Amy's 8th Birthday Party / Science Party

I can't believe my little Aimster is 8 years old already!  On her special day, we treated her to breakfast in bed - complete with the "8" pancake (which is somewhat tricky to do!)

That afternoon, Amy had 8 friends come over to celebrate her birthday.  She wanted a science themed party and we had a lot of fun putting it together. The invitations went out 2 weeks ahead:

Amy helped with the design.  I thought it was very clever (and simple too).

When the guests arrived, they were each issued with a lab coat to decorate.  Wal-Mart had Ladies' dress shirts on clearance for $4 each and with a little alteration, they made great lab coats.

Once everyone was suited up, we got busy.  And messy.  First task was creating Flubber - inspired from the old school science professor Disney film.  It's simple to make - you only need some Borax, water and school glue.  The rest is magic.  (Click here for the recipe).

Flubber is bouncy and squishy and was a big hit at the party. 

Next, we cleaned up and enjoyed some party food: pizza rolls, chips, pretzels, M&Ms, carrot sticks and cucumber slices.

Once re-fueled, we moved onto the Science Scavenger hunt. This involved 5 areas of science:

1. Paleontology - Dinosaur Dig (in the sandbox).  The girls each got to dig up a toy dinosaur skeleton.

 Each 'scientist' was given a folder (field kit) with ziploc baggies to collect their samples/finds.

2. Botany - Leaf Rubbing

3. Geology - collecting specified rocks/sticks.

4. Chemistry - identifying acids and bases. 

The acids were lemon juice and vinegar.  The other solution was water.  I disguised the liquids with food coloring and filled each of the girls test tubes (6 pack from the Dollar Store) with a bit of baking soda in the bottom.  If it 'fizzed' it was an acid and they were to record their findings on their data sheets.  Very simple, but they loved this activity and at the end of the party, went back to play some more.

5. Forensics - dusting for fingerprints.

Using a plate of glass (from a glass frame our movers chipped the edge off), I sprayed my hands lightly with cooking spray and rolled prints all over the glass.  To lift a print, we dusted the surface of the glass with corn starch, then softly dusted until we discovered prints.  A simple slab of clear packing tape was applied and we stuck the lifted print onto black paper (so it was clearly visible).

Notice that I wrapped the edges of the glass with a rubber tape so there weren't any sharp edges.  (Health and Safety!)

We finished up with some cake.  Amy requested a cake in the shape of a Florence Flask which challenged my creativity a little bit.  I ended up using two bundt cakes (the bottom one inverted) then frosting a paper towel roll that I covered in foil (for the spout). 

I'm noticing that the older the girls get, the better behaved they tend to be and consequently, more fun.  These gals were great... and so cute!

Kitchen Gardens

My 'vision' was to re-create some formal English gardens on our cute little Southern acreage.  The plans have adapted and changed over the past many weeks, but we are pleased with the outcome and thought we'd post some of the changes to our landscape:



If you look closely, you can see the stakes and white string I used to 'map out' the shape of the plots.

Matt and I dug plots out by hand - shoveling the soil and composting with bits of cardboard and packing paper (something we had a lot of!)  Notice the playset area got dug out too.

Each plot sat for a couple weeks while we shopped for a rototiller.  We ended up with a great deal and Matt spent many hours doing the tilling.  Then came the centerpiece - a stone circle topped with a rustic whisky barrel. Matt helped with the mathematics of its construction and Lana purchased the materials.  The family assembled it.  The white rose bush/tree (Amy's choice) that is planted inside is pruned to take on a nice circle shape.  It should double in size - about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide at its max.

The next step was building arbors.  We originally intended to purchase formal ones, but at $200-$500 a piece, we opted to make our own from a fallen tree at the front/side of our yard.  A little weather-proofing sealer, a circular saw, screws and some work = rustic arbors! Amy thinks they look 'wonky' but they are characteristic of what we've seen at some of the nearby Plantation Manors so we figure it's a good fit for both the budget and the style we're after.

Arbor/arches cap each of the 4 'trails' and playset has wood chips down (mulched from fallen pear trees in the front yard).

 Each arbor features a unique plant.  So far we have honeysuckle, tangerine crossvine, purple grapes and green Niagara grapes.

The planting season is long here in the south, so we were able to get a few late-plant crops in the ground.  The little girls enjoyed planting peas (LOTS of peas), turnips and spinach.  Next season we have plans for a bigger (and better) variety, but we were just grateful to get something in the ground for this year's harvest.

We've spent HOURS and HOURS as a family working outside and Matt has had all the heavy lifting/cutting jobs.  A big thanks to him for catching on to my vision and joining in with enthusiasm.  We hope it all comes together and we have even better photos to share later on!

Welcome to Tennessee

We are keeping busy while we wait for our stuff to arrive from England.  It's been fun exploring a new area.

We visited the Carnton Plantation which is just a few miles from our house here in Franklin, TN.  This home played an important role during the Civil War.  The Battle of Franklin was one of the deadliest battles fought.  Over 4,000 soldiers died here and are buried in a nearby Confederate cemetery.Franklin was founded in 1799 which, for America, is pretty historic.

We've had a few visitors already.  Grandma and Grandpa Tolley came from Montana.  They drove for 3 days to get here (and delivered our cars to us).  They enjoyed the Carnton Plantation with us too.

Dallin came to Nashville for the annual International Trombone Festival.  He stayed with us for a week and took Matt and I with him to see the premier of a trombone concerto with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.  It was amazing! We also enjoyed the trombone choir.

My baby bro is so grown up!

This hall was built in 2006 and the design came from a research tour of Europe's greatest halls.  (Would have loved to have been on that trip!)  Right now the symphony has no openings but based on their venue and the caliber of their playing, I probably don't have a chance anyway.  But it was a spectacular evening.  Wouldn't it be great if we could go to next year's ITF in Paris, France?

Summers here in Tennessee are very hot and humid and we've been making good use of our Family YMCA pass and getting to the pool just about every day that the weather cooperates.  Both girls have done a week of swim lessons already and have moved into the Advanced Level.  They each passed the swim test (swimming the length of the lap pool) and earned their wristband which entitled them to use the waterslides and climbing wall, etc.

It's so hot that every hour the lifeguards declare "break time" for 10 minutes and everyone has to go sit in the shade and drink water.  My poor kids have not experienced much summer for the last few years and are thus somewhat unfamiliar with how beach chairs operate... We are working on that.

Franklin has a beautiful historic downtown that has been renovated and beautified immensely.  It was the perfect venue for the 4th of July celebrations. 

The girls marched in the Kiddie Parade and we enjoyed viewing the local shops and listening to the Dixie Band.

We've been busy working too.  Not everything has been fun and games! Matt has settled into his job and is already planning a trip to Australia to meet with colleagues.  At the homestead, Matt has spent many hours cleaning up fallen trees and building us a fire pit in the backyard. Admittedly, Matt thinks the chainsaw and building fires is pretty fun.  He even mentioned a desire to change careers and try life as a lumberjack for a while.  I don't think so.

We love the fire pit and enjoy evenings outside cooking s'mores and watching the fireflies.

We've spent many hours pulling weeds and tending the yard as well.  One of our more recent projects was harvesting leftover straw from our farmer/neighbor's field for our berry patch and garden plots. 

Probably not the most standard use of a minivan, but it was nothing that the shop vac couldn't clean up later!

Aside from working outside, we have our down time as well.  Living in a house devoid of belongings lends us to be creative with our limited resources.  Here we are having our first meal in our new house.  Frozen pizza.  Served on the cardboard box it came in... because we didn't have any kitchen goods yet.  The table and chairs are rental furniture, along with a few beds and linens.  They've all gone back to the rental place now since Cat only reimburses for 1 month of use.  So now we are really camping out till our sea shipment arrives!

There are lots of creative activites to engage in whilst living in a large, vacant house with no television. Hide-and-Seek was great fun at first.  But now that we've discovered every closet and corner of the house we've moved onto new projects. 

We built a village of houses and shops out of cardboard boxes in the playroom. 

We built toy airplanes out of sticks and string.

We tested the underground irrigation system.

And we did some informal measurements of the new built-in entertainment center.

Someday soon (we hope) our shipment from England will arrive and we will become busy unpacking boxes, hanging pictures on the wall and eating off of a table.  Till then, we're all doing fine and enjoying the great house and neighborhood!

Glasgow

The Beginning of the End

May 23, 2011

The sea container arrived and the packing began.  The girls finished up their last week of school before the half term break and we moved into a hotel.

Emily's class had a special "Pirate Day" assembly:

The next day the school hosted a special assembly in honor of Amy & Emily.

To the tune "New York, New York" the Primary School bid farewell to the girls. Their classes made special memory books for each of them and we presented our quilt.