I had hoped to find time to do a "7 Quick Takes" post last Friday, but I was too busy preparing for weekend guests. We very much enjoyed having Maria and Chiara's Godparents here this past weekend. And not only did we have a wonderful weekend, but we have a nice, clean house left to enjoy after all our hard work getting it ready for our guests! It's nice to have the motivation of visitors to make you do some serious cleaning that is too easy to overlook on a day-to-day basis :)
So, here are a few of the things I was planning to post last Friday...
We completed our first full week of school after the holidays last week and it went really well. We slipped right back into our old routine pretty smoothly. The big school thing that we have going on right now is the upcoming Homeschool Science Fair. The kids started their experiments last week, and here are just a few glimpses. I'll do a full post on the science fair after it happens in early February.
Chiara is investigating puffy paint and what ingredients make the best home-made version. Here she is making a picture with her favorite recipe.
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| Elena enjoyed the puffy paint, too! |
Matteo is modeling glaciers and their movement.
Cati is looking at the sugar content of different cookies.
Maria is trying to clean dirty water through filtering and evaporation. After a week, she managed to filter clean water and to still get clean water :). The kids learned last week that science projects don't work perfectly the first (second, third...) time through.
And, I learned about how metal corrosion last week! We keep our science equipment under our kitchen sink lock with baby-proof locks. Well, Maria had gone to get something out of the cabinet. When she came back, she nonchalantly said, "Oh, Mom, I bumped some pipe under sink and now some water is leaking." Of course, I run into the kitchen to see water pour across the kitchen floor. Then I ran my hand under the pipe, trying to figure out where the leak was coming from and I end up sticking my finger through the pipe! The pipe was very corroded and had worn thin. The good news is that we got to enjoy Steak 'n Shake for supper, using some gift cards we got at Christmas, and we found a good contractor who lives close by after calling our usual one who no longer accepts such small jobs as leaky sink pipes. When you live in old houses like ours (built in 1904), you need to have a good contractor around at all times!
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The little ones finally got their last Christmas present last week! We intentionally didn't bring this with us to GA because it was big and we didn't have enough space to bring it with us. When we got back, Dany got it out one night to put it together and realized that an important piece was missing. So, we had to contact the company, and we finally got the missing piece last week, and Dany and Maria were able to assemble it.
It is a toy kitchen. Giuseppe absolutely loves above all things pots, pans, and spoons. He pulls mine out of the kitchen cabinets daily. And, he begs me to hold him so he can watch me cook supper each evening. He has been loving this toy. The other kids have, too. It's been a real hit around here!!
Do you remember the NaNoWriMo challenge the kids participated in last November. Well, we FINALLY finished editing Matteo's book and he got the copies in the mail last week! He was very excited! He started writing the sequel this week :) :)
Stay warm, everyone! We're having our typical January week of single-digit weather and sub-zero wind chills this week!! Brrrrrrrrr! This southern gal refuses to come out of hibernation for at least a week!
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