Feasting Yeast

He won a medal at the school Science Fair, and almost spontaneously combusted!

One of Trenton's greatest joys in life is Science.  He loves to see experiments unfold, so when the school science fair was an option, we couldn't miss the chance to submit a project.

We worked hard to find a project that he would understand and have fun with, and we decided to use yeast.  We tried several ideas before we finalized and perfected our project.  We started by testing how yeast grows with different amounts of water.... and honestly... we failed as parents.  The pictures look fun though.  Take a look...

Once we discovered that the yeast would overflow into the balloons, and our ratios weren't working so well with the beakers we had, we had to change our hypothesis.

Trenton understands that yeast likes to eat things and that it produces gas the more it eats.  So, he wanted to see if yeast likes to Tabasco Sauce, since he likes it too.

We had 4 bottles with 104 degree water.   One was our "control" with just yeast.  One had Tabasco Sauce, one had sugar, and one had a cookie.

After 20 minutes... this is what it was looking like

 We measured, graphed, and waited some more

After it was all done, we had to make it look pretty.

 Then... the judging.  With over 100 booths, Trenton was one of the 12 children selected.  If you zoom in to this image, you can see him levitating off the ground and near explosion.  I think I got emotional seeing him so proud of his accomplishment.  

I guess the extra time spent on his booth was worth it. 

Congratulations Trenton on your big accomplishment!  I can't wait to see what you explore next!

7 years

 Trenton is 7 years wise today!  He is smart, funny, loving, thoughtful, and generous.  He is always thinking out loud, and is a spewer of facts.  His brain goes beyond what most children would care about, and he will fixate on unique interests.  

He loves Star Wars, Nerf Guns, School, drawing, science, and church.

He will talk with anyone that will listen and therefore he knows many people, although isn't as great at learning others names and what their interests are. 

Today, we celebrate him.  We love to have as much fun with him as we can, and so this year we had a Nerf Birthday.  We kept it small and invited only a few friends and of-course cousins.

 The first thing they had to do was gear up.  Ammo bags, safety goggles, guns,

and Fuel.

 They rode the zip-line and dropped life-size "darts" into buckets.

Shot army men for target practice.

Line-up for the obstacle course

raced through the balloons to hit the target at the end.

Then... we played Nerf Wars.

After the heat of battle was over, they hydrated, ate pizza, cake and ice cream!

Happy Birthday Trenton!

Watch out 1st Grade!

Watch out 1st Grade, here comes T-Bone!

Being so close to the school, we had a few extra buddies as we walked to school today! 

It sure helped the anxiety!

Trenton started looking a little confused right after the above picture and after asking him if he was alright, he replied, "I just don't know what I am supposed to be doing."  I think the chaos, new room, new teacher fears started to set-in.

I know this was a big day for him, and I think his fears were the same as mine at the moment.  The relief came when he bounced his way home and shared details of his day including (word-for-word) the stories that were read.

I think he will love what this year has ahead of him!  Hopefully he won't grow out of a few things: like Star Wars, Legos, morning cartoons, and sitting on my lap for a hug.

Crazy about Spring

We love this man!  And we especially love celebrating his birthday! So we started early in the morning, we played all day, and partied into the night and the weekend!!!

 We went golfing as a family to make him smile.

 Ate cake with family

And he would be nothing with out these amazing people!

After all the celebrations, Trenton started finishing up his first year at Kingergarten. 

He had an amazing teacher who put on the most darling presentation together! Check it out below...

Kindergarten 2012 Program from Raina on Vimeo.

Simon's Preschool class finished up his year with a field trip to the most darling Alpaca farm!  Trenton got to tag along.

The boys got summer haircuts.  This is NOT what I expected Trenton's hair to look like... AT ALL.  But he knows he is still handsome despite the new do.

And one fun night we got dressed up for a disco party.  I think we rounded the rest of our time out with yard work and friends.

Now lets get to the Summer months!!