slime!

With the recent rain, I needed to keep the kids entertained in the house. Nora was getting tired of crayons and watercolors, and I didn't have some supplies I needed for some other experiments, so we made slime! It's very easy to do and requires white glue (We used Elmer's Glue All), Borax, food color and water. We ended up making slime two days in a row, which was really fun! For directions on making slime, you can check out Steve Spangler's website. 

Nora took her time adding drops of food color to the glue. On our first slime making day, we made more "putty" than slime because I know sometimes Nora doesn't like touching things like slime. We added food color to glue and didn't dilute the glue with any water. Once the color was stirred in, we added a borax and water solution (the "magic ingredient") and watched as our glue magically turned into slime/GAK/putty. The second day, we added equal parts water and glue and stirred that together with color before adding the borax potion. It made for interesting experiments - comparing and contrasting the two. 

We discovered that the thicker slime made great impressions - fingerprints, paper towels, shoe bottoms (that one was NOT planned). It would flow, but not well and if you tore a piece off, you had to work hard to knead it back in. The thinner slime flowed well and made great bubbles! It stretched and oozed and if you took a piece off, it would flow back together! 

Nora did knead the thick and thin pink slime together to see what would happen. It was fun to watch, and we ended up with something still rather thick - it no longer stretched as well as the thinner slime, but flowed back into itself better than the thicker slime, which was pretty much what Nora expected to happen!

We let Beth join in on the slime fun when she woke up from her nap. She had a blast as well. Clean up ended up being pretty easy - the slime, for the most part, peeled right off from every surface we played on (it took a brush to get the little bits off the bottom of the shoes though!).

 

 

Silly bird!

Almost every year, we get a robin's nest or two built up under out deck. In previous years, we had tried to prevent them from being build, and often failed. Last year, Nora actually got to watch a robin feed the babies and then we were even lucky enough to watch a baby jump out of the nest for the first time and hop along the ground to the fence until it took off. Nora enjoyed it so much last year that this year we decided to just let the birds make a nest and see what happened.

First, we ended up with a number of nests. Only one is complete.

As you might imagine, Nora is very impressed with the fact that part of the nest is blue!

 And she was very excited to see a blue robin's egg. Only problem...this egg is not in a nest! It's just sitting all alone! Silly robin!

Coloring Flowers

When I was at the grocery store, I noticed a bouquet of white flowers. It was in the "clearance" section since many of the flowers were very sad looking. I picked it up knowing that with some food color and water, we could have a little fun!

We started putting some food color in water. The more food color you use, the brighter the color in the flowers will be. We only used a few drops (which was all Nora wanted), but 30 or so drops of food color and you'll get much brighter flowers - this is a case of more is better, at least if you want super colorful!

 

As Nora dropped the color into the water, she took note of the fact that the color "splashed down fast and then floated up slow." Not bad for a three year old scientist!

 

Nora also noted that the color tended to be darker on the bottom of the cup, but once she started putting the flower stems in, the colors mixed up evenly.

 

This is a flower in the yellow color. I love how the edges of the petals change. It was very pretty. The blue is very brilliant, but I didn't get a good photo of the blue. Silly me, trying to take photos with the help of two kids!

 Once we were satisfied with the flowers, I removed them from the 4 cups of colored water and created one bouquet to enjoy. What else would you do with the remaining colored water. We took some droppers and decorated paper towels. Nora really enjoyed this!

 

 And the results were pretty! We will be turning her work into either flowers or butterflies to decorate the window.

Here is the final bouquet. We had very pale color because we only used a few drops of each color. But, we had a very pretty bouquet of pastels and Nora was rather pleased with them!

Before we began the experiment, I asked Nora what she thought would happen if we put food color in the water. She thought the stems would change color for green to another color -mixing green and the color added to the water. She was very pleased to see the water didn't change the color of the stems, but of the white petals. Shortly after she made this discovery, it was bath time. She asked me if we put food color in the tub if her hair would turn color. I'm sure if I let her try, she would have taken a blue bath!

Missing for a minute...

When a child goes missing, even for just a few minutes, it can seem like an eternity. Your heart starts racing, brain turns onto overdrive, body turns on autopilot as you start searching and shouting for a child and trying to keep fear-filled images out of your head.

Up until recently, Nora has been very good when it came to listening when outside. She would walk next to me, hold my hand, stay on the sidewalk. She was a rules follower. A few weeks ago, we were at One Stop Fun and she ran away from me and nearly got hit by a car. Luckily, the driver was someone we knew and was aware that we were exiting the facility. Regardless, we had a long discussion about listening to parents and following directions and she was not allowed to walk in parking lots or anywhere off our driveway without holding a hand for quite a while.

Fast forward a few weeks and she's earned the trust back. She's doing very well. Then, she learns to pump on a swing. She's become bolder and more adventurous. On Tuesday, she did not follow directions and walked out into a parking lot without permission. She repeats it again later on Tuesday, so on Wednesday, she's not given the freedoms. Thursday starts off very well. She's following directions, being helpful and seems pretty happy. Then, we go outside after Beth's nap to play in the front yard. We go out, get helmets on and begin to ride. From our driveway, across the front yard to our neighbors driveway. She knows those are the limits. Beth knows those are the limits. Nora asked to go for a longer walk, and I told her we could go, but she needed to wait until I locked the front door. In the time it took me to grab my keys (just inside the front door) and lock up, she disappeared. I called her name a number of times...nothing. I looked around for her or her bike, nothing. She was in the driveway when I started locking up, and I had no idea which way she went - panic started to set in. I grabbed Beth and started heading down the street, worried she had gone out on the busy road near us or had fallen off her bike. I finally found her coming back from biking down the street and back by herself. My heart started beating again. The panic started to fade but was replaced by a feeling of anger (which would later be followed by very much mommy guilt). I had to battle Nora back into the house (our rule has always been that if you go in the street or past the neighbors driveway, we go in the house - I felt really bad for Beth who was really enjoying being outside!).

Lucky for me, Beth plays very very well by herself. She got pretty much ignored for the rest of the evening as Nora boldly declared that she rode her bike by herself because she is a big girl and wanted to go for a longer bike ride. She understood that she should not have gone that far, but did it anyway because she wanted too and didn't want to wait for mom to get the door locked. Nora ended up spending much of the evening in her bedroom, coming out only for dinner and using the bathroom. Andy and I thought about various punishments for this. I considered duct taping her legs together so she could only shuffle around. I considered duct taping her to her bed. I considered putting her on the next plane to Timbuktu. In more legitimate punishments, we have taken her bike helmet away - which means no bike or trike - until Monday.

Part of me feels incredibly guilty for turning by back on a three year old. It was really just for a second, and it could have just as easily been to get Beth's helmet buckled instead of getting keys and locking the door. Part of me wishes we didn't have to lock up to walk down the street, but we have some neighbors who will just walk into your house, so if you are going beyond one house down, the door needs to be locked.

It looks like it's time to start talking to Nora about some of the reasons we need to stay near mama. Time to read more "Be Patient Little Chick" which is a story about a chick who takes off from mama and runs into a rather mean rooster who wants to teach him a lesson. Mama Hen arrives just in time to save Little Chick. I don't know what I would have done if Nora had gone into the street or if she had fallen off her bike - she's just gaining confidence but still doesn't have the balance down yet, and is pretty clumsy by nature.

Playing in the Rain!

With rainy day weather in the forecast for the whole week, I figured no time but the present to go outside and play. So, today after nap and a little snack, Nora and Beth got in their raingear and we went outside to play in the rain. We started in the backyard and then went to the front yard to jump in puddles. The kids had a blast, and despite getting soaked and chilled, they did NOT want to go inside for dinner!

T-ball fun, in the front yard at least

We got the kids a T-ball set and set it up for the kids to play in the front yard. Here's a little video of our first day learning to hit off the T. We had a blast playing, and have played almost every day since!

A little hyper before dinner

Here is a short video of Nora flopping around like a fish on the floor while we were trying to get dinner on the table. And yes, I stopped helping with dinner (or getting Nora to get up and sit on the table) to grab the camera and videotape this. Overtired kids can be funny!

A little white dog

Last night as I sat down once the kids were asleep to catch my breath and regroup to clean up the dinner dishes and fold laundry, I started thinking about how lucky I am. I spend every day home with two amazing little girls. It does get a bit wearing, but each day is at least a little different from the day before and I really do love watching my girls grow up.

I'm trying to take a step back when Nora and Beth are fighting about who is first or who gets to play "cooker" and remember that there are times when the do play well together - usually either playing hide and seek in the cabinet (after emptying all the pots and pans out). I've also caught Nora and Beth rocking in the chair together reading "My Heart is Like a Zoo," otherwise known as "apple juice" thanks to a line "happy as a herd of hippos drinking apple juice." It's Beth's favorite nighttime book and is also the book she asks for when she needs comforting.

On the way home from school last week, she asked me for a dog - a little white dog, and we would need to get some little dog food and a little dog bed and a little dog leash for when the doggie needs to go outside. All this from a child who is usually terrified of dogs!

Re-entry

The week before and the week after my mini-vacation have both been pretty tough. The week before, I had to make sure everything was ready - especially the house and getting myself packed. It was also school vacation week for Nora, which meant we didn't have our normal daily routine - which causes problems too!

My flight arrived in Boston on Monday evening, just in time for rush hours. I got home to NH in time to put Beth to bed. It was really great to see her again. It seems like she grew up so much in just a few days! Tuesday, my in-laws stayed until I was able to get Nora off to school. That was very nice because Andy got back on a plane Monday night and flew to DC for business. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well at all in Oregon, and then had a hard time sleeping on Monday night as well. Our hotel room was in a poor location, so it was pretty loud, but inconsistently so, making if difficult for me to sleep. Monday night I think was just a problem with the time change and perhaps a bit of being unable to sleep because I was overtired.

The rest of Tuesday went pretty well. I was very tired and of course, Beth napped for less than 10 minutes in the car on the way to get Nora. It made for a long day. I was able to get the kids fed and in bed pretty early though. They were both pretty tired and I managed to get them both settled by 6:30pm. I made myself a quick dinner and then started picking up -washing dishes, putting all the toys back on the shelf, books on the book shelf, sweeping the floor (we played in the yard, so the kids tracked in a lot of mud). I didn't finish until close to 11. By then, Andy had arrived and helped finish up. Wednesday was the first day with our standard routine - Nora goes to school with Andy and I pick her up.
 

Vacation!

Andy and I went to Oregon for a long weekend. My cousin Sean married his longtime girlfriend Megan, and we couldn't be more excited for them! It was a great weekend. We arrived late Thursday night and on Friday spend the afternoon touring Portland with a brew-master and visiting a few of the breweries in Portland. I think Andy was in heaven! We visited 4 breweries and a tap-house and had a wonderful time. We had just enough time to change and walk from our hotel to the church for the rehearsal/welcome dinner. It was great to see everyone, even if only for a short time that night. On Saturday, we went to the Saturday Market, which was just few short blocks from our hotel. It was pretty fun, and I loved looking at all the artist booths. We met someone who makes some really tasty jams (http://www.guyotfamilyfarms.com/mystore/), we saw some monster purses (each with their own name, http://store.ladymdesigns.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=6) and an artist who does all her art with numbers (http://www.siennamorris.com/)!



Saturday evening was the wedding. The vows were wonderful - the bride and groom wrote their own and you could tell they put a lot of thought into them. The reception was totally amazing, and it was fun to eat and dance with family for awhile.

Sunday we didn't have any real plans. While at breakfast, the power went out. Now, this shouldn't have been a major problem, but the breakfast was in the lower level - no windows, and they have no emergency lighting! It was totally dark! Then, the fire alarm went off, so instead of darkness, there were strobe lights in the room. What an adventure trying to navigate out of the basement with just a few smart-phones to light the way! Once the breakfast adventure ended, we had a bit of a lazy morning and then hopped in the car and started heading towards St. Helens. We stopped at a golf course along the way and hit a bucket of balls at the driving range. It was tons of fun, and we all got a good laugh because I totally suck at golfing! When we got to St. Helens, we walked along the river for a bit and then visited two of the local bars. Those of us from the east coast learned about a shot called a duck fart...