Science fun!

As a kid I remember putting so many different foods in the microwave to see what would happen to them. Marshmallows were so much fun to watch and eat and skittles ended up being a colorful mess of crunchy goo. Well, this weekend we saw an experiment on Steve Spangler's site that involved ivory soap. His video explains the science behind the experiment.


This is Baxter. Twice this school year Avery has brought Baxter home for the weekend. Baxter is showing how to do the experiment. You put a bar of ivory soap in the microwave on a VERY large plate and set it to cook for 2 minutes.


Pretty cool! Once you take the soap out of the microwave it deflates a little and hardens again. We used our soap for bubble bath but I've also seen recipes online for bath tub paints.


Yesterday we took advantage of the nice weather and last weekends rain storms. We made little boats out of milk caps, toothpicks and cardboard. We had a lot of fun setting the boats in the creek behind the house and racing them. Some how Avery and Alia managed to stay clean and I was covered in mud. We found that our boats did best with a sail when the wind was blowing but the sail would get caught up on things. Avery suggested taking the sail and toothpick off the caps to see what would happen. While the boats didn't go as fast, they were able to break free when they got stuck and continue down the stream.




She picked the green boat and Avery picked a yellow one.

6 month picture updates

Alia age 3
Avery age 5 1/2








The crazy shot!


We told him to do a cool pose. This is what he came up with : )

Alia's birthday take 3

We've had a great week spending time with Scott's family. Everyone came to Georgia to celebrate Alia and Aunt Laura's birthdays.


We enjoyed the weather and went for a walk and geo cache hunt.


Grandma Davis made Laura her favorite cake, German Chocolate and Scott and I made Alia a chocolate Tinker Bell cake.




Helping Daddy make homemade ice cream. We have tried to make a good mint based ice cream for awhile and have found that putting creme de menthe in the mix makes a great mint base.


Avery is showing Tony his mad boxing skills on the Xbox kinect.


Sweet moves Tony and Scott! They are dancing to Dance Central on the Xbox.


Alia and Avery love when Grandma, Grandpa, Laura and Tony come to visit because they have constant attention. Here Alia was baking different types of "cookies" with Grandma.


Here Avery is playing air hockey. When I showed him this picture he said, "I was too good for Grandpa and he didn't get any points."


They love playing with you silly Grandpa!


Avery is reading to Grandma.


One of their favorite games this time was when they played hide and seek. Grandpa and Tony would hide and then jump out and scare Avery and Alia.


Alia is hiding in the pantry.


On Sunday we packed up and headed to Callaway to enjoy the outdoors. When we got there it was wet out so we had our picnic in the Discovery Center.


This was a neat carving outside of the butterfly center.


There were a lot of butterflies flying around.


We were even able to see butterflies that had just come out of chrysalises.






For Alia and Laura's birthday we went to The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Avery's favorite was the clowns.


I thought these tight rope walkers were impressive.


Alia's favorite act was the elephants.

Valentine's Day

Thank you for the package Grandma and Grandpa Davis- they both loved their dogs. Avery also loved the hack sack. We watched a few videos on you-tube and now he has a new skill to learn.


Alia loved her dog and hugged it until she saw the candy. She loved the caramel heart, but didn't like that it stuck in her teeth.


Avery's school Valentine's this year


Chocolate covered strawberries for his teachers and suckers for Avery and Alia. The suckers were easy to make. It is two mini candy canes with white chocolate in the middle.


Avery and I made a bee like this just before Alia was born. This year she wanted to make her own. When I compared their pictures, Avery's hands were much bigger than Alia's but their feet were the same size.

Food Stamps

While Scott ran in the Tough Mudder and froze (it was Georgia's coldest day this year) we enjoyed a day inside painting with food.


I asked them what foods they thought would make good stamps. Avery decided on a carrot and cutting potatoes into shapes. Alia noticed the star in her apple during lunch so we decided to use that too. I saw the idea for the celery on pinterest.


Alia said she was making a chicken. Venus was nearby in case any paint-covered food landed on the floor.


Avery loved mixing the colors and covering his paper.


The celery made a really cool flower.


Here is their finished artwork. Avery made a 3 flower bouquet for Daddy for Valentine's day. There is a purple spider next to the yellow flower. Alia's chicken is the pink circles on the bottom of the page.


After painting they decided to eat celery and pretend they were Wonder Pets.

Alia turns 3!

Today we celebrated Alia's 3rd birthday. Going with tradition, we allowed her to make up the rules and activities for the day. Here is her day in pictures.


Alia and Banana 3 years


We decided to do a room make-over for her birthday present. We had her sleep in our room and we re-did her entire room last night. We decided to paint 3 walls pink and one wall green. We also got her a twin bed, bedding set, decals, a carpet and a huggle pod. She was the most excited for the huggle pod. It was fun seeing her reaction this morning.






When she saw the hedgehog she said she couldn't touch him because he bites.


Avery made her a gift for her birthday.


It's a tree with Alia standing next to it. He has been drawing a lot of trees lately.


Scott took work off today to spend the whole day with Alia. She was excited because he was finally able to go to gymnastics with her.


This massive foam pit is her favorite part of gymnastics. She runs down a trampoline runway and jumps off the end.


After gymnastics she wanted to go on a bike ride in Avery's Wee-hoo. (Avery was at school).


After picking up Avery she wanted to play at the park. Alia loves the park and asks to go everyday. While swinging she lays her head back and yells, "Look at me, I'm laughing on my birthday!"


We also watched the ducks and geese on Lake Peachtree




Next stop, GiGi's cupcakes. We enjoyed the warm day and sat outside eating our cupcakes and ice cream. She chose this chocolate one because it had heart candy sprinkles. She ate almost all of the frosting and none of the cake. We also shared a pint of Marble Slab ice cream.


This weekend we traveled to Platteville to celebrate Mom and Alia's birthdays. Alia had a dirt cake and mom had her favorite- cheese cake.




Amanda got Alia a Build-A-Bear. She helped Alia put it together at Mom's. Alia loved stuffing the dog and sewing the seam.




Alia and her new puppy.


Bama and her grandkids
Alia- 3 years
Gaven 13 years
Jaycent 6 years
Bama 54 years
Austin 8 years
Avery 5 years