Holiday Fun !!!!!

We got a set of aquabeads as a gift. We loved them so much we finished them all and got a refill in three days.

I've started to try drawing horses. Here are my attempts. 

We got a really large box full of eight different jigsaw puzzles. We are really looking forward to finishing them all. Here is what we've already completed.

Aisha

Sponge Cake

 Nuha, our brother Umar, and I made a delicious sponge cake (link) .

We decorated it with peaches and whipped fresh cream. It tasted great, we really enjoyed it.

 

Hope you try this amazing recipe.

Aisha

Bone and Egg Experiment

 Nuha has been learning about bones and calcium for science so we decided to do an experiment on that topic. It was a really simple but fascinating experiment and there are two variations of it. The first one uses a small bone and some white vinegar. Here are the instructions:

1. Fill a cup with enough vinegar  to cover the bone.

2. Fully submerge the bone in the vinegar, cover the cup, and leave for a few days. You may be able to see some bubbles forming one the bone almost immediately. You also could have to change the vinegar before the few days are up.

3. After it has been four or five days take the bone out and see what has happened to it.

 Our bone has gone bendy because the acid in the vinegar has reacted with the calcium in the bones and therefor the calcium content of the bones has depletes to such an extent that the bone is now bendy!! 

Lack of calcium actually causes a medical disorder known as rickets. 

The variation of this experiment is with an egg instead of a bone. This is quite different because the calcium in an egg is located in the shell. Here is how to do this experiment: 

1. Fill a cup with enough vinegar to cover the egg.

2. Fully submerge the egg in the vinegar and leave for a few days. As with the bone the egg will get bubbles but our egg had a lot more than the bone. Also you may have to change the vinegar.

3. You may notice that the egg increases in size. This is because of osmosis which is why the process of water particles moving from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. The water comes from the vinegar and goes into the egg.

4. After four or five days take the egg our of the vinegar, measure it, and put it in a salt-water solution. The salt in the solution should make the water leave the egg and the egg should shrink.

5. After a week remove the egg and measure it again. It should be smaller than your previous measurement.

The egg should feel squishy because all the calcium in the shell is gone and there is just the membrane holding the egg together.

We really hope that you enjoy this experiment as much as we did.

Aisha

Banana and Lemon Paintings

We wanted some paintings on our wall and thought it would be really fun if we attempted to paint them ourselves. I wanted to paint a banana and Nuha decided to do some lemons.

Me painting

Nuha painting

 We really enjoyed painting them and were so pleased when they turned out great. 

Fisnished lemons

Finished banana

Aisha

First Jumps

 This week for horse riding we did jumps. They weren't very high as they were our first jumps but we enjoyed them a lot and we are really looking forward to some more. I was riding Pablo and Nuha was riding Olaf.

Pablo and I jumping

After the jump

Nuha and Olaf jumping

Aisha

Animal Man

 We went to the allotments for a really interesting event called the Animal Man. We got to meet lots of fascinating animals a tarantula, a couple of lizards, a corn snake, a frog, an owl, a cute non-spiky hedgehog, and even a type of bear called a kinkajou. My favourites were the hedgehog and the kinkajou. Nuha liked the tarantula and the kinkajou but I hated the tarantula. 

Hedgehog

Owl

Nuha holding the kinkajou

Me and the kinkajou

Nuha with the tarantula

Nuha holding the corn snake

Me and the corn snake

Leopard gecko

Bearded lizard

Aisha 

Story: Northern Lights

I love writing stories and I wanted to share one that I wrote the other day. I hope you enjoy it. 

 Northern Lights

The snow was still, the frost made a disco light. And then it all happened. An oval saucer, with a ring like a planets, landed. Causing an avalanche, kindling chaos, and radiating a green glow. And that's when the story started.

                                                                                             8 Years later

Trudging through the snow, I came to what was obviously the answer. 8 Years ago the farmer Soden said he saw a spaceship, people didn’t believe him, but I did. So here I am, standing with the answer, a spaceship.

‘’Must've made the glow.’’ I thought. 

‘’Must have must have.’’ Mimicked a voice. I jumped, taken aback by the imitation of my voice. Suddenly green heads with eyes on antennae and bodies and arms the shape of balls popped out of a cave.

I shrieked, surprised at my discovery. Discovery! So Soden was right! Instead of announcing it as I thought I would, I thought that I would keep it a secret. For now, at least. In the mean time we chatted about my plans and we agreed that they would fly me home. So that night I was awakened and taken to there spaceship. It was amazing. I asked them why they don’t go home, but immediately regretted it, afraid that I would hurt their feelings. But it did not. Instead they answered it with this. 

‘’We like it here, and were thinking of staying here, permanently.’’ 

When I got home I wrote this story, the one which you're reading now.

Nuha

Learning To Canter

For riding this week we are finally learning to canter. A canter is almost the fastest pace of a horse, second only to a gallop. It is a three-beat pace, which means that there are three footfalls in it. To canter you put your outside leg (which is the leg closer to the fence of the arena) behind the girth (a girth is the strap around the horses belly that holds the saddle on), squeeze with both legs, and say "canter on".

Me cantering

Nuha cantering

   I feel like we are progressing well. In just a few months we have gone from walking on a lead rope, then walking and trotting by ourselves, to sitting trot, and walking and trotting without stirrups(we do this to improve our balance), then cantering. 

   It's supposed to be much more comfortable than a bumpy trot, but since Nuha fell of on her first canter I'm not sure she would agree. Despite the weather being grizzly we are really enjoying our recent lessons. This week I rode Lady (who is my favourite horse) and Nuha rode Kristoff.

Nuha and Kris

Lady and I

Aisha

Biscuits And Scones

Baking is one of my favourite pastimes and I am usually begging for some time in the kitchen. Recently I've baked something I love making time and time again, scones. It's from an amazing recipe on BBC Goodfood (link) and it's delicious. However, every time I've made them the scone batter does tend to get a bit sticky at the end so before you start shaping the scones put some flour in them. The recipe says to make eight scones but I've found that sixteen works just as well, plus you can serve more people them.

Ingredients

Batter

Raw scones

Finished product

But scones are not the only thing that I've recently baked. I just got an amazing book jam-packed with delicious biscuit recipes.

                                          

 I've only tried out a few so far but they are amazing.

 Biscuits in the oven

Freshly baked

Raspberry biscuits

Chocolate biscuits

Aisha