You Should Do this....

 One of the things we're making a point of doing this summer is....Science Experiments!!

We have some friends who are going to be spending a day with us twice a month, so that's when we're going to do our experiments. I figure, if I'm going to do all the work to set it up, I want as many kids as possible to get something out of it. My goal is for them to have a decent understanding of the scientific method by the end of the summer.

This experiment was super fun, so easy and left them so excited about the next experiment we're going to do! All you need is a bar of Ivory soap and a bar of whatever soap you use...we use Olay & Dove.

The older kids filled out a printable Scientific Method Worksheet from HERE.

Our questions were:

Will the Ivory soap sink or float?

What happens when I put the soap in the microwave?

Everyone wrote out a hypothesis (educated guess) after making some observations about how much lighter the Ivory soap felt.

The Ivory soap floats. It's the only soap that floats. You can tell it's going to float when you hold it because it has a different texture and it's lighter than any other bar of soap. When Ivory soap is made they inject air into it during the process of making it so it is less dense.

Real Life Connection:

It's great to make science applicable to real life....so we talked about how we should put Ivory soap in Operation Christmas Child Shoes boxes, because it floats and the kids who will be using it are probably taking baths in a stream, river or lake. If the child drops their soap (which we all know easily happens) then it won't be lost forever. Great thing to keep in mind this fall!

Then is was time to put the soap in the microwave.

The regular soap melted and that's what they guessed would happen to the Ivory soap too, but remember...Ivory soap has tiny little air bubbles in it and hot air expands (cold air contracts..shrinks). So we cooked our Ivory soap for 2 minutes (we could have done it a little longer). After about 30 seconds the soap begins to grow like a cloud and the kids begin to squeal in amazement. Even I was impressed. Each kid got to "blow up" their own bar of Ivory soap and they got to keep it to use in the tub. It looks soft and fluffy, but it's actually hard. It's such a strange texture, you have got to try it!!

Such a fun and easy experiment!

Christian's Mario Party!!!!

 For Christian's 7th birthday we had a small party with just four friends and McKenna of course. Notice how she is right in the middle of it all!

 I told Christian to wait for his friends to arrive in the front yard (because I didn't want them to see the obstacle course set up in the back yard). He grabbed a football and when they arrived they had fun throwing it around.

 Since this was a Super Mario Party each of the boys made their own pizza for lunch!

 We have now reached the stage where sports necklaces, legos, money and silly string are pretty much the best gifts on earth! Christian's friends know him so well. He felt very blessed and was very thankful for all his gifts.

 

 Next up we played clothes pin tag. Easy game and it wore them out. Each boy got 4 clothes pins. I set a timer for 5 minutes and the goal was to end up with the most clothes pins at the end.

Then it was time for the obstacle course.

Since it was a Mario party, the object of the game was to rescue Princess Peach (aka McKenna) from Big Bowser (me...I was armed with a squirt gun and a pool noodle). They had to go through lots of obstacles before they were able to rescue Princess Peach from the playhouse.

Obstacle Course:

 Wagon Pull: The boys had to pull each other about 10 yds.

The balance beam.

Down the little roller coaster...I love Christian's face in the picture on the left.

Hoola Hoop Jump

Our favorite part of the obstacle course...the water balloon whack! This was fun!

Spider Web Challenge

Through the tunnels, then down the slip-n-slide and then it was time to save Princess Peach.

The boys each got a can of silly string to help them defend the Princess from Big Bowser. Their cans were empty in under 2 minutes.

They did it... they saved her!

The Mario Mushroom cake, birthday banner that McKenna made and Christian's showing off the white chocolate wii remotes he gave to his friends as party favors.

It was a great party with friends!!!

Happy Father's Day Ryan

On the day we said "I do" I dreamed of having a family together. If you asked us on our wedding day we would have said we wanted 5 kids. What was I thinking? ha!

 Christian was our first born. Things were so easy back then with just one kid. Ryan was the one who really guided us during those early years to trust the Lord to provide a way for me to be able to stay at home with Christian. During Christian's first year of life Ryan worked 2 jobs to make that dream a reality. 

 Then McKenna came along. We were so thrilled to have a sweet little girl. Her first year of life was just flat out hard, but we survived it together.

Ryan is such a good daddy...and his only daughter definitely has him wrapped around her finger.

Ryan always gets to do the fun stuff like plow snow. He is the parent everyone wants to hang out with :)

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Ryan being a daddy.

Like I said....he's the fun one!

He knows how to bring great delight to his children unless they're acting up...then they really don't want daddy to know.

He's a fun uncle too. Once they did this once, Ryan pretty much spent the day walking around like this.

Ryan has always wanted to be a daddy. He mentioned it on the night we got engaged. He said that one of the reason he wanted to marry me was because he thought I would be a good mommy to his children one day. I totally cried.

Two years after we got married I remember both of us standing in the hallway of our old house literally jumping up and down when we saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test.

 Little did we know that in just a few short years there would be three kiddos we would call our own. This picture was taken on the day we found out that our third baby was a boy!

 Welcoming Will.

 The first picture of Ryan with all three kids. I'm so thankful that God chose him to be their father.

 Father's Day 2011...the day we dedicated Will to the Lord.

And this picture is the very first picture I put on this blog when I started it in 2007!! It's hard to believe I've been blogging that long...wow! That's Ryan with his nieces and nephew. All I can say is the man knows how to step up when he's called to do it.

He may snore, create a lot of laundry, forget to put his shoes where they belong and need improvement with birthday present buying skills....but he is the best daddy to my kids. He loves me. He works hard (like seriously people...he has got to be the best employee on the face of the earth)!!! He has provided more than I could have ever imagined for our family. He makes it possible for my kids to grow up at home with their mom. He actually likes my cooking. He makes Jesus a priority in his own life and in the life of our family.

Happy Father's Day Ryan!
We Miss You!

Slipin'-n-slidin'

Aunt Angel sent Christian this slip-n-slide for his birthday. It's been a huge hit!

 Of course they're never quite as awesome as what the picture on the box shows because we seem to have low water pressure, so ours never squirts very hit.

My favorite thing about this activity is that all three of the kids can do it!!! Yes that's right, even Will gets in on the action.

He loved playing in the water!

Good times!

Thanks Aunt Angel!

Birthday Interview

Christian Ryan Chatterton 6/14/05 ... he turned seven this year!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Detective

What's your favorite color(s)?

Red & Green

What's your favorite food?

Pizza and Mac & Cheese

What is your favorite thing to do?

Play baseball

Who is your best friend(s)?

Nate, Carter, Conner, Blake

Where is your favorite place to go?

Great Wolf Lodge

What is your favorite toy?

DSi

What makes you happy?

Opening presents

What makes you sad?

Being left out

What's your favorite show to watch?

Lion King (huh? he watched that once when he was in the hospital)

What's your favorite thing to learn?

Science and do science experiements

What do you think about before you go to sleep?

What I'm going to play the next day

His biggest lesson....

 Monday was the start of VBS. McKenna was over the moon with excitement about it. Christian was less than thrilled. He's just a home body and does NOT like big crowds and lots of chaos. So it's just not his thing, but he learned some great things and it's good for him to get out of his comfort zone.

Christian's biggest lesson of the week came from a verse that they didn't even mention at VBS.

Luke 6:38 says "Give and it will be given unto you....."

On Monday night they presented the missions project for the week. McKenna came home Monday night and wanted to start doing chores so she could earn money to take to church for the project. Christian didn't even mention it. So I brought it up and suggested that he share some of the money in his piggy bank. After all he has sooo much and this money was going to go to an orphanage for HIV/Aids kids. He told me that I could give him some money but that he wanted to save his own money to buy something for himself. 

Not the response I was looking for, but I felt like I wasn't going to "get to his heart" if I pushed it. I let it go. On Tuesday, I gave him a dollar and left it at that. 

In the meantime, McKenna kept talking about those sick kids with no moms. She prayed for them at every meal. She prayed for them at bedtime. She asked me if they got to have baths when I was giving her a bath. She worried about whether or not they have a swimming pool. She did chores. She counted out paper money and coin money. She was so excited to give. And apparently there was some conviction taking place in Christian's heart.

On Wednesday night we arrived a little late and Christian was stressed out about that. As we walked through the doors of the church I asked him what he was so stressed out about and told him that he probably didn't even miss a whole song. He told me that he was worried he would miss the mission buckets. I pointed to the missions buckets sitting right next to the door and don't you know, he pulled some money out of his pocket....the paper kind...not just a few pennies, without a word he dropped it in the bucket and headed off to meet his group.

The next day was Christian's birthday and the morning started off with a card from Grandmom & PopPop with $7 in it. Then later one of his friends gave him $10. He just couldn't believe how "rich" he was. He had never had $17.00 before. So last night seemed like a good time to point out the Biblical principle of Luke 6:38. He gave and look what the Lord did...he blessed him far beyond what he even gave to those orphans. We talked about how when he give with he right heart (expecting nothing in return and expecting no recognition for what you've given) that's when Jesus chooses to bless us.

 McKenna was so shy at VBS, but she loved it!!! Love the craft, loved the puppets, loved the snack time, loved the games and was always so excited to tell me about the new friends she made that she couldn't remember their names.

praying

It was a great week! I know one little girl who was very sad to see it end. I, on the other hand, can't wait to start putting my kids to bed on time again :)

Hangin' with the big boys

Will loves his big brother and does his best to be in the middle of all the action when Christian is hanging out with his friends!

The "real" Recital

 McKenna was so excited about her "real" recital. The dress rehearsal got rid of all her nerves and she just literally COULD NOT WAIT to be on stage. And she LOVED wearing make-up for the first time.

 

 I was super nervous about the whole thing mainly because it was right in the middle of Will's nap time and we had never just completely skipped a nap before. And I felt like there was a complete lack of supervision back stage. They expected me to just drop McKenna off 45 minutes before the recital started and leave her in a sea of pretty little girls with instructors running around attending to last minute things (paying no attention to the children). I now realize just how C-raz-eee this whole recital business is. Those of you who know me well can probably guess that I didn't leave her (she's four for Heaven Sake). Instead I tied lots of ballet shoes and tucked in lots of laces and ran lots of little girls to the potty.

 I was correct to be nervous about this guy. He completely fell apart and Ryan spent a good hour and a half standing in the lobby with him screaming. It was lovely. Thank goodness for baby apps on the iphone or it would have even been more miserable.

 She was so excited!

 McKenna was tickled that our neighbors Anessa and Raeann came to what her dance. I adore her smile in this picture.

 Christian kept asking me why he couldn't stay home. But during McKenna's dance he did whisper to me that he thought McKenna was really good. He only stayed for 7 songs and he and Ryan and Will left after that. Will had had enough.

 McKenna was the youngest girl in her class. Can you tell? She was the only four year old. Most of the girls were six.

 I loved watching her interact with the girls in her class.

 They all stood in the line -waiting- for 30 minutes. That was a long time to just stand there.

On the stage! I love that smile!

Remembering to smile

She was supposed to look like a rainbow.

I was so impressed that most of the other girls kept watching the teacher, but McKenna just knew what to do.

After she was done her performance and came down off the stage, she asked me if she could do back up on stage and do it again.

Flowers from daddy.