In an effort to keep the kids entertained, we've done a couple of little science experiments. They are fun and short enough to hold their attention!

The first one was easy.. we just needed plastic bottles, hydrogen peroxide, food coloring, yeast, dish soap and a funnel.

First, we mixed the yeast with some warm water and let it sit for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, we poured our peroxide into the plastic bottles and added some food coloring. Fischer chose red and Addison chose yellow. We also added a squirt of soap. I thought I took pictures of these two steps but I guess I didn't!

Then, it was time to add the yeast through the funnel. Slowly, the mixture started to foam and rise in the bottles! The kids had fun watching come up and out of the bottles and onto their trays. Eventually they got brave and touched it a little bit!

Our next experiment didn't go so well, but the kids still had fun. All we needed was food coloring, oil and warm water. Unfortunately all we had was olive oil and we were supposed to use vegetable oil. I thought I'd try anyway but it didn't work.

You mix some food coloring with the oil on a plate, then dump it into a jar of warm water.

The colors are supposed to separate again, sort of looking like fireworks in the jar. Ours just turned black. Oh well. :)

We will try this one again soon!

Things continue to be busy around here, and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. Our June calendar is pretty full, but at least that will keep us all entertained! :)  Here is a quick post to do some catching up...

1.  The weekend before last we met our friends at a local festival. It was completely free except for $1 to feed the goats. It's so rare to find free entertainment these days. We had a great time and I got to hold "Baby Logan" for a little bit! :)

2.  This past weekend we went to see my parents for a night. We went swimming twice in their neighborhood pool and the kids had a great time. Addison is very brave when it comes to jumping in from the side of the pool so we are really going to have to watch her this summer. We really need to look into swimming lessons. I have some pictures from our visit that I will post soon.

3.  Both kids still wear pull-ups for nap and at night.  They could probably go without during nap, especially Fischer, but I'm just too nervous to make the switch. Addison moved up to size 3T-4T pull-ups last month and Fischer just moved up over the weekend.  They are growing, growing, growing!

4.  Speaking of growing, we've been measuring the kids on a door frame at my parents' house each time we visit. The last time we measured was in February. I wasn't expecting a huge change, but to my surprise, both kids have grown about an inch since then. Crazy!

5.  Fischer is back into his habit of waking up around 5:30. This is a phase that seems to come and go but it is a tiring one. And he gets really tired when he gets up so early, which puts him in a not-so-good mood. I'm just asking for him to sleep until 6:30... that doesn't seem too greedy! :)

6.  We are starting back to weekly My Gym classes tomorrow morning! We stopped going last summer since the kids were starting school. I figured it would be a good air-conditioned activity to do each week this summer. I hope they like it just as much now as they did a year ago!

7.  We ate couscous last night and the kids liked it. I'm pretty sure I never ate (or heard of!) couscous until college. Addison and Fischer have tried so many foods in their short little lives! :)

I think that's about it for now. Like I said, our June is going to be quite busy! We have a beach trip planned, a trip to the dentist for Addison and Fischer, Scott's mom is coming to visit, family pictures, weekly My Gym classes, and much more I'm sure!

Last Thursday, May 10, we picked the kids up after school and started our road trip adventure!

Our first stop was at McDonald's for lunch, and then we were officially on the road.  The kids quickly fell asleep (school makes them tired!), and we had a smooth ride into Tennessee.

We did have to stop along the way, and the kids picked out "Moritos" as their snack.

Scott made reservations at a hotel in Tennessee that was halfway between home and Dayton. They kids did so great on this first half of the trip - we probably could've kept going but we didn't want to press our luck.

After we checked into our hotel, we decided it was time to go swimming. Addison was in charge of the key...

Scott purposely booked a hotel with an indoor pool so we'd have a way to get Addison and Fischer's energy out! There was also a hot tub "hot pool!!" which Addison loved! After a nice time at the pool, we headed across the street to dinner.

Then it was time to try and get the kids to sleep... they actually did pretty well considering we were all in the same room! The next morning, we were up early for another swim and some breakfast. Then it was time to hit the road and drive the rest of the way!

Again, the kids did great on the drive. After a quick Skyline Chili (where they give kids Oreos for dessert!) lunch right outside of Dayton, we headed to Uncle Chris and Aunt Jamie's house!

Carly and Carter weren't home from school yet so Addison and Fischer got Uncle Chris to themselves for a little while. He even let them play his guitar!!!

After Carly and Carter got there, Fischer and Carter had a great time running around being boys, while Addison persuaded Carly into letting her play in her make up, jewelry and nail polish. She had the best time.

Our hotel in Dayton also had an indoor pool, so Saturday morning we ate breakfast and went swimming. This pool was much more crowded than the first hotel's so swimming was a bit more stressful but still a lot of fun. And, much to Addison's relief, they also had a "hot pool."

We then headed to lunch with Chris, Jamie, and Carly. Carter was at the Special Olympics, where he won 3 medals. So proud of him!! He was able to meet up with us after lunch at Young's Jersey Dairy. There was a lot of stuff for the kids to do there...

They climbed on tractors...

Fed goats....

Rode the "train"...

Played in the play area for quite awhile....

And ate yummy ice cream!

Everyone was tired afterwards, to the kids all got shoulder rides back to the car....

Our day kept going after that! After a quick visit with Aunt Jamie (who had to work a lot while we were there), we headed back to the hotel with the whole group to swim, then out to dinner. Then,  it was back to the hotel for bed.  At dinner, we saw a lot of high schoolers eating before heading to Prom. Addison was in awe of all the "princesses and at one point she even yelled "There's Taylor Swift!!"

Here are all the cousins before heading to dinner...

We drove the entire way back on Sunday and the kids did great. It was a long day in the car but they didn't complain at all! The most challenging part of the trip was getting the kids to sleep each night. They were so hyped up from the excitement of the trip, and they were sharing a bed so they wanted to keep playing. They weren't asleep until after 10 each night. But, that's what vacation is all about, right?!  :)

I'm still feeling behind these days - behind on blog posts, projects, laundry, sleep, etc... I'm guessing I won't feel caught up anytime soon.:)

Since I'm so behind, I thought I'd do a post of some of the random things that have been going on around here.

We've been spending a ton of time outside before it gets too hot and we can only go out around breakfast time or after dinner. While outside, Fischer has become obsessed with finding bugs. Any and all bugs. And he likes to pick them up and bring them to me. And just yesterday, he "kindly" shared and put one on my leg. Gross. The worst is that he picks up slugs and carries them around. Ew.

We've also had fun watching all of the baby birds around our house. We had several nests and we've had fun checking in on them! The kids like to listen to the babies chirping and they like to watch the mamas go in and out of the nests.

The kids have really gotten into some "role playing" while they play together. I'm not sure there is anything more entertaining than sitting and listening to them play. The stuff they come up with is hilarious. While Addison is almost always a princess, Fischer plays many roles. Just recently, I've heard Addison call him: Prince, Knight, Doctor, Boy, Brother, Puppy, Your Majesty, and there are probably a few I'm leaving out. He responds to her almost all the time no matter how he's addressed. It's funny. Just this morning, they were playing on the porch and she sad "Boy, bring me my blanket." Thank goodness he told her no. :)

We have been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to get Addison to drink Lactaid instead of soy milk. There are various reasons that we are trying to get away from the soy milk, but it's just not working. The main reason is that soy milk has been tied to some weird hormonal stuff, especially in girls, as they get older. I've tried flavoring her milk and she still won't drink much of it at all. We've also tried Almond Milk but she won't really drink that either. I'm not really sure what to do!

Addison and Fischer's last day of school is next Thursday. I'm a little nervous about how I'm going to keep them entertained all summer, but I'm already lining some things up that should help. I think we will be returning to My Gym for 1 class a week, and may check out the local library programs. We are also planning to go to several of the Regal Cinema dollar movies in the mornings! I need to savor this summer because I know August will be here soon and then the kids will be in school 3 mornings a week.

Scott has been traveling quite a bit for work. It's tiring but I know it's part of his job, and his job is what allows me to stay home with the kids, so I try to keep that in mind. I was having a particularly rough week a few weeks ago, but I felt a lot better after getting some pretty flowers from Scott. What a nice surprise! Addison was convinced they were her flowers. When she got up from nap that day and saw them, she said "Oh, thank you so much for getting them for me."

Today, we went to our friends Jim and Dianne's house to meet their new dog. While playing, the kids got ahold of some eggs. Fischer cracked one on the driveway and said "Oh, that's a fiiiiiiine looking egg!" Where do they get these things?

And lastly, we just returned from a trip to Ohio to visit my brother and his family. I have some fun pictures to post as soon as I get them on my computer. We had a great time and I am so proud of how well the kids traveled. Fischer loved staying at the hotels and on the way home we heard "I don't want to go home!!" several times!

It has been so busy here.. I barely have time to get on the computer anymore, so blog posts just aren't happening these days.

I last posted about the weekly farmer's market. Since then, I've completed my first 10k, we went to a birthday party at our local Children's Museum, we went to a little county fair, had some visitors, the kids and I have all been sick and Bo has had surgery. Fischer was sick first, then Addison, and then it was my turn. And this time, it really took it out of me. I found myself napping when the kids napped, which is something I rarely do. I was falling asleep on the couch right after the kids went to bed... I was just so tired. I'm still not 100% but definitely getting there.

Our latest sickness with Addison was over the weekend. We noticed her eye was gunky and turning more and more red each time we looked at her. So, we ended up at the Pediatric After Hours so we could get her some drops for pink eye started ASAP. Thankfully we caught it early and it wasn't bad at all!

Addison has been referring to Fischer as her "knight" a lot lately. She'll say "Come here, knight!" "Knight, where are you?" Anyway, while we were at the doctor and pharmacy on Saturday, all she could talk about was coming home to see her knight. It's so cute, and so funny because he answers her when she calls him that. :)

And poor Bo had to have surgery last week. He was supposed to come home the same day but ended up having to stay and extra 3 1/2 days! It was too quiet around here without him. He came home yesterday and is resting now...as much as he can with that pitiful cone on his head, anyway.

I will post some pictures and more details soon but wanted to write about what we've been up to while I had a second.

And a funny story before I finish - I think that Fischer thinks Addison got pink eye because she's a girl because he's been walking around saying he has "green eye." It's funny how their little minds work! :)