Five for Friday

1. Kloe entered the science fair at school a couple of weeks ago, and she won 2nd place in her grade! Isn't that awesome? We were so excited for her!
   
   
   Her project was on filtering water. We sponsor a little girl in Lesotho, South Africa, through World Vision, so last fall (summer?) we had a family night about Africa. We talked about the fact that many people in Africa don't have clean water, and how they often have to walk miles every day to collect the (dirty) water that they do have.
   
   
   
   Kloe's heart was moved beyond belief. She has since started saving money in a jar to send to Water for Life, and collects soda cans from everywhere she can think of in order to raise more money. Anyway, that's a post for another day....
   
   Back to the science fair. She came up with the experiment all on her own. She chose three different materials to filter the water with: cotton balls, a towel, and computer paper. We mixed dirt into the water, then poured it through each of the filters.
   
   
   Turns out the computer paper actually removed the most dirt from the water....go figure!
   
   Kloe was so excited about her discovery and insisted that we could solve the water crisis in Africa simply by sending them boxes and boxes of paper and teaching them how to use it as a filter. :) She was heartbroken when I explained that it's not only the dirt that often causes sickness, but the bacteria....which can't be removed by paper. I felt so sad for her. She wants so very much to help those who are in need. And I'm so proud of her for using all of her efforts to figure out a way to do so.


2. I just love Valentine's Day. It is my absolute favorite holiday....even more than Christmas. I know, it's un-American, but true. There's no hustle, no bustle, no fretting over 47 people you feel like you're supposed to buy presents for even though you have no idea what to get them and they don't really need anything anyway (oh, did I just type that out loud?). I love the slow, quiet pace of Valentine's Day, and doing lots of fun things with just our family.
   
   
   
   This year we had pink, heart-shaped, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast....
   
   
   [they look kinda orange in this picture, but really they were pink :) ]
   
   ....and we had Shirley Temples with our lunch.
   
   
   Then we took a nap. :)
   
   Just before dinner we had a scavenger hunt for the kids to find their heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Then we had a candlelight dinner along with sparkling grape juice in pink (plastic) champagne flutes. Such a fun day! How did your family celebrate?


3. Kloe is playing Upward basketball this year for the first time. She absolutely loves it and is really learning a lot. I just learned about Upward this year, and I have been so impressed with it. The whole focus of the league is to encourage kids, to build character, to promote Christ-likeness, sportsmanship, and self-esteem. They have a 10-minute break in the middle of every practice for team devotions, and the girls have memory verses every week. They get stars to iron on their uniforms when they memorize the verses. And at each game, every girl gets a star for things like Great Offense, Great Shooting, Christ-likeness, Teamwork, etc. It has really been a great experience.


4. The arrival of the Olympics every other year just makes me all sorts of happy.
   I cannot begin to tell you how much I love the Olympics. Summer and winter. I am so very happy that they split them up. Four years is just too long to wait in between.
   
   For two weeks there is nothing else on our television (except for PBS, of course), I stay up way too late every night, and our poor kids hear way too often, "Watch this! This only happens once every four years. You'll be in middle school the next time the winter Olympics come around. Shh! I want to hear this!"
   
   Wanna guess what my favorite winter Olympic sport is?
   
   Apolo Ohno. Nuff said.


5. My hopes for Sea World seem to be growing dimmer by the day.
   
   *sigh*
   
   Wonder what Midland has to offer this time of year.