Getting reading for the trip

Thursday with Elizabeth
One bonus of our schedule this year is Elizabeth and I having time together just the two of us.  Thursday afternoons from 12-3 are ours.  Anyone who's a middle child or who has more than two children knows how much one on one time middle children get, not much.  And especially not much when you're as sweet and concerned about others as Elizabeth.  This is our first Thursday together and we had a great time.  We started by exploring the microscopic world with the microscope that came in the mail today.  LED lit microscopes are sure a huge improvement over the mirror lit ones I remember.  The microscope can be lit from above or below so we can view solid objects as well as slides.  She was fascinated looking at bugs, leaves, coins, pond water, and our hair.  (You really shouldn't drink water out of ponds. There are critters swimming around in there!) We'd just finished reading about the invention of the microscope in her health book so it was a perfect hands on follow up.  We're still learning how to manipulate the slides to get them just where we want.  Everything moves upside down and backwards.  The microscope was a hotly contested object this evening.

After we got finished with the microscope, we made Mud Bars for tonight's dessert.  Elizabeth loves to cook, and to lick the spoon.  She got to do it without anyone else also lending a hand, a huge bonus in her eyes.  She mentioned how nice it was to get to crack all the eggs without Miriam getting mad.

Elizabeth got the spoon, the mixer bowl, and the mixing paddle.  She wasn't too interested in dinner later!
Here's Miriam trying to catch a fruit fly to look at under the microscope.  Her plan is to use the pear to attract them and then stab them with the "Teasing Needle" that came with the microscope.

As is the mother, so is the daughter
 Have you ever heard that expression?  Well, I know in many ways it is so true.  My mom hates to come home to a messy house after a long trip.  Everything needs to be clean, including the sheets.  When I was a child, I didn't understand why it was so important, but not that I'm the mother, it's something I do as well.  We bring enough mess home with us, I don't need to confront one when I walk in the door!  The only way the children receive spending money on a trip is if they clean their rooms before we go.   It's a pretty lucrative room cleaning!  So, since we leave tomorrow, I'm making sure the house is getting cleaned. Luckily, we do a pretty good job of keeping it picked up with our chores each night so it's not a huge burden on me.

Disneyland here we come
After several years of preparing, and countless newspapers delivered, we're ready to go.  As soon as Dode gets home from work on Friday, we're getting in the van and taking off.  We hope to make the drive in one very long day, switching off drivers as we go.  We'll stop at Redbox in Arlington and switch out movies as we drive.  Everyone has audio books loaded on their MP3's and the girls are bringing along drawing materials.  I found this book a great help in planning out our trip, and it's coming along with us to use at the park!

In hopes of helping keep track of the children, I bought t-shirts from the Disney store at the after Christmas sale.  There are three sets of different colored shirts to wear on different days.  I was really tempted to iron "Dickson" to the back of them all but I wanted the children to use them as souvenirs and be willing to wear them again.  I've done some research for hamburger joints and ice cream shops along the route and will be bringing along that information as well!

A fortuitous event
I wanted to load the photos for this post onto the computer so I could finish the post.  The windows machine was in use so I decided to use the laptop.  I've transfered hundreds of photos from my camera to the laptop but today it just wouldn't work.  The port that connects into the camera through the computer is dead.  The USB reader we usually use with the windows machine would not work with the laptop.  I managed to dig another reader out of Dode's mess of electronics cast offs and we're back in business.  It would have been frustrating to not be able to update Grandmas and Grandpas while on our tip.