Science Behind Baking!

I have always wanted to learn the science behind baking and why cake or cookies rise. I do love to bake! I have watched a video about why baking soda or baking powder makes stuff rise. And other exciting stuff behind baking!

Here is the video!

So when you put cake or cookies in the oven, it rises because when you put baking soda with water, and vinegar, or any type of acid together, boom!

This is what happens!
It has a big reaction and starts to rise a lot! And that is what causes a cake to have air bubbles. It's crazy that it has that reaction! And interesting too!

He makes biscuits, a cake, and bread in the video. Yeast makes the bread rise because you can use yeast to make the carbon dioxide (which is basically the air), and then it stretches the gluten through tiny air pockets and basically makes it a nice and sort of spongy texture. And basically, the same thing happens with the cake, but you don't, of course, use yeast, but you do use baking powder, and that also makes it a pleasant and spongy texture to it! It's just so interesting and amazing that all of those little things can really change it in all of these different ways!

Well, see you next time! Bye!

What I Did Two Days Ago!! Very Interesting!!

So last Tuesday, my mom and I went to the gym around 4:30 in the morning like we do every Tuesday and worked out there. My mom showed me more different types of weights, and it felt very nice doing them! And Ezra, my brother, of course, goes every day to the gym with my parents since he's fourteen and doesn't need to have somebody with him in the same room. Well, the last Tuesdays, he hasn't been there because he sleeps in, or my dad sleeps in and doesn't go. But he finally came, and he and I played racket ball! Racketball is so much fun to play there! It is in a huge room and very echoey. I had never tried playing it before, so he showed me how to play! It was easy learning how to play, but I kept hitting the ceiling when I was supposed to be hitting the wall. Now the ceiling is super tall! Way taller than our house ceiling! And our house ceiling is pretty tall so just imagine that ceiling! And Ezra never hits the ceiling! But only once did he do it when we were playing. He actually hit one of the lights on the ceiling, and it really made a big sound, but nothing happened, thankfully! :) After we played, my mom and I had to leave to go to M's house and take care of Mrs.M. Now, if you didn't see my other blog post about how we helped somebody, I will tell you why I say Mrs.M and not their name full name. The reason why is because of their privacy. :) Also, this lady has dementia, and she is in her 70's.

Well, we went over to Mr. and Mrs. Ms's house, and Noelle also wanted to come and help out and see what it was like, so she was also there to help out. She had to leave around 7:50 AM because she had to get to work. But that was totally fine because we got to M's house around 6:30 in the morning, and Mr.M left to go to bible study as usual and comes back around 8:30 in the morning. So Noelle would be there the whole time but missing about fifteen more minutes or so.

I made Mrs.M her breakfast and gave it to her, and she started to eat it and after she ate, we put on her favorite song, " How Great Thou Art," and all began to sing to it! She also sang to it too! It was so sweet! After we sang the song, we put on other songs, and after we played those, my mom said to Mrs.M, " Do you want to dust off some stuff? "She said that because Mrs.M, before she got her dementia, always used to clean a lot around the house and always made it spotless and loved to clean! So Mrs.M said sure. So we got some rags, and my mom and I moved some stuff off that we thought she couldn't hold so she could wipe off all the dust with her wet rag. We could tell she enjoyed it very much! Last Tuesday, we did that, and she kept telling my mom how thankful she was for letting her clean around the house and saying this is so good for me! We were both surprised she said that because you know she has dementia and can't think straight and doesn't really know what she is saying. So it was just so sweet to hear that!

After we cleaned, my mom read her " The Wind in The Willows " book.  Mrs.M listened, but I don't think she was really listening because my mom said to her, " what is the mole looking at? " She answered and said the clouds or something completely different from what the mole was looking at and from the picture. And by the way, the picture was a mole in a sort of swamp where you can't see any clouds or anything, and the mole was, I think, looking at a water rat which is in the picture. Sometimes when we read some of Sophie's little bible stories that we got her, and when we read them to Mrs.M, she would actually listen to them and say, " That is a beautiful picture." Or " Oh no, that lame is lost!". Or something like that when my mom reads to her. We love to take care of her when Mr.M goes to bible study! And after Mr.M got back from bible study, we left and went to Starbucks and started to work on our computers there!

I love to go to Starbucks after the gym and take care of Mrs.M! So I am always looking forward to doing all of these things on Tuesdays!! I got to have the caramel frappuccino at Starbucks! I know it has a lot of sugar in it, so that's why I do like two pumps less of everything.

See you next time!! And thanks for reading my blog post!!



Sophie's Birthday!

Sophie's birthday was four days ago! She turned seven years old. For lunch, we had a stew and biscuits! And for dessert, we had pie and ice cream!

This is all of what Sophie got for her birthday! She got boots, rain boots, a shirt, cowgirl pants, a notebook, two cool pens, toys, glue sticks, a tracing pad, a bun maker for your hair, and I think that's it. It was a lot of stuff! Some of the things are what I want to try out! :)

She loves all the presents she got!

Here is a video of us saying happy birthday to her! 


Also, I am at Starbucks writing all of this! :)

With the tracing pad she got, Sophie and I each drew a drawing and then added cool things to it, and see whose was the best! We both loved each other's drawings! The drawing we did was of a fox sleeping! I changed it by doing a prince fox sleeping. It turned out great! And Sophie added a tortoise and a dog next to the sleeping fox into her drawing! It was so cute!



Part Two: Ballet!

Yesterday I went to ballet class! If you saw the other blog post, you would know that I am starting ballet again and that I went there yesterday. I am going to write about how it went!

When we got there, my dad dropped me off while he and Sophie went to park the car. I waited for him inside, and then there were some lockers where you could put your stuff. So I put the bag that I had with me inside there. Then I put on my ballet shoes and headed toward the room where our class was going to start. We were about 5 mins early, so I just waited until it started. And when it did, my dad and Sophie went to our brother's house and stayed there until it was over. The boy's house is about 5 mins away from there.

Here is a picture that my dad took of me putting my stuff in the locker:

So it started, and everybody sat in a circle, and the teacher, Mrs.Teal, asked us what fun thing we did for Christmas. I said we went sledding in the snow. And by the way, there were about ten girls there. Only I think two eleven-year-olds and I were the oldest—the rest were about nine to ten years old. After everybody said what fun thing they did for Christmas, we all got up and did lots of different stretches that Teal showed us. Then, after all of that, we went to the barre and started doing different moves that Teal was showing us. Like we were in the fifth position, we did many different ballet movements. Sorry, but I forgot what each one was called. And even if I did remember, it would be a lot to say since we did many different ballet movements! After we learned a lot of ballet moves, we put them to music. It was a lot of fun! Then for some faster ballet moves, we put in faster music! And sometimes it would be Disney music! :) And already, my body was hurting from all the exercises and the ballet moves we did! :) At the end of the class, Teal put music on, turned a few lights off, and let us dance however we wanted! So we did! And then the class was over. And my dad and Sophie were waiting for me in the lobby area. I got my stuff from the locker, and my dad and Sophie headed home!

I had such a fun time! I can't wait until next Thursday!

I Am Going to Start Ballet Again!!

I am going to start ballet again every Thursday! And guess what? It's Thursday today!! My ballet class begins at 4:45 and ends at 5:45 PM. And right now, for me, it's only 9:48 AM. So I haven't left yet, of course.

My ballet teacher's name is Miss Teal. I haven't met her yet, so I am very excited! I ordered ballet shoes, a leotard, tights, and a skirt for my whole ballet suit on amazon! And today, my ballet shoes and leotard is coming in the mail. The rest of the suit is coming in tomorrow. It's okay that I won't have all my stuff when I go to ballet class today. There might be other girls who haven't got all of their stuff too. But next Thursday, I should have all of my stuff by then.

We have to wear all black. So black leotard, tights, shoes, skirt. Everything! I hope it all fits!

The minimum is nine years old for my ballet class. I am doing ballet because I love it so much and haven't done it in a while. And some of my old classmates are there now and are older. It was so much fun! I loved talking to my friends there. I guess I just really enjoyed it very much! So I am not going to do choir this semester. Maybe next semester. I have been doing choir for a long time and want a break from it. So that's why I am doing ballet! I am just so excited and a little scared! So I hope today will go great!

I will make another blog post on how my ballet class went! Bye!