Fun science

Since Cole has started preschool, I have noticed that he really does love learning.  He particularly seems to enjoy the science experiments they do at preschool.  Those are always the ones he tells me about when I pick him up.  He loved learning about the 5 senses by getting to sample some foods, among them, M&Ms.  He was also very excited to see what happened to the wishbone they had put in vinegar, an experiment which we have decided to replicate at home as well.  We just put the wishbone in the vinegar yesterday, so far, not too much has happened.

So, I have started doing some science experiments with the boys at home as well.  They are always very excited for them and thanks to Pinterest, I have found some really fun ones! Today we had some fun with food coloring.  First, we learned about absorption, using an experiment I found  here.

First, we put blue colored water into one cup and yellow colored water into another.  Then, we rolled up 2 sheets of paper towel and stuck them into the cups of colored water, with the other end in the empty cup in the centre.

  At first, the boys were quite excited to see what it did and had fun speculating what was going to happen.

 However, the experiment took longer than I expected, and longer than my 4 year old's attention span lasts! The end result is that the colored water is supposed to travel up the paper towels and drip into the 3rd cup, where it will combine to form green.  The boys were able to hold out long enough to see the water travel up the paper towels and the blue begin to drip into the third cup. (With the help of another experiment in the meantime)  And then C got impatient and just dumped both cups into the third cup!  He was pleased to see that the water turned green though.

He then spent the next half hour or so playing with the cups and paper towel and making it into a bunny!

The littlest one figured he needed to get in on the fun too and found the bottle of yellow food coloring that I had dropped on the floor.  And so our unplanned experiment - "What happens when the baby finds a bottle of food coloring?"  Ooops!  Hope I can get that out of his overalls!  I like those overalls!  (So far, Oxyclean seems to be doing the trick, and a good bath took care of my baby looking like he was in liver failure!)





While we waited for the colored water and paper towels to do their thing, we decided to see what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar.  Always a favorite experiment!  I decided to spice it up a bit by using colored water and a turkey baster.

 The boys were quite impressed with the fizzing.  Once they had used up all the colored vinegar, they wanted to get their hands into it.  Somehow, all our science experiments and art projects - or any involving paint, anyway - end up with a couple pairs of hands splashing around in them! Must be because I have boys! :)

  And that was how we spent a chilly Thursday afternoon.  It occupied a good hour or so of our time, and despite the splashing, didn't make too much of a mess.  Well, other than on the baby!

Oh, and see that overabundance of toys in the background of the last picture?  Yeah, we could open our own toy store!  One of these days, I need to do something about that!  Maybe that will be a future blog post...

Yo Ho Ho Ho, A Pirate's Life's for me

Wow, it seems like I am just really not good at this blogging thing!  I blame the fact that I do most of my computer work on my tablet and I can't upload pictures from there, so have to use the desktop for that, so I often don't get to it during the day.  However, right now, while my youngest is napping and my older 2 aren't fighting (knock on wood!), and I'm trying to attach pictures of clothes I'm trying to sell to an email, I have a few minutes!  So, I want to finally post some pictures of my middle son's 3rd birthday.  He turned 3 at the beginning of September.

Z is very much a typical middle child, I think.  He is happy and very active and full of life and is developing quite the silly little sense of humor.  He currently loves to joke by replacing the first letter of words to make up silly nonsense words. He is sweet and snuggly and loves to snuggle up and tell me, "My love you, Mommy."  He idolizes his big brother and loves his little brother.  And yes, he can be a bit of a pest at times! :)  He is a wonderful addition to our family.

Z started out wanting a Mickey Mouse birthday party. He loves Mickey Mouse!  But, that was what we had for his 2nd birthday, so Mommy wanted to do something different.  So, after discussing a few different options, we settled on a Pirate party.  He was soooo excited!  For weeks before his party, he was asking, "When is my Pirate Birthday Party gonna be?"  He still talks about it and asks when he gets a pirate birthday again.

Jeff made a pirate ship for the kids to play in.  It was a big hit! 

I love planning parties.  I literally spend hours on Pinterest and on party-planning sites (Catch my Party is one of my favorites) looking for ideas.  I have huge plans in my head for my kids' birthday parties!  Unfortunately, reality soon hits and I realize that I do not have an unlimited budget or time for throwing birthday parties!  I still found some really cute ideas that I was able to implement though.  My favorite, and a big hit at the party, was that I managed to talk my husband into building a pirate ship out of a couple furnace boxes.  Z was sooo excited! We had fish and chips and hot dog octopuses (hot dogs with spaghetti stuck through them) to eat, and I tried to make a watermellon shark.  Alas, I cut it wrong, so it was kind of a fail, but funny anyway! I'm pretty proud of the cake, which was a pirate ship and island.  Z was thrilled with it.  For favors, we did pails and shovels with some pirate goodies in them.  We also had hats and eye patches that the kids could take home.   All in all, even though I ran out of time for a lot of my ideas, I'd say the party was a success!  Z told me several times, "This is the best pirate party ever!"  So, without further ado, some party pictures!

We has supplies to decorate pirate hats and eye patches. 

You can't see it very well, but I hung a banner made by a friend of mine in the trees. 

Pirates Cove

The boys checking out the food table. 

I made some "Captain Hook" hooks out of chocolate.  

The Birthday Boy blowing out his candles. 

Opening presents.  I got him and big brother pirate outfits to wear, on the condition that they will wear them again for Halloween.  I don't think it'll be a problem getting Z into his, he wears the pirate hat everywhere! 

Big Brother in the pirate ship.