Geminid Meteor Shower

Amazing meteor shower to peak tonight

Monday night and early Tuesday morning marks the peak for the 2010 Geminid Meteor Shower.
 
The Geminid Meteor Shower get their name from the fact that they seem to come from the direction of the constellation Gemini, The Twins.

During peak hours, between 100 and 150 meteors per hour may be visible. That's easily two per minute, if skies are clear, so even those with limited patience should find enough to keep them interested in the skies tonight, weather permitting. Each one lasts only a short time, usually less than a second. No special equipment is needed to see the Geminid Meteors as they trace bright streaks across the sky, but make sure you dress appropriately for the weather in your area.

Enjoy! I know we will!

Homemade Crystals

We started today off with a wonderful start. Great moods, great breakfast, and a great experiment. 

We read a wonderful book about rocks and crystals. We read about how crystals are formed. I wanted the girls to be able to do a experiment that would show them crystals being formed. 
 
here is a link to show how to set up the experiment:

How can you make homemade crystals without a kit?

The easiest way to make crystals is to fill up a tall cup of warm water with lots of table salt dissolved in it. Take a piece of thick string or yarn, tie it in the middle of a pencil or stick. Suspend the string into a cup of water by placing the pencil/stick across the cup. As the water evaporates every day you'll see crystals forming on the string. For prettier results add a drop of food coloring to the water. In about a week you should have a beautiful growth on your string

We added red food coloring, so hopefully in a few days we will have red crystals that have formed on our string.

Update: Caterpillar is still in it's cocoon. Checking it everyday and it seems to still wiggle around, not sure what is taking so long for it to come out, but we are still waiting. 

     

Crafts with Grandma!

To grandma's house we went! What a great day for more crafts. The girls and I headed out to my mother-in-laws after lunch this afternoon, My mil had a nifty idea to take tins and decorate them for a Christmas count down. It was to fun. She used her awesome Cricut to cut out shapes and numbers. I love that lil machine! I was amazed how easy it was to use. I gotta get me one of those for sure. I'm afraid someone would have to pull me away from the machine though, lol. 

Here are sites I found with great Cricut ideas:

Love my Cricut

Everyday Cricut

Cricut Card Projects