Taste Experemet 2

Today mom and i painted our tong blue with food dye and counted our taste buds

Taste Experement 1

Today me and mom did a taste test, first we did a taste test with lemon juice, i went first, mom covered a tooth pick in lemon juice and i had to tell her were i tasted it the most, i did the same thi ng to her, second we did a taste test with sugar, i went first again, so mom covered another tooth with sugar, and i had to tell her were i tasted it the most again, then i had to do the same thing to mom, third we did a taste test with coffee grounds, so mom covered another tooth pick, so again i had to tell her where i tasted it again, then i did it to mom again, and fourth we did a taste test with salt, so i had to tell mom were i tasted it again, then i did the same to mom, so thanks for reading my Taste Experemet 1

The Trip To The Dentist

Today Tony had to go to the dentist for a check up, last time Tony went to the dentist he spat in heathers face, this time was different though, i let Tony listen to his ipod why he was getting the check up,first heather gave him a card board thing that looked like it had two wing and heather told tony that he had to bite it because it was for an x-ray she had to do, after she took the first x-ray picture she gave me another one and made me do the same thing on the other side, after she took the second x-ray picture she gave them to doctor bull,doctor bull said i had a cavity on one of my baby molars,next heather asked me what flavor tooth paste i would like her to use to polish my teeth, i said that i would like mint,so she polished my teeth with mint tooth paste,after she polished my teeth she asked me what flavor i would like to put on my teeth for 1 min., she said this stuff was bad to swollow but it is good for my teeth,after that she put a sticker on my jacket that said i could not eat or drink for half an hour,next she let me choose a toy and a sticker,and that is my Trip To The Dentist.

Peas....

We were out in the garden last week and we have been weeding like mad to get ready for our Spring planting. We discovered that some of the peas that we grew last year have survived the winter and have sprouted buds and roots.

Unfortunately, most of them were wrapped around weeds, so we had to pull them. However, we saved about 16 of them at varying stages of growth and heights. Some were still in their shells with just buds coming out. Others were about 2-3 inches tall with a branching root system growing downwards.

This picture is of the tallest ones that were about 3 inches. This is about 5 days after replanting them in our seed growers and placing them in our kitchen window.

Gone to the birds....

So, as one of our projects we decided to build bird houses! Just gathering the supplies was a challenge enough. We were lucky to get a great guy at the local tool store who was willing to make multiple cuts in our wood for us, and then thank goodness for our neighbor who was willing to make all the angled cuts that we later found out we needed. So after several days of gathering supplies and getting wood cut, yesterday Tony and i started the first stages of assembly.

This is the beginning of the 'Bird Cathedral' design that Tony picked for his house. We are aiming to have it housed by House Sparrows. My mom and I are building houses that will be geared more towards Wrens. We are learning all about how the size of the hole in the front of the bird house will determine what type of bird it attracts. Pretty amazing really. Then considering what type of birds we want to have around the house and what type of feeders we will also need out.

Here is what we have done so far on the Cathedral....

Playing in the mud....

How often do you let your kids play in the mud? I don't do it often, but this time I let them go hog wild on the Ivy pile in the front yard. Here are a few pics to display the chaos that ensued.

The Water Evaporation Experiment

Well, after a week of waiting for water....we did get some. However, we ended up with about a tablespoon of water, so perhaps some modifications would be good....definitely not the experiment i would recommend if you are depending on that water source to stay alive :) The droplets gathering on the saran wrap definitely got bigger!

Here are some final pictures....

Where does the time go..

Oh my goodness! Where does the time go. It seems like just a few evenings that I was busy and didn't get around to updating and it has been 2 weeks!! Crazy! Lots of updating to do now! Check out what happened with some of the experiments!

Don't pull-ey my leg....

That's right! Yesterday we learned about and built some basic pulley structures and systems using household items. We found a great book at the library that showed how to make a fixed pulley system, a moving pulley system, and a mutli-pulley system.

Here are some photos of our fixed pulley system.

Next we looked at using a multi-pulley system like on big sailing ships for pulling up the sails.

Here is a short video of what we did.




And finally, here is the moving pulley system that we built. Tony loved this one because it's the type of pulley system that he will get to try out when we go zip lining this summer!!!

To Bottle or Not to Bottle....

So, Tony and I were reading in Owl magazine about the talk to ban the sale of bottled water....

Tony thinks that bottled water should still be available because it is a healthy drink and we should keep drinking water and make it quick and easy.

I think we should stop selling bottled water. I tend to agree more with David Suzuki that we should spend the money used to bottle water and put it into making sure that we have a water system that is completely drinkable instead. However, I do see the need for emergency supplies etc. But it also makes me wonder....if we would ban the making of plastic to bottle water, a good for you product, why would we continue to allow other companies to make plastic to bottle beverages that overall decrease the health of our population and put more strain on our health care system?


Just wondering what our readers thoughts were on this?

Creativity....

Good bye winter! Hello vibrant spring colors!!!!!



We just finished learning about our God given creativity at church. I think some of my best creative work comes through photography. It's been a love of mine for a long time.

Tony, Tony, Tony

Proudly showing off the Sun Tea he made! (See previous posts for more info on that!)

Cute Candids caught by Tony

Tony is getting really good with the camera too! He caught these ones of Isaac.....

Isaac and the Stumps....

These are just the 4 cutest pictures, there were actually about 10 more from the different covers and stumps along our walk!

A Not So Impromptu Game of Street Hockey

Tony and Joel played in the first game of street hockey hosted Friday afternoons by our church in the parking lot!

Isaac cheering on Daddy!












Daddy needed some recovery time!

Spring has sprung....

Some nice photos from our daily walk on Thursday.

Spring has definitely arrived and we're certainly enjoying every chance we get to go out in the sunshine!

This particular day Isaac insisted on having his picture taken on every manhole cover and tree stump we passed. It turned out to be quite a long walk :) Tony entertained Isaac and I with bike tricks along the way! He is sure getting good with his BMX!

Salt Water Evaporation

Tony: Yesterday I made an experiment to understand salt water evaporation.


We put some salt into some water. We also put a jar in the center. We covered the bowl in plastic wrap. And put a penny on the top. It's sitting on the dishwasher in the sun and we will check it every day for a week before trying to drink the water out of the jar.

Mom: This experiment is out of the same book as the Sun Tea: "A Child's Introduction to the Environment". Basically you start out with salt water and look at how you can get the salt out of it.

Here is how it looks so far: (I think the saran wrap might be a bit tight because the water droplets aren't moving yet, but we are going to watch and see what happens and try it again if we don't get water in the jar by the end of the 7 days.)

Sun Tea

We are using some fun books from the library! We found one book on the environment and renewable resources so we tried two fun projects today! Tony is making sun tea for our family and we are doing an experiment on making fresh water from drinking water. Here are the preliminary pictures. We will keep you updated!







Tony:
This is how I made Sun Tea following the instructions from "A Child's Introduction to The Environment..." by Michael Driscoll and Professor Dennis Driscoll.

You'll need:
1 gallon (4 liters) water
6 tea bags (ordinary tea, or try an herbal kind such as peppermint or a fruit flavor)
a clear 1-gallon jug or pitcher

1. Pour the water into the clear jug. Add the tea bags. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap.

2. Leave the jug outside in the bright sun for until the water is amber colored (usually just two or three hours). Remove tea bags.

3. Refrigerate the jug and drink the tea within the next day or two. And thats it.

I changed the recipe slightly because i did not have a 1 gallon jug or pitcher.

Instead i used 2 liters. 3 bags of tea. And then i did the rest of the instuctions.

A new start

Here we are again, giving it another go at blogging! I am not a good journal keeper, never have been....but we're working on it. We want to show you all the cool stuff that we are working on and learning about as we continue along our parenting and homeschooling journey.