FHE - nix

Phoenix borrowed Lutece's great Family Home Evening idea and made a Book of Mormon jeopardy game for the family. Like sister, like brother.

He likewise worked on it for about three days, until it was perfect. Occasionally, he would come and ask me something like, "What are some good objects in the Book of Mormon?"

He made an excellent host. Watch out Alex Trebek.

These are the Family Home Evenings to remember. I sincerely hope the kids continue to enjoy FHE as teenagers, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm a Sucker for You, Valentine!

Valentine's Day is the new Halloween. I'm convinced of it. It's better though, because I don't have to make costumes! Needless to say, the kids got a lot of candy, and we all enjoyed the day.

I was uber-prepared this year, having purchased two boxes of mini candy canes during after-Christmas sales for the express purpose of turning them into Valentines. (I seriously love coming up with silly ideas for Valentines. It is indeed a favorite past-time of mine.)

The tags read:

I'm a SUCKER for you, Valentine!

and

I cane, I saw, I conquered.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Cheesy, I know. That's what makes them AWESOME!

Then I packaged up some small gifts for their teachers . . . also after-Christmas sale purchases (all except for the bags).

The spatulas and measuring spoons were red and pink . . . I knew when  I saw them at Christmas that they would be perfect for Valentine's Day. The card read:

No other teacher MEASURES up to you!

Oh my word, the silliness of it makes me heady with delight.

The kids came home with oodles of Valentines, including candy, temporary tattoos, whoopee cushions, pencils, and fake mustaches.
 

They added that to the small haul of candy and goodies that I left out for them in the morning (see small plastic containers in the above two pictures . . . filled with, what else?, after-Christmas sale candy!), and they had a good 2-3 days worth of candy. Again, way better than Halloween (for me).

Lutece's best friend also gave her a bag full of silly goodies, including the heart headband above. She was one lucky cookie.

For dinner I made a couple of heart-shaped pizzas to top off the festivities. Not the best picture, but mmmmmm, bbq chicken pizza sounds really good right now.

I think Valentine's Day might just be my favorite holiday. No expectations, no big gift-giving. Simple fun, no stress.

Walking to Church ~ Winter Edition

Lest you think we only walk to Church when the weather is sunny and bright, I give you photographic proof that we are sturdier stock than that.

I tell you, these new snow boots have improved our lives considerably.* There is no excuse that can withstand a good pair of snow boots. (Well, except maybe a solid ice storm . . . we did drive to Church that day).

I am definitely getting myself and Stayc a pair of good snow boots next year.

* I got them for half the regular price at Sierra Trading Post.

Of Snow Days and Snow Gear

Oh my goodness, we have had SO MANY snow days this winter. There was a point in January that the kids had only been to school five days in the previous five weeks! (Ok, so that included Winter break and the kids' staying home from school because of the stomach flu, but STILL.)

 In nearly eight years of living in Kentucky, I have never had to buy the kids snow gear. We just never get enough snow to make it worth the money (because, dang, snow gear is expensive).

If ever there was a year to buy snow gear, this is the year. So finally, in January, after a full week of no school due to weather conditions (some of that ice storms, some of it frigid temperatures, and only some of it snow), I broke down and bought the kids some snow pants and snow boots online.

When Lutece first tried them on, she said, "They make me look fat." I responded that there was not a thing in the world that could make her look fat. Impossible.

All I can say is, "What took me so long!?" Seriously?! These things are the BEST! The first day the kids wore the snow pants, they stayed outside for FIVE hours (three hours in the morning, two in the afternoon). There is no price you can put on that.

Now they shovel the back patio.

Create snowy mountains.

Dig snow tunnels.

And paint the snow different colors.

All without much complaining.

Snow days are still hard . . . but they are much better when you can actually enjoy the snow.

The Neverending Science Fair

At the beginning of December, both Lutece and Phoenix came home from school with packets of information and schedules concerning the upcoming Science Fair. In our school district, science projects are mandatory for fourth-graders, but apparently, it is a big deal for all grades, even up through high school. It turned out to be a mandatory project for both Lutece and Phoenix in their classes this year. For third-graders (Phoenix), it was just a practice run, since they can't win prizes until fourth grade.*

 

Lutece was excited from the get-go, and she had a very specific idea for her project before she even talked with us about it. Last year, while we were in China, she'd read in a fictional book about a girl who had done a science project on whether sweet or salty foods decayed teeth more. She was determined to do a project on tooth decay, but wanted to find out which beverage decayed teeth the most. She wanted to use her own baby teeth as test subjects, and lo and behold, I found them tucked away in a small ziploc bag!

Lutece quickly realized that she needed to do three trials in order to have a good project, so Phoenix donated his bag of baby teeth as well. The day she was to begin the project (December 23), we found that one of the bags of teeth was missing. Gone! It was a low blow, and after desperately scouring the house for the teeth, we knew we needed an alternative. Enter the pig's head. After various failed ideas, Stayc located a slaughterhouse in the area (45 minutes away), that was willing to give us a pig's head, teeth and all. Let me just say that Stayc has a new-found respect for dentists. Extracting teeth from a jawbone is not easy. He finally sawed entire portions of the jaw off, which we then boiled until the teeth came out. It was an exciting beginning to a science project!

A friend from Church was kind enough to allow Lutece to come to his lab at the University of Kentucky to use a special scale to weigh the teeth at the beginning of the experiment and after the teeth had soaked in the liquids for 10 days. The first weigh-in was on the morning of Christmas Eve. What a dedicated friend!

On Christmas day, Lutece began soaking the teeth in four different liquids: red Gatorade, Coca Cola, orange juice, and milk.

She checked on them every day at 4:00 p.m. and changed the liquids every 2-3 days. She was very devoted to her experiment.

It turned out to be an awesome project, but sadly, the day of her school's Science fair, Lutece woke up with the same nasty stomach bug that Phoenix had gotten two days previously.** She was desperate to be judged though (students have to be present to qualify for judging, since a large part of their grade is based on their oral presentation and knowledge of the subject matter), and so I emailed her teacher and asked if I could bring her in for 1/2 hour in the afternoon to be judged. Her teacher was convinced that Lutece had a chance of winning, so she made it happen.

As it turned out, she won first prize! Let me qualify that: She won first prize in her grade (5th) in her category (microbiology). I believe there were five categories for the elementary grades. And with that, she went on to compete in the District Science Fair last Saturday.

It was a large affair which included all of the individual school's winners in our district from fourth grade through high school. 

The judging took place over a three-hour span of time, and parents weren't allowed on the floor during that period. I sat in the bleachers overlooking the gym with the other parents. Participants were told to bring a book or something else to keep themselves occupied until the judges arrived at their project (most kids, including Lutece, had a device :).

About an hour and a half in, I noticed that the judges had arrived at Lutece's project. Even though this picture is blurry, I love watching her gesticulate while she explains her project to the judges (science teachers from throughout our district).

She spent the week before the district science fair practicing on us, so she felt prepared.

The judges asked her some questions, talked to her, and then it was over. Four hours later, the winners were to be announced in an awards ceremony. Lutece and I went home, ate lunch, hung out, and then returned with Stayc and Phoenix it tow. It was the most boring hour I've experienced in a long time . . . until the very end when they announced the winners in Lutece's category.

And what do you know? She won first prize again. First prize!!

Sound good, right? Now she has to gets to compete in the regional competition on March 1. We're so proud of her, but I really hope she doesn't win at regionals. (Ssssshhhh, don't tell her that.) There are only so many science fairs you can attend in a given year.

Update: As Scott so aptly pointed out in the comments, I never mentioned the results of Lutece's science project. Her results did NOT support her hypothesis that Coke would decay the teeth the most, with Gatorade a close second. In fact, the teeth soaked in orange juice lost the most weight, and the teeth soaked in milk actually gained weight. Fascinating!

* I'll do a post on Phoenix's project soon, so as not to neglect my poor second child :).

** It was really bad. This bug plagued all of us for nearly two weeks!

Crazy Kentucky Winter

It has been such a wacky winter in Kentucky and, well, all across the country. It has easily been one of the coldest winters in Kentucky (the coldest in 70 years to be precise), and we've had more snow than I've seen in our eight years here, but we've also had a few of those strangely warm weekends that we've come to expect during winter.

We had one of those crazy weekends in January (right before an entire month of snow and ice), so we walked the mile and a half to the Arboretum and enjoyed the time outside while we still had the chance.

The kids were especially attracted to the thick layers of ice covering all the water fountains. It reminded me of our winter days at Baihua Park in Jinan.

This weather is so strange, we are bewildered.

Odds and Ends

It's been a LONG time since I've done an Odds and Ends post! Lately, however, I've found that my posts have been sparse because a) I don't take many pictures, and b) I don't have much to say about the little things that are happening in our lives . . . not enough to fill an entire post at least. Perfect for an Odds and Ends post, don't ya think.

1. At the kids' request, I enrolled them in ice-skating lessons this winter. It's been a nice diversion for them on icy Saturday mornings. Wait . . . I lie. Actually, last Saturday, their fourth week, was the first time they didn't complain at the end of the hour of cold or foot pain or fatigue. We're on a roller coaster that only goes up.

2. We bought a new piano! Well, new to us. It's actually 10 years old, but it hasn't been played in the last 5-6 years, so new-ish? It is a lovely Baldwin 248 upright (that we didn't really love the look of . . . we preferred black . . . but it is growing on us). We found it on Craigslist for a good price, and when I asked if they were flexible on the price, they gave an adamant "no." So we went to look at it, Stayc played it, I researched it, and we mulled it over for a week or so. When we finally did call back, we offered an even lower price, and hey, they accepted. We think it was a good purchase. However, we will all be much happier when it has been properly tuned (February 20 can not come soon enough!).

Hello new piano. You are so much prettier than our ugly old piano. When you are tuned, you will sound much better too. (The picture doesn't reflect the wood finish well. It's actually less orange and much richer and smoother.)

3. Lutece won first prize in her division in the school's science fair. Wahoo! She goes on to compete in the District science fair this Saturday (no doubt there will be an entire post on this).

4. We had another snow day yesterday. The four inches of snow wasn't so bad. I think it was the inch of pure ice underneath that worried the city. When I found out that there would be no school on Monday, my first reaction was "Dang! The snow boots I ordered for the kids last week haven't arrived yet!" At least the snow pants had come.

Happy New Year!

Friday, January 31, marked the beginning of the Year of the Horse. We celebrated the Chinese New Year by surrounding ourselves with Chinese people and eating Chinese food in the best Chinese restaurant in Lexington . . . Panda Cuisine (so say all the Chinese people we know).
  

The original plan was to make Chinese food at home, but then I came to my senses and decided to pay $60 to let someone else do it for me. I have to say, it was much more fun for me this way. Because of the huge influx of patrons over the weekend, the buffet was the only option. We told the kids to eat as MUCH as they wanted. Nay, we forced the kids to eat MORE. "We paid $15 for you to eat Chinese food. Heck yea you can have another five pieces of non-Chinese chocolate cake!"

Last year for Chinese New Year, we ate American food in China, as opposed to eating Chinese food in America. Oh the irony!

In our defense, we also visited Xi'an, where we saw the famed Terra Cotta Warriors.

How cool is that?!

 

We biked around the ancient city walls of Xi'an (just look at those clear, blue Chinese skies).

We took silly, touristy pictures of ourselves.

 

And along with McDonalds hamburgers, we ate delicious Chinese foods like quail eggs on a stick, lamb skewers, and mutton bread stew.  

 

Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le! 

It's amazing what a difference a year can make.

And yet some things don't seem to change.

* To see more of last year's Chinese New Year, check out posts here, here, here, here, and here.