Tinkering with Tinker Toys

We headed down to DFW this weekend to pay a visit to my Grandpa and the rest of my family. He's not doing terribly well so it was important to get to see him sooner, rather than later. That's about all I'll say about it since my Grandma is feeling pretty sensitive about word getting out and people talking. I'm not totally sure why, because to me, the more people know, the more prayers there are, but it's how she's feeling so I'll respect that.

Molly had a big time and got to get her Christmas presents. She got a nice, fuzzy fleece jacket from her great uncle Mark that is pink camo. She LOVES it. She kept asking to wear it yesterday while it was 80 degrees out. She also got a set of girly colored Tinker Toys from her great aunt Marylin.



She and Daddy had a lot of fun playing with those this afternoon and Daddy got to teach her a little bit about gravity and momentum after "they" (meaning Daddy) built a "gymnast."









Again, ignore the state of our house. We've lived in a state of constant chaos for the last week since we got back from CO, and then having run out of town again we are just a mess. I swear I am a better house keeper than it appears! Also, Molly is in a pajama top, purple "lipstick", no pants and is eating a PB sandwich. I swear, she lives up to the expectation of her age everyday.

So the little guy swings back and forth and had the equivalent of shoulders and hips and it was pretty neat that his body swung just like a human body would, like we've seen in gymnastics.

Daddy scaled up after this and built one that was about twice this big, but I didn't get pictures (yet). He would hold the tinker-guy's feet up to his nose and ask Molly if, when he let go and it swung back to him, it would go all the way up to his nose again and hit him. She said yes, but of course it only made it up to an inch or two below his chin. Then he explained that gravity was making it swing slower and slower each time because gravity was pulling it back towards the ground. They tried it several times and each time she was surprised that, as Daddy said, it didn't conk him in the nose. 

Molly's garden is growing really well. We planted it last Monday and today it looks like this:

As you can see, some things are taking quite a bit longer to sprout than others. The middle two are L: sunflowers and R: cucumbers. I don't remember what the far left and right are. I guess I should go to an earlier post and refresh my memory. I'm thinking in a week or two they'll be ready to transplant...maybe. How strong/big do plants need to be before you can safely transplant them outdoors?

Also, does anyone have a great ideas for bible lessons? She goes to her class at church, although currently we haven't been to church in about a month because of traveling and exhaustion. She also reads bible stories with Daddy before bed, and occasionally with me but I think I'm ready to find something put together with activities to reinforce lessons etc. Online stuff would be fun too (hint, hint...you know who you are! ).

We had a big time reading before bed tonight. These are the books we read. I really like these little Amazon boxes because you can look at the book and see reviews of it and sometimes even look at a few pages inside the book. I find that helpful, so maybe you do too.

A book about sportsmanship and having a good attitude.












Sea sums No picture, but its a book all sorts of ocean creatures, but also all during the book they are adding and subtracting while giving facts about each creature. Very creative way to work in math with science. 



I didn't read this one, Cor did, but he said it's about socks that grow and grow and grow. No moral, just a fun story.












Is a story about a spoiled princess who is unhappy with all the things she has. I didn't read this one to Molly either but Cor said that the spoiled princess gets eaten at the end. That shouldn't make me LOL, but it does.