Mickey Mouse

Here Benny is sporting his HUGE Mickey Mouse tattoo! He received it from a waitress at Grotto Pizza -- his birthday treat from her. We celebrated Ben's 5th birthday at Dewey Beach in September -- the tattoo finally found a home on Ben's belly 6 months later!!!

Salamanders

While sledding on Thursday the kids found some salamanders! They named them Wiggle and Waggle (Waggle is the one missing part of its tail). This weekend we are setting them free...

Snow, sledding, and supper!

We had a great snowfall on Monday -- at least 4 inches of snow!! Taylor was sick, but Ben and Abby had a great time playing outside in the white stuff.

Today we went sledding -- forgot my camera :( It was sooo much fun!

After our history lesson (we learned about Copernicus and Galileo) the kids made supper for me. It is all about presentation...

Beautiful students

I woke up to a surprise this morning! Abby and Ben made me a banner "Thank you for being my teacher" and Taylor made a sign saying the same thing. What a way to start the day :)

Tubing

What a day we had yesterday! We met up with the Hansings and Williams at Ski Liberty for 2 hours of tubing. Ski Liberty is in PA just outside of Gettysburg. It was a beautiful day. After spending two hours in the snow we followed the Hansings to their hotel in Gettysburg and spent some time in the pool and hot tub. What a change to go from wearing coats, hats, and gloves to wearing a swimsuit! (Lynnea, if you are reading this... we saw the 3 forms of water -- solid (snow), liquid (pool water), and gas (the steam from the hot tub) -- it was like a continuation of our science class from Friday!)

This morning we woke up to snow! We are expecting 4-7 inches of snow today into tomorrow (we'll believe it when we see it -- the DC meteorologists have been wrong before). We are dreaming of sledding...

Science

Another successful science class under our belt! We continued with our study of solids, liquids, and gases. We did two experiments using plaster of paris (what a great way to show the kids a liquid turning into a solid). We created a volcanic mountain by gooping plaster of paris around a small bottle. The kids chose to paint their "mountain" green and brown. After putting baking soda inside the bottle and adding vinegar mixed with dish soap and red food coloring the lava flowed! We had a great time with the Williams. After the experiments were completed and we had worked on our periodic table lapbook the younger girls decided to "go to the beach"!! The beach picture above is of Beatrice, Taylor, and Ella -- don't forget the suntan lotion :)

Vacuuming

What a guy! Ben wanted to follow in Greg's footsteps and vacuum the living room tonight. After a little help from mom the carpet looks pretty spiffy. Greg -- if you are reading this, you can mentally check vacuuming off of your Friday to-do-list:)