Eating Your Science....by Luke

Luke was given a science project assignment to complete over a week ago by his teacher, but unfortunately it needed sunshine to work...and sunny southern California has not been so sunny lately....we've had some pretty stormy days including a tornado warning (secretly I have LOVED it.....I love the drama of thunder and lightning as long as I can be indoors). Anyway..........back to science projects 101. Since Luke's given experiment was not to work we had to figure out an alternate. He came across an experiment that entailed discovering whether ice cream could be baked without melting in a science book of his, pictured above. I decided to do a google search to see if I could find any more information on the subject....and actually found a blog that showed the same science book and same science experiment....which unfortunately flopped. I left her a comment that I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that I found her blog because Luke was so determined that this was the project he wanted to do. Well funny how things happen but it actually became very fortunate we stumbled across her blog post to help us navigate around some pitfalls. The original experiment in the book wanted you to bake the ice cream for an hour at 225 degrees and her pictures and description showed that to be a mistake....so I found another recipe that said to bake it at 500 degrees for 3 minutes...worked like a charm (well....at least the second time around...our first attempt we did not make our meringue "tough" enough). In short, to conduct the experiment you place cookies on a cookie sheet, place a scoop of ice cream on the cookie, and cover it with meringue and bake. Anyway......I think we passed, little Mr. Luke and I......I do believe we got a passing grade on what he wanted to title, "Eating Your Science".....I think because that was his favorite part of the whole thing!! But, we shall see... he turns in his project in the morning and has to present his findings to the class....which for any curious scientists out there, "Yes, you can bake ice cream without it melting"...the cookie and meringue act as insulators for the ice cream.

Aghhhh, the joys of motherhood...so many, many hats one must wear...I can now add scientist cap to the list. I love it! ;)

Our Own Little Rockette....

Oh dear, I realize I am delayed on the last two posts and that Christmas was a month ago now but I just learned how to do video on my blog (kind of.... for some reason it recorded this twice, it should only be 4 minutes 40 seconds, but then replays it again....so okay I have some kinks to work out ;) )

But here is evidence of Reid's little dance moves ...our own little New York Rockette...

**If you watch this, you will want to pause the music at the bottom of my blog first

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Sweet Baby Reid...Is Now 3

Little Reid...my sweet, sweet baby boy.....you are now 3 and such a big boy! You give us daily snuggles, daily giggles, and our daily fill of love. We love you so much!

At three you can do so many things...

• You can run and jump off two feet
• You go to preschool and love to learn new songs
• You love to play Patty Cake and we love to watch you try and do all the motions...we take turns asking you to make one for each of us. The words you can say are pat, roll, and you say the name of who you are giving it to....we love it, I especially love to hear..."Paattt....wwollll....Maaaamaaa" and you point to me with a huge grin on your face
• You love baseball and whenever we pass by the baseball field you say, "baball" and then give a loud, "yayyyy!" while clapping...not sure who you are clapping for but we love your enthusiasm :)
• You love to play the Wii....and you make all the sound effects you feel are appropriate for each game
• You have a silly side to you and pretend to be asleep when I get you out of the car seat but then after a few seconds you open your eyes, look over at me, and giggle the best little giggle
• You LOVE, LOVE your big brother Luke and continue to call him "Da"... I have a feeling Luke would not mind if you always called him Da...he loves it and loves you so much!
• You have a soft and sensitive side and come to give hugs when you think someone is hurt. You say "oh, no, oh no" in the sweetest most concerned voice until a kiss has been given by you to the one hurt
• You love music and entertain us with your cool dance moves. We turn on different music stations just to watch you change up your moves to the different rhythm you hear....you are so funny!
• You are a book fanatic and love looking through them and cracking yourself up with the pictures
• You are a flirt and melt people with your smile that lights up your whole face
• When you wake up in the morning you go right to the fridge and fling it wide open saying.."Baaaa..." (that's what you call your sippy cup)
• You love to play the drums with my egg beater, spatulas, mixing spoons and anything else you can reach out of the drawer and daily bang the floor, the oven, the chairs...and whatever stands still long enough to be banged on
• You love cookies....I mean LOVE cookies!! ..and you have made up your own "sign" for cookie by putting your fingers up to your mouth and saying "num, num, num" real fast like cookie monster does. In fact...you love cookies so much that this year I decided cookies and ice cream were in order rather than cake, so on 12/28/09....special birthday cookies were made for you!

Reider Peter Punkin Eater.....we have loved loving you the past three years!!!!!

I love how my boys look like..."Mom, come on with it....light the candles ALREADY!!!" lol

"COOOOOOOKIES!!!!"

A Heads Up About American Idol Tonight

I am sitting here at my computer cracking up because in a matter of 1o minutes I had over ten emails from the east coast sharing about the new American Idol episode that they are currently watching and is about to air here on the west at 8:00.... and thought I would share for those interested. Apparently there is a contestant, Maddy, who comes from a rather large family and has 4 brothers with Down syndrome, 3 of whom were adopted. One of the emails was from a mom sleuth who did some quick research and found a great article about the family's background concerning their adoptions, you can find it here. Reece's Rainbow is also mentioned in this article, I love it. Well....I have not even seen 1 minute of the new season and already I have my favorite pick for the final contestant! Can't wait to watch it. Go Maddy, Go!

When it Rains It Pours...or Something Like That ...(a crazy but true tale from our home)

The phrase, "When it rains, it pours" could quite adequately coin the crazy events over here at our home.... I have been away from my blog for awhile out of pure exhaustion, though there is lots to blog about (but that will have to wait until I can catch my breath). In the mean time I'll give you a little window into our world over here. Toby....oh my precious father of the year Toby decided he would pack a ladder into his truck and head over to the baseball fields/park where he and Luke were flying a remote control airplane Luke was given for Christmas... that much to Luke's dismay and heartache had flown into a VERY tall tree. But, being the dad Toby is he was determined to get it back for his son.... but unfortunately while up on the ladder he felt himself losing his balance so he allowed himself to fall back onto his feet from about 5 feet up....had he been a gymnast I think he would of received a 10 for his graceful dismount and for sticking his landing....but unfortunately the only thing he earned was...a broken heel. Yes, a broken heel requiring us to take him to the ER and then a late afternoon surgical procedure to place three screws in that heel and an overnight stay on the orthopedic recovery wing.
But did I say when it rains it pours...oh yes I did, so once finally home and cozied into bed to rest....the bed broke and his bad leg hit the wood floor along with his computer....I then helped try and fix the bed while he was standing there like a flamingo with his bad leg up when all of a sudden.....my hand got stuck in between the bedframe and the hard outercore of the mattress as it was coming down and ripped half the skin off the back of my hand! All this was happening just minutes before I was to log into my online classroom to teach an online first grade vocabulary lesson...that was being evaluated that day by a supervisor, gulp! But wait, there's more....then no joke, later that night in his sleep Toby rolled over and his hand flipped over the side of the bed and how I don't know but one of his fingers went right into the hole of a gingerale can he had sitting there and cut his finger. We both just got up and started laughing, seriously he couldn't do that again if he tried so suddenly everything just got funny. Oh boy, when it rains it pours or else we're just one big clown show over here, I don't know!! ;)
We've been giving Toby a hard time about whether this was a ladder accident or a plane accident, it sounds manlier to say plane accident so that's what he's sticking with ;)....and no we never got the plane out of the tree. Note to self: when the tree is THAT tall, just buy a new stinking plane no matter how many tears your beloved son is crying!....but Toby we love you for trying!