And Baby Makes Three

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

River Bend Nature Center

These are pictures from Saturday. Isabel was having so much fun and so in to looking for rocks that when brother fell in the water and we had to leave she though we had only been there for 5-10 minutes when in actuality we had been there for 1.5 hours already.

As we were walking to our car we saw that there were 6 deer that were eating the corn that RBNC staff had put out. The kids actually got pretty close and were so excited to see so many.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Snow Day on 2/22

Lots of outdoor fun!

Painting in the snow!

Practicing snowboarding, she is starting to get better

Sledding with the Neighbor Girl

Rolling down the hill - why not?

Swinging at the Park

Looks like the fun is ending....

Science Fair Presentation

She did a good job presenting. I was there to watch her with one of the two judges. She was happy with how it all went but she does agree it is a lot of work. All the 1st & 2nd graders who participated (I think it was just 7 1st graders, not sure about 2nd graders) got a certificate and a 2nd place ribbon. 3rd grade & up could compete to go on to the regional competition, although the 1st & 2nd graders had to do all the same stuff as the competers which was the experiment, report, display & presentation.

She did like it and likes that she got a ribbon, but thinks maybe next year she won't do it and wait until she is in 3rd grade when she can compete. It was good practice and we know more now so that she can do an even better job to compete. We'll see how she feels about it next year.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

All I Want For Valentine's Day

I totally thought she would have lost her two front teeth before Christmas but they hung in there and were a crooked mess as they were being pushed out for almost 2 months. But now they are both out and she will have lost a total of 6 baby teeth. The 2 center ones on the bottom are all the way in and the other 2 bottom ones are about half way in. As of this post the first top one she lost is about half way it, it really just started pushing through and there is just a tiny tip of the other top front one coming through.

The two on the side on top are not wiggly at all, so maybe the tooth fairy will have a break for a while.

The first two teeth the tooth fairy brought gold coins, but then Isabel mentioned she would like paper money that she can use more easily, so the tooth fairy has been creative with leaving different oragami sculptures made from her dollar bill. She also gets a pack of gum (stuff with xylitol in it which is supposed to be good for your teeth and helps them be healthier) from the tooth fairy as well.

Ice Skating

We met up with some friends at Morehouse park to skate on the river and enjoy the bonfire on a Saturday night (bonfire starts at 5:30) and we roasted hot dogs & marshmallows and ice skated. It's so fun (& yummy!) to have roasted marshmallows in February!

Brother didn't care to skate on his skates so much this time and preferred just to scoot around on his boots.

Isabel is actually getting quite fast and was really having fun skating. Kind of hoping we can get on the ice one more time this winter, but it's starting to warm up so the ice might now be good for much longer.

MN Zoo

We took a family trip to the MN Zoo on President's Day (super busy! go a different day!) and snapped a couple photos of the kids. Here are the ones of Isabel on the wolf statue in the MN Trail and on the tram with daddy. It was the first time we all took the tram there, which was a good way to see the outside animals on a cold day.

Caroline, Her New American Girl Doll

Isabel had been saving her money and finally she has saved up half the money she needed to buy a new American Girl doll. This one (Caroline) looks like her with all one length blond curls and green eyes.

This is the doll of the year for 2013 and they had a display up for it for picture opportunities!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day

Above are the Valentine's that I made for Isabel (on Shutterfly) for her to give to her friends. They are really fantastic valentines.

Here is the front view of Isabel's Valentine hair. I don't think I gave her special valentine hair last year, but this year she asked for it and remembered when I did when she was in both years of preschool.

Here is the top view of her hair with the 3 joined hearts. She loved all the compliments she received from everyone at school.

Science Fair Project

These are some pictures I took of Isabel when she was starting her Science Fair project. The Science Fair is next week Thursday and since we have a snow day today, we have been working on her presentation board, report, presentation notes. She is in awe of the ability to Cut and Paste and very thankful she doesn't have to retype everything.

Her question was, "Which Seeds Sprout Faster?" and her hypothesis was that "Small Seeds Sprout Faster". She completed two trials with 3 small seeds and 3 large seeds in each. She did prove her hypothesis but she did have 2 kinds of large seeds that did not sprout at all, so she will have some "discussion" to include about that.

This morning we transplanted several of the seedlings in to small pots so that she can add to her display. Hopefully the transplantation will take.

I am very interested to hear what she thinks about the Science Fair after she is done with everything. At her grade level she only gets a participation ribbon (in 3rd grade she can compete), but she still has to do just as much work. I am not making her do all the research that she would have to do at the competition level, but she is having to type everything and do most of the work for the project and the display and the presentation she has to do on her own.

I am curious if she will think it is all too much work or not. It really is a lot of work and I think all she really cared about was doing the experiment. Plus I am not sure if she will like the presentation part of it as she didn't want to do cheerleading again this winter because she didn't want to cheer in front of a crowd.

She isn't finished yet. She has only prepared 3 of the 5 sections for all 3 parts (display, report, notes) so far and the 2 that are left each have as much typing as all 3 combined. I am envisioning a lot of complaining as she is not familiar enough with the keyboard to type efficiently.