buddy are farther back on the left.)
Of course, we stayed for lunch and recess.
After saving this shell from our preschool "Volcano Lava Luau" day when we ate lots of coconut, Buddy had me write "coconut head" on a piece of paper which he attached inside. For reasons known only to him, it's a hilarious joke to hand this to people :)
On the 26th we used a Christmas gift card and went out to eat at The Olive Garden. Christian was too busy playing to eat his fettuccine until the very end when we were ready to go. He shoved almost the entire thing in his mouth at once (hence the alfredo sauce dripping down his chin.) Way to keep it classy, Bro!
For art I passed out finger paints to the kids and warned them that although they were really bright and fun, they were also very poisonous so they had to be careful with them. I showed them how to paint on one half of the paper and then fold it and open it back up to make a positive mirror image. Then, on another paper, spreading glops of paint, folding it, and drawing with a crayon on the outside of the folded paper so that when you opened it there was a negative (the drawing was white while the surrounding was color) mirror image (it was opposites day at preschool that day). I kept making a big deal about how dangerous the paint was, but at the end I "accidentally" licked my finger!! Before the kids came unglued, I quickly shouted "April Fools!" and explained that the paint was just pudding with food coloring in it. It was a fun day at preschool!
Anyway, after Faith came home she and Buddy had a blast with the leftover finger paints and made about a zillion masterpieces.
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