Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year, too!)

I Heart Vacation!

Cookie making with friends, (singing at) Christmas parties, gingerbread houses, and making a Christmas basket for a vet and his family with our troop. This is the good stuff.

Ornament time!

Tonight we made Christmas ornaments. We each chose a photo that was meaningful to us and got to work creating.

Francesca chose a picture of her, Katie, and Bishnu from our trip to the ocean in September. That was the best day ever!

Katie picked the first picture ever taken of her and Estella. When we agreed to let her get a kitten this year, I had no idea what a good kitty momma she’d be. They adore each other.

This is Sam’s picture. It hasn’t actually been made into an ornament yet because she had to work tonight. It’s hard having a 20 year old. Family time isn’t the same when she is off doing adult-y things like going to school or working, and we miss her on nights like this.

I used my favorite picture of the two of us, from a week we spent at the ocean a couple of years ago. My husband chose a picture of me. As you can see, his glittering skills leave something to be desired. He’s a good sport, though, so I think I’ll keep him.

What we’re up to

What a busy week it’s been! We saw a Mary Poppins play on Friday.

There was no photography allowed during the show, which was a bummer. There were some great costumes and dances I really wanted to get pictures of. If I hadn’t been in the third row where the whole theater could see my phone, I may have tried.

         

Over the weekend we went and picked out our Christmas tree.

         

We had our first snow with any accumulation this week, so of course they had to get outside!

         

We’ve also enjoyed reading Christmas stories together, hanging out, and our annual viewing of A Christmas Story. I just love this time of year!

Science Fun-Clean up the Spill!

For this experiment we filled baking pans half full with water, and then added 100 mL of vegetable oil to simulate an oil spill. We learned about the methods used to clean up real oil spills, and after forming a hypothesis, used materials to model those methods.

One method we learned about was a boom, or floatation foam, which is used to gather the oil into a contained area. We used rolled paper towels for our boom. In Bishnu’s hypothesis she thought the paper towels would work the best. They only absorbed about 1/8 of the oil, if that.

We also learned about a sorbant. The sorbant absorbs the oil like a sponge. Katie and Francesca both hypothesized that the sorbant would clean up the oil spill, so they tried cotton balls first. They seemed to absorb as much as the paper towels did.

We also learned about a skimmer, which sucks the oil off the water like a huge vacuum cleaner or adheres to the oil and lifts it off the water. For our skimmer we used medicine droppers. They were less successful than the cotton balls and paper towels, removing very little oil.

We seemed to find the most success using a chemical agent, which disperses and breaks down the oil. For this experiment Dawn dish soap simulated the chemical agent.

Through observation and critical thinking we concluded that a combination of methods would be most effective. Using a combination of the chemical agent and the boom, Katie was able to successfully clean up 98% of her oil spill!

Back in the Saddle Again!!

Equine Affaire!