We had an opportunity to make some fresh maple syrup ourselves this Spring season. Every year, our neighbors tap a few silver maple trees in the woods behind our house. They were going out of town for Spring Break just as the sap season was beginning to wind down and asked us if we would like to collect the last of the sap and turn it into syrup. Steve jumped at the opportunity ...
Testing the specific gravity (which made my "chemistry heart" swell):
Bottling the hot syrup:
The finished product:
********************
My little helper (aka Sophia) is ever-so-eager to help me with absolutely everything while her older sister is in school. One such task that she enjoys is putting stickers on my students' exams. (As a college professor, I give out stickers to my students if they score 80% or higher on their exams -- you would be surprised just how much those stickers mean to the students!).
********************
Jack has begun making music in the kitchen. Give him a bowl and a spoon and he can entertain himself for quite some time ...
********************
Uncle Z gave the girls a garden stone making kit and we anxiously waited for the perfect day to use it. Sam and Sophia had so much fun decorating them and now we have them proudly displayed in my flower bed. Such a perfect project for Spring!
Mixing the concrete:
Placing the "jewels," as Sophia referred to them:
Sam put a lot of concentration into her project:
I always manage to catch Sophia with her tongue hanging out whenever she is deep in thought:
The finished projects, just waiting to dry a bit before I inscribed their names and the year on them:
********************
Yet another excellent Spring project ... Stained glass decorations.
Sophia stained her bee while Sam was in school. It took a lot of patience, and Sophia surprised me with how attentive she remained. (There's that tongue hanging out ... again!)
Pretty proud of her masterpiece:
As soon as Samantha was done with school for the day, she set to work decorating her own stained glass project -- a chick.
********************
No comments:
Post a Comment