science time

emily had to do a 6th grade science project and luckily she had just planned a camp fire lesson on scientific experiments so we used one of them for school. because it was a "science fair" format, there were endless amounts of hoops to jump through (abstract, hypothesis, research, raw data...results, conclusion... bibliography...) so from a 3 minute experiment, we had to fluff it up a whole lot.

supplies...



place coin on the plate, pour water... (this is called "coin rescue" by the way)



light paper on fire and put in glass jar...



put glass jar onto plate near coin (we had to move inside, wind malfunction)



listen to the squealing sound, watch the bubbles as a vacuum forms because of the combustion reaction (oxygen burned up and carbon dioxide produced)
soooo fun!



we tried food coloring too










coin rescued!

grand council fire and spring camp out

a whirlwind of events right now, spring camp out (where families camp together at our local day camp)
emily finished her sixth year of camp fire, wow!
my goofy middle schoolers, such fun!

i never tire of seeing my girls up there singing... the camp fire law this time
love all the tents, watching the sun go down in the middle of the city...
lizzie flys up to adventure level (and will attend grand council fire next year... no more winging ceremony which is just for kids in k through 2nd grade)

lizzie liked when i pointed her out during my little speech

we are just weeks away from our trip to italy...been really addicted to this site and daydream of visiting all the places she writes about. ciao for now!

fast forward

man, i have had such bad luck with computers lately! really, i spent at least 8 hours this past week making slide show dvds for my camp fire kids and at the last second of burning the discs had an error message i couldnt fix. back to square one. then i just typed up a heartfelt meaningul post here only to have my "new" computer lose it in all it's flashiness. good grief! i am out of time so instead of the post about how my trip is hurtling itself at me along with end of school events, lots of work, tons of camp fire bustle, i can only post a few photos of the kids playing with maggie (who is getting a lot more attention these days!)

oops ball stuck in the tree! no problem with the avocado picker at hand

i better sign off before something else happens!

Olive

feisty little olive left us yesterday, it was a relief but still very sad. she will be missed.

april 2012

its like i need to just put the date up there because time is flying by and my blogging is lagging, geez! right now i am: swimming twice a week, riding my bike almost every day down the river to the beach (in crazy wind with these recent storms) and feeling so much better! when i was younger i could do three or four hard workouts in a week and be down a size no problem. well at 44, i guess it takes more than a few workouts to see a real change but at least i have swung that weight gain pendulum swinging in the other direction a bit. so on my bike ride today (the river runs right through the wetlands) i was surprised to see this at the end of the trail

the most beautiful, lovely sign dedicated to the wetlands we have been desperately trying to save!!! on the other side is a sign about the san gabriel river channel describing it's route and characteristics, also very well done. in other news, lizzie has been taking tae kwon do (sometimes 5 days a week she loves it so much) and she just had her first belt testing yesterday. it was really cool and i enjoyed watching the other kids too, especially the tiny kids getting really high level belts. this was exactly what this kid needed!!

(poor olive wants in)
unfortunately we had a loss of a family member this week but the flip side was lots of visiting with extended family bringing us all closer and reminding us how important family is, how fast time flies. jump stated me planning an east coast visit to finally see all those cousins on the east coast and scout out my favorite state: north carolina. happy spring everyone!!



hanging out with aunt heather

12 years... time sure flies!

my first born is 12! wow!

we spent the day at knott's berry farm

still trying to figure out my new camera, feels really awkward, hoping it gets easier. lizzie struggled a bit, being too little for most big rides and too big for the little rides...



with my squeamish stomach, i took advantage of our time together waiting for the big kids. we shopped and had our own adventures, i treasure these fleeting moments shared with her alone. happy birthday emily!!

Love A Sea Turtle

we recently had a sea turtle meeting that was inspired by a nonprofit organization on the east coast (north carolina, yay!) called Love A Sea Turtle. it was started by an 11 year old girl who was so inspired by a visit to a turtle rescue facility, she decided to raise money and awareness to save sea turtles where she lives. luckily for her, sea turtles nest along the east coast so they get to see them lay eggs and can help protect the nests. we made a donation and requested a dvd to use at our meeting which the kids were riveted to. i did a little lecture on sea turtles (happy i found a great book on our own bookshelves!) and we took notes in a little sea turtle book. i had a craft for them (turtle collage) but with all the good question and answers going on, our discussion took up too much time. love when that happens! so we will continue to learn about sea turtles (specifically the green sea turtle we have here in southern california) and work with our sea turtle friends on the east coast too. 

here's my little guys and another link to Love A Sea Turtle. so happy to find ways to link our local wetlands to an organization all the way on the east coast via a migrating sea turtle! so cool!