Whoopie Pie

Today the kids and I made whoopie pies. I bought some many months ago from Trader Joe's and they were okay. A nice treat and sweet, but not fall off your chair good. Somehow lately though, Kyle and Emily had them on their minds. I'm not sure if I had told them I found some recipes for whoopie pies in Bon Appetite and Family Fun or if they just remembered them. Nonetheless, they were asking to make whoopie pies together. And boy am I glad we did!! They turned out amazing! We made a few modifications to the Bon Appetite recipe (noted in the recipe link) and they turned out amazing. And we found that they tasted even better the following day. And certainly better refrigerated. Next time we want to try having them semi-frozen. Mmmmmmmmmm!

Elephant toothpaste

This morning I received an email from the science museum that contained some great experiments. Today was a free day for us so I thought it would be great fun to try an experiment or two.

One in particular, I remembered from high school. It ALWAYS got such a great response from the students. It's quick, messy, silly and fun. Sounds perfect for 4 year olds as well! So after breakfast, the kids and I gathered our materials to make ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE!

Here is our preschool Elephant Toothpaste!

And yes, my kids are wearing their protective eyewear on their foreheads. You know, just in case something gets on their forehead... 

As evidenced by their giggles and squeals of delight, they loved this.

If you want to try this at home, here are the instructions we had and the preschool version of the explanation of what is happening. 

Original video with instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAHi33yHt4
Here are the written instructions:

1. Put on old shirt and safety goggles
2. Place an empty 16oz plastic bottle upright in a foil cake pan with 2 inch sides (we just used the kitchen sink) with a funnel on top.
3. Mix 2TB warm water with 1ts yeast.
4. Pour 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide into the funnel and add a couple drops of food coloring.
5. Add a few drops of dish detergent.
6. Add the yeast / water mixture to the bottle and remove the funnel quickly.

And there you have elephant toothpaste! And very giggly kids!
For an explanation of the science:

• Hydrogen peroxide may look like water, but it has an extra Oxygen. This makes it a powerful oxidizer. The yeast acts as a catalyst, speeding up the reaction when the hydrogen peroxide is decomposed. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down to form water and oxygen. The erupting soap bubbles are filled with this oxygen. If you look closely, you may see steam coming out of the bottle! This results because the reaction is exothermic, meaning it gives off heat.

Translation for Kyle and Emily:

• Feel the bottle. It's warm isn't it? When an experiment like this has a reaction that makes it warm, it's called exothermic.
• And the toothpaste - it's the soap being filled with air. The air comes from the hydrogen peroxide reacting with the yeast. The yeast makes it break down to be water and air. And when the air gets in the soap, it bubbles up.

Torrey Pines hike with Papa

Papa was in town so we got to take him to our favorite places. One of the days we headed up to Torrey Pines for a nice hike. It's just gorgeous up there, the views, the hills, the trails. 

Easter

It's Easter! This year we had Grandma here with us for Easter and we went over to Coronado to celebrate the festivities. I remember Easter growing up - lots of egg hunts with my siblings and cousins. I remember going to Ohio a lot of the time for Easter and having huge egg hunts at my uncle's farm or at the field by my aunt's house. And I remember actually having to look for eggs. The egg hunts the kids have had so far have been mostly of the here's-a-giant-field-filled-with-eggs. But they like it. And they are 4. So it works. (Later, at home, we did a real egg hunt where they had to actually find moderately hidden eggs in the living room.)

This egg hunt, the rules were that each child gets 3 eggs. So Kyle and Emily diligently 'found' their 3 eggs and returned directly to us and happily opened up their eggs to see what treasures they held. Then we did some crafts by the beach, had a great brunch and went home to sleep the afternoon away. Thankfully, we didn't have an Easter Day earthquake like we did last year.

Cabrillo with cousins

It was a beautiful Saturday out so we headed over to Cabrillo. Grandma had never been there before and neither had Josh, Stephanie, Ben and Davie. The kids had a blast exploring the tidepools and running around the cliff trails. And we enjoyed the beautiful view and our happy kids playing together.

Baseball game

This weekend was a great weekend. We had Grandma here and also Jeff's twin brother with his family. They were in San Diego for 2 days with us and it was non-stop action! We went to the Padres game together and the kids seemed to have a great time in our normal sand pit section. It really is such a great kid / family-friendly ball park with this section and the park section.

What's really amazing about these four kiddies - there is only 18 months from the oldest to youngest! Needless to say they get along really well and have a great time together.

Torrey Pines with Grandma

We had a great visit with Grandma. She came out from Chicago for a week with us! It snowed 3" the day before she left Chicago (in mid / late April!) so even if it wasn't as warm as we'd like it here, it was still a good double whatever it was in Chicago! So we made sure to be outside and enjoy our wonderful weather - as if we don't go outside everyday to enjoy our beautiful environs!

So off to Torrey Pines with Grandma we went! She has been there before on previous visits with us, but it's just such a stunning place to hike around, we had to go again. It started off pretty cool outside - probably about 63 degrees. (This little fact helped us out immensely since the kids had on layers and would use their different layers on the way up.) But as we hiked down to the beach, it got warmer. By the time we reached the ocean, the fog had rolled off and we were in business! The kids were just in heaven! They played with the waves, running back and forth. At first they were trying not to get very wet. Then that all went away when Emily fell face first in the water. She insisted that we should go home then. But after reminding her that she's already wet and in the ocean, why not play some more. Not like she could get any wetter! So for the next hour or so, Emily and Kyle ran endlessly back and forth into the ocean and out with the waves, giggling like only a 4 year old can. The giggling and joy they had while doing this was just priceless. I know the two videos are similar, but enjoy them for the giggle factor and to see what happiness is to 4 year olds.

And many pictures from the hike down. And playing in the ocean. And then hiking up again. While we were down at the beach, there was a group of 3 guys laying out rocks in the sand to spell prom for their girlfriends (who we later saw hiking down while we were on our hike up). Pretty sweet idea. Oh and funny story - as we were getting ready to head up from the beach, this woman asked if that was for me! Really?! I look 18?! Awesome! Just not so sure about being 18 and having 4 year olds!

Butterfly launch

Kyle and Emily received a butterfly garden kit from Aunt Chryssi and Uncle David for their birthday over the summer. Fast forward to this spring and we finally ordered the caterpillars for the kit since the weather and timing were finally right. Over the course of several weeks, Kyle and Emily watched their caterpillars arrive in a box in the mail, eat their way through the food in the little jar they were in, grow to epic proportions, suspend themselves upside down from the jars lid, turn into a cocoon / chrysalis, (then Jeff transferred them to their mesh hut), and then hatch into butterflies! It was quite the experience for Kyle and Emily. They watched them each day to see what changes they could observe. They were counting down the days for each milestone the caterpillars would reach. 

Emily especially loved this project. She likes bugs (believe it or not for those of you who remember the ladybug incident at the pumpkin patch when she was 2) and especially loves butterflies. She often puts on her own butterfly wings and flaps around. The butterflies had just hatched when Grandma came to visit so we showed them to her and determined it was time to release the butterflies to the wild. Plus, Grandma, like Emily, is good with bugs.

Monkey game

Kyle loves monkeys. That's a known fact. The boy is part monkey himself, climbing on anything he can. When he's scared or in a bad mood, you talk about monkeys and he's back in his happy place. Now he loves preschool. But one day they played a monkey game (basically tag with the tagger being the monkey). And he got to be the monkey. He was over the moon. Or should I say over the treetops.
That's the only picture I have of this game, but I think you can still see him smiling from the back of his head!

Not the best picture, but here's Kyle getting ready as the monkey

Grandmas visit

Grandma is here!! Kyle and Emily were counting down the days until she arrived. Just a few pictures with many more to come!