Martian Monday

SLOW START: Our school day got off to a late start. I had a 2-hour dentist appointment this morning and when I got home, let's just say I didn't feel like jumping right on it. :(

When I got home, CJ was putting the finishing touches on one of his birthday presents - a neat-o LEGO space shuttle that Christian brought back from Kennedy Space Center.

Eventually I rallied/quit bleeding and slobbering (I know, TMI) and we started in on some math. I am happy that the kids remember how to do math - it has been waaaay too long since we cracked their books. They worked on some mental subtraction skills mostly in the double digits. LIFE ON MARS?: Around lunch time we sat down together and read a book together, "Mars Needs Moms." I recognized the title from a recent Disney movie.

I assumed the book was going to be based on the movie. I wrong. It was the other way around. Turns out the book was written by the Super Famous Berkeley Breathed (of Opus/Bloom County Fame), and the movie was based on the book.

I adore the Bloom County comics, and have enjoyed all the Breathed-penned kids books to date. This one, well ... not so much. It's hard to explain why, but if I had to pinpoint it (which I do) I would fault the character development or lack thereof. The book seemed to lack a hook to draw one in to the central character (a young boy, who wasn't likable at all) or his mother (whose character was never really developed). Interestingly (and perhaps not surprisingly), the movie didn't have any traction, either. It was a box office "megaton bomb" according to the NY Post. Hollywood Reporter calls it "one of the biggest write offs in modern Hollywood history." Ouch.

After the story, I thought we would hop on NASA's site to keep the Mars theme going. I found a game, "Adventure to Mars," where the kids had help load the cargo for a trip to Mars. They were supposed to pick 10 items from a list, and the pros and cons of each item (everything from candy bars to treadmills) were listed. After about four tries they were each able to complete their mission with a positive percentage of over 80.

WEEKEND REWIND: This was not your ordinary weekend. On Saturday, we went to GameWorks with Rick and Ken to celebrate CJ's 8th birthday. Everyone had a great time. Though CJ loves his old school games, it certainly doesn't hurt to check out the latest and greatest in arcade action, either.

After GameWorks, it was back home for cake. And, like every other 8 year old in America, CJ wanted a cake that looked like a Famicom game console, released in Japan only in 1983. It didn't represent my best work (I think I got some bad marshmallows and so the fondant was hard to work with), but CJ was happy.

HOPPY EASTER: The bunny stopped by sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, leaving some presents and candies for the kids. Said bunny also left some plastic eggs with cash yolks laying around the yard, which the kids wasted little time hunting down.

HAPPY ENDING: On Saturday, we learned via a bulldog edition of the Seattle Times' Sunday paper that "Sesame Peeps" won the grand prize AND Peeple's choice in their annual Peeps diorama competition. Hooray! As a result, Annabelle will be getting a $250 gift card to Bartell's (a local drug store). Who knew there could be such a rich payoff for playing with your food?

SIGN UP!: If you have a Twitter account, on Tuesday, April 26, there is a rare opportunity to have a front row view of the space program. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., will host a Tweetup for approximately 120 Twitter followers on Monday, June 6 for the full day (roughly 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT). According to the press release, "Tweetup participants will interact with JPL scientists and engineers about these upcoming missions: Aquarius, to study ocean salinity; Grail, to study the moon's gravity field; Juno to Jupiter; and the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover. Participants also will learn about the Dawn mission and its upcoming encounter with the asteroid Vesta. The Tweetup will include a tour of JPL, robotics demonstrations and a last chance to see the Curiosity rover before it ships to Florida to prepare for a November launch. Tour stops will include the Spacecraft Assembly Facility where Curiosity is under construction, the mission control center of NASA's Deep Space Network, and JPL's new Earth Science Visitor Center."

None of this would suck. ;)

In order to have a chance to be one of the lucky few, register here on the 26th!