Too Much Fun with TP

"The wise man built his house upon the rock...." This is what I heard AJ singing when I went to check on him and discovered he was building a house out of extra toilet paper. Harmless enough -- or so I thought. A few minutes later, I hear him playing in some water. My first thought was, "I hope he's not playing in the toilet." He wasn't, but he had filled my sink. I guess the rains came down, and the floods came up and the house built out of toilet paper didn't do so well. He had put several rolls into the sink, then taken them out again and dropped them on the floor. Imagine a completely soaked roll of toilet paper with the cardboard core removed. Then multiply that. I made him pick up the big pieces, and I waited for the smaller pieces to dry so I could scrape them off the floor, wall, and side of the bathtub.

Busfabriken

Last Saturday we went to Busfabriken with the kids. Kristen invited a couple of her friends from school, but only one could make it. We are friends with the whole family, so we invited all of them to come with us. Here are some pictures from the day.

This is a volcano that is right when you come into the play area. It is kind of like a climbing wall with a slide to get down. The sides get steeper as you go up. Later, AJ slipped on this, and his shirt got caught on one of the blue circular grips. He was hanging there, crying, while Timothy and I kept slipping in our efforts to reach him to get him unstuck. I am sure it was humorous to watch, but it was frustrating to be in the midst of the situation.

Here is Kristen near the top of the volcano.

Here she is sliding down the long slide.

Even Hunter had fun.

Here I am taking Hunter through a tunnel to get to a slide. This was really hard on my knees as I had to inch forward while holding him.

This is the slide after the tunnel that I took Hunter down. Timo took him, too (obviously).





AJ having fun.



AJ jumping.

Hunter checking out the octopus.

AJ had run into Arvid. Arvid was wondering what he was doing, and AJ has a mischievous grin on his face.

Science and Solenoids

Even though my older two are in preschool, I try to get some homeschooling in during the time they are home. We have been studying magnets and doing regular simple experiments to teach them about the various kinds of magnets and magnetic properties. Today, in between loads of laundry and nursing Hunter, we performed our weekly experiment. Today's lesson: solenoids.

We first taped three 1.5v batteries together to make a 4.5 volt battery. Then, we wound some wire around a straw three times to make a little solenoid.

We stripped the ends of the wire, and taped them to the ends of the batteries. Then we placed a needle part-way inside the straw.

When Kristen pushed on the batteries, the needle was pulled inside by the electromagnetic force. You can see in this picture that the needle is no longer visible. That is because it is inside the straw solenoid.

The second part of the experiement was to use the solenoid to make a train signal.

Here is the train signal in the neutral position.

Here, the needle has been pulled into the solenoid again, causing the signal to go up. I probably could have had a more dramatic result if I had cut the signal arm longer. You can see in Kristen's eyes that she thought this was pretty cool. Her mom thought it was pretty cool, too. I don't remember doing anything this fun in first-grade science.

Taking the Fifth... Birthday

Tonight we celebrated K's fifth birthday as a family. I can't believe I have been a mother for five years. She is such a joy in my life.

She had princess hats and plates. Her gifts included some baby doll accessories such as a baby bathtub, diapers, and bibs, a Playdoh dentist set, finger paint, a tool bench, and some clothes.

H also got in on the action. What you don't know is that he is looking at the hat on my head. He really thought it was interesting. Later, Timothy got out AJ's Thomas-the-Train birthday hats leftover from his party, and the boys got to get rid of their princess hats.

Here she is blowing out her candles on her barn cake.

Bunny Barn

I finally finished Kristen's birthday cake. She wanted a barn, but the red paste coloring Timo brought from the US is manufactured in a facility that also processes peanuts. This made it taboo for using in Kristen's cake. My solution was to give her a brown barn and use a ganache frosting instead. Ganache is much more difficult to work with, so the barn boards didn't come out how I wanted. Again, the yellow and green are more vivid than the picture depicts.




I didn't have any animal crackers, and I couldn't find any here, so I had to use the bunnies that Timo brought back for the kids.

Here is my haystack. I haven't used this tip before, but I think it turned out okay.

Here is the window that is partly open because the hay is hanging out.

Gone Fishin'

Kristen wanted fishing cupcakes for her class birthday party, so I made these. Of course, when you fish in Sweden, you catch Swedish fish. :)

I used a cut straw for the fishing pole and floss for the line. I tried to make the icing look like waves, but I don't know if you can see that in the picture.

Home at Last

Timo returned today from a short journey to the US. He brought with him a Johnny Jump-Up for Hunter and a violin for Kristen (this was supposed to be a birthday present, but she got it early). This makes for some very happy kiddos. What about AJ? Well, he did just have a birthday. Timo brought him some clothes, and the kids got some vitamins you can't get here. They were just as happy about those as they were about getting toys. :)

This violin is so cute and small.

I didn't have to wait until he smiled to take a picture. He was all smiles once he got put in.

I have mixed feelings about the Johnny Jump-Up. Hunter really likes it, but, when I tried to nurse him after he had been in there a while, he wanted to keep jumping. Trying to nurse a jumping baby is both painful and difficult.

Sweden's Pony Express

A few weeks ago, Kristen was reading a book about the Pony Express as part of her homeschool curriculum. It was a great book, in my opinion, and we were able to reinforce the idea of the Pony Express by using our good friend, the exercise ball. I would bounce on the ball, holding one kid in front of me, and we we would pretend that that child was a rider for the Pony Express. We changed horses at the way stations every 15 miles or so, and we changed riders after about 75 miles (this worked great for taking turns). I made sure I emphasized that we were riding from St. Joseph, MO to California to take the mail where the train didn't go. Hopefully, this part of history will stick with them a little longer now that we have made a game out of it.

Lunging Forward

Last night marked a milestone in Hunter's life. He has shown me that he recognizes me for a long time now. He breaks into a huge grin almost everytime he sees me when I am not holding him. Last night, though, he not only smiled at me, he physically lunged for me. I was so pleased. I know that this also means he has entered a more difficult stage when it comes to other people holding him and watching him for me, but it is so sweet when babies show such obvious affection for a person.

So remember that trip to IKEA? Well, here is what we got. It is not quite complete in the picture as we still want to get drawers for the bottom middle section. They were out when we went. I also haven't figured out exactly how I want to fill the shelves. But this is what it looks like for now. And, no, we didn't get the baby from IKEA. :)

Happy Eggs

Yesterday, while I was making chocolate lava cake, I accidentally made an egg smiley face in my bowl. I was holding Hunter in one arm and breaking eggs with my free hand. As a result, one of the yolks broke, producing the smile. The other two eggs served as the eyes.