March started out with a mandatory Science Fair assignment for both Lucy and Zach. Being the procrastinator and non-scientific type that I am, I passed the buck to Jonathan and made him figure it out with both kids the night before. (Cue sheepish grin). But, he had things well in hand and organized both their posters and experiments like a pro!
Zach wanted to test which vinegar would make the best volcano: white distilled, red wine, or apple cider? His hypothesis asserted that he thought red wine would, because it was already red, like lava. He discovered through a very detailed and precise series of experimentation that red wine vinegar was actually the worst, and regular old white vinegar was the best. I would have loved to hear him present it in class the next day!
Miss Lucy is a natural scientist and wanted to determine which amount of time produced the best bag of microwave popcorn (her favorite snack). Her hypothesis was that the time recommended by the manufacturer on the back of the bag would produce the best bag, determined by the amount of "old maids," and overall flavor and taste of each bag (burnt popcorn was a no-no).
However, of the three increments of time that she tried, 2 minutes and 15 seconds produced the best bag-- surprising everyone because that is 30 seconds longer than the manufacturer recommended time of 1:45. This was ground breaking, Nobel-Peace-prize-winning science, folks! Actually, it was just really fun to see the kids be able to do something like this with their dad, and not me! They loved it.
Baby "Lizbeth" as Leah fondly refers to her as, hit the 6 week mark and just continues to grow and blossom. We love her SO much!!! She is constantly being poked and prodded in the most loving of ways, by the most loving of siblings. I think she's pretty much getting used to napping through kisses (thankfully).
Oh. Hello there! Her eyes are still a dark blue, and she's still very, very bald on top. But nothing a pretty little bow can't hide!
She's just barely starting to crack some smiles here and there, but they're so hard to catch on camera!
Here's a better one! She is a GREAT napper, but not such a great sleeper at night time. She'll nap up to almost 5 hours during the day, but usually only does 2-3 hour stretches at night. Obviously she has her days and nights mixed up, but once we get that ironed out now we know she's capable of doing a nice long chunk at night! That would be a very welcome gift from our little sweetheart this March.
Lucy's BOB team competed in the semifinal round of the Parker City Championships and WON! They were so so so thrilled! They beat Parker Core Knowledge, which is a Charter School and a team of 4th graders who have won the entire thing in the past, so it was totally a big upset. You can see Lucy doing her "happy dance" here after the match.
Look at those brightly beaming happy faces! They were as surprised to win as the other team was upset to lose.
The families of the kids on the team took them to Swirls on Mainstreet for frozen yogurt to celebrate their enormous victory. That meant they'd be competing in the FINALS the next night for 1st or 2nd place in the city.
Unfortunately the Lightning Rebels lost. (Insert big frowny face). It came down to their very last questions (both teams had answered 9/10 of their questions correctly so far with no misses), so question 19 for our team, which they missed. They actually challenged it (if they think they can prove their answer correct by finding a reference in the book they have 3 minutes to do so), and they won the challenge which apparently is very hard to do!! Instead of being given the point, they were asked another question which they subsequently also missed. Gold Rush (the opposing team) stole it, and then answered their 10th question correctly for the win. This is them being good sports and congratulating the other team.
They were SO disappointed! Their principal had come to watch, as well as all of their homeroom teachers, so I think they felt a lot of extra pressure to win. They really wanted to go on to compete in regionals, but second place in all of Parker is not bad at all! They were the first BOB team from Frontier Valley to EVER make it into a final championship, so that's definitely something! And there's always next year...
One thing that I absolutely love about Jon's new work situation is that I can meet him for lunch. Lunch is a lonely affair when you're a stay-at-home mom. In North Carolina he worked an hour away in Fayetteville, making a "meet me for lunch" an impossibility. Now that he's only about 20 minutes away, I love getting to see him during the day, especially on his long 13 hour days!
On one such day, we tried sushi at Sa-Wa-Ra which is his favorite. I'm not really a sushi person, but you can't eat Cafe Rio EVERY time (can you?), so I was a good sport. And actually, I really liked it. I got a mango roll with crab, avocado, and cream cheese. Delish. And healthy to boot!
After we'd taken each other's pictures, Leah looked very offended and asked, "What about me??" So here she is on the lunch date too. But no sushi for her!
This past weekend Grandpa Cardon flew in from Washington to hear Uncle Jeremy sing in a "Lamb of God" performance he'd auditioned for. Bonus for us was that he got to meet Elizabeth, and we got first dibs to entertain him. Of course he came bearing lots of gifts from Grandma-- who unfortunately couldn't come due to a work conflict. Such a bummer! She made this darling purple rag quilt for Elizabeth and it is so soft!
Lots of fun blankets and burp cloths with fabulous bright colors, which we love.
And new individual pillow cases-- princess ponies for Leah, Harry Potter for Luce, and Star Wars for Zach. She's been sewing up a storm! The kids were so thrilled with everything, but especially to see Grandpa. Bedtime on Friday night was pretty hard to negotiate because they wanted to stay up and play, but we had big plans for Saturday.
Grandpa suggested we try "Maria Empanadas" in downtown Denver so we headed there for lunch,
He'd watched a "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" episode featuring it, and it's won all kinds of awards, including being one of the "Top 10 New Bakeries in the US" last year. I couldn't wait to get my hands on some, and neither could Jon. Empanadas may be Argentinian, but they're also popular fare in the ol' mission-country of Chile, so he was pretty excited to reminisce.
We tried ham and cheese, the Caprese (which had mozzarella and tomatoes and basil), mushroom and spinach, and sweet corn. They were all excellent and I would definitely go back for round two!
We spent the rest of the afternoon bowling with Grandpa. He was so good to help Leah bowl, and she had a blast.
Here they go! I think she mostly wanted to feel independent like she'd done it herself-- but she didn't mind Grandpa backing her up.
I loved her confident little strut back to all of us waiting to cheer her on. She is hilarious and I'm not really sure how a little 3 year old person can be so full of personality!
Zach was amazing! He's a good little bowler, and has a super wacky approach to chucking the ball which might make you think he'd put potholes in the floor, but of the three kids, he won!
That evening Grandpa headed over to see Uncle Jeremy's show, and Jon took Zach on a long-awaited "Man's Date" to see the Denver Nuggets play at the Pepsi Center, We got these tickets back in December, so it's been a date on the calendar for a looooong time. He was SO excited!
Possibly the best part of the evening was the full can of root beer the dude in the background gave Zach, that he got to drink all by himself, and didn't have to share with any siblings. Oh, and the popcorn Jon bought during halftime. I think it was nice these two "mans" enjoyed a little male bonding time!
Not to be outdone, we girls had ourselves what Luce called a "Girl Party." Dinner at Panda Express (Lucy's pick), a shopping excursion to "Tar-Jay" (aka Target) to check out the clearance racks and buy contraband Easter candy, and then home to watch "Minions" before bedtime. Oh yeah!
Sunday after church we had everybody over for dinner and birthday dessert for Uncle Jeremy. Miss Elizabeth was sending out the "cute vibe" in her Sunday best! She looks like a little puppet!
Monday night Grandpa came back over to say good bye before he headed home Tuesday morning. We were sure grateful we go to see him and enjoy a fun weekend together! With so many big changes over the last few months it was sure nice to get a visit and we so appreciate him taking the time to come do that. Hopefully Grandma can join him next time!
