Science Fair and the College Park Aviation Museum

Last Saturday Sarah was in the Montgomery County Science Fair. She got to go to the county level since she had placed 2nd in her school for the 6th grade at the school's science fair a couple of months ago. (I still need to take a picture of her with her project and really big 2nd place ribbon.) Sarah loves science and was excited to get to participate at the county level. She and David worked on a project for over a month earlier in the year. They used freshwater plants in quart jars and slowly added different amounts of sea salt to the water of all but one of the plants. They then measured the plants and watched what happened to them over time. I'm not very scientifically minded, so it was nice for David and Sarah to work on this project together. It was also convenient that we had a lot of the supplies already because of our salt water fish tank. Anyway, last Saturday she got to take her project to the University of Maryland and put it on display with other middle schoolers from all over the county. No parents were allowed to enter and she had to stay by her project and answer questions from the roaming judges for 2 1/2 hours. I was so proud of her--something like that would totally freak me out--and she wasn't even nervous.

While she was at the science fair, the rest of us decided to go to the College Park Aviation Museum which was only a few blocks away. It is a fairly small musuem, and I had often wondered how they stay in business with the huge Air and Space Museum in DC that is so close (and free). But I was really impressed with the museum and we had a lot of fun, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone. It is quite different than the Air and Space Museum and has lots more hands-on activities, especially for younger children.

I learned a lot of history while I was there. It turns out the College Park Aviation Museum is located on the grounds of the world's oldest continuously operating airport in College Park, Maryland. The airport was founded in 1909 when Wilbur Wright came there to give flight instruction to the 1st military aviators. They had a big display about the Wright Brothers, which my kids enjoyed since we went to Kitty Hawk a couple of summers ago.

They had lots of other cool airplanes and we even got a lesson on the four forces of flight (something I think I missed out during my formal education). It was very interesting and we had a fun time.

The kids were cracking me up in all the flying gear!

First Day of Spring

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

---Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

I love this quote about spring. And today was one of those days. So glad it is finally spring. We made these to celebrate.

Happy Spring!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Today is the day o' the wearin o' the green
Today is the day when the little people are seen
Today is St. Patrick's Day, so if your Irish me lad
Join the celebratin' for the grandist time that ye had

That is a little song that I learned as a kid for St. Patrick's day and we still sing every year. It has another verse that requires dancing around and the kids think it is great fun.

So, I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but I thought I'd post about our fun day anyway. Besides singing our fun song, we had lots of ways to celebrate at our house. The kids awoke to green Hershey kisses left on their pillows by Leprechauns. We had green pears and green pancakes for breakfast. I made green lunches for the kids with snow peas, green jello jigglers and more green Hershey kisses (and a sandwhich thrown in there too). For dinner, I made Irish Soda Bread (I had never made this before and got the recipe from this great food blog that I love--it turned out really good), cabbage, and potato soup. I couldn't think of a good St. Patrick's Day dessert, but the kids picked to have Key Lime Pie. I think they thought it would be green, so I put some green food coloring in it to turn it green anyway. Not very Irish, and definitely taboo for Key Lime Pie purists, but fun nonetheless. St. Patrick's Day is sort of a silly holiday, but it's always fun to break up the every day routine.

Baltimore Aquarium

Last Saturday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. This is one of the best aquariums I've ever been too, and we've had a membership while we've lived here. We decided to go one last time before our membership expired.

We first went to the dolphin show, which is always one of our favorite things. This time the kids were brave and wanted to sit in the splash zone. We only got splashed once, but it made it all the more exciting. The dolphins were beautiful and amazing!

Afterwards we went down right by the tank to watch the dophins swim by.

After the dolphin show we took a break and went for lunch. While we were waiting for our table we had fun hanging out at Baltimore's beautiful inner harbor. The weather was nice, and it felt great to be outside.

After lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!) we went back in to see the rest of the aquarium.

Besides lots of wonderful fish, this aquarium also has an Australian Exhibit and a Rain Forest Exhibit. We saw lots of cool birds and even a sloth.

Ahhh....watch out Kate!

The kids had fun posing with these pictures of scary deep-water fish.

Fun day!

Done with the Thumb

Kate has been a thumb-sucker from the beginning. She found her thumb when she was a tiny baby, only a few weeks old. I promptly took it out. I was not going to have a child that sucked her thumb. No way. I popped a binky in instead. She tried it out for a while, but never liked it as much as her thumb. I tried for months to get her to change her mind. Finally, when she was about 5 months old--I gave in and decided to let it be. And in some ways it was great. No more searching for a lost binky in the middle of the night. Being able to sooth herself when life got a little rough. It didn't take more than her blanket and her thumb to cheer her up. But ever since I gave in, I have worried how it would end. I worried that she would be in high school and still sucking her thumb on the sly. I thought about how I would have to make her wear a glove to bed to get her to stop. Or paint on some other bad tasting medicine. I worried about her teeth. I worried and worried. (Isn't that what moms do?)



I shouldn't have worried. Kate's done--done sucking her thumb. And it happened over night. Just like that. Because she was ready.



We've talked about stopping for months, even years. Kate told me she would stop when she was 3 1/2, but that came and went. She didn't want to stop, she said. So she pushed it back to 3 and 3/4. Then 4. Finally, a few months ago, Kate pointed out to me that she only sucked her thumb when she had her blanket. And when pressed on it, she admitted that she would stop sucking her thumb if she didn't have her blanket. I now had a plan.



However, I felt a little mean at the thought of taking away her blanket. She has slept with it every night since birth, and despite the fact that it is very worn, she loved it. I hated to take away something she loved. So I put it off.



A few weeks ago we had dinner with some friends. They have a little girl Kate's age whom Kate adores. In the course of the conversation, we started talking about the thumb sucking dillema and they told me they had taken away their daughter's blanket and she had stopped sucking her thumb. Kate was sitting by me during the conversation and heard the whole thing. So the next day, we decided to try it. Kate willingly gave me her blanket and told me she was going to stop. And she did! I couldn't believe it. She hasn't put her thumb in her mouth once and hasn't fussed about it or asked for her blanket back. We decided when she gave it to me that she could have it back after she was definitely done sucking her thumb, so I might give it back eventually. We'll see.



I'm so proud of her!



By the way, she potty trained the exact same way--over night, when she was ready.

Ben's Birthday Fun

On Ben's birthday, we celebrated as a family. We played silly games like moving cottonballs from one bowl to another with a spoon while blindfolded and using a straw to move candy hearts from one plate to another. The kids got out of school early that day for some teacher workshop, so we had a fun afternoon together.


His favorite present was a pitching net (set up back by the old shed in case he missed the net). He spent hours outside throwing and catching (until we had a big snowstorm the next day). It was so fun to see him get better and better.








The next day Ben had a birthday party with his friends. He had a race car birthday party. Really, he wanted to a have a Wii Mario Kart birthday party (have I mentioned how obsessed Ben is with the Wii?), but I convinced him to broaden the scope somewhat so we could do more besides play the Wii. He only wanted to invite 3 friends (only 4 can play Mario Kart at one time) so it was a nice manageable group.

First, the boys painted wooden race cars.

Then we had lunch. I thought these hot dog race cars turned out cute, but I don't think the boys were all that impressed.
Next, the boys each got a car (4 exactly the same so it would be fair) to race. They had a great time racing their cars over and over!

Finally, the boys got to play Mario Kart. Such fun!

We wrapped up with cake and presents. And a sigh of relief from me that this party was done!

Paper Dolls

I loved playing with paper dolls as a child. I remember a set I had with some pioneer girls. I think they were called the Gingham Girls or something like that. I loved their pretty dresses and I remember playing with my paper dolls for hours.

Sarah and Rachel have also loved playing with paper dolls. We have several sets--pioneers, a Victorian family, some from Civil War times, etc. Recently Kate has started to enjoy playing with paper dolls too. We got these out the other day while the big kids were at school and I sat down and played with her for a while. It was fun to see how her little imagination worked and all the adventures she created for these little dolls.