McG Kids

This weblog tracks my kids’ early years. Each entry is a snapshot from their childhood.

Please pardon any type-o’s, misstatements, or factual irregularities. This blog is written by an often dazed dad, normally after 11 pm when he should really be in bed if he had any sense. Even the basic quick edit is not a regular practice here.

Molly: Scientist of the week

| patmcg

Molly showed a cool magic trick — oops, I mean science experiment — to her class for “Scientist of the Week” today.  Molly got to choose her own experiment.  She didn’t like any of the experiments from the standard class books because they “don’t have useful conclusion”.  She found an experiment she liked roughly relating to air pressure in a random kid’s science book that I had.

As you can see in the picture, she turns a cup of water upside down, and a playing card miraculously holds the water in the cup.

The class was pretty impressed and had lots of questions.  “es this work with orange juice?”,  “Does it work with sparkling water?”,  “Do you have to use a card, or can I use my iPad?”, “Does it work on a lower value card?”  To test the last question, we tried the experiment on a second card of lower value (2 of spades) to make sure it still worked.  What do you know, it worked!? 😉

You got a love those curious third grade minds!  And way to go Molly for a great presentation.

Sleepover Days

| patmcg

These are prime days for sleepovers.  Almost every weekend, Claire has a a sleepover.  She sleeps at Susies’.  She sleeps at Emma’s.  She has Susie or Emma over to her mom’s.  She has Susie or Emma over to my house.  Sometimes Claire has two sleepovers in a row and manages to stay awake and be in a reasonable mood on the third day.

At this point, Claire has probably had dozens — even hundreds? — of sleepovers.  They are so easy and routine that I just go to sleep and let them have fun and get themselves to sleep when they’re ready.

At the moment, Claire’s sleepovers involve a few basic ingredients:

  • A friend (or two) – mostly Susie or Emma
  • Molly – thank you, Claire, for being sweet enough to include Molly in your sleepovers!
  • ROBLOX – everyone whips out their laptops or iPads and plays the same game online while sitting next to each other on the couch, coordinating and joking.
  • The Office – always on in the background, and never gets old!

We’ve gotten a little tired of pizza.  Tonight I made spaghetti carbonara, and other times we’ve had, uh, spaghetti, or ramen.  I’m saying anything but pizza right now!

Anyways, these are the glory days of sleepovers, and I love it.  These kids make it so easy!

claire-molly-emma.jpeg

Christmas 2018

| patmcg

We got to Houston for a couple of days this Christmas.  My mom and I coordinated everyone between Austin and Houston, but we came up one stocking short, so we improvised and used a gift bag for Noni’s “stocking”.  Molly wanted to make sure Santa Claus was clear on this, so she wrote him a super sweet note:

Dear, Santa.

The gift bag is for Noni.  We only had three stockings.

Btw: the cookies are stale, you do not have to eat them!

Have a merry Christmas.

From, Molly

 

Some pics from Christmas Eve dinner, which we got on the table hot and delicious  despite being coordinated across me, None, and Noni’s helper, Patience.

 

We also saw an amazing and slightly scary performance of A Christmas Carol at the Alley Theater.

 

 

Chocolate Reindeer Comes to Life

| patmcg

Molly was pretty excited about her Chocolate Reindeer idea and wanted to try it out before we go to Houston for Christmas.  I warned her it may not come out quite like she imaged and to be ready for a mess.  She acknowledged the rick, and then we went all in on making it happen!  Despite my hesitations, I really wanted to make Molly’s holiday invention work too.

Molly and I had a fun time figuring out how to bring  her vision to reality.  It was an interesting challenge and took a fair amount of planning and research!  In the end, it came out a too goopy to, uh, eat, much less bring to Houston.  But it was a fun experiment, and Molly happily ate up her practice Chocolate Reindeer.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Chocolate Reindeer Blueprint

| patmcg

Molly became inspired to create a new holiday treat called a Chocolate Reindeer, inspired by a Chocolate Mousse.   Her vision is three layers of chocolatey goodness, one layer for each “official” Christmas color: red, green, and white.

Molly’s initial idea was for each layer to be melted, colored chocolate.  After some discussion and brainstorming , we decided to use a combination layers with heavier ingredient on the bottom and lighter on the top.

  1. Bottom layer: red-colored white chocolate
  2. Middle layer:  green-colored melted marshmallows
  3. Top layer: natural white-colored whipped cream

Here’s the blueprint.

choc-reindeer-blueprint.jpeg

 

 

New Bedroom!

| patmcg

The girls’ new bedroom is officially done ready, and they’re settled in.  I’m pretty happy with it, and I think they are too.  I was going for stylish yet cozy. 🤷🏻‍♂️  And we retained some of the old Harry Potter theme, namely their Gryffindor (Claire) and Ravenclaw (Molly) throw blankets.

I donated the old bunk bed, which oddly enough they did not love (who doesn’t love bunk beds?).  I painted and assembled that bunk bed on the patio of my old condo in the summer heat of 2016, and now it’s moved on to a better home at Re-Store down the street.molly-jump.jpeg

girls-room-jan-2019.jpeg