Parts of a Bean

We did several experiments from Janice VanCleave’s  Biology for Every Kid.  One of them, taught the boys about the parts of a bean.  We soaked beans overnight then dissected them to find all of the different parts of a bean. 

Osmosis Jones?

Joshua and Brian learned about osmosis through an experiment with raisins and water.  They both put a few raisins in a cup of water and let them sit for a day.  Today they looked at them and found them to be a lot larger and more plump.  They found that through the process of osmosis, the water had crossed through the raisins’ cell membranes and entered into the raisin, because water travels from greater concentration to an area of lesser concentration.  We found this experiment in Janice VanCleave’s Biology for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work.   

                        Before                                                          After

Chore Chart

I found an idea for a chore/job chart on Martha Stewart’s website that was both interactive for the kids and myself.  The kids really have enjoyed it so far and I like the flexibility of changing their jobs based on what needs to be done in that particular day. 

I put all of the extra jobs on the top of the fridge and made labels for “morning,” “noon,” “evening,” and “complete.”  The boys love moving their jobs to complete and seeing what they “get to do” for the day:-)

I found the best price for 8.5 x 11 inch magnetic sheets at Michaels (3 for under $6.)  I only needed 2 sheets.  I made the background out of a piece of scrapbook paper that I glued onto the magnetic sheet.  I printed the jobs using a spreadsheet and printing them directly onto the magnetic sheet. 

What can $.90, plus tax, buy 3 boys?

An hour of fun!

Thank you, Michaels clearance rack!

Laptop Deconstruction and Bristle Blocks Construction

Sports Car Cake

Lucas turned 2 a few weeks ago.  When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said, "Car!"   His favorite color is yellow. 

 

I decided to look up ideas on the internet and found a great post on how to make a Lightning McQueen Cake.  I took the principles and scaled it down to spending less than an hour carving and decorating the cake:-)  I also used the recipes (chocolate birthday cake and butter cake) found there and found the cakes were great to carve.  They were very dense, but still moist.  We learned that small pieces go a long way.  It was a very heavy cake, but had a good flavor.    

Here is the cake cut for serving.  I would highly recommend anyone giving this a try for your own racer’s birthday or special event!

Google Voice

I heard about Google Voice from a news report a few weeks before we were moving.  We had decided to drop our landline phone and try to use a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) instead.  This would potentially save us some money.  We were looking into using the magic jack for $20 a year.  After hearing about Google Voice, which is a free service, I signed up to be invited to be a part of it.  (Currently it is being used by invite only, but I was invited within a 3 weeks of requesting an invitation.)

Google voice also enables you to make a call from the Google voice website and it rings the phone of your choice.  Since I have US Cellular as my provider, I receive free incoming calls.  Therefore, I can make outgoing calls through Google voice and my cell phone is actually receiving them for FREE!  Yay!  I have not found any problems so far with using Google voice.  I would highly recommend this service. 

Here’s a review of Google voice:

Cool Universal Grocery List

I found a universal grocery list on Google docs that you can edit to what you buy at the store(s).  It’s easy to edit and print out…and best of all…free!   We are trying it out over the next few weeks and will report back as to the helpfulness of such a list.  I’d like to hear how you create your grocery list.  Let me know what works for you!

Tragedy in our Community

There was a shooting in the church less than  a mile down the street from our church this morning.  The pastor was shot and killed and others are injured. Please pray for our neighboring church and the family of the pastor who was shot this morning.  Pastor Fred was a mentor to my husband, Keith and we appreciate your prayers for his family, the church family, and the community.  You can read more about what happened here. 

Thank you!

Cheap Batman Birthday Ideas

 

Cake:  Bake 2 9 x 13 rectangle cakes and cool completely.  Stack them on top of one another with icing in the middle.  Cut the corners of the cakes off to form an oval.  Roll  out yellow marshmallow fondant to be 17 x 21 at least and cover cake. Cut around edges with pizza cutter.  Take a batch of black marshmallow fondant and mold freehand into bat shape or roll out and then cut out a bat figure.  

Goodie bags:  I made these capes as a take-home gift in place of goodie bags.  The kids painted the emblem on at the party.  I made the capes out of felt that I got on clearance towards the end of winter.  No need to finish edges.  I purchased velcro squares and sewed them on the neck straps.  Very easy.  

 

I made a template out of a cereal box to paint the emblem on at the party.  I found a logo I liked online and printed it out and used it to trace onto the cardboard.   I then cut into the cardboard only in the yellow part of the logo and cut the logo out so that I had a rectangular piece of  cardboard with an oval cut out and a cardboard bat that fit inside it. I just taped the cardboard down onto the felt where I wanted the batman design. The kids painted the capes with paintbrushes dipped in yellow fabric paint. When the kids were finished, I just removed the cardboard. Let dry before using :)

Food and Drink: Lemonade is yellow (perfect!)  I made sugar cookies and used marshmallow fondant to cut out yellow circles and black bats to form the batman emblem. 

 

Invitations:  I used evite which is free and you can even design your own invitation.  I chose a dark background and then added batman images I found online. 

It's Potty Time!!!

A lot  of people keep asking me how we go about  toilet training.  I  am in no way an expert, but will try to explain what works for us.  We used elimination communication (EC) with our oldest and our youngest.  They were fairly easy to figure out when they would need to go to the restroom.  We started out using EC when they were about three months old they did wear diapers.  We just removed the diapers to hold them over the potty.  We were not strict EC-ers but we did it when it was convenient for us.  Our middle child had retention issues and was not so easily timed, so we did not use EC. 

(Here is a link to an EC site that talks more about it.)

 

By the time of our children stayed dry through naps (around 18 months), they were very familiar with the potty already. I made sure that my schedule was open for an entire week prior to beginning formal potty training.  I  told them that they would not be wearing diapers anymore now that they're big kids and that they should "pee-pee" on the potty and not in their pants.  I did give them either a M&M or  marshmallow each time they went on the potty.  They were cloth training pants to help them feel wet. I also had them only wear the training pants and no pants over them.  Less wash and quicker to catch them and bring them to the potty.   (Here is a tutorial on making your own training pants.)

 

The first day of training I'd try to take them to the bathroom every half an hour.  I would sit them on the potty for just a few minutes.  Because they were used to going on the potty, they would usually go within a minute.  By the end of the week, I would need to take them every hour or so.  We would gradually be able to go for 2 hours in between potty times.  I would use the same key words that I used while doing EC.  When they would urinate, I would say, " pee-pee."   When they would have a BM, I would say,   "poo-poo."  If they were successful, we would celebrate big time!  The older children were involved in this celebration.  It was like a big party every time they went to the bathroom.  Everyone got a marshmallow.

 

The best advice I can give is to be patient and celebrate and have fun.  Wait until you have time to do it.  Make it a whole family affair and enjoy each other.  It won't last forever, believe me, I've been there.

 

 

Resources:

Here is the board book that all of my kids loved.  Just find a book that uses the same kind of "potty" that you will use.

 Click here to try and buy it used.

 

We used this style of potty seat that fits on top of the toilet.  I had bought some other seat with pee guards that folded down.  They were a disaster!  They would always fall of and into the toilet.  This one has a hard pee guard that snaps firmly in place to use with little boys. 

Click on the seat to find one from Target.

Potty chairs-- make sure you use one that is low enough to the ground that it is easy for your child to sit down without help.  Also, make sure it is easy to empty (you will be doing this a lot!)  For boys, make sure the pee-guard actually is tall enough to keep it all in and also won't fall off all of the time. 

Marshmallow Fondant

I decided to make a couple of cakes for my Mom's 50th birthday and tried out marshmallow fondant for the first time.   It was very easy to make, after the mishap with the first batch (as described later). 

I think that the cakes turned out fairly well.  I was wanting a black and white cake, but ruined the black fondant by adding too much powdered sugar, then all of the black  gel.  It ended up being a pile of gray goo.  I changed plans and bought some gold ribbon on clearance.  I used gold ribbon on the devil's food round cake and pure white fondant on the rectangular white cake with blackberry filling.  It was a lot of fun playing with the fondant, although I like the taste of butter cream icing  much better.