DISCLAIMER

Please do not breathe in the gas from dry ice! Alex was doing it the other day and I got some really good pictures of this cool effect, but it is NOT something to do. I didn't know this at the time, but suspected it was something that could hurt you and when I looked it up, all my fears were true and more.

Dealing safely with dry ice.

Chicago meets the Elliott Boyz

For the next the next four days Tanner and Dalton traveled with 50 plus other NPS band and choir students to Chicago. They will preform at 4 different locations and see the sites. Tonight they will get to see a performance by the "Blue Man Group"

A whole decade!!

This past Sunday we celebrated Kevin and Kinsey's 10th birthday. That's right, double digits, a whole decade of having those two in our family! We reminisced watching their first birthday, first Christmas, and other family movies. I can't imagine our family without these two. They add such spice, joy and laughter to our group. I love my twinners. Some of my favorites about miss Kinsey: She still likes to snuggle She tries her hardest in all that she does. She likes to help in the kitchen and does a pretty good job Some of my favorites about the Kevster: This kid is ALWAYS happy He makes me laugh His heart is tender Love to hear him sing-as long as it's not too loud:) See what spice they add? We needed a little more of that in the family....don't you think?

Spring Sports

Okay so it says it Spring outside......Really? Like everyone else we are waiting for it to warm up so we can get outside. Tanner is going to give track another shot this spring. We had our first meet(inside thank God) at Mankato State. He runs the 800 meter and does the pole vault.

Tabor and Dalton are getting a little tired of baseball practice in the gym. The first game is on the 7Th of April and it looks like we will only have one 50* day before the game. I'm pretty sure those first few games will be postponed and we will be at the park 4 nights a week for a month straight.

Tanner and Dalton head out for a band and choir trip to Chicago Wednesday morning and will return Sunday. Tabor is looking forward to being an only child for a few days. He then was reminded how the only child would have to haul all the wood in.

Muffin Tin Monday! "Cloudy with a chance of chocolate"

Getting back to the fun stuff doesn't just extend to school work! That means we are back to the fun stuff in life too! Like Muffin Tin Monday. Today I just used what we have on hand and only loosely followed a theme (which is honestly perfect for our 'Spring' we have had so far. It has been pouring for days), but I look forward to enjoying many more MTM's in our near future.

Pirates Booty 'clouds', water (in best homemade sippy EVER), Roast chicken and cheddar roll up

Peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter (it is NOT Nutella, that stuff is filled with nasties), celery, and a couple of shortbread/chocolate mushrooms.

Back to it!

Cyan's first science experiment in a few weeks. It was called "Sweet Leaves" from Biology for Every Kid by Janice VanCleave.

Cyan wrote up the lab notes and then asked me if she could do 'salty leaves' too. Of course I said "let's try it!" and we put cilantro leaves in salty, sweet, and unflavored water. The next morning we woke up and the salty one (the one in the middle) had developed TONS of bubbles! The other two had a regular amount of bubbles for tap water.

The sweet and salty water produced both sweet AND salty leaves (although the sugar was much more distinct in the flavor and we got to talk about how plants use sugar and not salt and therefore the plant would actually suck the sugar water up into it faster than the salty water, etc) but the bubbles were the talk of the experiment. Now she is looking for why salty water would produce so many more air bubbles at room temperature than the others. Esp the sugar water. I was thinking it was the molecules of salt that did it, but then, wouldn't sugar do something similar? Science questions in the making. ;)

Cabin Fever.....literally!!!

So we got home from an AWESOME cabin trip for Spring Break (see pictures below)...and Shay complained of not feeling very good. We took her temperature and sure enough, 102! For the next 4 days she was one SICK girl with a super sore throat, chills, high fever, etc. At this point the doctor is suspecting mono. Not fun!!!

Anyhow...we loved the cabin (thanks John and Becca for the awesome Christmas gift) Here is a picture of our hike to "the boulders." The boys swear they found a mountain lion den with footprints and everything.

We tried to drive up to Green's Peak..but too much snow on the roads, so we played in the snow for awhile:)

Did some fishin:)

Look at these two readers

We invited a family from our ward, the Farnsworths, to join the fun. The kids spent a better part of a day building this awesome fort they named the "Hidden Meadows Mountain Man Club"

Fun with dry ice

We are finally getting back to school stuff. We have been doing nothing but bookwork for weeks and weeks. Frankly, bookwork is easy. It still teaches them and when pregnant, overdue, or cuddling a newborn babe it makes perfect sense... but I have been really excited about starting to enjoy our school days just a little bit more lately.

We have been taking everyday opportunities for fun experiments and today was a really cool one. We got dry ice in our weekly grocery delivery! The kids have played with it many times before, but today, Alex asked if he could put it in really hot water. The effect was really cool. Gaseous bubbles billowing everywhere making one of my mixing bowls look like a witches brew, and the kids enjoyed it as well:

It was quite the cool effect. I look forward to what they will think of to do with next weeks dry ice!

Daddy/Daughter hike

These daughters LOVE their Daddy! And Daddy is slightly wrapped around their little fingers...It was a beautiful day spent enjoying some of the best things in life...(food, family, and the great outdoors)...not necessarily in that order

Headed to STATE

How lucky are we to have two teams back to back travel to state? There is nothing greater than a RAIDER!

Gotta LUV the Girls

Well wrestling got over the boyz spent 3 days in the cities at state and saw some amazing matches. Then its on to Girls Basketball. Between playoff games the boyz have been lifting weights and getting ready for Spring sports which by the way start on MONDAY. How about my girls? We are so excited tonight we travel to MSU in Mankkato to take on Martin Luther HS for a chance to go to STATE! GBB has not went to state in over 30 years here in Nicollet. # 33 is my Youth Service student at school and the 3 up front our my seniors. The boyz have all kinds of Crazy Raider outfits planned for the game and Darin has promised the girls to DYE his beard Raider BLUE! Game starts at 6 wish us luck!