Dandelion Jelly

We made dandelion jelly today! The weather finally cleared up and it was a beautiful day so we decided it was time to get a batch made up. The kids loved running around outside picking dandelion flowers. The only problem is:



Even after you wash your hands two times, they are still yellow!

Nick decided he was going to help me make the jelly. He brought in my huge canning pot, boy, did that make him proud, the pot is half his size, but it's very light. Once we had the pot in, I put him to work taking the lids off the jelly jars and dividing the lids, rings, and jars.



Next he poured the dandelions into the pot:


Then the water:


Nick thought that the jar rings made an excellent bracelet.


All done :)

Return of the Dinosaurs

We've actually officially reached the point where we are learning about dinosaurs now. We've watched some videos, read tons of books, and now Nick has decided it's time to resume painting his t-rex that he dug out of the sand back in September or October. So yesterday we finished up the red layer of paint. Tomorrow we'll work on the next layer and i'll try to get some photos up.

An Interesting Conversation To Have With A 5 Year Old

I was sitting on the couch working the other night, and Nick and Erik were watching a science documentary on TV. Nick runs up to me, very excited (this is obviously not word for word):
Nick: Mom do you know how big a neutrino is?
Me: No, I don't, how big is a neutrino?
Nick (emphatically): Very small, it's even smaller than an atom.
Me: Do you know how big an atom is?
Nick: An Atom is so tiny you can't even see it! It's really, really, really tiny.
Me: And a neutrino is even smaller than that?
Nick: Yes, it's smaller than an atom, is super tiny.

So... my 5 year old son now knows about neutrinos. You'd have thought he was discussing dinosaurs he was so excited. Somehow I don't think teaching him science is going to be difficult.