Mentos & Diet Coke

So...I get a call from Stephen Wednesday morning while I am out running errands. He requests a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke and Mentos. After two failed attempts at purchasing this odd combination of items, I finally succeed in my mission at CVS. With 25 minutes until Maya's gymnastics class starts, we begin the "Diet Coke and Mentos Science Experiment." To see what we were aiming for, follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eXTZuWHCgA . Here are pictures of our exciting experiment :-)


We have really been in the "science" mood...besides experimenting with Diet Coke & Mentos, we are testing all of the crystal recipes we can find to see which ones work best, watching baby blue jays who frequent our yard daily, and blowing up balloons with baking soda and vinegar.

We are also studying Ancient Egypt. A couple of weeks ago, Samuel & I built pyramids out of sand. Samuel insisted on building the Sphinx to guard our great pyramids.

Maya has been learning her numbers 0 to 9. She loves to sit down and do her "work". I have also reintroduced Samuel to his Singapore Math workbook, and he really likes it...for now. We are also using Hooked on Phonics, and Samuel is so proud that he is "reading". Maya is anxious to start reading, too.

Maya started her new summer gymnastics class (she's the 5th little girl from the bottom). It was a little chaotic for the first class. One of the owners of the gym died last week and their summer camps started up this week, so they were all a little scattered. There were 10 kids in her class with 5 of them being new, so I am hoping that next week will be better. Of course, Maya enjoyed it, because she was with Eva, Lily and Ginger the whole time. Samuel missed his little playmate Hayden, but entertained himself by playing on the upstairs equipment and taking pictures.


Samuel has really been honing his skills in photography.

Is this Maya or Sassy?

Stephen applied for a team leader position for the next fire acadamy this summer. If he gets the job, our August plans will be severly altered. He really wants to do it and there aren't many firefighters who want to go through the academy again in the heat of the summer, so hopefully he will be chosen.

I have made a weekly schedule for myself, and really like it. I do not get as anxious about doing housework, because I know I will have time later in the day & I have designated days for the big jobs. I also spend a lot more time focusing on just the kids, rather than trying to do a lot of things at once. Best of all, I exercise daily. I am "training" for my first triathlon. I really enjoy doing three different workouts. I find that I get bored easily if I try to just ride my bike every day. My friend, Joanna, & I are running regularly (she is actually the one who got me started on my schedule-thanks!). It isn't as hard and miserable as I thought it would be :-) We also live in the perfect location to go on road rides. We live at the end of a freeway with very wide shoulders that was expanded just recently and isn't very busy. We also live about 3 miles from the Veloway which is a 3 mile paved path for bikers/rollerbladers that goes through a beautiful greenbuilt. The other day I rode 15 miles and LOVED every minute of it. I do have my mind set on getting a road bike in the near future, because I am still riding my mountain bike from college and it isn't very comfortable after about 10 miles.

Our 7th anniversary is on Monday!! We are going to start the tradition of riding in the Urban Assault Bike Race ( http://www.urbanassaultrace.com/index.php ) every year to celebrate our anniversay. This year the kids and I will be in Conneticut, so we will have to celebrate some other way ;-)

Other pictures: Stephen & I going to a wedding, Maya in her Texas Longhorns cheerleader outfit.