30 pounds...gone...and the Science Fair...and the school play!

So...life hasn't slowed down a bit here at the farmstead.  In fact, April and May are probably the craziest months for us.  School is coming to a close which means pure craziness.  

I have been really wanting to blog about my recent shedding of 30+ pounds (It all depends on the amount of cookies I eat that day...or that week.)  However, you will all have to wait in suspense about that because I don't have time for that today!  It requires a blog all of it's own, that's for sure!

Anyways, back to reality.  In February the middle school held tryouts for the middle school play.  If you don't know, Dan and I met doing theater in high school...so naturally our children will be shining starts, right?  I was so excited for the middle school play and even helped direct the play.  Twinderella.  To be honest, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to pull this off, but we DID!  The 30 + students did an amazing job for both performances.  Molly played the role of Queen Betty and Sadie played the role of Princess Petunia.  Abbie was our hostess for the night and made a special appearance as Rapunzel.  I had so  much fun working through the play with these kids and getting to know all the kids a little bit more.  It was A LOT of work, but every single second was SO very worth it!  

 Because the school hates parents....they held a science fair this year.  (I am semi kidding).  For reals....I have a love/hate relationship with these things.  Dan always helps the children pick their "topic" and I am in charge of helping them with the presentation.  Dan helps with the data, experiment and graphs...I pull it all together....WITH the kids of course!!!  This year Sadie did a taste perception experiment.  She used food coloring to flavor apple juice and then tested people to see if the color of the apple juice altered their perception of what kind of juice they thought they were tasting.  It was actually a really interesting experiment.  I am blown away by this child.  She is so smart and SO on top of things.  Every detail, every word, every single piece of this project was planned out by her.  (ok, I did help her with the board...I mean come on....I LOVE me a good science fair board!!)

Molly did an experiment on Betta fish.  We are pretty sure she used this science fair project as a way to get more animals in the house and we totally got sucked into it!  She tested to see if placing other fake aggressors in or by the Betta fish would cause different reactions.  

Now, the school does give you fair warning of when these boards and projects need to be done....but waiting until the last minute makes it more "fun," right?  Only a few tears were shed this year....and a lot of chocolate was consumed by the parents to make it through this!  

Abbie's teacher had a brilliant idea....DO IT ALL AT SCHOOL!  I love her.  Abbie worked with her friend at school and came up with an invention together.  It didn't require any effort on my part at all....and I was totally ok with that!  

Gavin's 2nd grade class had the option of doing a project.  UMMMM NO WAY!  There was NO WAY we were taking on another project in this house.  And then.....Gavin came down from his room one day and did his OWN project all by himself.  He set up some sort of circuit board thing, found a jumbo piece of paper and made his own board.  I love that kid!  I think he knew how busy we were and took the initiative to do it himself.  I mean, seriously....AMAZING!  

 And then there is Lanie.  Ok, I will be real honest here.  We get A LOT of emails from the school.  Having 6 kids in the school means that 6 different teachers are emailing us.  I may or may not read a lot of the emails. ;)  So...last Wednesday I walked Lanie into her kindergarten class and everyone was brining in dioramas.  (um...gulp...what did I miss now?)  I vaguely remember Lanie mentioning something to me about zebras and a diorama (she calls it a "diarrhea").  I asked her teacher and, naturally, it was in the news letter I didn't read.  Ha!  Is that why they send the newsletters?  So...that night as we are scrambling to pull together the other science fair boards, Lanie is making her diarrhea ;) of zebras.  It's definitely not our best diorama we have made here...but it got DONE!!!

 And, finally, Kenadie did a power point presentation with her 3rd grade class for her project.  Again...this one was done at school all by herself....Sigh...my favorite kind of project!  She did a presentation on our favorite state, Alabama.  She spoke so confidently and really did a great job!

There you have it....the science fair is DONE...and I am totally ok if they forget to do another science fair next year!  

I have so much more I want to tell you about...but I have a 2 page list of things I need to do today waiting for me!  

I'll be back :)