An Egg-Themed Fourth Birthday Party

It's hard to explain, but Daniel loves EGGS! (We think Noni is responsible for this. She gave him his first egg carton and a taped together cracked egg when he was very little.)

So, his fourth birthday theme was EGGS, EGGS, EGGS!

I sent out the invitations, suggesting the invitees Get Eggcited

The party was held at Grandma and Grandpa Engelhardt's house the weekend before Daniel's birthday.

Will, Abby, and Daniel all had cool EGG t-shirts. Will does not like EGGS, so his shirt was less EGG, more bacon). I couldn't find an EGG t-shirt, but I did make myself an EGG pin. Daniel looked at my dress and said, "Mom, you have dinosaur EGGS on your dress! Not all EGGS are oval, some are round!"

I'd originally planned to make EGG pins for everyone, but didn't quite get around to making that happen. Grandma Engelhardt did get an EGG pin, though!

Daniel enjoyed seeing his Great-Great Aunt Vivian again. She gave him an EGG carton filled with quarters and candies and a few chickens.

Lunch was delicious! Grandma Engelhardt made EGG salad and potato salad with EGGS. Aunt Lisa (Tonto) made deviled EGGS and several different kinds of EGG desserts.

Uncle Pete, Aunt Lori and Cousin Jacob came all the way from Wisconsin to celebrate with Daniel. Daniel looked at this picture and said, "Aunt Lori is nice!"

Daniel had a great time opening gifts -- many of which included EGG cartons!

For dessert, we had a variety of egg-themed treats to choose from. As the guests (led by the under ten crowd) sang a rousing version of Happy Birthday, Daniel blew out four candles on an EGG cupcake and a bird's nest with EGGS. He also got a fried EGG gummy candy, which the children all thought were great and the adults all thought were gross.

 Everyone was sent home with their very own EGG carton (filled with a dozen donut holes). Daniel didn't like that I was giving the EGG cartons away. He wanted to keep them all for himself!

And because I am who I am, I took A LOT of photos of the festivities, including the EGG hunt and the EGG joke telling.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

As of today, there is a four-year-old in the Stott house!

Impossibly Cute

Tonight was Daniel's first swimming lesson.  Abby and I are in complete agreement that he is IMPOSSIBLY CUTE!!

He had so much fun! He floated on his back with a HUGE grin on his face and even put his face in the water a few times as he floated on his tummy. And he wore his goggles the entire time!

Not bad for a three-year-old!

Daniel's Last Day of Preschool

Today is Daniel's last day in his preschool class. On Monday he joins a new classroom called Private Pre-Kindergarten -- PPK from here on out!

Here he is with one of his preschool teachers -- Ms. Hanson.

Abby's Last Day of Third Grade

Today is Abby's last day of third grade! WOW!!!!! She is so excited for summer to begin and we all agree that it will be nice to have a break from spelling tests and math homework!

The Dog on Hosta Hill

Most Dedicated

Today we attended Abby's Orca Awards Ceremony. Abby and Daniel liked that each table had a plate of cookies and a plate of brownies. They both enjoyed the lemon bars. 

Abby was excited, but nervous. At swimming practice last night, she learned that some of the swimmers would receive a trophy. Abby REALLY wanted a trophy. I tried to encourage her to not get her hopes up.

Abby's coach read a nice summary of each swimmer, but did not say the swimmer's name until the end of the summary. Such suspense!!

"This next swimmer trained in the Orca 2 Group. She attended 89 out of 88 workouts this season, which is 101% attendance. Roc Tuff! She was Swimmer of the Week for June 6-12 and Jan. 9-15 and Swimmer of the Month for June 2011.

She has always been one to have fun in workout and she is very personable. She is a friend to everyone, and loved to get her lane mates to play under the water. Sometime this fall that changed and she began to pay attention and improve. She finally took the time to fix her breaststroke kick and now she has four good strokes.

Full of giggles and smiles, she is mischievous and fun. She is the first to pipe with a comment and likes to be in the spotlight.

This swimmer has become a very good racer. She has dropped over 30 seconds in her fly and breast this year, but her backstroke surprised us more, dropping almost 10 seconds in two months to earn her first B time. She knows how to go fast. She never misses a workout and for that she is one of our Most Dedicated.

She is:

Abby Stott
Most Dedicated"

She was so excited to receive a trophy. She told me later that she had a funny feeling in her stomach as she was listening to the summary. She said, "I thought it might be me."

I asked if she'd like to put her trophy on the mantle in the living room. She asked if she could keep it in her room. "I'd like to see it when I wake up in the morning."

The Stott Four decided to head out on a mini road trip on Friday, April 6, 2012. We roll in style, so we started the road trip by driving through what Daniel calls the "wash car." 

It wasn't so long ago that Daniel was terrified of the wash car, so his smiling face in this photo shows that he's come a long way.

We let the handy dandy magic phone determine our route and started to drive...

As with other Stott road trips, Will made a special road trip CD and quickly entertained us with his musical stylings.

Not to be outdone, I too had selected a few songs for our trip...

I found some fun Iowa-themed songs, including a great song called My Iowa Wife.

We took Abby and Daniel to the book store the night before and they each got to choose a new book for the trip.

(And while there is so much more to share, you will simply have to check back tomorrow for details of our fabulous time in Dubuque! Good night!

Our Sunday as Captured with my iPhone

We'd intended to go to Sunday school and church this morning. But, alas, we forgot about the whole daylight savings time thing and didn't have enough time to get ready and out the door in time.

We decided to head north and go to Family Day at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA).

We started the trip on a high -- OK, low -- note.

Daniel seemed tired, but Abby was silly.

We thought Daniel was going to snooze on the drive, but he rallied and started searching for airplanes with his "rinoculars."

We arrived at MIA hungry, so sat down to a tasty lunch and some general silliness.

After lunch, Abby read hieroglyphs to us.

And we watched flamenco dancers (today's Family Day theme was Espana)! 

Keeping with the Spain theme, we posed in a Dali-inspired photo booth. (That's a lobster phone Abby is holding.)

Daniel and Abby decided to make golden snakes instead of a Spanish golden lion.

And Abby and I created Picasso-inspired portraits.

We had a snack and more silliness.

And then it was time to drive home and Daniel was OUT!

When we got home, Abby and Daniel decided to continue creating art and colored in Abby's new Aztec coloring book.  Abby attempted to teach Daniel how to "color in the lines."

It was a fine day!

Feet

We finally talked Abby into buying her first pair of shoes with laces. And that meant we needed to teach her to tie her shoes. So, on Sunday we bought the shoes and on Sunday Abby learned to tie her shoes. She is still pretty excited about it! And announces with glee another successful shoe tying each time she puts her shoes on.

Daniel inherited these wool socks from Abby. They were a baby gift from our friends Asma and Dagfinn. They purchased them in Iceland on their way to Norway. Daniel LOVES these socks. He calls them his "snuggle socks" and would wear them 24-7-365 if we would allow him to do so. Today I washed them and put them in his room, thinking he could wear them to bed. Daniel came home from school, went to play in his room, saw the socks and promptly put them on. He's in bed with them on now and I can promise he will wear them to school tomorrow and sleep in them again tomorrow night. I'll draw the line on his wearing them to school again on Thursday, but he will ask to do so.

Not All Child Labor is a Bad Thing

Ancient Egyptian Hot Dogs

Abby chose to mummify hot dogs for her science fair project this year. She tested both meat and veggie hot dogs and baking soda and salt as the mummification agents. Her hypothesis:

My hypothesis is that a meat hotdog in salt will work the best because the ancient Egyptians mummified meats -- like humans, bulls, cats, and dogs -- by using salts. Baking soda might also work because it was an ingredient in what the ancient Egyptians used.

Over the course of three weeks, Abby measured the weight, length, and circumference of the hot dogs. She also noted her observations on the hot dogs' smells and conditions. (Let's just say that some of the smells weren't so great!)

And because we had to purchase hot dogs for the experiment, she even ate a hot dog for dinner one night.

Abby worked really hard on her science fair project. And was very careful in measuring and keeping notes.

As I was helping Abby type up her presentation, she impressed me with her knowledge of mummifiation:

The ancient Egyptians wanted to preserve the body so that the Ka (the dead person’s soul) could find their body in the afterlife. At first they just buried the bodies in the hot desert sand. This worked because the sand and heat would dehydrate the body and preserve it.

Then the ancient Egyptians put the bodies in coffins to protect them from wild animals. But they found that the bodies rotted if they were not exposed to the hot desert sands.

So, after many years, the ancient Egyptians found out how to mummify (or preserve) the bodies. They used salts and natron (a mixture of salt and what we know today as baking soda) to preserve the bodies. This process is called mummification. (I decided to use salt and baking soda because those are two main ingredients in natron.)

And Abby TOTALLY made me laugh when she added the following...

So, hopefully my experiment will help the hotdog’s Ka (the dead hotdog’s soul) find its body in the afterlife of the garbage can!

i ]g 0j
Grandma and Grandpa Engelhardt even made the trip north on Friday to come to Abby's school to see her science fair project.

At the end of the science fair, Abby suggested that her science fair project next year might involve me (the mom) and coffee and the effects of caffeine on mood. Let's just say that I'm fully prepared to help my child develop her scientific mind -- as long as cream and sugar are also part of her hypothesis!

Haircut

We tend to let Daniel's hair get way too long. Given how traumatic some past haircuts have been, you really can't blame us.

But, when your son starts asking to wear "hairbands" (rubber bands) in his hair, you have to act. So, Will took Daniel to get a haircut today and Abby and I escaped to a nearby store and tested patio furniture -- we really like the porch swing thingies.

The photo on the left is the before photo with Daniel's CRAZY hair. Will texted the two photos on the right to me as I sat swinging in the outdoor department with Abby. Daniel is holding a lollipop in the photo on the top right. We told him that if he was a big boy and did not cry (SCREAM, KICK, LOSE IT, etc...) he could have the lollipop after his hair was cut.

I've got a bit of PTSD when it comes to Daniel's haircuts (I'm being serious), so when all was said and done, I totally forgot to take an after photo. But I can proudly say that Daniel looks great with a very nice big boy haircut. According to Will, Daniel was nervous during the haircut, but enjoyed watching TV and laughed while watching Scooby Doo.

Way to go Daniel!