Lotsa ladybugs

Kate checks out a bag filled with ladybugs at her preschool. She got to help release some of them outside. Her class was studying insects this month, and in addition to learning about ladybugs, they got to watch caterpillars turn into butterflies and hundreds of baby praying mantises hatch from eggs.

Beach trip

Audrey and Kate spent the Memorial Day weekend at the "beach house" (as they call the Cavalier condo in Gleneden Beach). Unfortunately, Kate was sick for much of it, so their agenda was not too ambitious. They did manage to get in some beach and swimming pool time, as well as make a couple of trips to Mo's and one to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Happy Birthday, Dada!

Audrey and Kate rushed home from Audrey's kindergarten concert tonight for a family gathering to celebrate Dada's birthday. They helped Dada blow out his candles and open his presents, ate cake and ice cream, and enjoyed hanging out with their grandparents and Aunt Marie and Uncle Keith.

Audrey's kindergarten concert

All the kindergarten classes at Audrey's school convened to sing together in a concert this evening. It was conducted by the school music teacher, Mr. Cheek. Audrey, who has not been feeling well but nonetheless wanted to go to the concert, stayed home with Dada and skipped dance class during the day to save up her energy. She went with Dada to pick up Kate from preschool and Mama from work, and then to her favorite sushi restaurant for a quick dinner before heading to the school. GG and Honey and Honey Grandpa came to help cheer her on, while Kate got to hang out with her good friend Finley. The evening also doubled as "art night," so Audrey got to show off some of her artistic creations in her classroom. Then it was off to help celebrate Dada's birthday.

Newsgirls

Kate and her friend and neighbor Olivia "helped" Dada deliver the neighborhood newsletter this afternoon.

Fernhill Fun Run

Audrey and Kate accompanied Mama to a "$5 5K" run at Fernhill Park this morning. Before the adult race, there was a 1K "Fun Run" for kids, which the girls participated in. Audrey ran ahead while Mama helped Kate (who stumbled a bit at the starting line but otherwise ran well). The girls also enjoyed the snacks and the crafts and bounce house that had been set up to entertain kids while their parents ran the 5K.

Swimming safety

Audrey and Kate are taking swim lessons on Saturdays. The girls have had co-instructors for several lessons, as new swim instructors were being trained. Audrey was fine with this, but Kate is quite attached to her teacher, Rachel, and was not a big fan of the two male co-instructors that Rachel was training. Kate all but refused to let them work with her, and it was all Mama and Dada could do to keep her in the pool for the 30 minutes of her last lesson.

But today, with only Rachel present, Kate was in good spirits and enjoyed practicing her floats, looking for diving rings, and trying out a lifejacket.

East Portland Sunday Parkways

Audrey and Kate rode in the year's first Portland Sunday Parkways event today, which was held in East Portland. Honey Grandpa joined them for the ride, and Honey met them at the end of the route in Lents Park. As with last year, highlights included getting outfitted with "fish hats" and seeing people they knew (in this case, Audrey's friend Hannah from school).

Birdwatchers

As she did last year, Heartwood Preschool teacher Karma organized another birdwatching trip at Mt. Tabor Park this morning for Heartwood students and alumni. Both Audrey and Kate got to go this time. There apparently weren't many birds to be seen -- just crows and robins and bluejays -- but the girls had fun hiking and playing with old and new friends.

Audrey's first science fair

After learning about and designing an experiment using static electricity, it was time for Audrey to share what she learned at her first school science fair this evening. With some help from Mama and Dada, Audrey wrote up the steps of and results from her experiment and put them on a display board, which she set up in the cafeteria this morning before school. Audrey was a little concerned that she would be the only kindergartner participating in the science fair, so she was happy to hear that her classmate Chase also did an experiment and would have his display set up next to hers. It also helped that her friends Cecily and Hannah showed up to see the science fair, so there were more kids she knew.

It was a bit of a rush to get to the fair by 6, as Audrey had dance class until 5:45. A judge came by to talk to her about her project, and gave her a sticker and medal for participating. She had brought the materials for one of the experiments she had done when she was learning about static electricity where she rubbed a balloon on her hair and then used the static electricity on the balloon to make paper dots fly up and stick to the balloon. It proved to be rather popular, with many kids stopping by to try the experiment (it seemed to work better with some kids' hair than others').

We were all a little disappointed that the rest of Audrey's classmates didn't get to see her work. The teachers at Audrey's school were taking their students into the cafeteria to see the science fair displays throughout the day today, but Audrey's teacher had been out sick with strep throat the last couple of days and did not get her class into the viewing schedule. Perhaps Audrey will bring her display to school on one of her designated "sharing days" so that she can share it with her class.

Kate and Ms. Kat

Thursday afternoons have been a bit long for Kate lately. After spending all day at preschool, she then has to go watch Audrey's dance class. It's a recipe for boredom and grumpiness, and lately, to preserve both of their nerves and patience, Dada's been letting Kate watch shows on the iPad in the car until Audrey's class is over. Today, Kate again watched shows in the car for awhile, but when she went back inside to get Audrey, she was in for a fun surprise. Seeing Kate grooving along to the music in the waiting area, Ms. Kat, Audrey's teacher, invited Kate to join in with the dancing.

Homemade ice cream

Using directions Audrey brought home from school, Audrey and Kate made some homemade vanilla ice cream this evening. It involved putting cream, sugar, and vanilla in a plastic baggie, then putting the baggie in a plastic freezer bag filled with crushed ice and rock salt, then shaking the bags vigorously for several minutes. The resulting ice cream was a bit runny but tasted great.

A shocking experiment

Having learned a little about static electricity, Audrey went to the playground at Archbishop Howard this afternoon to run an experiment with it that she had selected for the school science fair. She had remembered that she sometimes gets zapped by static electricity after sliding down a slide, so she came up with the research question: Which kinds of clothes are best for making static electricity when going down a slide? Her hypothesis was that leggings would work best.

She brought several types of clothes to the playground, mostly cotton and polyester pants (including leggings). She put on each article of clothing (over shorts), slid down the slide, then touched Dada's arm to see if she felt no zap, a little zap, or a big zap, which she wrote down in her results sheet. 

She found that leggings did indeed make a big zap, but so did other clothes with legs (as opposed to shorts and socks). She concluded that it was because there's more clothing rubbing on the slide, which makes more static electricity.