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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Living the Lutz Life: Boonshoft Museum, Mario Preschool & Milk Art

This is a new weekend feature for 2013, giving you a peek into our day-to-day life and serving as a digital journal for me and my family. Take time to savor these precious days and don't forget to take LOTS of pictures!


We started back in with some low-key homeschooling on Wednesday this week. Getting back into a routine again is proving to be a bit challenging. A friend tipped me off to this cool milk art activity and the kids LOVED it! You pour a thin layer of milk into a shallow dish and add several drops of food coloring. Then you carefully put a couple drops of dish soap into the dish and watch the magic happen. Jackson and Charlotte were fascinated with watching the colors mix together and Charlotte even needed the magnifying glass to get a closer look. We dumped these out and did it again because they had so much fun.

Later that day we went outdoors to look for animal tracks in the snow. We have a family of cardinals living in our side yard and have a great view of the birds and squirrels from our side window, where we do school. The kids and I put birdseed out in the only snowless patch of ground and had a blast watching the critters snack on it. As we were looking at tracks, I asked Jackson what kind of animal he thought left the "hopping" sort of tracks that led to the tree. "Well, probably a kangaroo!" he replied! Hahaha!

 
On Thursday, my sister and niece joined us on a trip to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, OH. We packed a lunch and stayed for a few hours in hopes of burning off some of their boundless energy. The kids had a great time, as usual. Some of the highlights included Jackson and his cousin dressing as police officers and putting Charlotte in "jail", and watching the river otters. They got the biggest kick out of the otters running right over to the glass and standing on their hind legs! We are so thankful to my mother-in-law for our museum membership and look forward to using it at many area museums throughout the coming year.
 
 
Jackson and Bill have resurrected an old "game" that they used to play called "Cars Preschool", except the cars have been replaced by stuffed Mario characters. This new thing they play is now called, of course, "Mario Preschool". It is highly entertaining (well, not to Charlotte!) and Jackson would play for hours if Bill would go along with it for that long. Mario is usually the teacher and the rest of the cast of characters are the students. Bowser typically gets into trouble and Mario puts him in time out or calls his mom to come get him from school. Haha!
 
 
Charlotte has quickly become a little fashion plate and strives to make each day memorable by dressing up in the wackiest outfits possible for a princess to wear. She received a boatload of dress-up clothes for Christmas and has endless fun mixing and matching the dresses and accessories. Be prepared for multiple photos each week of Charlotte's entertaining ensembles! One night this week, after putting her to bed, she yelled for me to come back to her room. When I got there, she insisted that she needed a "princess sleeper" to wear to bed. Oh my goodness, she is such a diva!
 


 
 
I took a stab at making some homemade thin mint cookies this week, after seeing the 346 Facebook posts from friends who have daughters taking orders for Girl Scout cookies. They turned out fab.u.lous and I can't wait to share the recipe with all of you! I made some pretty stellar gluten free cookies and hope to make some less healthy ones this coming week to compare. As you can see from Charlotte's face, she was a fan! My husband gave the healthy version an 8 out of 10, so I can only imagine what the ones made with plain ol' white flour and regular sugar would earn. You will be seeing this recipe very soon...promise!

Did your family do anything exciting this week? Any big plans, new recipes, or fun kids' activities in the works for the upcoming week? I'd love to hear from you!

Ashley


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