Baby It's Cold Outside

So here in VA we get cold, but not like most parts of the US.  I really can't complain because the weather here is wonderful (humidity doesn't bother me).

But it's been pretty cold even for VA the last few days.  We've had to bundle up quite a bit to keep warm.

Canyon prefers wearing multiple hats at all times.

Bladen has been curling up next to the heater in the kitchen
every morning to get the warm air blown directly on him.

Yesterday the kids had a 2 hour delay for school due to frigid temps & lots of ice & this morning we had a 1 hour delay due to SNOW.

And here's what our snow looked like.

 

Being from UT I had to laugh at this, but I totally understand how bad it is when even that much snow is on the ground here.  There's no equipment to take care of snow or ice so any cold weather conditions wind up being really bad here even if they seem like nothing.

The "snow" melted quickly, but the kids sure enjoyed watching the small flurries fall this morning.  They sat at the window for probably an hour just watching it.  It was so sweet.

An hour after that, it was melted again & off they went to school.  But I was happy we got one little flurry just so they could experience it this year.

Lorien's Solar System Project

So just when I thought we were done with big projects, Lorien brings home a huge solar system project!  ha ha ha.  It never ends when you have 6 kids, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

She got to be her creative little self on this one.  I bought her a bunch of styrofoam balls & let her go to town on them.  She used paint, glitter, markers, & all sorts of fun colorful things to color each of her planets.  Lorien has always been an artist so she had a blast with this.

Once everything was painted, I gave her a piece of floral arrangement foam to use as her base.  She glued black felt pieces over it & added silver glitter to make it look like space.

Then she got really technical in the placement of her planets.  I thought she'd just plop them down in order, but NO!  That's not good enough for Lorien!  She actually measured her base which was 29 inches & figured out to scale where each of the planets would be.  She took the number of miles from the sun each planet was & divided it by 29 inches so she knew where to place her sticks.  The first four planets are SUPER close together, but she had to do it that way because that's how it is in space. Mercury was .25 inches from the sun, Venus .5 inches, Earth .75 inches, & Mars 1 inch.

It looked great when she got them all where she needed them to be.  She added rings for Saturn & Uranus & then added the asteroid belt separating Jupiter & Mars.  The finished product was beautiful just like her.

I was so proud of her.  My kids are so great.  I love you Lo!

6th Grade Science Fair

Cadence has been working on her 6th grade science fair project for almost 4 months now.  She knew she wanted to do something with iron in cereal, but wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to do.  She went through several different ideas before she came up with one that she liked, was interested in, & that actually worked really well for a science project.

She named her project:

What an "Iron"ic Breakfast!

She wanted to prove that the iron content in cereals differ from what is what is written on the nutrition labels.  I didn't know how she was going to do this, but that's what experimentation is for right?

She spent a good month experimenting with different ways of pulling iron out of cereal.  It wasn't until we got an industrial strength magnet that the experiment started to really come together.  (That magnet was SO powerful that it couldn't be shipped by plane because it would mess up the instruments!  It's insane!!!!)  Once we got the magnet, she was able to pull ALL the iron straight out of the cereals.  Can you believe there are actual black iron chunks in the cereal we eat?  I had no idea!

Once the experiment started coming together, she was able to measure the levels of iron per serving of cereal.  Sure enough, Cheerios trumped the other 4 cereals even though it's nutritional label said it only had 45% of the daily value of iron.

She put her poster together with all her information, pictures, examples, & her abstract & entered it into the science fair.  I went to the school & visited her.  She's such a doll.  I love my kids so much.

Two days later she came home from school with a blue ribbon around her neck & a certificate in her hand.  My baby girl took 1st place!!!!  I am SO proud of her & all her hard work.

I spent the next two days frantically filling out paperwork while Cadence wrote a 6 page research essay with bibliography on her project so that she could enter the county science fair tonight & apply to enter the regional science fair in March.  There were some crazy late nights (11:30pm is LATE), but she got it done & I am beyond proud of all that she has accomplished.

I love you Cadence!!!

What did you get?

We were very blessed this Christmas.  Everyone got such amazing things.  We are so grateful for all the wonderful gifts we received from those we love so much.

Lorien had a great Christmas.  She got some really fun things.

Cadence's goodies.  She's getting older so she
got less toys & more grown up things this year.

Look at all the dollhouse goodies Taya got for
her dollhouse.  She was so excited.

Bladen was pretty happy with all his new toys.

Poor Craiger was sick all day long.  I felt so bad for him.
But he had a good Christmas & loved everything he
received.

Trek loved everything he got.  My dad got him a nail gun & an
air compressor which sent him over the moon.  Yay for more
projects!!!  He's so excited.

Canyon was in heaven with all his new toys
that light up & play music!

And I got spoiled rotten as well.  My dad bought me new silverware
& dishes since we haven't had new stuff since we got married 13
years ago.  Mamoo got me a Mickey clock & my mom got me a
waffle iron.  I got a craft desk & lots of stuff to organize my
space.  I love it all!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Merry Christmas from the Potter house.

Stockings

My absolute favorite part of Christmas is & has always been stockings!!!  I love waking up super early, opening presents, playing with all our new toys, stopping for brunch, playing games, & then after EVERYTHING else is over with. . . as the day is almost over, going & opening up our stockings.  The kids love it & I love it too.

There's always so many fun things inside stockings.

I made Trek a "date night" coupon book for his
stocking.  I've been collecting gift cards all year
for this gift.  Now that Cadence is old enough to
babysit, Trek & I go on date nights twice  a month.
I made 26 date night ideas with gift cards for us
to use this year together.  I'm SO excited.

Presents

We spent the rest of the morning opening presents from each other, from grandparents, from Aunts & Uncles, & we had a blast doing it.

Canyon got a hat & gloves from Opa & Oma

Books for Bladen

Taya got a TON of dollhouse stuff.

We love books in the Potter house!

Craiger was sick, poor kid.  But he loved this
truck loader from Opa & Oma.

Bladen LOVES costumes.

Cadence got some Minecraft things.

Auntie Char & Uncle Jay sent a GIANT floor piano for the kids.
They LOVE it.

Lorien asked for Harry Potter EVERYTHING this year.

Talon & Carolyn sent some games & yummy treats.

We got presents from my parents, my grandma, & my brother's family too, but we were face timing with them while we were opening so I totally forgot to take pictures with their gifts.  But they were great.

We had so much fun opening one exciting present after another.  Christmas is so much fun.