Activity Days

My current calling at church is Activity Day Girls leader.  It's the best, akin to being a cub scout den mother...which I have also done and loved.  Twice a month the 8-11 year old girls get together, either at my house, church or another location...such as the library, museum etc. and we do something cool...something that I want my 8 year old and her friends to learn and know. We have had a book club, studied different styles of art and created our own paintings, made jewelry, baked cake pops, etc.  Last time we studying gardening and plotted our own dream gardens, taking into consideration how large plants would get, which ones make good companions for each other and which ones don't get along.  Then they got to raid my seed collection and plant some to take home.

My favorite night so far was probably when we did science demonstrations using common household items. We made our own soda with lemons, simple syrup and baking soda (they won't be bottling that anytime soon),  made old pennies new, made an earthquake with jello, tried to make sparks with wint-o-green lifesavers but that didn't work out like it was supposed to (too much humidity here perhaps?), explored taste without smell, infected passerby's with glitter 'germs', and more.  The girls had to match up each test with the scientific principle on display.  We covered density, emulsion, expansion, surface tension, and various chemical reactions all in just one hour.  

In the coming month's we are going to be pitching tents and lighting fires, and exploring ballroom dancing, music, and sports and nutrition.  I'm open to topics and suggestions if anyone has any, please share. 

---

An aside - When preparing for the science night I checked out some books from the library and came across this gem: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe.  I will be owning this next time I need to add $$ to an Amazon order to qualify for free shipping.  Maybe if I had had this book I wouldn't have had to withdraw from Chemistry 101 in college, and I would have become a dentist after all. 

Birthday Recaps

Quick rundown of birthdays that I have missed documenting:

Miles (5)

Theme: Star Wars

                                   

Avery (8)

Theme: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

(have your best friend over, put on a ghastly shade of lipstick and play Just Dance 3. Two cakes - one chocolate macaroon from Trader Joes and a giant macadamia white choc chip cookie for the other)

 Cruz (2)

Theme: Gluttony

(Red Robin - burger, fries, sundae.  B-ball cake at home (look familiar?).  Shares a b-day with Kaitlyn McA, so we celebrated together.  Starwberry/lemon cake for her)

                                        

Lynn (34)

Theme: Indecision

(Lemon Shaker Pie and Chocolate Souffle Cake. 

Thank goodness Britt was in town to help bake, eat and then do Bar Method the next morning (with Cruz as her weights).  Miles made me a sweet bracelet of wire and tissue paper)