Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Guess Who? - Free Pancakes!

So when's the last time you played a game of Guess Who? Spencer got the game for Christmas and we JUST opened it. It was in the front closet on the floor and he saw it while he was putting the vacuum away for me. He begged me to play with him. I was expecting a gal to come over in a short time but Carter was asleep and I figured now was a good time. Seems like these days you can't just open a new game and play. There's all this set up involved!! We had to punch out all the characters for each board, twist out all the flip up tabs and snap them into place for each board. Then we (and when I say WE.. I really mean ME) had to slide each character into the flip up tab for each board. They don't really stay in that well. So after I got one set put together I realized that I put the red characters in the blue board so I had to take them all out and swap them. Spencer made the comment that I was taking forever to get done, silly boy. So after getting everything done we were able to play a couple of rounds. The gal I was expecting called and got detained doing something else so Spencer and I were able to play a little longer. Carter cooperated for a while also. It was a nice change of pace!! I need to remember to stop and do things like that with my kids. The dishes can wait a bit longer.

Today was national pancake day (or something like that) so IHOP was serving a free small stack of pancakes. Someone told me this last week and I put it in my phone to remind me. Cierra was playing with my phone and when she saw that she wouldn't let me forget it. So I loaded up the kids this evening hoping to beat the dinner rush to IHOP. I also had a primary meeting at 7pm to get back for. We made it to IHOP just in time!!! We didn't really even have to wait but shortly after we got there the crowds started coming in. Each of my kids got a stack of 3 pancakes and I paid the extra dollar so they could have strawberries on top. I'm not a pancake fan so I ordered some other breakfast plate. I kind of felt bad for our waitress, she looked like she was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. She was quite busy but she was still very friendly and did a great job. She can really carry an armful of pancakes! It was funny to see all the parents bringing in their kids for free pancakes. Free food brings out all kinds!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Our Little Circle


The Science Project

It's that time of year again, time for the Science Extraveganza as Jason Lee calls it. Every year we have a hard time deciding what to do for a project and then we always seem to wait until the last minute. I admit, that's partially my fault. This year Cierra was the only one who HAD to do a science project. We searched online for some ideas and she decided that she wanted to test the ph level in soda pop. Easy enough right, get some ph strips from a pool store and dip them in, DONE. Well, the other day I hopped in the car after getting kids off to school and was going to head to the pool supply store only to find out that the one I knew of was no longer there. I searched around a little and checked a few stores for some testing kits with no luck. Then I went to Walmart because I had to get something else. While I was there I remembered that they usually have some pool supplies so I went and checked. Sure enough, there they were, chemical testing strips. YES!!!
Now jump to today. By the way, her project is due on Monday!! Shame on us! So we get the strips and get the pop she wants to test and dip a strip. Come to find out the ph level of pop is on the lower end of the scale, which means it's more acidic, which doesn't show up on the strips we had. Now we need strips that show the whole range on the ph scale. I looked up pool stores in the phone book and headed out. They didn't have anything showing the entire scale either! Did I mention that I don't like science projects. After going a couple of places that were suggested we headed home. On the way home from Kennewick I was thinking that I should just check Fun 2 Learn. It's a teacher supply store, very fun, love to go there. After we got home I fed Carter and called Fun 2 Learn and wouldn't you know it, they had ph strips that show the entire ph scale. I should have known to just go there first, dang it!!
In case you are wondering, Coke, Pepsi and Dr.Pepper are the most acidic, followed by Sprite. The funny thing we found was that A&W Root Beer was practically a neutral on the scale...that was kind of odd. We also tested other things just for fun like, Kool-Aid, milk, tap water and Barq's Root Beer. We also tested vinegar to get an idea of where that fell on the scale to compare it to the soda pop. It was about the same as the cola's.
Now we just have to put the display board together. Maybe next year we won't procrastinate like we did this year. Ha ha ha, yea right!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A New Face

I needed Photoshop for a project I'm working on so I downloaded a free trial version. I had no idea how to use the darn thing. I took a picture of Carter and messed around with it for a while and this is what I came up with. I removed a bunch of the acne that he had on his face. There's still quite a bit of redness on his face but I think it looks better.
Here is the original photo. A cute little smile with milk coming out both sides of his mouth.
And After