Rainbows

It's amazing all the projects you can do with rainbows.

You can make a permanent rainbow with water, clear nail polish, and black construction paper:





Then there's the ever-popular color-changing milk experiment:



Window hangings made with yarn and squares of paint chips:



And my absolute favorite, the rainbow cake. I found the idea here, but it seems my round cake pans are on the missing list, so I improvised. It won't be the same effect when cut into, but pretty all the same!

I took some shortcuts. I grabbed one box of white cake and followed the usual instructions (eggs, oil, water).


Separate into six bowls and color with gel food coloring.



I put mine in a regular 9x13 pan.


And baked, using the instructions on the box.


It's still cooling now, but we'll be frosting it tonight. We've got rainbow sprinkles to add the finishing touch!

Weather Week

We had a gorgeous weekend and spent most of the time outdoors, which was wonderful! However, this morning brought with it wind, rain, and snow flurries, so we didn't get out much. In an attempt to get back on track after last week, I've planned out this week to be dedicated to learning about weather. On the agenda today -- clouds.

We spent time this morning online, looking through pictures of types of clouds. Later on, we read books about clouds that we found at the library.



We dipped cotton balls into water to demonstrate what happens when clouds cannot hold anymore water.



We used more cotton balls for our art project today.



I boiled water and let T hold his hands over it to feel the water evaporating because of the heat.



We also poured a little bit of water into a Ziploc bag, taped it to the window in the sun, and watched a mini version of the water cycle as it evaporated, condensed at the top, and eventually fell back down into the bottom of the bag.



I had been planning to do this cloud-in-a-bottle experiment, but I accidentally threw out the bottle I had set aside to use. Hopefully I'll get to it later on in the week.

I Love Your Blog Award!

I got the I Love Your Blog award from Hey, I'm Just the Nanny. Thank you! These are so much fun, and I love your blog too!

The instructions for this award tell you to pass it along to other blogs. My blog list only contains a handful of blogs right now, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I would end up mostly repeating myself by nominating the blogs from last time around. Suffice it to say that if you're on my blog list, I love your blog!

Chore Binder (for kids)

I'm a list person. OK, I'm an obsessive list person. My life is hopeless without my lists. I accomplish nothing. Plus, it feels really good checking things off my to-do list! That's why I jumped on the home management binder bandwagon (there's a mouthful) when I first started seeing it talked about on several different blogs.

I had been needing a way to help T keep track of his daily chores, but nothing was appealing to me. Then it finally hit me. Why not use the system that I use for myself?

Thus, the five year old version of the home management binder was created.

The first couple pages of my binder have emergency contact information. I chose to do the same thing for T. For obvious reasons, I won't be posting pictures of these, but he now has a list of phone numbers for both sets of grandparents, us, and a reminder about 911. On the next page, I have printed our address to help him remember it.

The next page? His list of daily chores.



Weekly chores...



Chores to earn a little extra money:



How-to lists for certain chores, such as sorting our laundry properly, as shown. There are also a few others with instructions for things like where folded laundry goes, how to make the bed properly, and some other cleaning information.



And finally, a handful of safety pages, like this one:



All of the pages, like in my binder, are in plastic protective covers, meaning he can check things off with dry erase marker and erase them for the next day of chores. I let T decorate the cover of his binder. He actually gets excited in the mornings because he gets to check chores off as he goes. A little too much like his mama, perhaps?

All the same, it seems to be working out wonderfully!

Happy Spring!

I have had terrible headaches ever since T was born. Thankfully, I seem to have made it past the stage where I was getting migraines 3-4 times per week, and now only get one or two long lasting headaches a month. I finally discovered the best way to ward off migraines in time, and haven't gotten a full-blown migraine in months. However, when I get one of the headaches I've had this week, they knock me out almost as much as my migraines did. It finally eased up yesterday afternoon, and I hit fully functional this morning.

All the plans I had for T this week were thrown off because of how I felt, and I've pushed them ahead until next week. Today was BEAUTIFUL, so we spent almost the entire day outside. Six hours straight, to be exact. We walked to and from the library, discovered a park great for birdwatching, played at the park, and went on a nature walk. With all of the cold weather we've had, I had forgotten just how great it was to be outside!

We collected an assortment of rocks, pinecones, sticks, leaves, and berries on our walks today. I had intended to put them on one of his shelves to examine. T, however, took matters into his own hands an initiated this project himself.


He pulled out his magnifying glass to look at everything up close.


He then glued them to a piece of paper that is now on his shelf for him to look at.

There is something so special about watching a child take the reins and WANT to learn rather than be forced into it. I know I won't be his primary teacher forever, but I hope he never loses his love of learning.

Summer Plans

I have been plagued yet again with a long-lasting headache. It started Sunday night and has yet to ease up. Yesterday and today have been pure survival mode days. I've spent most of the time laying on the couch, doing my best to quietly entertain T without moving my head. For some reason, one of the most comfortable places I can be is in my computer chair. Of course, because I have a slight internet addiction, I automatically sign on, even when my head is pounding. So here I sit.

Since I haven't accomplished much lately, I've been making mental lists of places I hope to go as a family in late spring or summer. Realistically, they probably won't all happen this year, but so I have a written list, here are some of our ideas.

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
Pompey's Pillar
Pictograph Cave State Park
Yellowstone (we're already trying to make plans to go just before Memorial Day)
Lewis and Clark Caverns
Beartooth Pass -- so beautiful, and great to hike through, but first I have to overcome my horrible fear of the dropoffs on the side of the road!
Search for agates along the river
Go fossil hunting -- we have a lot of great areas not far from here
Go hiking
Camp at a nearby lake
Start a garden
Go fishing (not my thing, but Joe wants to teach T, so OK)
Go stargazing
Watch a meteor shower
Order and "raise" caterpillars into butterflies
Launch rockets
Make a sundial
Fly kites
Fly balsa wood planes
Spend the day at a waterpark
Go to a baseball game
Go birdwatching
Get T his own set of real tools and begin teaching him how to use them
Spend time at the "beach" at Lake Elmo
Go to the Running of the Sheep (because you can't live in Montana without going at least once!)
Get out to the Museum of the Rockies (about a 1 1/2-2 hour drive from here)

Time will tell how much of this actually happens this summer, but for an obsessive list-maker like me, the list is nice to reference!

Mount Redoubt

Is anyone following along with its activity? T and I have been watching the activity updates and webcam for a while now. It was downgraded a few days ago but is now back up after increased activity yesterday (including a small explosion -- there are pictures on the website). It's been fun to look at the webcam updates throughout the day. Even if nothing else comes out of this, the pictures are beautiful.

Mount Redoubt Activity Page

Mount Redoubt Webcam

The Beautiful Outdoors

Today we enjoyed what seems to be the last nice day for a while by heading to a cute little tourist town about an hour away. It was quite a bit chillier there because of the wind, but ended up being a really good day.

We spent the first part of the morning at the nature center, where they rescue animals that can't be returned to the wild. T got to see birds, wolves, coyotes, foxes, elk, deer, and a handful of other animals. Sadly, the bears were still hiberating so he missed them, but he seemed to have a great time nonetheless.


Poor T backed into this bear while we were there and jumped about a foot in the air. Once he realized it wasn't going to eat him, he begged to take pictures with it.

Afterward, we made our usual stops throughout town -- the toy store and the candy store are must-sees. I found geodes in the toystore, so I picked a couple up. I loved geodes as a kid. Still do, actually. I walked out of the candy store with half a pound of fudge that will not last long in this house. We wandered through town, then went down to the river, where hubby (his name is Joe, so I don't have to forever call him hubby) and T climbed on the rocks and had a snowball fight.



We drove some of the back roads and saw an abundance of deer and turkeys.


This one followed our car for a good 300 feet, and would repeatedly walk right in front of our moving car without a care in the world. They may be pretty, but no one ever said they had a whole lot of sense about them.

We made it back home just in time for dinner. It seems we visited just in time. The area we were in is now under a winter storm warning, which is supposed to hit sometime tonight.

Thankfully, our area seems to only be getting rain for the time being. I'm ready for spring!

Hey, Look What I Got!

I got the Lemons to Lemonade award, courtesy of The Snail's Trail. Thank you so much!

The rules of the award are as follows:
1) Put the logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from who you received your award.

I'm passing this award along to:

5 Orange Potatoes
fly to my window
Gee Whiz
The Exploration Station
The O'Neal Family News
Living and Learning

...Hmm, I'm getting an error when I try to save this with more links in it. How strange. So I guess I'll be a rebel and only pass this along to six bloggers instead. ;)

Volcano Eruption

Today's weather was just about perfect. After a week or so of below-zero temps, upper 50s was wonderful! I don't know what the problem was with the paint we used on the poster board volcano, but it didn't fully dry until tonight, well over 24 hours after painting it. We took it outside to erupt right before dinner. Hubby was off work (finally -- I hate when he works Saturdays), so he assisted while I took pictures.

I filled the bottle with warm water, a few drops of liquid detergent, red food coloring, and some baking soda. We added vinegar, and this was our result:



I thought it was neat. However, T was thoroughly disappointed that it didn't put off ash, blow the top off the volcano, or make loud noises. Oh well. Ya can't win 'em all.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

We had a lot of fun. I had to drag T back to the car afterward.

But would you believe I counted three separate people texting while driving cars pulling floats through the parade??

Shamrocks and Volcanoes

T and I spent the morning doing St. Patrick's Day related crafts. He's been on a crafty kick lately, and I'm going with it. He so rarely let me do crafts with him, that this is a nice change of pace.

We made a rainbow paper chain to hang over the doorway between the kitchen and dining room:



We also melted crayon between wax paper, I cut them into shamrock shapes, and T hung them in the window. Forgive the awfulness of the window picture -- my camera batteries were nearly dead, so I snapped the picture as quickly as possible. You get the idea.



We spent this afternoon working on something different. T has been fascinated with volcanoes for a long time. He spent a fair amount of time on this site, creating his own volcanic eruptions.

We talked about the gasses building up pressure within a volcano, and to describe what I meant, we used the fail-proof balloon trick. It gave me a good excuse to indulge myself with a Pepsi (it's for the kids!), and once I drank it, we poured vinegar into the bottle, added baking soda into the balloon, attached it to the bottle, and watched what happened.



We then put the Pepsi bottle to another use -- creating a mock volcano out of poster board. The poster board we had was too small, so we improvised (here's hoping it works tomorrow!). T painted it today. We'll try to "erupt" it tomorrow night.



T is really enjoying all things volcano related. I think this could be a lot of fun, as long as I can keep brainstorming other activities!

Things That Make Me Happy

I went out today with a set plan. We would run to the store, pick up a few necessary food items I forgot to add to my shopping list, fill up the car with gas, and come straight home.

Well, I may (and I'm not admitting anything here) have accidentally gotten distracted and found myself standing in the mall instead.

And I may or may not have walked out two hours later with some of the best sales ever.

If (and only if) this were the case, my findings may have been along the lines of:

-Eight shirts
-Two pairs of pants
-Snowpants
-Gloves
-A jacket
-Three sweatshirts
-A beautiful blue Columbia coat
(all of this for T)

-A gorgeous coat for myself.

The coats may have looked something like this:




The grand total for the day? $106.

That Columbia coat? $26. Normally $95.

Bow to me. I am the master of sales.

I admit it. The shopping spree happened.

(goes to hide credit card from self)

Questions

My camera is doing something weird right now, so the pictures I have will have to wait until later tonight. In the meantime, I borrowed a cute set of questions to ask T. Here are his answers. I completely lost it at his answer to #21.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you.

2. What makes mom happy?
When I listen to her.

3. What makes mom sad?
Some shows on TV are sad.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Telling me knock-knock jokes.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Food.

6. How old is your mom?
Very, very old. Like 20 or 30.

7. How tall is your mom?
40 feet.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Paint and do the dishes and color.

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
Eat.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Painting.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Eating.

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Jumping up and down, because she doesn't have a pogo stick.

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Clean the dishes.

14.What is your mom’s favorite food?
Chinese food. She makes me eat it ALL the time.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
I forgot. Do we have any granola bars?

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Spiderman.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Paint and color.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Bones hold us together.

19. How are you and your mom different?
I'm short and she's tall.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Mommy's my best friend.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
His wallet.

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?
To eat Chinese food!

Giggle-inducing

Add this to the list of things you never thought you'd hear your child say.

T: "Mommy, you stay there while I go get my castrator!"
Me: "Your WHAT?"
T: "Castrator, Mommy, my castrator!"
Me: (trying not to laugh) "OK, show me what that is."
T: (comes back out of his closet carrying a shoebox) "See Mom? It's my castrator. You can buy things and I'll put money in it."
Me: "Ohhhh, you mean cash register?"
T: "Yeah, Mom, that's what I said. My castrator."

We might want to work on that pronunciation before he starts school.

Today's Accomplishment

T lost his first tooth!

Using Up Old Crayons

Peel paper off crayons; break into pieces. Arrange in shaped tinfoil muffin tins (I used stars, found at the dollar store). Place on cookie sheet and preheat oven to 250.



Place in oven and heat until melted (about 5 minutes, give or take). Take out and let cool.



When cooled, peel foil away from crayon and let cool fully on newspaper.

Money

The cold weather continues today -- last I checked, it was hovering around -3, and we're supposed to see another half foot of snow in the next couple days. It seemed like a good day to work on money skills.

We dumped the money out of his two banks and practiced sorting by the type of coin involved. We made piles of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.



Then we mixed vinegar and salt to clean the pennies. He loved watching the bubbles form around the coins as they were each dropped in.



After waiting and watching for a few minutes, we were both distracted by the remaining coins on the table, and tried to spin them until our fingers and wrists hurt!



In a creative attempt to get T to clean up (without realizing he was doing it), we pretended he owned a store and I had come to buy things from him. He'd make up prices, I'd show him how I'd count that amount out in coins, and he'd put the coins in his bank. Easy!

Fun With Magnets

Last night, T spent so much time playing with the magnets on the fridge that I decided to set him up with a magnet activity. I picked several strong magnets and had him help me pick out small objects around the house that he thought a magnet might pick up.



After a good hour of running through the house, giggling and picking out different things to test, he arrived at a conclusion. The magnet stuck to nails, screws, a screwdriver, nail clippers, and tweezers. A hairbrush, soda bottle, backpack, and penny? Not so much.



His favorite part of the whole activity? Putting a strong magnet on one side of his finger and a strong magnet on the other side, and feeling the magnetic pull through his skin.

Snow Day

The last two weeks have been surprisingly nice - 50s and 60s most days. Just as I was getting used to the nice weather, another winter storm decided to make its way through and dump another five inches of snow on us. It would have been perfect sledding conditions today, but the temperature never rose much above zero. I improvised instead, and brought snow inside.



We also practiced writing letters in the snow.



And occasionally even eating it...



The biggest hit, however, was building mini-snowmen. It kept him entertained for a good hour until there was more water than snow remaining.



Playing with snow inside may be his new favorite project!

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I'll be honest. As much as I love baking, I have never actually made bread before. It's never something that sounded like something I wanted to bother with. Then I started hearing about this bread left and right. It is so easy!

The recipe for the basic bread mix:

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

Mix water, yeast, and salt into a big bowl (I used the mixing bowl from my KitchenAid mixer).



Add flour.



Mix together until it looks something like this:




Cover bowl loosely (I used a tea towel) and let dough rise for about two hours, then refrigerate. I left it overnight so it was easier to shape.

I don't have either a pizza peel or stone, so I improvised here. When I pulled the dough out, I sprinkled cornmeal and flour on a smooth cutting board I have. I sprinkled flour onto the dough and shaped a grapefruit-sized piece of dough into a slightly flattened ball. Let it rise for 40 minutes, then dust top with flour and cut lines into the top of the dough:



Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 450 and heated a loaf pan and cookie sheet in the oven. After it heated up, I slid the bread onto the cookie sheet and quickly poured about a cup of hot water into the loaf pan, then shut the oven quickly.

The bread baked for about 35 minutes until it was done.



This bread was great, and so easy! Each batch of dough makes about four loaves. Better instructions can be found here.