Ian-The Science Guy

Ian's 4th Grade teachers worked him hard this
year. Each quarter, he had to do a major research
project, complete with display board. He has done
a famous Floridian (Tim Tebow), one of the
50 states (New York), a county in FL (Escambia)
and the finale was a Science Fair project.

We have this great book with 1001 science projects
for kids. Ian flipped through it and decided on
"Which Foods Grow Mold the Best". He had
exposed to air and in a Ziploc container as
variables. He made daily observations for about
one week.


Meet the test subjects: tomato, lime,, hot dog,
wheat bread and slice of cake. (how did we
ever end up with two extra slices of fruit
basket cake to be used as test items?????)

Take a moment and make your predictions. I
thought it would be the cake in the Ziploc
container.


The tomatoes turned out pretty gross but not
super moldy.


And the winner is....the Ziploc hot dog. When we
took the lid off for the picture, we had to hold our
noses because it was DISGUSTING!

My cake prediction...barely any mold at all.

The kids voted and he came in 4th
(out of about 80 projects).

Rock on Ian! We are so proud of your hard work!

Here is Ian's Abstract. I got a good chuckle from it.

ABSTRACT:
My abstract is going to be on mold. Hope you enjoy.
My purpose on this experiment is to see what type of food grows mold the
fastest. Also to see if mold grows faster in a container or with just
plain air, uncovered. The champion of that is...the container mold.
The food with the most mold is the hot dog.

On day one everything was plain. I used fruit cake, hot dogs, limes,
and tomatoes. Then on the second day the fruit cake started growing
a little mold in the container. On the third day the
hot dog started growing mold like mad I mean it was covered in mold.
Last, but not least, the fourth day the lime had grown just a tiny
little piece of mold, the tomato had grow just a little mold, the hot
dog had even more mold than before.

The conclusion is that mold can only grow in one place, that place is
moist. I know because I learned that during my experiment. The hot
dog in the container grew more mold than the other hot dog because it
more moist than the other hot dog. The information I learned will help
others because it will tell them how to grow mold.

Special Moments

It is the small moments that make the best
memories.


I came home from work and questioned John
as to why the coolor and a step stool were in the
middle of the yard. Jenna had been feeding one
of the many rabbits that live near our home.
She decided that she would like to keep one as
a pet. She dragged out the cooler, tried out
several stools until she found just the right one
and then...laid the trap. She used carrot slices
as bait. The rabbit would see the carrot on the
stool. Hop up to get it. It would then see the
carrots in the cooler and hop in to get them.
Then BANG!, the force of jumping in would
bonk the lid against the tree, causing it to
close and then trapping the rabbit.
She, with knuckles white from gripping so hard,
prayed to God that he let her keep his rabbit.
"Lord, please let me catch your rabbit. Please
help my Mommy to remember to buy carrots.
You already give us air, and that is all we need
to live. I promise to take really good care of your
rabbit. Thank you God."

Thankfully, we did not catch a rabbit.


Katy Torres is now Katy Martinez. She and
Christian got married on April 09, followed
by a small gathering of family and close friends.
Aren't they a lovely couple? Congratulations
Mr. And Mrs. Martinez!


Grammie and her grandbabes, at Morgan's
1st Communion celebration.


What a beautiful girl! She did
the second reading and did a
fantastic job! We are proud of
your Morgan!

More Easter Fun!

Now that we have practiced with our homemade
egg hunt, we are ready for the real thing.

Or are we????


We showed up at the park, pails in hand and ready
to find some eggs. Only...we were the only ones who
showed up. I drove past that sign each morning
while taking the kids to school and never noticed
the DATE on the sign. Toni and I asked all kinds of
people where the egg hunt was and were shocked when
no one else seemed to be looking for it. We "asked"
Richie, Toni's husband, to walk ALL THE WAY back
to the front of the park to read the sign.

Yup...we were a week early. And, once again we
realize why Toni is the planner in our group. She
would have never sent us to an egg hunt an entire
week early! And, it explains the annoyed looks on
our kids' faces.


Really Mom? A picture with a blow up bunny????


Jenna and Sophia, such sweet girls.


The egg hunters, extraordinaire. Jenna, Ian, Michael
and Sophia. Don't they look ready for some
Whomp Stompin' fun?



North Fort Myers Egg Hunt Chaos.
Toni and I were busy chatting when we hear the
MC yell GOOOO! So we sent our girls our into
the madness. Next thing we know,
Moms are crying and cursing us "terrible Moms" who
weren't paying attention. And, when I say crying,
I mean tears streaming down TH MOM'S face while
"comforting" her daughter. This lady kept saying things
like Toni and I were terrible parents because we
weren't listening and we cheated her child eggs and that
our kids shouldn't get to participate in the next hunt.
It truly was madness. In the end, they made the kids
throw the eggs back and have a "do over". All of the kids
got eggs and ended on a happy note. Well, except the
ultra crabby Mom who never really forgave us for almost
cheating her daughter out of the egg hunt.



No such chaos with the older kids. Here are Ian
and Michael heading in with their treats. I guess
Dads pay better attention to directions since they
aren't as deep in conversation as us Moms.




I have no idea if you can read this or not.
It is a recipe for "Easter Cookies" that
was in one the church's bulletins. (thanks
to Carol Adams who made sure
I got a copy of the recipe) These are to be
done on Easter Eve to symbolize the
Jesus' last days on Earth.



Here are the kids "beating" the nuts. This symbolizes
how Jesus was beaten and crown of thorns that he
had to endure.




Fast forward to the end: we had to seal the
cookies in our "tomb". The oven had been
previously warmed and this heat is what
bakes the cookies. When we checked
them in the morning, the cookies were cracked
open. This was to symbolize Jesus rising from
the dead. What a win-win project. The kids
were exposed again to the story of The Passion
of Christ....and we got to eat yummy cookies.



Easter egg hunt after Church.
I LOVE this dress!




WOW...that's a lot of eggs! My
niece Morgan stayed over that
night. We all went to Church and
then the Easter Egg hunt. There
were more eggs than the kids
could carry. Each child that
participated, had eggs mounding
over the top of her basket.

Spring Break Day 2---The Wengels

Day 2 of no work and no school, The Wengel kids
are coming over to dye eggs and go for an
egg hunt. (thus the clean or no fun threat yesterday)
In addition to Mike and Sophia, Hailee (our friend
Shawn's daughter) came over as well. She spent
her Spring Break with her Grandma. We were
glad we could steal her for some fun.


Look at all those dye bowls...and not one was
spilled!


Miss Sophia stopped working on her
orange egg long enough to give me
a grin.


Here is a sample of the final products. Didn't
they do a great job?


Ian, Hailee, Jenna, Sophia and Michael
While the eggs were drying, we headed out for
an egg hunt. Note to self for next time...no
chocolate eggs...they were all melty and messy.

We had 5 kids, 2 are 9, 8, 6 and 5 years old. To
keep the hunt even, we gave each kid a color
to find. This would ensure that each one
would end up with the same number of eggs.


This one wasn't too hard to find.
Micheal and Sophia spotted it
as soon they pulled into the driveway.



These are not the mother load of chocolate eggs.


Some more of the hidden eggs.

John and his Dad built this totally

awesome tree house for the kids.

The kids were nervous on the

rope ladder so John and Papa

built real steps.

A few days later, the kids and I took

sandwiches over and had a picnic

in the tree house. I think there are going

to be hours of fun here!

And, a rope to swing from to boot!

We enjoyed the afternoon! Thank

you to The Wengels and Hailee

for coming over to play with us!

Perfect Day for Putt-Putt!

I took off two days to play with kids
during Spring Break. The kids
had an ultimatum, get their rooms
clean and we will go play. OR, we
spend the entire day cleaning.
It's amazing what can get done
with the right motivation!



We started with pizza at Ci Ci's buffet.
The kids love eating there because they
can have what they want and as much as
they want. Especially the brownies!
Then, we fought the Spring Break beach
traffic to Jungle Golf for a round of mini
golf. We all got a hole in one but the
kids happened to get theirs on the hole
that wins you a free round! We can't wait to
go back! We topped off the day with ice cream
from McDonald's.
Yahoo for no work and no school!




My sweet kids. Ian is at odds with me and John
over his hair. He loves it long...and I don't. But,
we decided he is getting to the point where he has
an opinion about how he looks. We just hope that
his opinion changes back to short and clean cut
sooner rather than later.


Ian took a rest while Jenna and
I finished the hole.


Even when John doesn't come
with us on our adventures, we
always seem to find something
that reminds us of him.

Can you see the beach traffic in
the background? Ugh, this time of
year, traffic is a nightmare. We
are happy to see the tourists come
and we are happy to see them go
back home! (unless of course you
are family)


This picture shows how beautiful
Ft. Myers is. Blue sky, lush
green palm trees and bright sunshine,
all adds up to a beautiful day. For
those of you who were nervous,
the lion in the background is
fake. :)


Jenna's turn to take a seat.

What a fun day! Thanks kids for
being so much fun (and getting
the house clean)!

St. Patrick's Day

An Irish Blessing for you:


May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And Heaven accept you.

Ahhh, March 14, another reason for a
celebration dinner. The kids were bummed
because it fell on a Wednesday and they
eat dinner with Grammie on Wednesdays.
(she takes all her grandkids to CCD) So,
we celebrated on March 15.

This celebration consisted of funny hats, Irish
soda bread, green sprite, Guinness beer, Guinness
Stew and limeade pie. MMMM, MMMM Good!

Here is a random thing I learned from a friend
who is married to a true Irishman. In Ireland,
St. Patrick's Day is a solemn day of prayer and
reflection. They do not dye drinks and rivers
green or use it as an excuse to party. Who knew?





What a crazy crew!

Does Jenna ever take a normal picture? She is
always doing something silly!


BHEAG! (cheers)





Yummy dessert.

A final thought:

Here's to a long life and a merry one
A quick death and an easy one
A pretty girl and an honest one
A cold beer and another one!

Fat Tuesday Fun

For some, Fat Tuesday is the final day of celebration,
getting ready for the solemn time of Lent. For
The May Family, it is an excuse to have another
"celebration dinner" (as my kids call them).
The menu was Jambalaya, Hurricanes and a
King Cake. To get into the spirit, we dusted off
the fancy glasses, broke out the beads and added
glitter and feathers to our party masks. As always,
it was a fun night!

I found it interesting to discover that Mardi Gras
dates back to the ancient Roman celebration of
Lupercalia. When the Romans converted to Christianity,
the pagan ritual became a time of celebration to prepare
for the penance of Lent. The first Mardi Gras in the
United States was celebrated in 1699. Though there
were periods when it was abolished, the traditions
continued to grow. The party as we now know it, really
took hold in the 1960's. If you want to learn more,
you can check out this site:
http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

Cheers!

Our King's Cake does not have a golden bean
or plastic baby, as is the tradition. The tradition
of the King's Cake started back in 1871. They
presented the cake to a young woman and she
was crowned Queen.

In my world, I already am queen. We just eat the
cake as a sweet way to finish our celebration!