24 February 2013

On Monday we made an acid/base indicator by boiling some red cabbage in water.  We drained the cabbage and used the purple water to test whether various household liquids were acidic or basic.  The cabbage juice makes acids turn pink and bases turn blue.  Abe, Helen and Gibson pretty much had no idea what calling something an acid or a base meant, but they thought making the color change was cool.

 Abe made a robotic insect from a science kit.  The motor makes a plastic propeller spin.  The binder clip attached to the propeller makes the propeller wobble which makes the insect "walk" across the floor.  The film canister in the back holds a battery.

February 22 marked 9 months until the next Hunger Games movie comes out.  Sofi celebrated by having friends over for a Hunger Games party.  They watched the first movie and ate Hunger Games inspired snacks.  Sofi wanted to serve food that would be authentic to the miserable circumstances the heroine grew up in so she made Becky a shopping list that included things like rye flour and goat's milk.  Becky argued that while those items might be the cheapest food in the Hunger Games' society, they are not the cheapest food in our society (that honor would go to junk food like Little Debbie snack cakes) and Becky didn't want to spend a lot of money on food no one would eat for the sake of authenticity.  They compromised with a rustic menu of homemade bread, cheese, roasted chicken, roasted nuts, berries and apples which everyone enjoyed.  If you missed this big event, don't worry!  Sofi has parties planned for May 22 (6 months) and Aug 22 (3 months.)

 Sofi competed in the regional Brain Bowl tournament on Saturday.  She was on her school's varsity team-- the only freshman-- everyone else was a junior or senior.  Her team didn't advance beyond regionals so Brain Bowl is over for them for the year.

Saturday was cold, but sunny.  Abe, Brandan and Gibson went for a bike ride.  

17 February 2013

Gibson wanted to make a snake.  He picked out some fabric scraps and Becky sewed it together.  Gibson stuffed the snake.

Here's a photo of Gibson playing with the finished snake.  He named it "Slither."

We've had beautiful weather this week, with several days of temperatures above 60 degrees.  We spent a few hours doing yard work.  Abe earned some money pulling weeds.

Thursday we celebrated Valentine's Day with a candlelight breakfast and homemade Valentines.  

The water main at Sofi's school broke, flooding the school Monday morning before school began.  School ended up canceled for the week, although we had to check each day to see if there would be school the next day.  Sofi quite enjoyed her week off school.  She slept in every day-- except for Valentine's Day when we woke her up to eat with the family-- read, watched lots of movies, practiced driving, hung out with friends and volunteered at the elementary school.  In the photo she is making some pajama bottoms.  Hopefully she'll be able to go back to school on Tuesday (Monday is President's Day.)  About a third of the school was seriously damaged and needs major repairs.  The district hasn't decided yet how the kids will make up the missed time.

On Saturday we went to the Chinese New Year parade.  This is the Year of the Snake.  The parade gets a little bigger each year as our community's ties to China increase.  There are a lot of Chinese students at the university and at a private high school.  Many of the public schools have Chinese language programs now, too.  

This is a photo of one of the lions.  The lion dancers were very talented and performed a neatly choreographed routine.

10 February 2013

While shopping for a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago, Gibson saw a toy he wanted for himself. We pay our kids for extra chores they do and Gib has been working hard to earn the money to buy the toy.  One of his jobs was vacuuming out the van.

He earned $13 over a couple of weeks, enough to pay his tithing and for the toy and still have $1 left over.  He bought a plastic dinosaur with a little action figure.  Gibson felt a lot of satisfaction that he bought the toy himself.

  

Helen received an award for having 150 accelerated reader points at school.  Her prize was a bookmark.

Brandan took Gibson and Abe to the Cub Scout Snowcapades on Saturday.  They spent about 7 hours playing in the snow.  Gib tried snowshoes for the first time.  The snowshoes didn't fit his boots very well so he didn't go very far.

 Abe liked the sledding runs the best.  The snow was icy and the sleds went fast.

  

Here's a photo of Gib going down the hill.

  

Sofi decorated her doorway for Chinese New Year with banners she made in school.  The banner on top says something about Chinese culture.  The banners on the sides are a couplet that says something like "Our parents do a lot for us so we need to work hard at school."  Hard to argue with that!  Sofi is holding the character for luck.

3 February 2013

Gibson lost his first tooth on Thursday-- his left lower incisor.  His tooth is so tiny, you can hardly see it in the photo.  It's right in the center of his palm.

  

Sofi gave a speech on checks and balances in her government class.  Her teacher invited parents to come watch the speeches.  Sofi did a great job.  She spoke for over 6 minutes without any notes; her entire speech was memorized.

 Gibson came to watch the speeches, too.  He liked sitting in the big chairs in the conference room where the class met to give their speeches.

We often have projects and experiments lying around in the kitchen.  This week we had three: some sugar water Helen is hoping will form sugar crystals, some walnut shells and wood shavings she dyed with food coloring and Abe's Cartesian diver he built from a soda pop bottle and an eye dropper.

 

 Helen was baptized on Saturday! 

Helen was very excited for her baptism day to come.  We've had lots of family nights about baptism and the Holy Ghost in the past couple of months.

  

Here's a photo of Helen and Brandan.  Brandan baptized Helen and Grandpa Dan confirmed her.  We enjoyed the gentle peace we felt during this special event.  Helen wore a dress that our friend sewed for her own baptism over 40 years ago.  She later cut her dress down so her daughters could wear it.  The dress is made of terry cloth towels, so it is warm and fluffy when dry and weighs about 30 pounds when wet.

Here are Gibson, Abe, Sofi and Helen after the baptism.  Becky made Helen's dress as a special treat for her. 

 Brandan's parents came for the baptism.  We're enjoying their company this weekend.