Wacky Wednesday

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Today was Wacky Wednesday for Tate at school. He decided to wear

Emery's Gymnastics Moves

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For the last month or so, Emery has been practicing doing cartwheels. She has been doing them on cement. She has been doing them on the trampoline. And she has been doing them inside, regardless of her surroundings. Several weeks ago she started taking gymnastic classes and has come up with a dance/trick routine. I don't actually think that she is actually learning any of these things in her class.

Tate's First Day Of School

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I have never been one to get overly sentimental about things that everybody does. While I think that it is a big event in a kid's life when they start school, it is something that everybody goes through. I personally think that while you can encourage your child to be enthusiastic and excited, I never went through that "oh...they're growing up so fast" or "he's getting so big" moments.
When I picked Tate up at daycare after his first day of kindergarten, I was approached with the statement, "I don't know if you've already heard about Tate's day...". I knew that it was going to be something different that the normal kid's first day of school.

Go To The Zoo

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While on vacation in Colorado Springs, we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. This particular zoo is known for having the largest giraffe herd of any zoo in the world. According to this sign, the giraffes were getting too big. Starting that week, they had made the transition to feeding them lettuce. Watch a video of the kids feeding the giraffes after the break.

Father's Day Gift

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For Father's Day, the kids each brought home a jar of peanut M & M's (which I promptly gave back to them) and an envelope. Inside the envelope was a form that each of the kids filled out about me.

Tate's Drawing

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Last night, the kids (along with two neighborhood kids) were playing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway. First, they were taking turns drawing foods and then the others would guess what it was. Then, they started drawing animals. This is what Tate drew:

Emery and Her Blanket

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Every time that I make a video with the kids, the first thing that Emery asks, even if I am not done filming yet, is if she can see it. After her Easter Egg hunt video, she wanted to make a new video where she wasn't grumpy. Here it is:

Balloon Shell

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Making a balloon shell is a project that I have a vague memory of doing when I was a kid and it seemed like a  fun thing for the kids to try. This is a relatively easy project that takes very little items but a significant amount of time. 

Tate's Definition of Being Full

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One day, Tate stated that he was done eating because he was full. After he had put away his dishes, washed his hands and face, he immediately asked for dessert. So I asked him what it mean to be full. His answer is below.

Easter Crafts

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It wasn't until my kids started daycare that I realized the true value of toilet paper rolls. They have consistently proven their worth with kids activities. On Good Friday, I didn't work and daycare was closed. So I decided to try to fill the day with fun activities. 

Why We Can Never Move To The Pacific Northwest

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Go On An Easter Egg Hunt

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I don't remember going on Easter egg hunts as a kid. I honestly don't know if this is because we didn't go on them, or if I just don't remember doing it. As a parent, I am always trying to find fun and free activities to take my kids to. At 4 and 5 they have been to dozens of parades and to two Easter Egg hunts this year alone. In Tiffin, they had the kids segregated by age. The younger kids have a higher concentration of eggs inside the cones. Beyond that it turns into anybody's game. The advice that I gave both kids was

Bath Bombs

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When I am looking for activities to do with the kids, ones that have few steps and/or items are generally a quick sell. Bath bombs are an item that you can purchase pre-made, but they are relatively easy to make.  The hardest thing about this entire project, was finding citric acid. After looking at Target and Wal-Mart, I finally found it at

Make Quicksand

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This was a project that my mom actually got for the kids. This was amazing and it held my attention as long as the kids. When I opened up the package, there were very few components. A plastic bowl, a paper sign and foliage, a toy elephant and tiger and a bag of corn starch. Before I started this project, I knew that this would be messy so I taped some paper on the kitchen table. The kids took turns pouring their package of corn starch into their respective bowls and then I added water. As soon as I started to stir the mixture and it got difficult, I knew that I had seen this before.

Make Salt Crystals

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Unless you are a senior citizen or clean clothes for a living, you probably don't know what bluing is. I am neither. So when I ran across this integral component to growing salt cyrstals, I had to go to Google. Apparently as white clothes start to fade, the trace amount of blue emakes the clothes seem whiter to the human eye. These days, bleach has pretty much replace bluing as an household item.

In the state of Iowa, Mrs. Stewart's, the most widely carried brand of bluing, is only found in three store chains. None of them were where I lived. Therefore, this project got shelved for nearly two years.

Birthday Party Activities

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 This was the first year that the kids wanted to have separate birthday parties. Quite frankly, I am surprised that it took this long. For their parties, they each invited four friends over to our house. I was surprised that they wanted to have their parties at home and not go anywhere. We wanted to give the kids something to do that they could take home. One benefit of having kids with birthdays only two and a half weeks apart, is that you can plan the parties at the same time.  

Make A Rubber Egg

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One thing that my parents did an excellent job of was instilling the seed of wonderment and curiosity in both me and my siblings. They took us to the Art Center, Art in the Park, and the Science Center. Every year, my dad would take me to an independent theater to watch an animation festival. In fact, the elementary school that we attended was Edmunds Academy of Fine Arts. I think that these all helped build a foundation of appreciation for not only the Arts, but for general knowledge and the expansion of our mental horizons.

When I was younger, one thing that I looked forward to every Thanksgiving was a similar experiment to the rubber egg. But instead of a rubber egg, you ended up with a wishbone that you could tie in a knot. When it dried, you had a bone-hard knot. I would take the hardened bone to school and baffle other kids. It was almost as if it was a magic trick.

Make A Volcano

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In my mind, nothing exemplifies a good old fashioned activity with the kids more than making rock candy and building a volcano. Since I already tried (and failed) at rock candy, I figured that it was time to build the consummate science fair project. As to the fact that I’ve never built a volcano before, I was slightly ashamed (or more appropriately, embarrassed) that I didn’t actually know how to construct the thing. I had a general idea of putting papier-mâché onto a mound with a hole in the middle.

When I started thinking about the practicalities of two children creating a sizeable mound with wet and slimy paper, I realized that I would either need a bunch of paper or something to put it on. Then a coworker suggested that I use chicken wire because it can be easily molded into any shape.

Make A Lemon Clock

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Before I had even started this project, it was one that I wished that I had done as a kid. I got this from The Daring Book for Girls. This science experiment required five different items; a clock, two galvanized nails, copper wire, electrician’s clips and a lemon (or two). Piece of cake. I looked in my fridge and realize that Leigha had a twenty pound bag of grapefruit and I figured that I could replace one of these for a lemon; it was bigger and still full of citrus. In retrospect, I would like to point out that this was the first of many times that I exchanged items/skimmed over the requirements for this to be a success.

            At Lowe’s, I quickly found the only item that I hadn’t heard of previously: the electrician’s clips. Then I started to look for galvanized nails. The book called for sixteen inch long nails. When I found them, I realized that a box cost about ten dollars, and I only needed two. I had several options at this point. 1. Spend ten bucks on some nails that I would hope to use one day. 2. Grab two nails from a box. 3. Find an employee and try to barter. Due to the fact that I’m a cheapskate and not a thief, I started to look for an employee.

Make Rock Candy

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What is more embarrassing than a failed attempt to make sugar crystals? Failing twice. The first time was as a thirteen year old. I kept a glass of sugar next to my bedroom window and checked it regularly. At this age, I spent a lot of time home alone, trying to find ways to entertain myself. I would take my bike to a busy street at the end of the block and lay down on the ground with my leg sticking through the middle of the bike. I would wait near the sidewalk, to see if people would stop and ask if I needed any help.

“No thanks, I’m just taking a rest.”

I was bored, lonely and weird. At the time, I was trying to make the sugar crystals because I thought that it would be a good snack that I could keep in my backpack. How can a kid beat rock candy for a snack? Like the demise of my one and only brine shrimp, I probably stuck my finger in the water too much. Aquatic pets aren’t supposed to be interactive.