Sid The Comedian

Our little kid keeps us howling. Here are this weeks memorable moments.

1. Sidney has requested a scientist lab coat. I asked why and she decided she wants to have a fort in the backyard so she can go in there and do science experiments. We have a seamstress friend designing and making her a lab coat and another friend who works at the water treatment plant is collecting sterile bottles, safety goggles and latex gloves for her. Should be fun to see what Siddy comes up with.

2.Sid had her first swimming lesson yesterday and was doing really well with putting her head under and doing glides. The instructor threw some rings to the bottom of the pool and had the kids dive down to pick them up. Sid was having a hard time holding a ring and her nose while picking up another ring so she informed the instructor that to do this activity she really needed nose goggles. She then took 2 minutes to describe how she would make them so she wouldn't have to hold her nose anymore. He laughed very hard.

3. On Monday Sid took out one of her books that has Christmas carols in it with the CD. She announced that she was going to learn them for next Christmas so she could go caroling to peoples houses. She spent over half an hour practicing songs (half made up) when she approached me and asked me to take the cd out of her Puff the Magic Dragon book so she could hear that song. She decided that Puff the Magic Dragon is a good Christmas carol and should go in the back of her Christmas carol book. Watch the video below to hear her version of the story....

This is a first, who knew that Puff the Magic Dragon is a Jewish Christmassy Song!

So, so funny!

Frogs, Fossils and Friends

Bella the frog looks real doesn't she? She isn't, she is Sidney's newest felted friend. We caught Liana the frog last week so we did a big study on frogs this week including a frog lap book and some Magic School Bus research and finished the projects off with Bella for Sid to play with. Bella even has her own habitat which you can see further on in the post. Groovy does not look amused! One of our favorite bands to listen to in the car is They Might Be Giants. Sid's favorite song is I Am A Paleontologist. She often wakes up singing it and always tells me "Really Mom, really! I am a paleontologist!". So this week we made some coffee ground fossils:

What you'll need:

1 cup of used coffee grounds
1/2 cup of cold coffee
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
Wax paper
Mixing bowl
Some small objects to make impressions in the dough (we used plastic Dino's)
Empty can or a butter knife
Toothpicks, optional
String to hang your fossil, optional
How to make it:
Stir the together the coffee grounds, cold coffee, flour, and salt until well mixed.
Knead the dough together and then flatten it out onto the waxed paper.
Use the can to cut out circles of the dough or use the dull knife to cut slabs large enough to fit your "fossil" objects.
Press your objects firmly into the dough. When you take the object out, you have your "fossil". If you want to hang the fossil, poke holes into the edge to hold the string.
Let the fossil dry overnight (and up to two days) and then hang it if you wish.
Tips:
To reduce the drying time, bake the fossils for a short period of time to get the "dough" to harden.

We put together a paleontology tool kit for Sid to wear. It includes a pick, a hammer, and a brush. Then I went and hid some fossils in her sand box to dig up. We had lots of fun with this! Following the dino theme, Sid got some dinosaur feet stilts from the teacher store. It is nice to have toys she can use in our unpaved driveway. Here she is roaring and chasing me.

We had Charlotte over on Wednesday. She is moving to Saskatchewan at the end of June so we are trying to have her over every week to play. Sid is going to miss her so much. Here they are practicing soccer in the front yard. They took turns being keeper.

Below they are playing school. Sid was the teacher teaching art class.

My very favorite part of the day (and any day really!) was our walk in the woods. Charlotte is not an outdoor kind of girl but was happy to go for a walk and really seemed to enjoy the woods. Below Sid is showing Charlotte how to catch a frog. "They're too slippery!" Charlotte says as the frog squirts through Sid's hands.

The girls find a stick laying in the path that had been chewed up by a rabbit. I brought it home and will use it with a felting project!

This picture makes me a bit teary. These girls are such good friends, it makes me sad to know how much they will miss each other. At least now they are old enough to call each other and soon email!

Sid asking Charlotte to play ball with her.

Swing batter, batter, batter.....

The girls had a great time in the jeep with the wagon attached. I was surprised at how well it handled pulling the weight.

Ken and his Dad have been working on the airplane now that the weather is a bit warmer. They had a friend pop in and do a quick inspection of the wings and found out the spars needed to be changed. Once the wood arrived, Grandpa, Daddy and Sid got to work pulling out the old spars and putting in the new ones.

While the garage is an airplane hanger during the day, it magically turns into a recording studio at night. Ken has been really busy laying some tracks down to some of his originals. Here are some pics from the other night when he asked me to come out and put a bass line down. It is sooooo fun! Now to the felting section of the blog. This is the only place I keep organized pictures of what I have created so it is more of an archive for me than anything. This is the Easter Chick and Egg that I had forgotten to take a picture of!

Sid was so pleased with Bella and the play set that she brought Bella for a walk in the woods and collected some food and toys for her.

This is the complete set. The dragonfly is not attached so Bella keeps eating her :-)

I know I have posted pictures of the Robin sets but this one is the one I made for Sid. It is the only one that has a mommy and daddy and 4 babies, at Sid's request.

I have made 10 earth day necklaces and so far Ken has sold 6 of them for me at 10.00 a piece. This will buy my next BIG batch of wool. How cool is that? I guess now I can call myself a Fiber Artist LOL. Also I received my first batch of Airedale hair from a friend in B.C. She has asked me to felt her two Courtney's. I am anxious to do these well because the word of mouth will be priceless if these are good. I will post pics (of course) when I get one done.