Hello!

I took a blogging break last week to enjoy school vacation week to savor every moment with my children and my Mom, who came for a visit for a few days!  I'll be back tomorrow.

Our Saturday at Pineland Farms

Highlights from our day:  

Grace getting all dressed up for the cows and cleaning the barn in a tutu skirt! 

Seeing the look of surprise on Jack's face after getting a big kiss from one of the cows! 

Watching Eve walk up and down those cow aisles while waving and saying "hi" to the cows!

Pineland Farms

We went to Pineland Farms today.  The cows always get a unique experience each time we show up in their barn!  One of my favorite things about going to Pineland is seeing the way the cows look at and watch Grace, Jack and Eve.  It's priceless!  More pictures tomorrow.

A Valentine's Day Tradition

We have a Valentine's Day tradition -- every year we go to Daddy's workplace to deliver our handmade Valentines!  This year Grace, Jack and Eve made hearts using salt dough.  We painted the hearts Valentine colors and added lots of glitter to make them extra sparkly.  This is a tradition that we all look forward to so much!  I love watching Grace, Jack and Eve spread such happiness and love to so many people.  Here are some pictures from our special Valentine's Day...

Love, Love, Love

Valentine's Day!

We had a fun-filled Valentine's Day from beginning to end!!!! 

 More pictures to come...

Happy Valentine's Day

Attending the Maine State Ballet's Daddy Daughter Dance

 Bob and Grace attended the Maine State Ballet's Annual Daddy Daughter Dance last night.  I took these pictures of Grace and Daddy just before they left to go out for dinner before the dance.  Grace couldn't wait to dress up and surprise Daddy.  When Grace arrived home last night she danced and twirled her way into our house and told me about the special time she had with Daddy.  Watching Grace get ready for the dance and seeing how excited she was to go with her Daddy will be one of the sweetest memories that I will always hold on to of Bob and Grace.  

Special Time with Eve

Every Wednesday morning, Eve and I share some very special girl time together at the Children's Museum while Jack is in his theater class.  I love watching Eve's spirit shine through as she explores everything in the museum.  Oh, how I love this little sweet pea of mine!    

Grace Makes a Heart Doily Valentine Shirt for Eve

Grace made this adorable heart doily shirt for Eve this week.  To make this shirt, Grace first glued a heart shaped doily onto one of Eve's onesies.  Grace then mixed red and white fabric paint together until she came up with the perfect color.  Grace dabbed the paint into the holes of the doily using a sponge.  Once the paint dried she carefully removed the doily to reveal a sweet Valentine heart.  Grace can't wait to surprise Eve with this special shirt on Valentine's Day!  I'll post pictures of Eve wearing her special shirt next week.  

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

   

T is for train.

T is for train and train tracks.

Jack really loved working on this letter.  Jack asked to make T look like a train track with a train on it - similar to the one in the book Freight Train by Donald Crews.  I especially love Jack's rainbow colored train wheels! 

P.S.  I must say that the speech-language pathologist in me is feeling a little guilty about this letter since the word train actually begins with the consonant blend tr- and not the t sound.  I thought I would make a note of this so that some day when Jack looks back at this post that I can tell him!  I have a feeling that my train loving Jack-a-roo won't mind too much that I let this one slip!   ;)       

Learning About Viscoelasticity by Making Bouncy Balls!

Grace and Jack made bouncy balls and through this experiment they learned that the balls they made, although they looked and felt like a solid, were actually not! Instead, their bouncy balls were something between a solid and a liquid called viscoelastic! They discovered that their bouncy balls eventually started flattening out when they were not touched.

Here is how Grace and Jack make their bouncy balls:

1) Mix 1/4 cup of white glue with a few drops of food coloring.

2) In a separate glass, dissolve 1 tablespoon of borax in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add 2 tablespoons of this mixture to the glue mixture and mix together. Grace and Jack played with this mixture for awhile before moving on to the next step.

3) Add a few drops of the extra borax mixture to the dough mixture made above and begin rolling it between your hands to form a ball. Continue rolling the ball until it is hard and dry enough so that if dropped, it bounces.

Here are some pictures of Grace and Jack making their bouncy balls...