Science! And Christmas magic!

Well, I spent most of the day finishing up the paint job in our master bedroom, and it looks great! The kids were so cooperative. They either sat and watched me, or played nicely together in the play room. It was hard work, though, and I am glad to be done. One room down, several thousand more square feet to go (ugh!). But I won't think about that right now!

Anyway... Backing up... Last night, I went holiday shopping with my new friend, and it was so nice to just hang out and get shopping done without kids in tow. She showed me a really nice outdoor shopping center that isn't too far away, and I look forward to going there again. And they had a Starbucks!!!! I know that sounds silly, but MA is the Land of Dunkin Donuts. And while DD coffee is okay (and cheaper), it just doesn't taste the same. So that was a nice treat. :)

At any rate, I made dinner for everyone before I left, and that included chopping up some celery. I was thinking that this bunch of celery was particularly leafy, and that it would have been good for the demonstration I did with the fifth graders every year. On a whim, I grabbed a couple of cups, filled them with water and food coloring, and tossed the tops of the celery in there. And, after lunch today, the kids and I "did science!" Yay!

I had them make observations before we cut into the celery, and they both noticed splotches of blue dye on the celery leaves. And they were SO excited to see the colored "stripes" inside the celery. I told them that the stripes were little tubes that sucked up the water from the cup, but I don't think they were really paying attention, ha! They did, however, love using the butter knife to chop up the celery. Whatever! It was still fun! :)


Then, this afternoon, Nikos did something. I don't remember what it was, so it couldn't have been that bad, but it was something "not nice." I should backtrack here and say that we've been doing the whole Elf on the Shelf thing. The link explains it well, but basically... we have a "scout elf" that visits us every day and reports back to Santa at night. Nikos has named him Max, and today he was discovered to be lounging in our Christmas tree.

Anyhow, Nikos did something, and I said, "You know, Max is watching everything you do. Do you really want him to tell Santa you just did that?"

Not two seconds later, Maya was TEARING across the room to get to the tree... so she could tell Max that Nikos was being naughty. Nikos followed suit, rushing over to defend himself. It was like they were pleading their cases before a judge. And... in their Halloween costumes, no less, because they were in the middle of playing dress up.

I love these kids! haha!!