Our Aquarium Garden

A couple of months ago, the girls, my mom, and I planted several different types of vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, and garlic chives) in an aquarium.  I decided to try planting in the aquarium after looking at root-vue planters (and discussing them with a friend) and remembering that I had an old aquarium in our garage.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to see the vegetables developing below the surface, but so far we are just seeing long and skinny roots.





The aquarium garden is near the girls's deck playhouse where they spend a lot of time!  Lately, they love to pretend that they are orphans from Annie, and they sing "It's a Hard Knock Life" while they scrub the walls and floor!

Melon Baby

My mom made this adorable melon baby for the baby shower that we hosted a couple of weeks ago.  We were all SO happy with how it turned out.  The girls especially thought it was so "cutie!"  Today, when we saw the actual baby, they talked about putting him in a hollowed out watermelon, just like the cantalope baby :)

To make the melon baby, my sister and I hollowed out a watermelon to use as the cradle.  My mom peeled the cantalope and attached grape halves to the face with toothpicks.  She used a half ball of cantalope for his nose and hollowed out a hole for his pacifier.   She surrounded him with fruit to make a blanket.  SO cute!

My mom was inspired by a picture of a melon baby that she saw on facebook.  I have searched and searched but I cannot find a link back to the original source. On Pinterest, the only link I can find is back to Repinley, so here it is.

How We Wrap...

There are several things that I don't enjoy doing, and I'm not good at them...cooking, baking, and wrapping presents (I'm sure there are LOTS more, but these are the things that come up frequently).  So, when it's time to wrap presents, I make it REALLY easy on myself!





I wrap the presents in white paper from the girls' easel, and they decorate it using paint, markers, crayons, or stickers.  The girls are always SO proud, and their wrapping paper is definitely original!

Science and Art Fun!

The girls and I had fun doing a science/art project in our "Lakeside Homeschool" last week!  (Last week was our first semi-official week of homeschool...super busy and super fun!).

I froze a bowlful of water a few weeks ago in anticipation of this project.  We finally found time to do it, so I dumped the ice onto a tray and gave the girls a container of salt and food coloring.






They poured on the salt and squeezed on the food coloring.




Iridescence!




Messy hands!




Last time we did this project was when O(5) was 2 or 3 years old.  She was SO proud of her beautiful ice that we had to keep it in the freezer for months!  Luckily, they didn't ask to keep their beautiful ice this time (because we don't have any room in our freezer)!

As Dirty As They Wanna Be!

After the sun finally came out today, I asked the girls if they wanted to go to our wooded lot to play in the clay pile.  They said "YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"  I told them to put on old clothes, so that they could get as dirty as possible.   Their eyes lit up!

They had SO much fun and got SO dirty!






They went swimming in the lake to wash off, and they were thrilled to swim in their clothes.  Fun times!

Baby Diaper Cake

We (my mom, sister, and friends) recently hosted a baby shower for my best friend (since we were 3 years old!).  We had fun even though the guest of honor was on bed rest.  Luckily, we had the shower at her house, so she was able to participate minimally.

I'm not typically a fan of diaper cakes since I'm an advocate of cloth diapering, but this one was fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because my beloved mama made it!).  She had a lot of fun making it, and she even involved the girls in making the accessories.   They were all SO proud!





A giraffe topper




Sweet rattles to decorate the bottom




Spoons to decorate the top




Baby washcloths rolled to look like tootsie rolls




Baby washcloths rolled to look like lollipops




Don't you love it?  Good job, Mom!   Here is the link for the youtube video that my mom watched for directions and inspiration.

Problem Solving...

I try to let my girls figure things out for themselves rather than jumping in to "fix things" too quickly.  So, last weekend when my niece threw a hula hoop in the air and it got caught in a tree, we watched for a while before helping them out.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see the hula hoop fairly high in the tree.  The girls are staring at it and having a lively discussion about how to get it out.



At one point, they decided to put O(5) on my niece's shoulders (she's 8), and then put E(2) on O's shoulders.  It didn't work.


It was so much fun to watch them and to hear their ideas and watch them work.  Eventually, their Grandpa helped them out.  Fun times!

Anyone from Egypt???

Since O(5) REALLY enjoyed studying Egypt at her Montessori preschool, and we'll be spending quite a while studying ancient Egypt in homeschool, I'd LOVE to have a cultural exchange partner from Egypt.  Is anyone interested?  If so, you could join a group of 4 participants to send 3 packages or you could just exchange with us.  Please email me at chasingcheerioscultureexchange@gmail.com if you are interested.  Thank you!!!

An Elliott Update

Thank you for all of the emails over the past couple of months asking how Elliott is doing following his surgery to remove a brain tumor.  I realized that I really should write a post about this since so many of your have expressed concern and kindness for him and our family during this incredibly difficult time. 

It has been a little more than 2 months since Elliott's craniotomy and about 3 and a half months since his initial diagnosis.  To be perfectly honest, when I think back on the last 3 and half months, it's almost like it didn't really happen...like it was all just a very bad dream with a (hopefully) happy ending.  I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that this truly happened to our family and that we survived it and are thriving. 

It's hard to believe that he went from this on April 20 (this was right before his stitches were removed)


to this on May 27...it's unbelievable really.





We found out at his 6 week post surgery appt with the neurosurgeon that there is a 15% chance that his tumor (benign) will grow back.  That percentage actually seems quite high to me, so I am trying to focus on the 85% chance that it will not grow back.  If it grows back, he may have to have radiation or a more radical tumor removal surgery.  I'm not sure how you can get much more radical than the craniotomy that he already had, and the thought of that is both terrifying and overwhelming.   He will have to have MRIs every year which is better (I guess) than the every 6 months that we were expecting.   I am sure that the last couple of months before the next MRI are going to be very difficult as we wait to find out if the tumor is growing back. 

The girls have handled the situation very well, but they (especially O) have had a very difficult time separating from me since we returned from our week away during the surgery.  It was very difficult to drop her off at school for the last few weeks, and she recently freaked out when I tried to leave her backstage at her dance recital.  This surprised me a lot since it was her 3rd recital, and she has been in 3 ballets, and she has never, ever had a problem with me leaving her before.  We have had Vacation Bible School at our church this week, and I have been a teacher for the kindergarten class.  When my mom asked O(5) what the best part of Bible School was, she said "the best part is that mama doesn't drop me off.  She stays and is a teacher and doesn't leave me."   I really hope that we haven't damaged her for life by being away from her during Elliott's surgery.  Hopefully, she just needs time and lots of mama and daddy time before being comfortable with us leaving her again.

Thank you again to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words that have supported us through all of this. 

Chasing Cheerios Cultural Exchange Update!!!

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the ongoing Cultural Exchange!  I've formed 39 groups so far!  There's been a great response from so many countries...it's very exciting!  I still have LOTS of Americans who are waiting for international groups, so I'd love to have more international (non-American) participants.  Thanks!

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, read more about the Chasing Cheerios Cultural Exchange here.

Naked Eggs Science Experiment

The girls, Elliott, and I had fun conducting a Naked Egg Science Experiment in the weeks following his brain surgery.

First, we put 2 raw eggs in 2 cups of vinegar (1 for each girl).  The girls were excited to see that the eggs were immediately covered in thousands of teeny, tiny bubbles.






After a day or so, the shell mostly disintegrated, and we rubbed the rest of it off.  The girls loved carefully holding their naked eggs!



We put each egg back into the cups and added water and food coloring.  E(2) chose red food coloring and O(5) chose black.  Elliott went into a detailed explanation of osmosis, etc., and they seemed to get it to a certain extent.


The girls were interested to see how the eggs grew when they were in the water.






We put the eggs in cooking oil, and there was no change (we should have used corn syrup).  Then we drained the oil and left the eggs in the cups.  The eggs deflated after we left them in the cups.