How Do Balleen Whales Eat?

How Do Baleen Whales Eat, wait...what the heck is a Baleen Whale?  Yep it is time for Kadence's first Science Fair.  It brought back lots of memories for me and Charlie including all of the cool ones we remembered, as well as the ones we did in our school days.

Charlie decided to take the task on to help Kadee.  He told her about one he did as a kid and she immediately fell in love with the idea!  They did the research together and really put together a pretty cool experiment!

Apparently some whales (Baleen Whale, i.e. Humpback Whales) don't have teeth, instead they have Baleen.  So the experiment was to determine which more resembled a whale's baleen, a comb or a brush.  We each took turns dragging a comb and a brush through a tub of water filled with pepper.  The pepper was meant to resemble the krill (shrimp-like creatures) the whales eat.  Kadee documented all of our results and laid out her research and findings.

She was so proud of her project and she really did a great job! She had read the research they dug up on it over and over and could tell you more details than you could ever imagine about Baleen Whales! I was so proud of her and Daddy for helping out. 

Happy Halloween!!!!

We started our Halloween off like we always do with a Halloween breakfast with Halloween Pat-A-Cakes!

After work, we rushed home to get our Halloween night started.  We got the house all ready for the Trick or Treaters. 

The kids got in their costumes and we were off. 

My mom and dad came down to answer the door for the Trick or Treaters.  They don't get any Trick or Treaters in their neighborhood so they like coming down to the house to see all of the kids.

Our neighborhood was hopping like it always is.  Nobody disappointed, everybody had their decorations up and we even had a couple of haunted houses!  We had people pulling in and dropping kids off.  This is one of my favorite nights!  We get to see all of our neighbors and everyone just seems to be in such a great mood! 

Chance was hilarious to watch this year because he fully understood the fact that all he had to do was ring the doorbell and people just gave him handfuls of candy!  He couldn't get to the next house fast enough. 

Everybody loved Cole's costume.  They thought he was the real deal and some of the littler kids refused to go up to the door when he was there because they were scared of him.  He had to keep taking his mask off to show him he was really just a little boy underneath!  Kadee was great out of the gate but not much for stamina.  We made it around our block and she tired out and was ready to go home. 

All in all, everybody had a Fantastic time!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Aunt Julie bought the family a pass to the McGee Ranch Annual Pumpkin Patch this year.  We have driven by it in the past but in the hustle and bustle, never made it in.  This is the cutest little ranch in Las Vegas.  The kids got to ride the horses, go on a hay ride, feed the animals and pick out their very own pumpkin.

 Thanks Auntie for such a good time.

Kadee & Cole's Halloween Birthday Party

The treats were all made, the pizza ordered, the games set up and the haunted house ready.  The kids had a FANTASTIC birthday party We had lots of yummy treats.  All of the kids came in super cute costumes. 

When everybody had arrived we started playing games.  First off was the eyeball relay, then the mummy wrap.  This was hilarious.  Some kids were able to make super cute mummy's out of toilet paper.

Then it was time for bobbing apples.  This was so fun to watch!  All of the kids tried so hard.  Some retrieved apples in no time at all, but others were not able to catch an apple.  Chance patiently waited his turn and with a little help from mommy was able to get an apple.

After everyone dried off we played, "Guess the Body Parts".  We carved out 5 pumpkins and put each of the following ingredients in a pumpkin; grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti for guts, baby carrost for toes, a cauliflower for the brain and a peeled tomato for the heart.  The kids grossed out as they reached into each pumpkin to try to guess which body part they were feeling.

After we were done with the games we had pizza and then got ready for the haunted house.  It turned out super spooky and the kid spent probably 30-45 minutes just going back and forth through it.

We finished up with a dance contest.  The kids and all of their guests partied like rock stars and had a BLAST!!!

Halloween Party Prep

Both Kadee and Cole decided to postpone their birthday parties so they could have one big Halloween Birthday Bash!  We were sooooo excited!  We love Halloween and this just gave us one more reason to celebrate such a fun holiday!
Charlie was really excited for this birthday party and had been bouncing ideas off of each other for the last couple months.  Of course my mom and sister stepped up to help me out.  I have a tendency to "over do" things so they always offer their time and most of all their energy!

I decided to take it easy on the food and actually order pizza and cupcakes, but I could not pass up making some treats for the party.  What's a Halloween Party without carmel apples?  The kids had so much fun dipping and decorating these yummy treats!

Grandma made rice krispie ghosts (we dipped in white chocolate) and pumpkins.  We also made spiders out of chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate vampire teeth suckers. 

While we made the treats, Charlie and Uncle Pete started constructing the haunted house.