Smart Cookie Club

Katie is the newest member of the Smart Cookie Club.

Aren't those glasses too cute!!!

That's a Good Question

What's more bad-ass than a lightsaber?

A sword tied to the end of a lightsaber. Duh.

This is Why My Kids Think I'm an Idiot

Katie asked me this question on the way home from school today.

"Mom, you know those candle things with the tubes and water in them? Well how does it get there? Is there some kind of air conditioner at the top?"

What is she talking about??????? I'm always saying "I don't know" because they ask me questions like this!!

Last week, Katie asked me if it bothers me that Daddy is so much smarter than I am. He's smarter because he knows the answers to their questions. Well, Daddy gets ten totally easy questions a day, and I get 500 gems like that one above.

APRIL FOOLS!!!

The kids planned their own April Fools prank for Steve. We got a slime egg to serve Steve for dinner and put a whoopie cushion on his chair. The whoopie cushion was electronic and had a cord and push button to make the tootie noise.

(Lying in wait)

(The yucky egg)

(Hee. The whoopie cushion in action)

Why, yes. I DO let my kids dress themselves.

This is a typical day for us. Maybe once a week, I'll pick out a cute outfit for Katie, but most days I just tell them to dress themselves. I've learned to live with the results.

( It's hard to see in the picture, but Michael's shirt is backwards.)

Paper Factory

Katie received a Bill Nye the Science Guy Paper Recycling Kit for her birthday. This kit allows you to take old, used paper and recycle it into even uglier paper to make cards for people you hate.

First, you tear up some old paper and let it soak in warm water overnight. Katie completely ignored my suggestion to stick to one color family and just threw together a bunch of construction paper - mostly black.

(Soaking the paper)

The kit came with a plastic hand blender. I let the kids use my blender to puree the soaked paper. They both ran screaming from the room as soon as I turned it on.

(Ahhhhh!!! Not the Blender!!!)

Then you pour the resulting grey sludge into a shallow pan.





You scoop up some sludge into a fine mesh screen then let the excess water drain away.

After shaking off the excess water you press it in this vise thing to get out more water.

Set your wet paper out to dry and in just a few hours, you have new paper.

(cool!)

Arrr! That Mirror is dARRty!

Katie saw the optometrist yesterday, and she will be getting glasses. Apparently, she's far-sighted in her left eye. Her right eye has been compensating for so long, that her brain isn't processing much info from the left anymore. She has an eye-patch that she's supposed to wear at home when doing close up work like coloring or writing. She loved the patch for the first 30-60 seconds, then she got frustrated because she couldn't see. I think this is going to be tough.