our new arrivals

as many of you know the girls love insects!
so last fall we caught, housed and fed many caterpillars. several died, but two survived, made cocoons and lived in a salad container in our kitchen window all winter long.
here are the results:



in this picture you
can barely see the
white tuft, but
that's one of our
moths.












here you can see
the one completely
out and the other
still working on it.















still working















here's what
it looks like out
of the cocoon.





they were red, furry caterpillars. the cocoon (see above) is made from that fur.
the girls are thrilled! wish you were here, camera man!

quotables

mad had a tape measure this weekend.

mad - "i'm measuring your happiness."

me - "are you happy?"

mad - "i'm very, very, very, very happy."

me - "why are you so happy?"

mad - "God made me happy."

a little later...

mad - mommy, what's in your heart?

me - "what?"

mad - "what's in your heart?"

me - confussed by the three year olds question. em never would have thought to ask that at three.

mad - jesus is in your heart. he's in mine too."

em - you asked jesus in your heart mad. i did too."

mad - "no"

just interesting how diferent the two are.

____________________________________________________

last night i made spatzlein or dumplings. (grandma g's specialty)
i told em i was making spatzlein and she asked, "what?"
so i explained that that's a german word for dumplings essentially.
"you're making duckwings?!"
so a couple minutes later i had the exact conversation with mad.
expect she exclaimed, "you're making spongebob?!"

first if the season 2

our first caterpillar
of the spring!

in case you were wondering

em's hypothesis was correct. it took a total of three days for the water to evaporate.

maddie slept in her big bed one night. she likes her little bed because it's "just my size."

em caught a mild flu bug. she's thrilled to be off school. after having a reprieve from fever this morning, it came back. once again, she's thrilled because that means no school tomorrow. of course, she's not completely off the hook. because i whipped out the handy dandy bj home school books and work on the letter the week. tomorrow we'll do math. nothing like being sick enough to stay home from school, but well enough to do school.

mad's had the fever, but no other symptoms. today her fever broke. hopefully, it will stay that way and not rebound like ems.

by the way, it's spring which apparently means "it's time to wear shorts all the time" - em

quick quotes

yesterday we started an evaporation experiment. we measured out a cup of water and poured it into a jar. we poured another cup into a large bowl. em was asked to hypothesize which would evaporate faster.
she believed the bowls contents would evaporate first because it has the wider opening. today we measured the contents. of course, she was correct. today the bowl only had 2/3's cup of water remaining. after measuring i asked, "how many days do you think it will take the rest of the water to evaporate?"
"2 days"

pretty good at fractions. she didn't get it from me.

tonight we hung a cinderella picture in mad's room. we asked her where we should put the picture.
"on the wall"
"yes we know on the wall, but where on the wall."
"on my wall!"

tonight is her first night sleeping in a "big" bed. we'll see how it goes.

chalk - $1.00






laundry soap - $11.99 (costco's huge tub)









the view from our patio:

priceless

more from junie b

boyfriends
we are currently reading junie b jones is almost a flower girl. at the beginning of the story junie b's boyfriend breaks up with her because he wants to chase a new girl around the playground. devastated junie explains the situation to her mommy who advises junie that she is "too young for a boyfriend and she should be footloose and fancy free."

so i asked em, "do you have any boy problems at school?"

"no."

"good. so you don't have a boyfriend at school"

"no, i have a daddy at home."

"good."


----------------------------------------------------------------------
headaches

me: "i think my head is going to explode."

em: "wow, you must have a really big secret."

me: "no, i have i really bad headache."

em: "are you sure because junie says if your head is going to explode it's because you have a secret.

me: "yes, i am sure i only have a headache and not a secret."

em: "ok"

first of the season

i swept sand off the kitchen floor today.
millions more to go until next winter.
yeah for spring (or spring like weather)!

cute quotes

"um, what's that word again?" - mad while working on her colors. She also said this while playing duck, duck, goose.

"woo hoo! that means the bugs will come back!" - em (who else) upon learning that near the end of march our weather should start warming up a bit.

pizza

last night i attempted something new and n- raved, so i thought i would share.

top
1 whole wheat boboli with:
mushroom alfredo sauce
cheese
lots of bacon bits
red onion
shredded chicken (pre-cook)
more cheese (try tomato basil)
bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes

yummy!

last week in review

mad's song of the week (music and lyrics by mad) -"i am a princess and i'm going to the mall with my friends." i didn't even know she knew the word mall. we rarely frequent it.

em's quote of the week - "i am not going to eat that. they're green." speaking of the green eggs and ham i served to her class on dr seuss' b-day. surprisingly, most of the 46 students i served ate the green eggs and ham. em was one of the few hold-outs. the next day she asked me to make her yellow eggs for breakfast.

last sunday's 20th anniversary celebration (for our church) was a smashing success! mr clean's magic eraser saved the giant banner hanging in the foyer. (the printer rolled the banner too soon causing black ink to smear vertically across the banner.) yeah for mr. clean!

well there you have it. last week...

girl scouts

cookies are expensive.
7.00 for two small boxes.

good grief!

but they are yummy!