Science Fair

At the end of last month, Carter was part of the annual Science Fair at Austin Peay University...
For each local school there were three children competing for each grade. Carter was the ONLY 1st grade home schooler to compete.There were A LOT of first graders!
While Carter didn't place in the competition, every child received a participation medal.

I think he still had a lot of fun.
He learned a lot and it was a great experience overall. Not bad for MY first science fair project since 3rd grade!!
For Carter's project he chose five different paper airplane designs (including one he designed himself). The then flew each one five times and then averaged their distance. His goal was to see which paper airplane design flew the farthest. "The Moth" design was the winner.
While we WON'T be doing this EVERY year, I do plan to make it a regular part of our school schedule. (Per my mom's advice, I'm going to schedule them so that I only have one project at a time.)

What do you when it's raining?

What do you do when it's raining out side... enjoy it!

The lost tooth...

Between baseball and now family camp I've not TAKEN the time to blog... to be honest I'm not really motivated - MAYBE some comments would help me get back in it!! (hint hint!)

So instead of playing "catch up" with blogged I'll just start with yesterday...we'll really 2 weeks ago, but the main part is from yesterday...

Two weeks ago I noticed that Carter had his first loose tooth. BUT I also noticed that the permament tooth was coming in FAST directly behind it.

I called the dentist when the tooth was almost all the way in and they said to give it 2 weeks...

So now to yesterday... the tooth still wasn't out - it moved a little, but not enough for me to pull. So I called and we made a trip to the dentist....which is an hour and a half drive. *YUCK*

NOW the tooth is out, but you can't really tell because the new one is almost fully in!

Carter did great... Wyatt was the one who was worried because he saw the dentist use the pliers to pull it out! Now all he says is " Carter got big hurt and I NOT do it now!" He was so worried that he was next!

On the trip back (Hayden was playing with a friend so I only had 2 boys) I stopped with the boys at a rest area to take Wyatt potty (workin' on the potty thing) Carter decided to LOOK at his tooth they pulled.. then DROPPED it on the ground!

Little little tooth... in a parking lot - I never noticed before all the little multi-colored stones they use to make a parking lot! Take a look next time and the picture trying to find a child's tooth! A needle in a haystack would be easier!

After looking for about 15 minutes, I took the boys to the bathroom thinking I would NEVER find it - but hey he'll lose more teeth, right!?

I told Carter "Let's pray we find it." So we stopped to pray and went back to the van. I buckled Wyatt in and thought "I'll look ONE last time." So I got on my knees looked for about 2 minutes, I STILL didn't find it. I got up to get in the van and THERE IT WAS!!

I still can't believe we found it. I told Carter "Look God answered our prayer... He even cares about a tooth." Then he said, "Yeah, and he cares about us too!" You got that right kiddo!

So needless to say it was an adventure... we won't forget about the first tooth Carter lost... REALLY lost!

Easter pictures!

Easter weekend was a lot of fun.
We had some friends (Tony and Mary) who live nearby come up and visit...
they brought their 4 wheelers (one is "Carter-sized")
and have left them in our care for the week!

I don't think this boy can stop smiling....



Wyatt was actually having fun.. you just can't tell it!
I boiled "some" (meaning a DOZEN) eggs to dye for Easter...
but then Bryan "remembered" blowing out the yoke of eggs with his Grandma when he was little....


So I left that up to him...

and the boys...

I wish I had gotten this a second later... Wyatt accidentally sucked in!!

Which left me with a DOZEN eggs in a huge bowl and LOTS of scrambled eggs the next day!

We dyed eggs on Friday night... and Mary helped Hayden put stickers on the eggs.

Carter even took a break from his Wii playing to decorate too.

As usual Hayden's the one who REALLY gets into it!

Although Wyatt HAD to do everything HIMSELF...

which was really tricky with the actual dying the egg part!

We gave the boys their Easter baskets on Saturday.. and idea I got from Holly's post the other day. It really helps separating the FUN of candy, eggs, baskets, Easter bunny with the REASON we celebrate Easter. Rejoicing in our Risen Saviour!

Hayden's basket....

Wyatt's basket

Carter's basket

On Easter we were in such a rush to get to church I forgot to get the boys picture BEFORE..

you never know what will be left AFTER!

So as soon as we got home I asked Bryan to take the boys picture while I got lunch ready...

This is what he got...

Oh.. and this... (notice Wyatt took off his shoe!!)
Fortunately his first picture was the best one!


Happy Easter.. He is RISEN and coming again!

Chicago Children's Museum!!!

While Andrew and his family were visiting last weekend we made a trip over to Chicago. If you are ever in Chicago you HAVE to make a trip to the children's museum. It's great!! We had such a blast and the kids did too! The price may be a little steep at $10 a person (kids too - except for under one year.) BUT - if you check their site they have discount and even FREE days or half days!!! SOOOOOOO worth it even if you pay the full price. Go prepared to spend a LONNNG time the there!

The first things my boys did and LOVED was the boat/tunnel/ ladder that stretches for 3 FLOORS!! It's kind of freaky with them walking so high over your head!

Carter (of course) didn't hesitate and flew right across it!Bailey (my niece on the left) did great tooo. Hayden (he's on the right) was "overly cautious" and didn't want to walk out after climbing up... Wyatt takes after Carter and practically RAN over Hayden to the end of it..Wyatt going again... with NO ONE to slow him down!! That boy is a bulldozer to the core! Bailey again...

They loved it and since it's in the center we kept "coming back to it".... but on to the many other rooms.

The building room was a HUGE HIT with my boys... all FOUR of them
The building was a little over Wyatt's level... but they have fun little bolt puzzles that were perfect for him!
Hayden just liked dressing up like "Superman Builder Hayden"
This was the first "room" we stopped in... and we (the little boys and I) would've stayed longer, but it was SOOOOO HOT with the sun streaming in. So Wyatt (and I) got bored quickly and looked around. We found the Water Room.. and went to get Hayden .. leaving Bryan and Carter to finish their project...(Bryan didn't want to stop building. It was quite funny to see all the dads and a few moms building and the kids wandering around or gone to another room!) They took some pictures of their finished Tree house... it turned out pretty impressive...

The Water Room was a refreshing cool off after the HOT building room

This picture of Carter is blurry because that's how he spent most of the day.....in a blur running here and there!
Andrea LOVE LOVE LOVE the water....

It even tasted good... YUCK!
Hayden had his missions he was doing... Notice the plea for help in his eyes - instead Aunt Rachael took this picture... LOVE IT!

These two are trouble together!Another room was a town... with different things in the town.. grocery store... bus... auto shop...They had a "undercity" build the plumbing area that Carter spent time in... the boy is such a builder!!!Wyatt driving the ambulance..There were soooo many rooms... insect/garden, dino dig, forest, art, games, safety room...we didn't spend as much time in the rest of them... and I didn't get pictures from them either. I know if we went back there would still be so much to do...

Fire"woman" Bailey.. and Wyatt - the dog!

Fire"woman" Bailey and Hayden - the dog... why are my boys the dogs?

It was SOO much fun... we were all wiped out!!! But of course had to get a picture on Navy Pier (for the record... Rachael and I DIDN'T want to be in the picture.. Wyatt just wouldn't let me put him down!) After that we went for some great Chicago pizza at our favorite place Giordano's... GO there and get their stuffed deep dish pizza.... sooo good - one piece FILLS you up!

ONE LAST PICTURE from the day.... I loved it.. from the dino dig room... Wyatt is such a ham!!!