One Big Family

Gracie and Carson in a basket

 The first time Kimberly held Sophia

What a face!

Beat the Doldrums--Day 7---These faces

 These faces can beat the doldrums....and make me smile.

 And kudos to the photo bomber from about 50 years ago.....me!

The Naked Egg Experiment

 This is an oldie but a goodie.  But, with so many kids, and so many science experiments, I didn't realize that these two hadn't done the "naked egg" experiment. 

All you need is a jar, a raw egg and white vinegar.

Put the egg in the jar and cover with white vinegar.

 Bubbles immediately begin to form on the egg....the white vinegar has begun to dissolve the eggshell.

 After about an hour, the egg began to float.

 The next day, and the next day....change out the vinegar with fresh white vinegar.

After only one day, the shell is mostly dissolved and the egg is squishy.

 After 7 days this is what our egg on the left looks like compared to a x-large egg on the right. (we started with a medium egg)  This is also a lesson about osmosis.  

"naked eggs", raw eggs and a plastic Easter Egg

If you look carefully in the sunshine, you can see the yolk sloshing around inside the egg.  The outer membrane is quite rubbery at this point, 

 but not so rubbery that is can't break with you drop it on the counter...poor Luke!

Kim's egg made is outside and

it can bounce...a few times.

 Luke dissecting his egg goo.

Kim's splatter....the yolk was almost like playdough.

You can see our "naked egg" posts of the past here. 

The Doldrums......

I am bound and determined to get over the doldrums...

(Doldrums...defined as...a state or period of sadness or depression)

I see I haven't posted since Mark's birthday in January.  So I have decided that I will post one happy photo a day, everyday, 

To start off I give you a photo of my beautiful daughter and her brand new husband.

Photo #1

 And as a bonus photo....Kimberly and Luke

The Great Egg Drop Plop

Science rules....even on Christmas vacation!!

She Runs!!

Google Eyes---Boo!!

 Kim and Luke made very cute Halloween picture frames for about $4 for both....you can't beat that!

We got the wooden, unfinished frames at The Dollar Store.

 We had the paint...Kimberly painted her frame orange...

 Luke picked black for his frame.

 I did buy wooden letters at Walmart.  

 Luke painted his letters with orange and black....you can't see the black letter on the black frame, but I couldn't talk him out of this choice.  (He did put google eyes on the black eye to help it show up)

 Go to town and glue google eyes everywhere....we also had these already....What crafty house doesn't have google eyes?

 I think they are so cute!!!  The frames are cute, too!

 I simple printed out pictures of the kids onto cardstock....we didn't have any photo paper, but you can't even tell the difference. 

BOO!!!

Kimberly Learning to Walk---Day 4

 Kimberly getting some exercise with Gracie out in the beautiful fall leaves on a beautiful autumn day. 

 The pumpkin pose...

Best buddies~~

Day 4 of Kimberly learning to walk...I don't like how her legs. (both) are turning in...Her recovering leg is her left leg.

Kimberly Photos of the Day....Learning to walk, day 2

 Kimmy's first time "sitting on the floor" in almost 5 weeks.

Baking Becky's birthday pumpkin pie...with no crutches.

The learning to walk video of the day..This kind of gives me me the creeps...but hopefully we will see progress soon. 

Kimberly--in photos.....An Adventure!!

 September 19th...a 2 foot fall off the porch...very, very loud screaming...immobilization...ambulance ride...excitement...

 No breaks...no brace...no pain medicine...not the best hospital experience.

 The mixed veggie  ice pack.

became wheelchair buddies with Grandpa

 A visit to the orthopedic surgeon...complete immobilizer...no weight bearing, no bending...a lot of sitting.

Became wheelchair buddies with Grandpa.

Got out and about..

 But we did enjoy this one last beautiful day of summer.

 She always was smiling....

Went on rides with the big kids.

Made cider at Uncle Jim's house

 she became an expert on crutches!

 She helped decorate for autumn.

 She made crafts...many, many crafts...

 She had an MRI....was told she had a completely torn meniscus and partially torn ACL... "Don't move your knee!!"  (just make crafts while a surgeon is found)

Make homemade playdough....Head to the city to see the sports medicine specialist...

She is still smiling!!

We find out...on October 20th, that the MRI was misread....but after being in am immobilizer for over 30 days she will have to learn to walk again. 

She is still smiling...and she is starting to walk!!

Here she goes!!

Luke's Melted Crayon Ghost Pumpkins--Halloween decorating

 Luke got started on his melted crayon pumpkin by hot gluing the crayons to the top of the pumpkin.  (we learded to let the pumpkin warn up...it's been in the 30's at night around here..The cold temps make the hot glue dry so quickly it couldn't allow the crayons to stick to it.)

Luke getting started

It takes some time for the crayons to start melting, once they start it's great fun to watch the little wax trails.

The Kimberly photo of the day

Luke did a great job...he spent a lot of time working on his pumpkin.  This is just about the point where he passed the blowdryer on to me to finish up. 

We also made some grocery bag ghosts to hang on the apple tree.

Gracie made some foamie bats...we used daddy's fishing line to hang everything to the front trees...shhhhhh.....

Our decorations wouldn't be complete without Luke's gourd in the tree...(I'm not sure why, but we are not to move this per Luke's orders)

Luke's apple tree

Spooky!!

Kimberly and Luke's finished pumpkins.