Fun With Mimi, Baba, & Mamoo

The best part of March was the 10 days we got to spend with my parents & my grandma.  We only see my family once every year & a half so it's a big deal when we visit them or when they visit us.  They flew out to us this time & we had a blast together.

We celebrated my mom's birthday at The Cheesecake Factory the day after they arrived.  It was delicious.

During our downtime, there was a lot of texting, picture sharing, game playing, & video showing between Mimi & Baba & the grandbabies.

And my boys were in heaven because Baba played every board game & lego set we could find in the house with them.

They went to church with us too.

We did lots of things the week they were here.  We went shopping, visited the kids' schools, & even got pedicures.  They loved visiting the Ames Exploration Center by our house.  My mom & grandma have always been fascinated by space so it was a good museum for them to visit.

They even became astronauts for a bit.

The highlight of the trip for me was finishing Canyon's stocking with my mom.  She started the stocking years ago, but with her health issues, she wasn't able to finish the bottom half of it.  I finished it for her in February, & while she was here, we picked out fabric & trimmings & sewd the stocking together.  It turned out beautiful.

It was such a wonderful week.  I love them SO much & always miss living near them.  I'm excited to go visit them again right before we move to Alabama this summer.

Taya's CA History Project - 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

In addition to Cadence's PE project & the kids' 2 science fair projects, Taya also had a big CA State History project due.  I've actually looked forward to this project all year long.  4th grade is the year kids do state history projects & they've all been fun.  Cadence made a mud hut for her UT state history project, & Lorien dressed up in Colonial clothing & did an oral report for her VA state history project.  I've seen SEVERAL California mission model kids at stores around here so I've been SO excited to help Taya build one.

FINALLY, the time came to start a project.  Taya came home SUPER excited & I excitedly said "WHICH MISSION DO YOU GET TO  BUILD?"

She looked at me confused & said. . . 

"I chose the 1906 San Francisco earthquake."

"You what!?!?!?    Wait. . . .what?"

Of course my little meteorologist would pick AN EARTHQUAKE as her assignment.  How on earth was she going to make a MODEL OF AN EARTHQUAKE?

Never underestimate your kids.  They are amazing & when given the opportunity, they are brilliant.  She had it all worked out in her head & she executed it amazingly.

She built the entire thing herself.  Trek even let her use his saw to build the base boards & all the buildings.  She used 2 pieces of plywood for the bases & painted one like street blocks.  Then she used wooden dowels to make buildings.  She cut the buildings in half & glued the bottom pieces to the street, but left the tops loose (so they broke when the earthquake happened).  

Next she put 4 large bouncy balls between the 2 base boards & secured them with rubber bands.  With the balls in between, the top base board (the one with the street & buildings) would shake just like an earthquake, making all the buildings break.  It was pure genius.

It was such a fun project & I'm SO proud of her.

Taya's Earthquake Model Video

Great job Taya!

Mini-Concerts

While my parents were here, the kids gave them concerts here at the house.  I managed to sneak a few videos of Bladen playing his drums & Lo playing her cello.  I'll have to get some videos of Cadence playing her oboe & the other kids on piano one of these days.

Here's a few of the videos I took.

Bladen Drum Solo

Bladen Songa Samba

Bladen Drum Set Beats

Bladen Fills

Lorien Cello - Maytime

Lorien Cello - Variations

The Piano Guys Concert

For the girls' birthdays, Trek & I surprised them with tickets to see The Piano Guys in concert.  It was a dream concert for all 3 of us.  I LOVE The Piano Guys.

It was SO fun to dress up & go to a concert together.

The concert was amazing.  There's nothing in the world like listening to music.  I don't care what kidn of music it is, music is magic.  Of course classical mixed with pop & alternative is my FAVORITE.

I loved how much Lo enjoyed watching Stephen Sharp Nelson play his cello.  I love that she loves her cello & that she can be inspired by such a great musician.

And of course, now she wants a black electric cello with a 5th string.  ha ha ha.

I loved all the tricks & they did with the piano.  It really was an amazing concert to watch.  I loved being there with my two girls.

Taya's Science Project - "Does The 5 Second Rule Protect You From Bacteria?"

Well, when one has a science project, it usually means that another one does too.  Taya & Bladen both had to prepare a project for the Elementary School Science Fair this year.  Both wanted to do something with bacteria so it worked out perfectly.  Taya's was quite interesting.

She wanted to see if the "5 second rule" really was true.  Does food really NOT pick up bacteria in 5 short seconds?  Or does it?

First she picked 3 types of foods to try out:

a piece of bread

a sucker (wet with bottled water so it would be slightly sticky)

& chicken nuggets

Next she picked 3 locations/floors to test out:

our kitchen floor,

the floor of McDonalds,

& the floor/ground where the kids eat lunch at her school.

The first thing she did was swab each of the foods before putting them on the floor so she could see if they contained any bacteria to begin with.  Then she tested each of the floors to see what bacteria grows naturally there.

Then she did her real experiment by dropped each food item at each location for 5 seconds each, then swabbing them for bacteria after the 5 seconds was up.  She used 15 petri dishes to complete the experiment.

It takes 48 hours for bacteria to grow, so she put her petri dishes in a closet with a space heater set to 87 degrees for 48 hours.  We were AMAZED at what we learned.

Sure enough, the sucker, bread, & chicken nuggets alone (before putting on the ground) had NO bacteria on them.  All 3 petri dishes were clean, even after 48 hours.

And the ground swabs were gross.  Even my kitchen floor had bacteria, even though I sweep & mop it regularly.  Our house floor & the McDonald's floor were equal in grossness.  But the biggest surprise was how disgusting the ground was where the kids eat lunch at school.  The SMELL!!!  Oh my heavens.  It was beyond DISGUSTING.

The results of the actual experiment was interesting.  The bread acted like a sponge & picked up bacteria from all 3 locations, even after 5 seconds.  The more bacteria on the ground, the more it soaked up, so the school ground was the worst with the bread.

Surprisingly, the chicken nugget picked up VERY little bacteria in all 3 locations, including the dirty lunch table ground.  The hardness of the nugget probably prevents it from soaking up much.

And REALLY surprisingly, the wet sucker (which we thought would be compltely sticky & pick up everything) didn't pick up much at all.  Again, the dirtier the ground, the more bacteria was picked up.

The smell from all these dishes were awful. . . mostly due to the lunch table petri dish.  The stench was literally gag inducing.

Then it was time for her to put all her results together on her science board.

Her conclusion was that the dirtier the ground, the more bacteria will be picked up by your food.  Spongy or soft foods will most likely pick up more bacteria than hard foods.

I can't even tell you how many times my kids have dropped SANDWICHES on the ground & then picked them up & ate them.  It makes me gag just thinking about it.  It's amazing that that has more bacteria that a sticky sucker!!!!

Taya worked SO hard on her poster.  She typed everything up & arranged it SO nicely on her board.  I was very proud of her work.  She's a perfectionist like her big sisters.