Social Gracious

How to Explain Hypothesis to Five Year Olds

Tonight Eddie Haskell walked past Ubergeek who was standing by the bar in the kitchen checking his fantasy football scores and casually asked, "Daddy, what's a hypothesis?" "What did you say Eddie?" UberGeek replied, making Eddie repeat himself, thinking he had heard something wrong. Eddie Haskell asked about the hypothesis again. UberGeek peered at me, and I looked open mouthed at Eddie. Then I told Eddie it was an idea you thought you had the answer for already but needed to prove. Eddie looked back at me as if to say, "Yeah, I thought you people were not too bright, but this proves it; that makes no sense at all."  I told him that I would find a better way to explain it then I went straight to Google.

Thankfully, PBS and their helpful website, anticipates 3-6 year olds asking this question, apparently their viewers spawn a lot of future Mensa members. I really want to know what happened to five year olds asking whether they can eat the kind of paste that comes out of a jar, is applied with a stick and smells good enough to eat?? Isn't that the kind of question we should be supplying answers to at this age? I like my kids being smart but sometimes I anticipate that they will be laughing at their poor dim witted mother by the time they enter high school.  I don't think I was asking what a hypothesis was at the age of 5; I am going to call my mom tomorrow and ask, seriously. I could read but that was because I was raised by two bookworms and it really was self preservation.

 PBS suggested that we explain the concept by letting the kids mix two different types of food coloring, guessing the outcome and then writing it down.  Thus explaining their guess as the hypothesis and the mixed color as the result. We are always up for a learning challenge and it would kill 15 minutes after bath time so we got out the food color and some clear glasses. We tried a better explanation, that a hypothesis was a guess you could test and that we were going to test some. 

I never would have imagined that two five year olds would so easily grasp hypotheses but they did.  We proved and disproved several and they enjoyed figuring out which mixtures turned into the colors they predicted/hypothesized.  Still, I was glad that after we finished they were back to kicking a blow up beach ball around the house, a decidedly less intellectual pursuit.

Taco Cups

Kids will love these quick little personal tacos with no crunchy shell mess.  They make great man food for Sunday football too.  We like to have a veggie tray first then just these for the main course. 

Recipe:

Cook a pound of ground beef and drain.  Optionally you can add 1/4 c. chopped onion and a tablespoon or two of tomato paste or sauce.  Add a package of taco seasoning mix and follow the directions on the package.

Open a 10 count can of Layered Buttermilk Biscuits (I used Publix Hearty Buttermilk Biscuits).  Press each biscuit into the bottom and up the sides of a muffin cup.  If you are using two 6 count muffin pans fill the two empty cups with a couple tbs. of water.  Spoon the ground beef taco mixture into the biscuit cups.  Sprinkle each cup with a little Mexican Blend cheese.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 11-12 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Cool slightly and remove taco cups from muffin pan.  Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired.

Variations: fill with barbecue beef or sloppy joe filling.

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Tonight was relaxing, I took an OAMC meal out of the frig and put it on to cook, then asked Diva to help me make some pumpkin bread.  She was game!  It's wonderful to make the house smell all spicy when there is a nip of cool fall weather in the air.

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Bread

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
3 c. sugar
1 c. water
1 c. Canola oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 c. flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting

4oz cream cheese softened
3/4 stick real butter softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbs vanilla
1 tbs milk

Directions:

Pumpkin Bread

• Combine pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs and oil, beat until mixed.  
• Place all dry ingredients in a separate bowl, mix.
• Add dry ingredients in small batches to pumpkin mixture and beat until well mixed.
• Grease and flour two loaf pans, divide batter between them.
• Bake at 350 for one hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean and center bounces back to touch. 
• If you are making muffins the recipe will make 2 dozen muffins and one loaf or 48 muffins. Bake time 20 min.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cream butter and cream cheese. 
• Add powdered sugar in batches and beat well. 
• Add vanilla and milk and beat until creamy. 
• Frost loaves or pipe onto muffins. 
• Not a thick frosting so put in freezer for a little while to thicken if you have trouble working with it piping.
   
  YUMMY!!!
  
  

Halloween on the Run

We had a great Halloween weekend! Friday night I realized at 7:30 PM that we could not find my usual costume (Dorothy from the Wiz of O) I wear year after year.  The giant plastic bin that contains it could not be located in the attic or the chaos of our garage.  So, at 8:25 I headed out to the costume store, over it, but determined to find something.  It was a madhouse and finally I had a choice of two costumes, Strawberry Shortcake or Cinderella.  I chose Cinderella. I figured Diva would like it, I could potentially run in it for the Princess marathon in March so it would get at least three wears.  Home I went 25 minutes later. 

4:50AM came early and I pattered into the closet to get dressed for the costume run.  I put on my Cinderella outfit and was out the door to pick up my friend on the way. We were two princesses in the night, ready to run. We got in a fun six miles and it was hysterical seeing everyone running along in costume.  We are all training for the Breast Cancer Marathon and many of us are great friends.  The worst part of the run was the stench from The Landing which emitted a dank armpit odor leftover from a night of Florida Georgia game revelers debauchery. Mouth breathing was essential on that stretch of the route. I did discover that there is no way I can wear that costume in the Princess Half Marathon, the polyester is just too hot.  It will have to be a custom costume again this year.  After a quick coffee post run it was time to shower and make cupcakes!

10:30  Jacksonville Parents of Twins and Triplets had our annual Halloween party at a local park.  Nothing like loads of twins and triplets all dressed up in costumes and ready to play, eat, cry, laugh, whine, and enjoy themselves. Everyone seemed to have a great time!  12:30 and we were so ready for a nap, or at least I was.

Everyone took a long rest, except for Diva who was too excited, then it was time for a quick 
dinner. We put on our costumes and walked over to a school friend of Diva and Eddie Haskell's to trick or treat with her family.  She was a perfectly precious Alice in Wonderland, Diva was Tinkerbell for the third year and Eddie went as Captain Hook, Arrrrrr! Disney really has the marketing going on and they got plenty of our money this year.  The kids had a great time; their bags were heavy with candy as we visited with neighbors known to our friends and later to us on streets closer to our house. After many doors were knocked on, Eddie couldn't take it any longer, he was worn out. He wanted to go home and pass out candy, we hurried home, hoping one or two trick or treaters would come to our door while he was still awake.  Luckily, he was able to pass out a couple candy bars and he was fulfilled. 

We spread the loot out on the kitchen table and allowed each kiddo to pick whatever they wanted after getting rid of any yucky stuff.  Diva chose a Kit Kat and Eddie Sweet Tarts, they devoured them happily.Up late and eating candy, what could be better? Then we had them brush teeth carefully and tucked them in before we raided their candy stash for ourselves, all the while discussing how we were going to make all the candy disappear, without the kids noticing, over the next couple of days. Any suggestions??