Kei and I enjoyed the warmer weather. She played outside while I read a book. It will be nice to have such a big yard for her to play in if it ever warms up!

We did science experiments this week. We both love them and love this site. Great science site with experiments

Chemistry with Pennies

You will need:
* A few old (not shiny) pennies
* 1/4 cup white vinegar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* Non-metal bowl
* Paper towels
What to do:

1. Pour the vinegar into the bowl and add the salt – stir it up.
2. Put about 5 pennies into the bowl and count to 10 slowly.
3. Take out the pennies and rinse them out in some water. Admire their shininess!

How does it work?
There is some pretty fancy chemistry going on in that little bowl of yours. It turns out that vinegar is an acid, and the acid in the vinegar reacts with the salt to remove what chemists call copper oxide which was making your pennies dull. You’re not done yet, though, lets try another experiment:

Add more pennies to the bowl for 10 seconds, but this time , don’t rinse them off. Place them on a paper towel to dry off. In time the pennies will turn greenish-blue as a chemical called malachite forms on your pennies. But wait, your still not done yet.

Place some nuts and bolts in the vinegar and watch – they become COPPER in color! The vinegar removed some copper from the pennies and that copper was attracted by to the metal in the nuts and bolts – cool.
The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. Will other acids (like lemon juice or orange juice) work as well?

2. Does this cleaning chemistry work on other coins?

3. Do other amounts of salt make a difference in the chemistry of the experiment?

Kei, being the eco friendly girl that she is decided to make a doll using trash. She used a Sprite can, a yogurt container, suckers for the eyes, sucker stick for the nose, gum wrapper for the arms and a restaurant butter container for the hat. It was too cute.

Tuesday was Heather’s birthday and we met at Chuck E. Cheese for kid play and Mom talk. Then we went to everyone’s favorite place…Books A Million. It was a great day.
Kei, Heather and some of Esther 🙂

Required Kid’s Shot

Super Hero Kids

Kei bought a book “Funky Things to Draw”. She is in there now drawing away.

Lovely day…
Peace,

Kei and I have been loving living in the new house.† We still have much to do but it is awesome to have space!

Kei started practice for her play “Wonderland”.† She is totally geeked about her part.† She adores doing plays.† It is just what she loves.††† She has been practicing non-stop.† I know all the words and she only got her script Tuesday!

We are also using a new teaching resource.† It is from Simply Homeschooling. We love J. Anne and all her great stuff.† She has amazing interactive units that Kei loves. She is also a single mom and a science geek. ;)† We love science geeks.

She had a huge tea party with her Animals.† She went all out!

The gang

Table #1

We meet with our great friend once a month for GNO.† Sometimes we bring some testotorone, sometimes not.† We always watch a musical and eat and have a blast.† Last night, for the first time, we got to do it at our house.† Everyone came except Cathy and Kaitlin <we missed you guys!> who was chasing the sun in Florida.

I cooked all day.† I love to cook for more than 2 people but rarely was able to before.† Now I have room.† I made a scrumptious salad, Poulet De Normandey, Broccoli casserole, pasta salad with bacon, French bread and Kei made a chocolate bundt cake.† Suzette brought a dessert to make and it was so complicated.† But in true GNO’s fashion, we had a hoot watching her make it. It was yummy too!

We then sat and talked and laughed and snickered.† Then the girls insisted we watch the movie.† We had decided on “Grease”.† It was a hoot and good times were have by all.

However we everyone started to leave we discovered Esther’s car had been broken into!† They smashed her front passenger window and took her GPS, Nuvi. We had to call the police and E had to make phone calls and tape up the window and sweep the street.† It was a yucky end to such a great night.

People are just so ARGHGHGHGH!

Today the sun is actually out and I felt warmth on my face as I ran errands!† Spring please come soon.

Happy Thursday,