Marvelous Monday

WHAT WINTER?: Last night, right before we went to bed, Christian and I heard a Seattle weatherman talking in near breathless tones about the incoming "winter storm" and what a wallop it would be packing.

I went to bed thinking, "Great, freezing in May," and resigned to a miserable Monday weather-wise. Now, I'll give the weatherman this - it did rain last night. A bunch, especially around midnight. And it blew some, too. But this morning, I woke to near blinding sunlight streaming through the bedroom windows.

And all morning long it was blue skies and sunshine - pure lovely. We took advantage of it by trekking up to "hilltop play park" (Ella Bailey). The kids had the sprawling play structures all to themselves and played around there for a good 45 minutes.

WORD GIRL - AND BOY: This morning, in preparation for MPA's participation in The Word Girl Definition Competition on May 11, we started in on the worksheets from the Word Girl Event Kit I received when we registered.

Word Girl is a great show we watch on PBS semi-regularly. Scholastic describes it as being about "a crime-fighting superhero who uses her vocabulary strength in a never-ending battle for truth, justice and use of the right word!"

The worksheets we had were all about synonyms and word choices. They're probably a tad above the standard K-1 curriculum (words included articulate, perplex, idolize ...)As he started the first sheet, CJ said, "This is a piece of cake!"

However, the kids did hit some speed bumps. On one sheet they were given a list of words and then sentences that they were supposed to plug them into. They weren't sure what a few of the words meant, but I showed them that through the process of elimination, they could probably make good matches for all of them. In the end, I think talking about what "the process of elimination" is was as valuable as the vocab lesson!

MARS CALLING: Somehow it's down to the last week of the months-long exhibit "Facing Mars" at the Pacific Science Center. And I'm embarrassed to admit, we hadn't made it there yet. :/ Clearly, getting there to see it was Job 1 today.
I did a little pre-reading before we left so as to make sure we didn't miss any highlights or important concepts. The PacSci Center had a teacher and family resource guides online, which was helpful. I also found a link to a NASA-produced 'visting Mars' activity (PDF here).

We headed for Seattle Center about 2 p.m. Making our way toward the science center, we came across a totem pole that I've never seen before. (I swear, that happens every time I go to Seattle Center. I see some Pretty Big Thing I've never noticed before.) The pole, tucked in an alcove formed by towering trees, has been there since the 1970s. Who knew?

We made a beeline for the Mars exhibit.

The first exhibit that attracted our attention was one where you insert your hands into a compartment with big blue gloves in it. You're supposed to complete a pretty straightforward assembly task. It sounds and looks simple - until the gloves start inflating! They become super sized, emulating the bulk that the astronauts have to deal with while wearing spacesuits.

The next exhibit to really capture the kids' fancies was one where they got to assemble a rocket (nosecone, fuselage and tail fins if they chose) and then use a lever to pump up air pressure which would cause it to take flight when they hit the 'launch' button. Here's one of CJ's attempts...

The kids' favorite part of the Mars exhibit was pair of rooms - one was Mission Control, the other was an astronauts' cockpit. The cockpit was full of labeled doors and latches and buttons and lights, and Mission Control had a camera and could watch the astronauts' actions. There was a two-way mic, so Mission Control used it to issue orders to the astronauts.

We made certain to make our way over to the main exhibit hall before 3 p.m. as I'd learned by checking the PSC Web site this morning there'd be a live science show on the mini stage at that time.

Today's show was mostly about ice. Who knew that frozen water could be so fascinating? ;)

(A funny aside - a couple of minutes after taking the stage and starting the show, Dr. Sean realized he'd forgotten to bring the ice for some demonstrations. He excused himself, exited stage right, and then had to run to the PSC cafeteria to retrieve it - all the while wearing his wireless mic. It was hysterical, really, hearing him huffing and puffing along, encountering one roadblock after another. When he finally made it back to the sloooow elevator near the stage, the damn thing went all the way to the basement instead of stopping at our floor!)

Anyway, the show must go on, and go on it did! He started by setting up a mini model of the Seattle waterfront and putting ice in a colander "cloud" over the city and let that melt during the course of the show to demonstrate what would happen if our city started to get too much rain/and or the water level rose due to climate change.

He also talked about how ice is typically made, what makes it white (the air bubbles trapped in it) and then demonstrated how the ice-making process could be sped up considerably by using liquid nitrogen!

Impressive!

At the end of the show, a dance party broke out! Dr. Sean dumped out what was left of the nitrogen onto the floor in front of the stage and invited the kids to come out and boogie in the fog. CJ was the first one out there. :)

WATER WORKS: After the science show, we headed out to the Science Center's "patio" where the huge water toys are located. The kids always love playing with those.

CHEF CJ: After the Science Center, we headed a couple blocks north to the Queen Anne McMenamins for a cheap dinner off the happy hour menu.

CJ likes to experiment when we're at restaurants, and today he decided to put salt and pepper on a couple of French fries. He thought it was a new taste sensation. I suggested he write his recipe down so that he'd remember it.

MEANWHILE, AT CAPE CANAVERAL: From a press release today, "Less than two weeks remain until space shuttle Atlantis' liftoff on its STS-132 mission, targeted for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians will attach the orbital midbody unit to Atlantis. Additionally, the spacewalk suits to be worn by Atlantis' astronauts during the mission will be checked out before they're stowed for flight.

The six STS-132 astronauts are at their home base, NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. They'll go through medical exams and a final pre-launch crew news conference with reporters today.

NASA managers will hold a news conference Wednesday, May 5, at Kennedy after the Flight Readiness Review meeting to discuss space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission."

Stay tuned for further developments. :)