There's Something About Jackson

So this weekend we worked on science projects. It was a riot. Hannah did her project on different liquids and their rusting effect on nails. Whitney did a study on gender bias... what places tend to have more boys and which ones have more girls. Mia did the celery stalk in colored water. We helped with a little but they had to put them together. Mia decided that it was too much work so she didn't turn it in. Hannah did hers all by herself and it was pretty great. Whitney's was fun too!

In the process of gluing down the info, Jackson decided to get into the middle of it all. He found the rubber cement. Rubber cement is great... for some things. I does not, however, come off of the human body easily (note that for future science project subjects). Jackson got it everywhere. His clothes were ruined, and try as we might to get it off his skin... it would not happen. It was particularly interesting on his forehead and hair. It had to be the best hair product ever ... if you want your hair to stand on end (even better than the stuff in "There's Something About Mary").

On his forehead it started out by looking like glossy snot... and then it turned into the best fake wrinkles.... and then looked like a strange skin disease. (Look closely!)It finally has worn off and all is normal. In the future... we may just stick to good old Elmer's school glue.

Mia's poor nose!

I swear that kids who have dads that are doctors are the ones that are hurt the most. So I guess that that means that all of my kids will have to deal with a lot of pain!

Case in point: The girls were walking to the bus stop Wednesday morning and Hannah and Whitney decided that they should run. Mia, being the competitive child that she is (after all she is a Gardner!), took off first to get a head start on her older, taller sisters. It was going well until she tripped. It had to have been a pretty amazing skid, because she had scratch marks from the top of her forehead, proceeding down to the tip of her nose and didn't stop until it hit her mouth. They came right back home because the scratches were so bad that there was actual blood dripping from the scratches on her nose. I was able to get her cleaned up (keeping in mind that cleaning sensitive "owies" no small feat) and she wanted a band aid. I put one on her nose... but spent the next half hour trying to convince her that it looked worse to have the band aid than not. She finally made it to school and stayed the entire day. Although she did take a few trips to the nurse and kept telling her teachers that it hurt when she would do "this (scrunch up nose and face)".

Here she is one day later. (Photo by Hannah)

It doesn't look as bad as it did yesterday, but Richard is still stressed out that "it might scar". I don't know if that is the worried father, pessimist, perfectionist, or plastic surgeon in him (probably a bit of everything). I am sure she will be fine and racing her sisters just as soon as they offer.

Valentines Day!

Today is Valentines day. All of the kids are giving out cards/goody bags to everybody . Everyone is so exited. Mom and dad went on a date. We hade school "partys". We are eating chocolate fondue.

Guess what!? Last night Jackson called 911!The police came and had to look inside. Jackson thought it was pretty funny.

Happy Valentine's day!

Love, Whitney

Our First Family Blog

This will be a great way for all of us to tell friends and family what we are all doing out here in Missouri! It was Whitney's idea to start a family blog and I think it is a great idea.

We just got all of the class Valentines ready for tomorrow. The girls are taking thier Valentines in pretty pink boxes and bags. They are excited to exchange the Valentines with all of thier friends.

Hannah is making brownies and I am going to make some sugar cookies. We wish you were all here to share with us!

So we will see how this will work... but the girls are excited to post some blogs of thier own. Lots of love! Sonya