Amara Lost her first TEETH!

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This past Saturday Amara lost her 2 bottom teeth.  They've been loose for months now, and the adult teeth had already come up behind the baby teeth, but she was always too nervous to pull them out.  Then this past weekend, we were driving to Steve's classroom when Amara announces in a half-unbelieving tone from the backseat, "I just lost my tooth."  I turned around excited, "Let's see it!"  She looked at me, a little shocked, and pointing to the floor she said, "It's on the ground."  She had felt something hard in her mouth and grabbed it and threw it on the floor.  Then she realized it was her tooth.  When we got to the school, we all wanted to see the hole the tooth had left, and that's when we saw the other tooth just hanging there.  That's when I got out my camera to film.

She was still apprehensive about getting her other tooth pulled out, but eventually she got up the courage and had me pull it out.  We're so happy for her to have such a big milestone!  She lost 2 teeth in one day!

 

 

Game and Treat Night

As an incentive to have our girls learn responsibility, we gave them a checklist of things they have to do to get ready for bed-

1. Shower
2. Get PJs on
3. Get clothes ready for next day
4. Brush Teeth
5. Tidy Bedroom and Bathroom

They have from 6:30-7:00 to get those things done without us telling them what to do.  During that time, we go into our room, close the doors and do a couple scripture study.  Then at 7:00 they are allowed to come in and we read together as a family, do family scripture and prayer and tuck them in at about 7:30. 

If the girls get their "lists" checked off before 7:00, then they get to color in their chart.  When all the circles are colored in we do the activity of their choice.  There are probably about 36 circles.  For this go-around, they chose to have a family game night and treat night.  It took a couple months to earn it, but they could've earned it quicker if they were more consistant getting their checklists done each night; however, the process seems to work pretty well, and it gives us a routine for couple scripture study which was hard to come by before. 

We had a lot of fun buying the treats for our game night (we bought way too much- but everyone got a few things they liked) and we had a lot of fun playing candyland, apples to apples, and monopoly junior.  Steve won both monopoly and candyland, and I won the apples to apples game.  Everyone was just happy to play and there were no tears when someone didn't win.  That must mean that our girls are growing up...

Believing in Fairies

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Lily and Amara made fairy houses.  According to Lily, fairies are real if you believe.  Her friend, Valerie has a book all about fairies and apparently she caught a real fairy and keeps it at her house and named her Seth, but her mom won't let her bring the fairy to school or else her mom will keep the fairy for a week!  But since she knows so much about fairies, she has shared her knowledge with Lily and has made her a believer.  Apparently there is evidence all around that the fairies have come to visit the fairy houses.  Things have been moved around and such.  Oh!  And don't forget to clap so you can save a fairy's life.  I wish Valerie had kept that bit of info secret because now my daughters will start clapping out of the blue with belief in their hearts and hope in their eyes.  And I cringe.  I hope this particular part of the fairy phase is short lived.  Fairy houses are creative and fun, but the clapping... 

The District Invention Convention

Lily's Handy Hanger project had won 3rd place at her school's invention convention, so she was sent on to the district invention convention which also took place at her school a few weeks later.  There were a lot more projects there and it took half of her school day.  She was to sit by her project and as judges would come around and ask questions, she was to stand and demonstrate and answer their questions.  Parents/visitors were allowed to sit on the stage during the process, so that's what I did.  Steve's parents were still in town, and they came down a little later to watch.  Before things started, I went around with Lily and took pictures of all the other inventions.  It was fun to see what the students came up with.

This is a warmer/dryer for socks, shoes, gloves or whatever.  One of Steve's students made this.

This has a light that glows by the light switch so you can find the switch in the dark.

Here's Lily's handy hanger.

The shop cop is a bowl with a lid that has a strong magnet attached that can pick up screws and nails, then you scrape them off into the bowl.  The girl who made this also created a song that went along with it.  I think she took 1st place at our school invention convention, but she didn't place at the district level.

The Taco Assistant basically is a plastic disk that folds around a taco shell so you don't snap your shell when you're filling it up with meat and toppings.

Self explanatory- pooper scooper with disposable bag.

I loved this idea.  A backpack that has fold out legs so you can sit on it.

Basically he invented a lamp for use in the car.

Gluten free dessert recipe

Apple picker.

A shirt that you can remove and play your cars on.

This invention softens your ice cream by placing an electric blanket around the bucket.  It also has a lid that catches ice cream drips and puts it back into the bucket.

This is a cat bed that attaches to the side of a regular twin sized mattress, so you can share your bed without having to sacrifice any room.

A new getting to know you board game.

This list maker/note taker keeps a running list so you can go back and see previous notes.

I didn't get to talk to this kid, and he didn't really want to talk to me, so I'm not sure what the pants holder does.  Maybe you can tell from his poster?

This is a towel and a robe in one.

A shoe shield is so you don't have to take off your soccer cleats or golf shoes when you need to leave the field, just simply slide the shoe shield over your shoe and you protect your shoes and the surfaces you're walking on.

This long strap attaches to a zipper at the back of your dress and helps you pull up the zipper.

This is the judging form.

The cupcake sprinkler helps direct your sprinkles onto your cupcake in a neat shape or design.

When you are not using your scarf, you can store it as a stuffed animal.

The next few pictures are of Lily with one of the judges.  Lily can be soft-spoken at times.  As her parents, we'll often request for her to talk louder because we cannot hear her.  I like how you can see in the next sequence of photos how the judge has to keep getting closer and closer to her in order to hear what she is saying.  As I watched I kept thinking, "Speak up Lily!"  She kept slowly backing away from this guy.  It was kinda funny.

 Next we see Lily with the guy from the local newspaper.  He was interviewing her for his story.  I still haven't seen the story in the paper.  I even wrote to the paper and requested a story.  Still haven't seen it.

 Here's a picture of one more judge.  Lily had to talk to a total of 4 judges and she was in that seat from 9am- 12:45pm.  That's a long time to sit there.

Finally, the judges finished judging and awards were handed out.  Lily took 3rd place and earned herself another trophy.  Yay for Lily!  It was fun to have the support of her grandparents and sister there as she received her award.

 

The winners getting their pictures taken for the newspaper.

 

This project worked out great because she really does use it at home to get her clothes ready for the next day.  Go Lily!