Lighthouse Trek and More

We have decided to try to see a list of lighthouses here in southern Maine, and here are a few pics on our trek to see one fairly close to our home a few weeks ago.  We had fun one Saturday trekking around Southern Maine and checked a few lighthouses off the list.

The first lighthouse was a bit far out.  :)

We had gotten freezing rain right after the snow at this time and it made all the snow have a layer of ice over it, making this untouched area a bit of a skating rink.  :)

The second lighthouse.  Not the best quality with the phone.  :)

Children being adorable.  They love reading on daddy.  

Will and Jadon with funny masks we made in school.  

Color Experiment

 So, the boys LOVE science experiments, of course, so I've been trying to do one a week this new semester.  Doing one a week means that they aren't always too complex.  We all loved this one that taught us about both absorption and colors.  The boys already knew about color mixing, but it was fun to review and see it in a different way then we have done previously.  If you are interested in this experiment for yourself, here is a video about how to do it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8YtroKjVxo.

First we put water in some of the jars and add some food coloring.

Here are the boys after the water and food coloring have been added to the correct jars.

Will helped mommy fold the paper towels the correct way and then we all placed them in the correct jars.

We have just put the paper towels in and the boys are wondering what in the world is going to happen!  :)

After a while we could see the water starting to "walk" up the paper towels.

I didn't get many in between pics.  Here's the end result...the water "walked" up the towels, first just clear water, and then the food coloring, and as the towels became absorbed to max capacity, they started to distribute the colored water in the empty jars, and when the colors mixed, new colors formed!  You can see we were able to make purple, green, and orange.  It took about 3 hours.  Fun stuff!

Fossil Dig

Will got a great science kit from friends for a birthday gift.  It's one of those Smithsonian boxes with a few different experiments in it.  He recently did the "fossil dig" experiment, where he chips through a piece of block to find a dinosaur "fossil".  They are messy, but fun.

Zoo Visit

We recently visited the Philadelphia Zoo with our friends and the children loved the area where they could go in and pet and brush the goats.  It's a pretty great little zoo, and going on a weekday in the early winter is a fabulous time to visit a zoo!  It was a warmish winter day and the zoo was empty.  Great for two families with 7 little children between them, all 6 and under.  :)

Hannah liked to talk to the goats as she petted them.

Brushing the goats.

Every goat loves as good tail grab, right?  ;)

Fun indoor play area.

Fun outdoor play area!

Will walked across the rope bridge.