MLK Christmas

We've traditionally spent Thanksgiving with The Barker Cousins but with the arrival of Jon Anthony in early November, we made the trip to Dallas instead.

Then we had planned on having them over before Christmas for an early celebration and visit, but as you might know by now, (or not) we were all dreadfully sick over Christmas break.  All five of us had a terrible cold or most likely the flu.  All plans to see family and friends were canceled and we spent the entire break watching movies in our pj's.  Thankfully, we started feeling better just in time for school to start.  By MLK weekend, along with our way overdue Barker Christmas visit, we were back to our healthy self's and had a super time with all three cousins, Aunt Judy, Uncle Chip, Grandma and Aunt Elaine. 

Girls against boys in a tickle wrestling match!

Looks like Santa left one of his reindeer behind: )

Alexandra practicing some fine motor skills with her left hand.

Whoo hoo!  More trains!!! You should see all his tracks now!

Thanks Barker's for making the trip!  It was fun!  Can't wait to see you all again soon!

Blubber Blanket

Before Christmas break, Sophia got a flyer in her binder about the school Science Fair.  For those of you who don't know, Sophia LOVES science!  So naturally, she was very excited and of course wanted to participate in the fair.  After looking through a few books, she decided on doing a project about blubber.  The concept was simple.  Does blubber really keep you warm?  

Joe and I made it very clear this was to be her project.  Her thoughts and ideas, words and work.  We were there to help but not to do it for her.  And this is how it turned out!  Not so bad right?!?!?  She started by writing everything out before, during, and after each experiment and once she was done, we went back and typed it on the computer.  Being a true scientist Joe was opposed to the stickers, but remember this was her project and she wanted stickers : ) 

 Then it was time for the Science Fair.  Her project was a huge hit!  She had lots of spectators wanting to learn about blubber and trying out her blubber mitten.  The judges had also posted little comments and compliments on her work.  Needless to say we had one happy scientist on our hands : )

She was even able to give her science teacher, Mrs. Kaufman, a demonstration!

And then it was time for the award ceremony.  Each participant received a ribbon, which Sophia was already very proud of.  So as you can see it was hard for her to control her excitement when they called Kindergarten to the stage to award the top 3 winners. 

And she won 2nd place!

We were very proud Sophia won 2nd place but what she did after she won made us even more proud!  One of her classmates was quite upset that she did not get a medal.  So on her own, Sophia went over and tried to comfort her.  First with lots of hugs and then she did something pretty extraordinary.  She gave Marina her medal.  Initially she said she could have it but i guess she didn't realize how much it really meant to her because as soon as her friend put it on, she started getting teary eyed and said "maybe you can just borrow it until you feel better."    

 Sophia's nice gesture put a smile back on Marina's face and Sophia she was happy to get her medal back.

 Congratulations Sassy Scientist!  We can't wait to see what you'll come up with next year : )