Time for a little Crazy Frog

I haven't posted much lately. I haven't been feeling well. I am so lucky to have such a great family that takes such good care of me while I've been sick.

So here is a little dance that Ice Princess preformed for me to cheer me up. I hope you have on of these: a silly, funny, goofy, dramatic daughter.

Are You Comfy??

This is how Ice Princess slept last night. Does that look comfortable? I'm not so sure.

Treecko and Pebbles

Before we decided to bring more animals into our home I asked the girls if they were sure that they wanted to care for them. I asked them several times if they understood the work that owning lizards involved. They assured me that they did know and were happy to do anything it would take in order to own a lizard. But, I know not to buy pet for children unless I am willing to be the one who is ultimately responsible. A few months ago we came across someone on craigslist (a web site that is something like a local ebay) that wanted to get rid of his baby geckos. So we jumped on it. And so far the kids have been great maintaining their "babies". The geckos require daily care and the girls have shown that they love to take do all of these chores. Today happened to be they day that their cage needed to be cleaned. They were actually excited, and I dare say thrilled to do this. Here are some photos of the process. I think that we may have a male and female by the way, just in case anyone might feel the need to own one in the future.

It was fun see Treecko and Pebbles (the names of the geckos) wondering around their newly cleaned home.

Sunset

What? More chemistry?

I keep finding myself saying, "Isn't it amazing how a child, when given the freedom to, can easily understand such difficult and complex ideas." I guess that I am mostly saying this to myself. Because my friends and family don't want to hear this over and over and over again. But, I am still amazed. That a child of just ten years understands how liquid has a saturation point. Now this is my wording of coarse, but I was made to understand this in high school chemistry. And I only came across it through books and class. She came to discover this late last night while watching one of her favorite television programs about life in the depths of the ocean. She paused the program and asked, "Mom, how come the water doesn't sink down into the sand at the bottom of the ocean like it does when I pour water into the sand at the park?" And then right away spat out at least a dozen more questions at me. As I tried to answer her, each time she would come back with, "No that's still isn't right," or "No that doesn't make sense."

So I suggested an experiment. I took out a glass and filled it with water. Next I opened the pantry and took out the sugar. I then had her scoop a spoonful of sugar at a time into the glass. As she stirred she said, "Yes, I know the sugar will dissolve in the water." Then after many, many scoops she could see that some of the sugar was starting to gather on the bottom of the glass. "Oh, I can see it's like the sand in the ocean. Now I understand." Here is the saturation of a liquid as defined in her words, "That's all it can hold. I can see that the water is full." And I have come to understand that the fancy technical terms don't really matter, especially at the age of ten. But she holds the key to the true meaning because it was her desire to learn it. And it became her desire because of playing with the sand and water at the park.

Cookies with Ice Princess

So I suppose yesterday was very inspiring for Ice Princess because she woke up on a mission. She want to make a "big" batch of cookies. After gathering all the ingredients she was happily measuring and mixing. I started to notice how much "math" cooking really has. And even though when she used to be in school she claimed that she hated math, she was having so much fun with these fractions set before her. When she was finally done cooking all of her chocolate chip cookies she declared, "We have too many. I think I will sell some." So she ran into the bedroom and grabbed an old piece of poster board and a marker. She sat at the kitchen table and decided what to write. "Mom, how does two for a dollar sound?" She asked me, wiggling in her seat. "I think that sounds good, sweetie." After about ten minutes of precise writing she finished with her poster. She then gathered her small table and chair and headed out the door. She set everything up at the end of the driveway and waited for her "costumers". After about ten minutes she ran back in to grab a big glass of ice water because of the intense heat. Stopping just long enough to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. The after twenty minutes she jolted up the stairs to show me her first dollar that she had earned. She was so proud that her plan had worked. And at the end of the day she had made eight dollars. Way to go Ice Princess, follow your bliss.

Time Travel

Listening to my girls as they are having a conversation.
"That's easy, just go back in time and get some more".
"Ok, how do I do that?"
"I don't know, how about walking backwards."
Giggles.
"Yeah, walking backwards."
This time with belly laughs. And now they walk out of the room backwards. Bumping into things. Saying, "Don't stop now it's the wrong time!"

Cooking with the Sun

"Can we really cook with sunshine?" Mighty Girl asked me with amazement. She had come across some website that was talking about solar energy (how I love the information highway). "Yes," I answered. And then I saw that gleam in her eye that I had seen so many times before. I could see the wheels turning. "I think that we can get plans to make our own solar cooker," I told her. With that said she handed me the computer. So I surfed many sites, and decided to use the pizza boxes since we had just ordered from Papa Johns the night before. I located all the the things that we needed. And they were off. This really started to inspire me. I found a couple "real" solar cookers for sale and was thrilled about the possibility of not using my oven at all. And then I found some other solar products that I would love to have for our home. Solar panels, solar water heater, solar attic fans, and so much more. I just relish in the idea that if we produced more energy then we use we can sell it back to the power company. Too bad that these things seem to be so expensive. Well, Christmas isn't that far away, is it?

With our first attempt we decided to make cookies.

Look Mom, I Can Fly!

Today was filled with music. All day long Ice Princess and Mighty Girl sang songs that they would make up on the fly. They played the piano, creating new tunes and playing ones that they already knew. There was dancing and giggling. And my hubby even spent a good portion of the day playing his drums. Yes, we all made a joyful noise today.

And this evening we had a blast playing with the shutter speed on the camera. Oh, my side hurts from laughing sooo hard.

I heart my xbox

We are a family of gamers. We love to play video games. I can't even begin to describe the hours of pleasure I get from playing. But, I equate it to what one must feel like when they find themselves in pure joy. And I have found mine there. It helps me cope. It is my escape. In my games I can be anyone. I can do anything. I can make choices that I am either too afraid to or would never make in my real life. I find that I am thrilled by it. I am engrossed by them. It has helped me to deal with tragedies in my life. I have learned leadership skills. I have learned mapping skills. I have learned to work with others tacticly. I have learned about history. I have learned about farming. I have learned about types of guns. I have learned self expression. I have to use my imagination and creativity. I have to solve difficult problems that sometimes leave me frustrated, but through this I can grow. I have learned how to relax. I have learned too many other things to count. I really do "get" why kids love them so much. How can anybody say that a child isn't learning from this medium? Heck, I'm an adult and know that I have learned a great many things. And children are far better at learning than adults are.

Here is a funny picture that some one that I play with online made for me. It is my face superimposed on the box of one of my favorite games.

And just to toot my own horn for a minute, here is my ranking on this game. Yes, 425. This is out of over 100,000 people playing. Ohhh, I'm KandyKill by the way.

Las Vegas Life Learners

Even though it was 107 degrees we still managed to have a blast. Ice Princess and Might Girl look forward to meeting every week with this group of unschooled friends. The group is called the Las Vegas Life Learners, and boy do we know how to keep cool on a hot summer day like today.

Right before we left we were treated to this rainbow.

And this beautiful sunset.

I can always count on feeling so good after our life learner days because of the laughter and love we all share with eachother.