November is a double birthday month now. Zoey has turned 1, and Ashley has turned 9. On Zoey’s birthday, we whisked her off on a long car ride down to see cousin Lily get blessed. She was amazing and such a good girl in the car.

Here we are opening some presents before heading out.

Then her birthday cake the next day at Stan and Mel’s house.

Ashley quite enjoyed the ride down to New Mexico. Landon and Eliza rode the whole way down with Mom and Dad, and she and Zoey came with us in our car. That meant she basically had us all to herself for the day, and she took great advantage of opportunity to plan a pretty cool science themed birthday party.

Ashley’s birthday morning. In a twist, we did not have German Pancakes for breakfast, but instead had chocolate croissants and scrambled eggs.

So stylish.

Instead of cake for the party, we had German pan-CAKEs. As one of the friends was asking for seconds or possibly thirds, she said this was the best birthday cake she had ever had!

We learned about the periodic table, elements, and played with carbon dioxide in it’s three states. Solid (dry ice for the root beer), liquid (dissolved in the root beer), and gaseous (cold white clouds, fiz, and blowing up balloons with vinegar and baking soda reactions).

The other thing we did that was probably my favorite experiment was to boil a red cabbage and collect it’s purple juice which is a pH indicator. Then we experimented with different acids and bases changing the color and then changing it back. I practiced ahead of time and had a bit of a show I went through. So fun!