Well, we were busy little scientists today ... at one point we had about four experiments going at one time. But, as I mentioned before, there are SO many things we wanted to try ... and just not enough time to do them all. Remember, over the weekend,
we put some celery in food-colored water? Well, after four days - look at how it has turned out?
Abby's hypothesis was correct (and so was Tyler's actually!), the colored water went all the way through the stalk, and turned the leaves blue or red.
This meant we could begin the second half of our experiment ... transforming white carnations for 4th of July! We kept some white, but put some in red water and some in blue. We'll let you know what happens.
We stayed with water for the next experiment. Did you know you can get the top of a full glass of water to "bulge" if you carefully add coins one-by-one? Neither did we, but our science book told us this would work ... and it did. We added seven coins before it started overflowing. Apparently it has something to do with "surface tension" and how the water molecules bind together to form a "skin" on the top of the glass. So cool!
Oh, then we stopped to have a snack ... gummy worms that got trapped in a "petri dish" of Jell-O! You know I just can't help myself when it comes to making Jell-O Jigglers and such. Abby's friend, Lucy, was over today, and I couldn't tell if she thought this snack was cool ... or creepy. Oh well, it was "sciencey" and that's what I was going for!
Next up ... ICE. I had frozen some star-shaped ice cubes (from my Pampered Chef days), so we broke a few out to do an experiment on melting. Which cube (a.k.a. star) would melt faster? The one put in cold water, the one in warm water, or the one on a plate by itself? The kids guessed correctly - warm water. And it DID melt very fast.
We also learned that ice cubes melt faster when constant pressure is applied (i.e. the handle of a spoon) ...
And when you add salt (but all of you cold weather people know THAT one!) ...
We even filled a small cup (one of the restaurant ones Uncle Aaron gave us ... thanks A!) with water and froze it to see how water can quickly change from a liquid to a solid, and how it expands when it freezes.
And, thanks to Lucy, we learned that gummy worms ALSO expand ... but in water! As you can see, I kind of let Abby do the labeling herself, and we're still working on the spelling of "Wednesday."
But she got the "control group" terminology down just fine. It was so funny to hear her explain this to Grammy and Auntie Jenn, who came over tonight for dinner. Tomorrow, we have a few experiments for the kids to do with Grammy (I think I'm going to give her the messy ones! Insert evil scientist laugh here!)
And Tyler relaxed and rode in his wagon while I did the grunt work ... 
We ran into a few of Abby's friends (Anabelle, Emily and Reagan), who were also excited to ride in their first parade. 
See the Durham boys in their John Deere ride along (behind me)? Well, their parents were smart ... hands free was the way to go. That way you could jump in and direct traffic (i.e. six year olds on bikes who have forgotten how their brakes work!) when necessary. Tyler was actually very low maintainence, but he was OBSESSED with keeping the R-W-B streamers out of the wagon. You give the boy a job and he takes it seriously!
I was glad when we met up with Grammy and Grandan (who had been watching from the curb) so they could pull Tyler while I helped Abby. She wasn't sure about navigating the crowds on her bike ... 
But she made it ... and we all crossed the footbridge that led us to a wonderful 4th of July celebration under the mossy oaks! SouthWood always throws a great party ... 
And while that water station may have looked refreshing (to our four-legged friends), we cooled off with some watermelon!
And snowcones ... 
Plus we participated in an Independence Day ceremony, honoring SouthWood residents who have served our country. I love the creative liberties kids take regarding hand placement while doing the Pledge. 
Can you tell Lady Liberty is wearing sunglasses? She needed them that morning!
Tyler and Grammy checked out the firetruck that parked nearby ... 
While Abby and Anabelle "hung" around on the monkey bars.
Then the kids chose between balloon animals and face painting. We ALL chose to skip the blueberry pie eating contest this year. But it sure was fun to watch!
Can you believe Abby climbed ALL the way up this climbing wall?
We stood nearby cheering her on ... 
And she made it! I think she was really proud of herself.
Tyler chose a fun activity a bit closer to the ground! 
What a great 4th of July morning in a wonderful neighborhood!
We had SUCH a great 4th of July! The only thing missing was Daddy! He reports that he had a wonderful time at his 20th High School Reunion in Iowa though. I'm teaching a preschool camp this morning, but I wanted to get these photos up on the blog for Dennis (and all of you) - it's just the fireworks portion of our day. I'll post the parade (I use that term very loosely) and the rest of the day's fun later this afternoon. As you'll see below, we LOVED the fireworks ... this was really our first attempt. The kids have seen fireworks at The Magic Kingdom, but that was a whole different experience. Here, we could "ooh" and "aah" from the comfort of our picnic blanket. You'll notice that I'm partial to the white displays, but it was a long show with LOTS of colors. Abby said would "remember it for a long, long time!" Isn't that great? Tyler also liked the display, but kept a firm grip on his ears ... because it was "too loud!" Enjoy!
