The kids started off with empty test tubes, a large beaker flask of water, a pipette, and three fizzy color tabs. They turned the fizzy tabs and water into three tubes of liquid- red, yellow, blue. Then they used those colors and their pipettes to experiment with secondary color combinations in the empty tubes.

After the color experiment, we used some Magic Sand to study the concepts of hydrophilia and hydrophobia.

I think we’re going to love our newly restructured screen-porch Science Lab!

We’ve already started making another order at Steve Spangler. We’re a little obsessed with their Test Tube Experiment Kits. They’re incredibly kid-friendly. Simple enough that the kids can go it alone with minimal adult supervision.

Emily fixed breakfast for the kids while I slept in till 9am.  She fed everyone drinkable yogurt and blueberry muffins.  After breakfast, the two small ones watched PBS/Martha Speaks while Emily used some foam sheets and sparkles from her craft box to create fancy fish cutouts.

10-11ish, all 3 kids read books from our current library stash.  Nate read the Cat book to Anna aloud, for the 30th time, and he and Emily took turns showing each other interesting things and reading “cool” sections out loud from books about cockroaches, dragonflies, and scorpions from the Nature’s Children collection.  Anna “read” to me from Bugs Up Close and we talked about exoskeletons for a while.

11:30 – Lunch at Atlanta Bread company.  Girls chose to split an adult salad, Nate had kids meal (turkey with provolone, always) and I had a bowl of broccoli cheese soup.  Nate put his full soda cup in one hand and potato chip bag in the other and pretended to be a scale.  Determined that the cup was much heavier.  His balancing act drew the attention of two senior-aged gentlemen sitting behind us and they made a comment about the Scales of Justice.  We discussed that concept and artwork for a bit, and I borrowed the laptop from Emily to show Nate a picture of the statue of Blind Justice.  The search for the statue and viewing of pictures lead to more discussion of it’s origin, and we talked a bit about Themis and her place in the Greek pantheon as one of the Titans.

When we made it home, I used the computer to show Nate another statue of Justice. This one with Michael holding his sword and the scales.  He declared he liked the lady better because she seemed less angry.

Emily spent about an hour working on her novel at Atlanta Bread and again at home after lunch.  We discussed appropriate use of the articles “a” or “an”, and she did some editing to reflect the new knowledge.  She is still confused over the exceptions to “an” for some of the o/u vowel words like “a unicorn” instead of “an unicorn”.  I printed a general useage guide with examples for her to place in her folder.

1-1:45ish  The kids took turns quizzing each other on Subtraction and Multiplication facts using our Fast Fact placemats.  Nate is solid with his subtraction, and knows his 1, 2, 5, and 10 multiplication facts.  Of course, those are the easy and intuitive ones.  We’ll start work on the 3′s this week, beginning with skip counting songs and filling in the answers on worksheets.  He also finished his problems from the “5 a day” math workbook, though the book is a 2nd grade text and the problems were way too easy.  He did 10 problems (we don’t use it every day because it’s too simple) in under 5 minutes.  This includes the time spent actually writing down answers and rewriting the unintelligible numbers.

2-3  Emily and Anna are down for a nap.  Nate is watching Powerpuff Girls and playing with a pretend microphone.

3:05 Emily is waking up and Anna talks to her about the fact that water has “air” inside.  Emily clarifies that it’s not air, but it does have oxygen and that fish use that oxygen to live underwater.  Anna expounds on her love of fish, dolphins, squid and crabs.  She also reminds me that dolphins are not fish, which is why she said them separately than fish in her list.  I ask her if she can tell me what they are, and she says “manimals”.  We correct the answer to mammals, she repeats it correctly a few times, and then runs in to the living room and announces to Nate that she’s very happy to now know how to say “Mamminal”.  We’ll keep working on it.

4ish  Nate makes waffles in the toaster for everyone for snack.  Discuss whether or not Eggo waffles have eggs inside.  I tell Nate to check the Label for ingredients, and he finds eggs at number 4 on the list.  We discuss the fact that foods are labelled with the most important/greatest quantity ingredient first.  He decides they should have been called Enriched Wheat waffles instead of Eggo waffles, but agrees reluctantly that Eggo is a much more catchy name.  Wonders if the Leggo my Eggo phrase influnced the name of the product, or was created BECAUSE of the name of the product.  We’ll look into finding the answer to this question later tonight or tomorrow.

5-6 Complete insanity. The kids are hitting the wall so I send them all to different rooms to work on individual projects. Anna plays Club Penguin on her DS.  Nate reads more in some of the fish books from the library.  Emily rests more and begins to complain of sore throat.

6:30  Everyone has dinner, then we watch some random tv and Nate surfs the internet for a while.

The kids begin to feel lousy around 8 and everyone piles together into bed.  Emily types on her laptop for a while and Nate and Anna message each other via Nintendo chat.  Both Nate and Anna fall asleep with their chat screens still going.  Emily and I spend some time talking to Dave in the main bedroom, and then we head off into Emily’s room.  Now I’m going to read a novel while she tries to let the medicine help her fall asleep.

All in all, a productive and enjoyable day.  Let’s hope for better health in the near future.

~L

Thankfully, the worst seems to be over and we ended our first week in White Plains with a visit from some hometown friends.  J. and R. (Emily suggested that I blog-name them Rock Star and Cat Woman-henceforth, it shall be so) were in the area visiting family and friends and tying up some post-wedding details.  We convinced them to drive in to see our new “deluxe apartment in the skkkkyyyyyyy”.

The kids attacked them before they could even get into the building.  By the time we’d made it upstairs, the gender split had been made and CatWoman was wrapped up in cat fur and little girls. 

Dave and Mr. Rock Star immediately sank into fantasy-gaming land, and we lost them for quite a while. Since they were well occupied, CatWoman (I crack up and think of black latex every time I type this, by the way) and I walked the kids down to B&N and were pleasantly surprised when an employee told us there was something special to see in the back of the store and lead us directly to ….this guy….

The kids rounded up armloads of new reading material (Teacher Appreciation Week- 25% off nearly everthing) and we ventured back up to the 32nd floor. After depositing the kids with the guys (who were still chatting D&D) and making plans to break out Colosseum, we adult ladies made a snack run to Target and left the boys to set up the boardgame.

A very tense and boat-less game of Colosseum later, Dave was declared winner, with the other three of us very closely positioned quite a few steps behind him on the score track.

After the game, R. and J. had to head back to dinner with R.’s family, and I ran out to pick up dinner for the 5 starving Chens. There were baths, late night stories, and a very early bedtime for the kids. Overall, it was a wonderful Sunday.

Today was our first full day as city dwellers.  I woke up very early (before 6) because Nate was running a very high fever, so I ran out to Walmart in the wee dark hours to grab some more Tylenol and Motrin so I could alternate them throughout the day. It was peaceful, quiet, and calm outside our building and I enjoyed the few fleeting moments of stillness before the city woke up and started moving.

Emily took some photos of the view from her room today.  It’s tall, busy, and we’re still amazed by the crazy things on TOP of some of these buildings.  You know, swimming pools, helicopter landing pads, tennis courts, and fully astroturfed yards with swingsets and kids bicycles.  We’re among the tallest buildings in the city, so we look down on many interesting places.

By 9am, I was realizing how very out of our depth we are in our new surroundings.  There was something surreal about watching our neighbors load into their limousines with their fancy drivers (I have driver envy, it’s something I NEED) to head off for whatever their day held in store.  I actually held a very nice conversation in the elevator with a lady who was taking her 13 year old dog downstairs to meet his “nanny” before she hopped in her chauffered car to Manhattan.  The nanny would then be responsible for walking the dog, letting it potty, then entertaining (her word, not mine) the sweet puppy for the rest of the day. 

So, yeah, a different world here.  Before lunch, the whole family went down for some time in the pool and hot tub.  The two smaller kids did all of their swimming in the hot tub because it was more shallow and the floatation belts I ordered have not yet arrived at the building. 

I made 9 trips out today to Target, Walmart and B&N.  We ate leftover pasta and meatballs for lunch. 

Then, the city decided that our arrival was so wonderful that they would through us a parade to celebrate.  And, what the heck, since they were celebrating our move they might as well do a little recognition of Columbus, the Italian-American culture and Moose(Meese?) Lodges.

After the parade, there were long naps and more shopping. Some television watching and recovering from illness were also on the agenda. Tonight everyone went to bed early to recover from the busy month past, and to anticipate the exciting week ahead.

I’m fairly certain this is going to be a roller-coaster ride of crazy for the next 6 months.