Buttercup's Lego city

Buttercup likes to build with Legos sometimes, and she usually makes towers with her bricks, or she'll use her base plate to make a maze or a parking lot. 

The other day, however, she worked studiously to make this city (I helped with the flowers). It looks great! And even our resident Lego critic (her big brother) told her that she did a great job. :-)

Bubble bomb

Here's a fun science experiment we did the other day. Like the balloon experiment we did, this one also uses baking soda and vinegar, but this time we got to make an explosion! (Here's the website where I found it).

You'll need:

water (for testing the bag)

zipper sandwich bag

paper towel

1 1/2 tbsp baking soda

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup water

You'll need to make sure your sandwich bag doesn't leak, so first, pour some water into the sandwich bag, then zip it closed and turn it upside down. If it leaks, find a new bag. (Strangely enough, Buttercup seemed to find this part more interesting than the actual experiment, ha ha.)

Then, tear your paper towel into a square 5 inches by 5 inches. Pour the baking soda into the middle of the paper towel. (This will be your "time-release" packet.)

Then fold each side over like this:

Then fold the ends down like this:  

Then, pour 1/4 cup warm water and 1/2 cup vinegar into the sandwich bag. Then you'll need to slip the folded-up paper towel into the bag and quickly zip it closed before the contents start foaming too much. 

Then stand back and watch what happens!

Slowly getting bigger:

And bigger:

 Pop! 

 Poor Buttercup didn't like this experiment too much because she wasn't paying attention the first time and the explosion scared her. Oliver liked it though, and we did it 3 more times to see how big of a mess we could make. Lots of fun! :-)

Big boy at the dentist

Oliver had been complaining of tooth pain, so I brought him to the dentist last week for a checkup (it had been over a year since his previous one, whoops!). I was afraid he had a cavity, but it turns out that my big boy is teething again, ha ha!  He's getting two of his 6 year molars! And not only that, but his front bottom teeth are loose! I'm happy that he's growing up, but it still makes me kind of sad that my first baby is definitely not a baby anymore. :-(

He behaved perfectly (of course!) during the examination, and at the next visit he gets to have x-rays!  I love this sweet boy.    

Fourth of July pictures

This year we decided to let the older two stay up late and go to watch the fireworks on Independence Day. Their bedtime is usually between 7:00 and 7:30, with 8:00 being the VERY latest, so this was a big treat for them! Dennis stayed home with the baby boy so he would get his usual good night's sleep, and Anna came with Oliver, Buttercup and me to the park. 

We originally thought the fireworks started around 8:00. Then while the kids were playing on the playground, Oliver overheard a woman saying that they started at 9:00. Yikes, that's late! It was 7:00pm at that point, and I didn't know if they were going to amke it through 2 1/2 more hours. Thankfully, there were carnival rides, pony rides, and a petting zoo to keep the kids occupied until it was time. :-)  

Around 8:45, we headed away from the crowds and found a spot on the grass to watch the fireworks. At 9:00, we were telling the kids, "Any minute now!" and then we heard the announcement that the fireworks would start at 9:30.  Arrrgh! But it was no big deal, and Oliver and Buttercup got to practice their gymnastics tricks in the dark while we waited another half hour. :-)

Finally the fireworks started, and it was well worth the wait. We had an excellent view and the kids LOVED it! After the show, we picked our sweaty, sticky, dirty selves off the ground and headed to the car. I couldn't wait to get home to take a shower! Unfortunately . . . everyone else at the park wanted to get home, too. We sat in our parking space for 45 minutes before I was able to back out, and then we finally got home. The kids were filthy, but we just wiped their faces, hands and feet and saved the rest for the next day. They didn't get to bed until 11:00pm! Although it made for a very late night, we had a lot of fun. And I'm glad it only happens once a year. :-)

Playing at Bull Creek

The kids have been begging to go back to Bull Creek to play this summer, but the last time we went (about 2 months ago) the water was so low that it wasn't flowing very much at all, and it was too yucky for the kids to do anything other than get their feet wet. (Even I have to draw the line somewhere!)  

We've gotten a good bit of rain the past few days (yay!), so we cleared our calendar this morning and went out to see how high the water was. I warned the kids on the way there that we might not get to play if the road was closed or if the water was too high. But thankfully, it was perfect! It was a good bit higher than we're used to, but it was a lot of fun. We may have to clear our calendar tomorrow morning so we can go back again before it dries up. :-)    

Sticker resist t-shirts, part two

We made our sticker resist t-shirts last week, and after 1 washing . . . the paint mostly washed off.  Which one should expect if one was using washable craft paint, right? Ha ha ha. 

 So we tried it again, this time using fabric paint. And of course it worked out a lot better!


Before being washed: 

 After being washed:  

 Whoo hoo! I'm glad it worked out and the kids each have a personalized shirt that they made for themselves (with the exception of Theodore, but he'll have a chance to make his own someday, I'm sure).  :-)

Kid interviews -- 2012 edition

Here is the 2012 edition of kid interviews! It's funny how some of Oliver's answers are very similar to last year's. :-)  (You can read last year's answers here.)


Maria: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Oliver: A Ninjago Lego designer
Buttercup: A firefighter


M:  What is your favorite color?
O:  Orange, gray, blue, yellow and black
B:  Blue


M: Who is your best friend?
O:  Nathan, Cooper, Shelby, and [his stuffed] Elephant
B:  Skylyn


M:  What is your favorite food?
O:  Macaroni and cheese
B:  Pizza


M: What is your favorite game to play?
O:  Lego Creationary
B:  Playing in the pool


M: What is your favorite song?
O:  The Imperial March and the Philadelphia song [the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song]
B:  the Thomas the Train song


M: What is your favorite book?
O:  the Ninjago character book
B:  Saint George and the Dragon 


M: What is your favorite thing to do?
O:  Play with my Ninjago ninjas and snakes
B:  Play with my shark and Theodore