Date Night

My mom bought us tickets to a play for my birthday. We saw A Tale of Two Cities at Hale Center Theater. The play was great, and it was SO good to be with my husband after passing his two big exams (Series 7 and Series 63). I am very proud of him.

Happy Birthday Owen!

My sweet Owen turned two years old today, and Merritt turned 32 yesterday. So we've been having birthday cake and fun times at our house. Grandma and a few of Owen's cousins came over this morning for a birthday party. Age two means Owen is a BIG boy now, and not my baby anymore. It's crazy how fast the time has gone. We celebrated Owen's birthday with a BIG dinosaur party.

We painted tissue boxes to make dinosaur feet. We hunted for eggs filled with baby dinosaurs. We made dinosaurs with play dough. Then we had a dinosaur dig using the new sand and water table that Owen got for his birthday. And somewhere in the middle we had lunch, a dinosaur cake and ice-cream.

My mom commented that we played with all the messiest things: paint, sand, and play dough. So true. But it was worth it. The kids had a great time. And so did I. Happy birthday Owen! You have brought me so much joy these past two years. The thought of you growing up brings tears to my eyes. I know you can't be my baby forever, but what will I do when you're too big to sit on my lap?

I love the way you talk right now, trying to say so many new words. Your smile captivates me. You're smart and ambitious. You try to do everything, and keep trying until you get it. And you always do kind things for your brothers, even though you're small. I know you're exceptional. And it's my privilege to be your mother. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love you and I always will!

Snow Fort

We have had more snow this week than we've had all winter. Merritt built this amazing snow fort with the boys last Sunday. He even attached our slide to it (from our play structure). The boys enjoyed sliding down, then they all went inside the fort and drank hot chocolate. Later in the week dad fixed up a picnic which they ate inside the fort. The boys were so happy and loved their dad for it. Merritt is a really good dad. Happy birthday tomorrow, Merritt!

My Valentines

I had a really great weekend. I didn't get to go out with my husband. (Luke came down with a serious fever and flu Friday night and is still sick. Poor thing.) And although I do look forward to when Valentine's Day is once again about me going on a date with my husband, I enjoyed making this a special holiday for my kids.

Collin and I went on a mother and son date Friday night. We went roller skating. It was his first time and I couldn't believe his stamina. He fell so many times, I couldn't see how he had the energy to keep getting back up. But he did. Finally, by the end of the night, he made did make it one and a half times around the rink without falling once. All I can say is that my son is a very determined little boy. That DQ blizzard at the end of the night was very much deserved.

For some reason, I've had this strong need lately to remember more about my childhood. Especially memories of spending time with my mother. It feel bothered that I can hardly remember anything. I guess mostly because I work so hard at being a mother, and the thought of having my children remember almost none of it is depressing. I need to have a good talk with my mother. I hope she can help me remember more.

But as Collin and I were sitting in the car eating ice-cream looking up at the moon, Collin reminded me that this was the second date we had been on. I couldn't remember that we had ever done this before. So I asked him what we had done on our first date. He reminded me that I had taken him to the city to see the Nutcracker ballet. That was over a year ago, and I had totally forgotten about it. But he hadn't...And that was so meaningful to me. He had remembered. Oh how I hope that my children remember me as a mom that did things with them. I hope they remember how much I love them.

Anyways, we had a nice time making homemade Valentines together and with a little encouragement Collin thought of something nice to say about each person in his class at school. His teacher emailed me tonight and commented that several students came up to show her the nice thing that Collin had said about them. And Collin was much more excited to give these personalized valentines away. So excited in fact that he had a really hard time falling asleep on Sunday night. It turns out it was worth a little extra effort on my part to make this happen.

Also on Saturday, the kids helped me melt down our old crayons in the oven. We used a mold that shaped them into hearts. These crayons are now once again fun to color with. We also played a little estimation game with boxes of candy hearts. We made a graph with the hearts to see how many of each color were in the box. It was fun to compare the graphs and see that each box was different.

Tonight for family night we talked about the qualities of a good friend and made friendship wreaths with the Valentines the kids had received. They turned out very cute and we hung them on the kids' bedroom door. They really do make you smile, the wreaths...and the kids. Love them. Love Merritt. He's a good man. I'm so glad he's my husband.

On a side not, Merritt decided to fix our toilet on Saturday. It had "randomly" flooded a few times recently and Merritt was convinced it was clogged. He ended up replacing the whole thing. And since we only have one bathroom, that means we were without a toilet for several hours. Meanwhile, we took care of business at our neighbor's house. (Collin is famous for having to take a dump at the most inopportune times.) Luke was about to start throwing up any minute, but Merritt got the toilet fixed just in time. Owen cheerfully announced: Daddy fixed it! Daddy fixed the toilet!

And in all the craziness that day, Merritt brought home a dozen pink roses. And they have brightened my days since. I hope there will soon be time for romance, and until then I will just keep loving him. Happy Valentine's Day!

Great Salt Lake

I've been visiting Collin's first grade classroom once a month to teach science. In January, we were learning about water habitats and life cycles. So Collin helped me collect some rock, soil and water samples from two different places at Great Salt Lake (north vs. south arm).

We took the whole family along and drove across the causeway to Antelope Island. We saw antelope, bison, lots of birds, and since it was winter...no brine flies. So the beaches actually looked very beautiful. We threw a boomerang around for awhile. If it hadn't been so cold, we would have stayed longer. But I enjoyed the beautiful drive on a sunny day.

When it came time for science Friday, I brought the Great Salt Lake to the children. We used magnifying glasses to carefully look at the rocks and soil samples. I had caught a few brine shrimp in the water samples. The kids were excited to see them swimming around. Brine shrimp are about the size of your smallest fingernail, and they are the biggest thing that can survive in the lake due to the high salt content.

I taught them about the brine shrimp life cycle, then we got to work on our experiment. Brine shrimp eggs are half seed (as Collin pointed out to me). They can lay dormant for decades and wait to grow until the environmental conditions are just right. So we used a pipette to put hydrated brine shrimp eggs (called cysts) into a Petri dish. Then we put the dishes in different places (garage, closet, refrigerator). We also hydrated some in salt water and some in fresh water.

A couple of days later, I brought in a microscope that hooks up to my laptop. We viewed the tiny shrimp eggs up close. It was neat to see the baby shrimp hatching out of their eggs. We discovered that hatching requires light, heat and saltwater (as opposed to freshwater). It was a great experiment. By the way, shrimp eggs are available at pet stores because people feed them to their saltwater fish. So anyone can do this, you don't have to have access to the lake. Try it!

I also left behind two Winogradsky columns (recycled peanut butter jars) so the kids could grow some microbes from the lake. We put soil and water (from either the north or south arm of the lake) in the jars, and added various microbial food sources (egg shells, newspaper, fertilizer, cheese, plants from the lake, etc.). In a few months, those jars should be filled with colorful microbes. Hopefully the north arm jar will grow different microbes than the south arm jar (and show a color difference).

I told the kids how cool microbes are because they can survive in very extreme environments, places where we humans can not. And they can eat things we can't (metals, sulfur, methane). This is why microbes (and not fish) have found ways to survive in this very salty lake. Cool stuff!

Happy New Year!

Trick or Treat

Trick-or-treating was almost rained out on Saturday, but then a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky and the weather cleared just in time. Collin and Luke went out with Dad while Owen and I stayed home to pass out candy.

Sunday we had a family party with the grandparents. We fished for spiders in a witch's cauldron, dropped flying ghosts down the stairway, played a game of pumpkin bowling, and ate lots and lots of candy.

My favorite thing was hearing Owen say, "Trick or treat" and "thank you". He talks so cute. Happy Halloween! View our home movie of grandma's party at http://gallery.me.com/amymorby#100105.