The Big 3-0

image credit: NASA
HISTORIC DAY: We celebrated an anniversary of distinction today. April 12 marks the 30th anniversary of the first launch of NASA's Space Transportation System (STS)- more commonly known as the space shuttle. On April 12, 1981, commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen roared into space on the first ever shuttle mission (a small crew considering the shuttle can hold up to seven crew members). Interestingly, April 12 also marks the day cosmonaut Yuri Garagin ushered in the era of human space flight when he became the first person to orbit the Earth. We turned NASA TV on at 9 a.m. and watched retrospective videos about the space shuttle program, including footage of the first launch, STS-1. While we were eagerly awaiting a 10 a.m. announcement about where three retired shuttles would go (The Museum of Flight in Seattle was a contender), CJ and Annabelle worked a super neat-o space shuttle puzzle we scored months ago at Goodwill. It's a challenging puzzle - in fact it's three separate puzzles - with funny shaped pieces. Bee and CeeJ got a bit frustrated at times. And a couple of times they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye about where pieces belonged.

But in the end, they got the shuttle puzzle together.Part of the NASA anniversary/retired shuttle awarding ceremony included a great video, "The Space Shuttle," narrated by William "Captain Kirk" Shatner. (You can see the podcast of it here.)

And in the end, Seattle was NOT awarded a retired shuttle (sniffle, sniffle). Supposedly we're getting a pretty decent consolation prize, though. Once the kids had the puzzle done, they played with it for awhile. It comes with some free 'floating' astronauts. I overheard CJ's astronaut advising one of Annabelle's astronauts, "Say you're an evil astronaut and you don't want the Hubble (telescope) to see you. You need to have a plan before Hubble snaps a snapshot of you." Sage advice, starman.

OTHER STUFF: The kids did some music homework this morning - more listening to German music, plunking out a couple of tunes on their glockenspeils, some math work, and then music class. We also went to yoga, and hit a park in the Rainier Valley for about 20 minutes.

And this afternoon, we also took some time out to make some sugar cookie dough for the day's space shuttle related art project. After music class, we made some marshmallow fondant and covered the cookies with it. Tonight, after dinner, we had a shuttle decorating session. I started off trying to be kind of authentic looking ... And soon Christian got in on the act. The kids took all sorts of artistic license, which is great. One of Annabelle's looks like it was hit by a chocolate comet. CJ fell in love with the gold flecked gel. This is the U.S.S. Splorg. ... Because I'm bitter about the shuttle program's demise, I made a protest shuttle. Christian quickly countered it with something more patriotic. We ended up with quite an assortment.

For dessert, the kids each ate a shuttle. The Star Spangled Space Shuttle didn't last long. It flew into CJ's mouth about 6 minutes after Christian finished frosting it. Annabelle ate her shuttle with artwork she said was inspired by an elephant. Interesting.

LOL: At one point today, CJ paused from playing Super Mario Galaxy when I handed him a cookie dough batter to clean up. "I'm a gaming geek and sugar freak," he declared with a smile.