Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Science Experiments-gone crazy

I was in the kitchen, admiring my budding watermelon seedlings. (drinking a cherry Diet Coke that I gave up weeks ago-Did I mention I was a closet diet coke drinker?)
When I had this insane thought...What would a watermelon seed do, if all I gave it to drink was diet coke?
I mean, let's see if the old adage is true--You Are What You Eat"
I quickly involved my two little girls who were horrified at giving a seed Diet coke to live on. (I recently told them carmel color in Diet Coke causes cancer, so they would stop asking me for sips)

So, our control group includes, a seed that will receive water, a seed that will receive milk, a seed that will receive Orange Juice, and the poor said seed that will receive Deathly Cola er Diet Coke.
They all have the same soil, and get 1/8 cup said liquid each day.
Pictures below. Please write in and tell me, what you think will happen. Jessica and Tori made their predictions and will be charting the seeds daily :)


The WEIRDEST thing, is that all the liquids receded down into the soil, except the orange juice, which refused to join the soil as one...I predict hard times for those two!

The Earth

I was getting frustrated with my girls inability to pick out North America on a map. So, the last few weeks have been "Quick! Find North America on this random map!" Finally they are getting it, and we are moving on to memorizing States and capitols.
As a fun craft I though they could make paper mache "worlds" and then they will do their best to paint Land & Ocean from memory. (I will then let them REPAINT it correctly, because I am a closet perfectionist and it has to be done right at some point, or I cannot sleep)



I had to hide them so they could dry, in the homeschool closet. My 3 year old likes to "check" on things, and then they are destroyed, and then I am angry, and it is really a vicious cycle-Now I simply hang important things up--high :)

Mooooo! Does anybody want some milk?

For the last 3 years of living in the West Valley, I have driven past the same dairy, daily. I finally had the nerve one day to stop and ask if they would do a Dairy Farm tour for our homeschool group.-They readily
agreed and I alerted my group.
I had been on Dairy tours before and been dissappointed frustrated with the lack of teaching that was presented. We were there to learn, Please teach us.
Well, I was so happy to meet Farmer Ben Dickman of Verrado Dairy. I expected a 20 minute tour-yeah, we were there for 2 hours! (with his brain to pick, at our leisure)
Here's our little group starting out.

The first place he took us, was to the cold storage room, where the milk is cooled from body temperature to 40 degrees in a matter of seconds! The kids all took a peek over into the cold tank. They said it was very frothy. A milk truck comes twice a day to pick up all that milk. (this is peak season, summer is slow)
We were also up close and personal with the UDDERS-it was awesome..He told us we could milk them if we wanted- nobody volunteered though! The biggest problem he faces with his cows? Mastitis.
 After milking the udders are dipped in a waxy antibiotic to keep the bacteria out of the teat, while the cow is out in the field. A cow is milked 3 times in a 24 hour period, giving 100 pounds of milk. (Don't ask me why they measure in pounds and not gallons)
Farmer Dickman was so good with the children, answering 100's of questions from curious moms & kids.
Below are the kids, learning about what goes into the cow's feed. Corn, cottonseed, almond husks, ground up donuts (better than going to waste!)



Look closely for sprinkles in the ground donuts! (above)


Our favorite part was definitely the baby cows..so sweet and new. One was even born while we were there!
It was a wonderful trip!!! The best I've had. I learned a lot of useful info.
Cows are on a 21 day cycle, they gestate for 9 months. A veterinarian can palpate at 4 weeks gestation and confirm pregnancy. Twin births account for 8% of births, triplets 2%.
Cows drink 100 gallons of water a day in the summer. Feed is thee #1 cost to a farmer (60%)
If a cow is small in stature, they will order the sperm of a large bull to try and get a balanced calf, thereby perfecting their herd. It is planned to a science!
We wanted to thank the farmer so much for taking hours out of his day to share his knowledge and enlighten the local public, so I put together a thank you basket and cow-sized thank you card for him!
The basket included Snickers, Twix, gum, Trail Mix, Beef Jerky, and Oreo's. (Milk's favorite cookie)
The farmer seemed very shocked, but pleased with the gift. He said, anytime we wanted to come out again, just give him a holler and he'd fit us in...

Setting Sail in San Diego!

Well, we had a very nice time with my sister Jaime in San Diego.
We flew in on Saturday and were expecting rain-fortune smiled on us and it was a beautiful sunny day at Hotel Del Coronado. We bought lunch and ate on the hotel  balcony over looking the Pacific Ocean...Heavenly..Just four wonderful friends :-)
Lots of sun,collecting shells on the beach. chocolate mouse,mozzarella pesto sandwiches, and thee tastiest strawberry tart you will ever dream of! Seriously, I can't wait to go back and get one for myself!!
 It was so lovely, and a memory I will always cherish.
We took the girls shopping before lunch and bought them new dresses. They were so excited, and the shop was the cutest little vintage shop, with aprons and flour sack dresses from the 40's-I definitely want to go back soon! (Everything I tried on, I was unable to zip, so diet first, the shopping! LOL)

Back to Hotel Del-it is a MUST see if you have not.
The lobby makes you feel as though you have stepped back 200 years. Such beauty, hardwood floors, ornate carved ceilings, stone fireplaces. I could just read all day in one of the couches in the lobby!

We went back to Jaime's boat and rented a movie, ate soup, and waited for the night storm to move in off the horizon. 
At times, it was difficult to sleep; the wind would grab the boat's mast and shake it back and forth between the dock, and the rain, we must not forget the lulling sound of torrential rain ;-)- so the boat rocked and banged most of the night!! I slept peacefully through all but about 10 minutes (where I was reveling in it) but Jaime had a hard time sleeping..
The next morning we went to Denny's and ate a pancake breakfast..yum! Off to the airport after that, so we could make it home before Bobby :) He still beat us though..I am excited because we get to go back to San Diego on Friday morning. Where Bobby will be renting a sail boat, and enjoying his first strawberry tart!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Happy Valentines Day!

So, last year, I saw this really cute idea. A fun Valentine surprise for those you care most about :-)
A Heart Attack of course! LOL Stay with me now-It's a good heart attack!

The girls and I spent most of Saturday cutting out hearts, and running to the store to pick up various candies..mmm...we sampled a few for safety.
We ended up with a nice little pile of Valentine love.
The girls and I made a card explaining who the goodies were from and presto, we were ready to heart attack our unsuspecting friends!
Jessica said this was the most fun she had ever had. We could hear our friends and their dogs, just on the other side of the door. Which really gave the escapade a fun, yet nervous factor.
Towards the end, we were ringing doorbells and running! LOL
Here is one doorway, partially 'attacked'

Until  next year! (Actually, until Halloween, when we have another fun escapade up our sleeve!)