Karina's Birthday, Science Fair, and Butterflies

Both girls decided to participate in the school's science fair this year.  Lydia's project was to figure out if eggs float better in salt water or fresh water.    It was exciting to mix the salt into one container and put the eggs in. 

It turns out eggs float in salt water, but not fresh water, due to density.

Karina's project was to swab various things in our house to grow bacteria.  She tested the kitchen sink, toilet seat, toilet bowl, remote control, and door handle.  

The experiment Karina actually wanted to do was to test if Snoopy's slobber is anti-bacterial.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get Snoopy to give us enough saliva.  We tried eating in front of him, teasing him, but he still didn't drool.  We drove around for 20 minutes, since that usually makes him drool, but it did not work that day.  Nate also cut Snoopy's nails, but that didn't help produce drool either.  Maybe next year, Snoopy will be more generous with his slobber. Here is Karina at the science fair - slouching- because she doesn't want to be photographed.

Derek being cute, and helping clean our cars:

I was very busy filling and hiding Easter eggs this season.  Karina decided not to have a regular birthday party, but instead we invited the families of the girls in her Sunday School class over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.   I hid 767 eggs in our yard for that...  Those eggs were not thrown randomly on the grass; they were hidden all over the yard.  

Then on Easter Sunday, I hid another couple hundred eggs (without candy that day), and then another 250 eggs on Karina's birthday for a hunt with my kids together with our next door neighbors Orly and Bain. 

The kids were not as good of hunters as they thought they were.  A lot of the yellow eggs in my yellow pansies were very difficult to find, as well as green eggs in greenery, and purple eggs in purple flowers.  For days, I was finding eggs in our yard as I kept searching for them.  Nate found an egg in his hubcap over a week later.  This squirrel opened an egg and ate the chocolate inside.  We found the remnants of about 5 eggs broken by the squirrels.

Karina requested a chocolate mousse cake on her birthday.

New backpack:

We also gave her caterpillars.  She got 6 caterpillars that came in a jar.  We watched the caterpillars grow each day.  After about a week they made cocoons.  Another week later, the butterflies began emerging from their cocoons.  It was really cool to see the transformation. It took some trial and error to figure out the best way to feed the butterflies. 

Here are cocoons in the habitat, before becoming butterflies:

Newly emerged butterflies:

We kept the 6 painted lady butterflies for 1 week before releasing them.  I read that marigolds are some of their favorite flowers, and we happen to have 5 small marigold plants in our yard, so that was where we released them.  Three of the butterflies flew away quickly, but the other 3 landed immediately on their own marigold, stuck out their proboscis, and drank the flower's nectar.

The butterflies were a wonderful gift for someone who 'doesn't want anything'. 24 days of interest.  

We also went to Hershey Park one day.  Lydia was 'finally' tall enough for the bumper cars.  She had been waiting all school year to be tall enough and was thrilled she could ride it. 

There is a zoo at Hershey Park that we also enjoyed.  Here is Lydia with bald eagles (you can't see them in the picture).  She was thrilled.