Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Science is fun




Today we decided to make a volcano. Zack has been wanting to do this for a while, so I finally gave in. Actually, I didn't tell them what we were doing, they had to figure it out for themselves.
They first guessed cookies, then bread, and even pretzels(all that salt!). Once we stated molding it I thought for sure they would get it. It wasn't until we added the red food coloring and the dish soap that they realized it wasn't edible! Kelsey finally figured it out and Zack was SOOO excited!
It is such an easy recipe to follow and really only takes a few minutes. They great thing is, all of the ingredients are things you already have in the pantry.

You will need an empty plastic bottle. I just used a water bottle.
6 cups of flour
2 cups salt
4 TBLS cooking oil
2 1/2 cups water (more if needed.)
Mix together until smooth and firm. (I sprayed my kids hands with PAM and let them knead it with their hands)

Put the water bottle in the center of a cake pan and mold the dough around it, shaping it like a volcano. Be sure not to get any dough in the center (Hole) of the bottle.
Fill the bottle about 3/4 full of WARM water and add a few drops of red food coloring.
Then add 6 drops of liquid dish detergent and 2 TBLS baking soda.
Slowly pour in vinegar and watch it ERUPT!

My kids kept adding the baking soda and vinegar with different colors of food coloring. The blue was really cool looking.

When you are finished, pour out the liquid and let the volcano dry. You can use it again later!
FUN, FUN, FUN. And not too messy either!

Friday, July 25, 2008

I've been workin' on the railroad....

We took Zack to this fun little museum down in Ogden. Sis was at a birthday party and we needed to get out of the house!
The Historic Union Pacific Museum is actually 4 museums in one. There is of course the railroad museum, but they also house an art museum, the Browning gun museum and a vintage car museum. They are all small museums, it only took us about an hour and a half to get through everything, but it was a lot of fun. You can actually go inside some of the old train cars. They have an open exhibit of the postal car and we even saw where the mail goes to Sandy, Utah! We were also able to go inside the medical car. That one gave me the heebie-geebies! Ewww...
Dad, Mike isn't very familiar with my camera and he forgot to use the flash, but he got some okay pictures of the vintage cars just for you! Check out the picture of Zack standing by the gas pumps. He wanted to take a picture there for you to hang in your garage!

Union Pacific Museum

Monday, July 21, 2008

My baby turned 12



I can't believe it! She is 12 years old.
Wow. Where did time go? I keep telling myself not to blink or she will be married with children of her own. Okay, I don't even want to think about that! But really, I can't believe she is 12 years old already! She is such a beautiful, kind-hearted girl with a heart of gold and gorgeous eyes.
We celebrated with family on both Friday and Saturday. Friday we had a little gathering at my mom's house with extended family because my uncle was here from Washington. That was a lot of fun to see cousins we rarely see, aunts and uncles and both of my grandma's. This is the party I made the Hello Kitty cake for. Yes, I am still proud of that goofy cake!
Saturday we had most of Mike's family over. We had a lot of fun again, getting to see cousins and aunts and uncles that we don't get to see too much anymore.
The big friend party will be this weekend. Why do I do this to myself? 3 parties in one week? Am I crazy? Yes, I am. I am crazy about this girl who brings so much love and joy to my life! I LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!!!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Kener kids annual pictures at the park


Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother-in-law has taken group pictures of her grandkids at Bicentennial park in July. It started with just 6 grandkids. Mekenzie, Shelbie, Kelsie Noel, Kelsey Alixx, Jake and Preston. A few years later we added Hannah, then Zack, McKell and Kole. And a few more years later we add to the list Kaden, Tanner, Chloe, Ryker and just a few weeks ago, Emry. That's 15 grandkids and growing!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Hello Kitty


Kelsey's birthday isn't until Saturday, but we are having a little get together tomorrow at my mom's. My uncle is coming down from Seattle and we thought it would be fun to have all the family over for a BBQ. Kelsey is obsessed with Hello Kitty so I decided to try my hand at making her a HK birthday cake to take down with us tomorrow! I think it turned out pretty cute!