spring break

spring break comes early in texas, and brody was super excited to find out what fun and adventurous things he was going to do over the week.  one boy at school was going to go to the zoo, another little girl was going to great wolf lodge with her family, and another was going to visit cousins in another state.  we were staying home all. week. long.  i had to come up with something exciting i could use as bribery for good behavior -oops i mean, as a fun activity to do together!  enter the usborne bog book of science things to make and do.  we went through the book and picked out an experiment to do each day, and i stocked up on supplies before the week started.  here's our week of experiments:

monday- bubbling wizard's brew

 the old vinegar and baking soda trick

 brody LOVED this experiment and was really upset later when i had to clean it up, so far our experiment success is 100%!

tuesday: sail cars

 brody was soo excited to make these, and they were a total fail!!  they took a really long time to make and the wheels wouldn't even stay on to roll.  looks like our success rate dropped to 50%.

wednesday: zappy zoomer

these actually did fly well, if you flew them like a paper airplane.  the precision was a little too precise for the little guy so he got a little frustrated and thus disenchanted with the results.  success rate: 33%.

thursday: triangle tower

this worked great!  it was interesting to see if the tower would and wouldn't hold the weight of the object.  success rate increase: 50%!  and as an additional bonus the little triangles work great as "garages" for hot wheels!  

friday: salty dragon painting and spinning paper helicopter

we started out with some painting then sprinkling the wet paint with salt crystals.  one really can't mess this one up so it was our easiest success.  our rate's now at 60%

our spinning paper helicopters:

yes!  it worked, both the flier and brody spin when dropped!  That was our sixth and final experiment, and we had success 4 out of 6 projects, making our experiment success rate: 66%.  yikes, that's a D (although it's not my first D grade before, world history is still loathe you!)  Brody enjoyed the experiments and the change up during spring break, so maybe i can get an A for effort?

PS- all experiments were conducted during the twins naps and therefore all filming required whispering or soft voices, sorry for those hard of hearing.  

Jesus book

i've recently been thinking about how i can help teach the boys to be more reverent at church.  i've also been thinking about how i can teach them more about the gospel in a simple way.  i remember my mom had Jesus books for us to look at during sacrament meeting and i thought that would be a great place to start!  i mostly used pictures from the gospel art book (we have multiple copies so i didn't feel bad pulling out some of those pictures) and some pictures my parents picked up for me at the distribution center (like a year and a half ago, i know, i'm a slow worker.)  i haven't done any scrapbook stuff in years, but that made this project even easier to complete because i wanted to keep the pages simple, so you focus on the pictures and not the "project."  so, here's the pages for our Jesus book:

cover

 born in a manger

 young boy

 teaching in the temple

 baptism

 calling the apostles and sermon on the mount

 ordaining the twelve

 calming the seas

 walking on water with peter

 healing jarius' daughter

 teaching the children

 healing the lepers

 raising lazarus

 last supper

 gethsemane

 on the cross

 resurrection

 second coming

 Jesus and the children

I hope you enjoyed my pillowcase backdrop and amateur photos!  I made all the pages 8.5 x 11 so i could use page protectors and a simple lightweight three ring binder.  i'm so happy to finish this book, it's been on my mind for such a long time!  i'm excited to bring this for the boys tomorrow and to use it in FHE as a little teaching aide.  i hope this helps the boys become more familiar with the stories and life of the Savior!  making this book was really uplifting, i wanted to have scripture references on each page so i was able to do a lot of reading about the Savior's life and study the different accounts of his ministry, miracles, death and resurrection.  i'd love to see your Jesus book if you've made one for your kids!

i can move

so brody's a mover, that's nothing new.  but apparently he finds some of his clothes more restricting than others, mainly jeans, thick jackets and layers of winter clothing.  anyway, when he finally gets something breathable to wear he like to show us how his outfit "really lets me move."  if your wondering if this is at all entertaining to watch, i included a video:

and really, don't you feel the same way after church when you switch from your heels and skirt into some comfy pjs?  i know i do, it lets me move!

san fran

 a couple weeks ago justin's parents watched the boys so we could have a little weekend away.  we decided to take a little trip to san francisco, mainly beacuse i've always wanted to visit, and we love going any where with views like this:

justin and the bay bridge.  

we thought about renting a car but we went the public transportation route and enjoyed it much more!  i love city transportation, the cable and street cars are really fun to ride!  our first morning out we ate breakfast at a little bagel shop.  i ordered a bagel sandwich with scrambled eggs and cheese inside, and get this- i ate my breakfast while it was still hot!!  literally, steaming!!  i know this seams menial, but one may be surprised how many things -er people, can come between me and my first bite!

anyway!  we took a ferry to alcatraz island and took in the sights.  it was interesting, but not as creepy as i expected.  it was really sad to imagine being so close to freedom, but unable to obtain it!  whoops, there i go feeling sorry for some of america's more infamous criminals.

outside the entrance.  i don't really know about that whole indians welcome thing, so we'll just move to the next picture.

justin making himself comfortable in solitary confinement.  which to be honest, sounded kind of nice.

leaving on the ferry.

we made out way down to fisherman's wharf, and started our hunt for sourdough and crab.  it was a very successful short hunt.

justin with clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, i opted for the crab sourdough sandwich, heaven!!

we walked around a bit more and worked our way over to the mecca:

yup, ghirardelli square.  it was there that i had this :

a dark chocolate sundae with heavenly dark chocolate fudge, dark chocolate ice cream, in a dark chocolate dipped waffle cone.  it might have been the best thing i've ever eaten. ever. seriously, ever.

with ghirardelli hot chocolate in hand we walked over to lombard street, here's the proof:

 a interesting shot from a stranger:

we said good bye to our hot chocolates and made our way up lombard street.  it's very steep, i see why cars only go down!

view from the top:

we reached to top to catch this :

 which was full three times in a row.  we were advised to go down lombard street and catch another one, which was a much easier trek.  we finally caught the cable car and justin was holding on for dear life.  those cars come seriously close to other vehicles!

the next day we did some shopping at union square, which was super close to our hotel.  later we went back down to pier 39 to catch a view of these guys:

very entertaining!  it looked like they were having the most relaxing time!  

 we found another place for some crab and then found another chocolate shop for some snacks. this place was absolutely delightful!

the next morning we flew home to our boys, who were as squeezable as ever!  funny how we'll need a little breather from the boys and then spend almost the entire time talking about them or taking pictures of thing i know they'll enjoy.  thanks to clarke and diane for watching the boys we enjoyed our weekend away!