Ants and Dance

FOOD CRITIC: At the kids sat down and prepared to tackle their math this morning, I suggested a snack. After I served it up, what do I hear but, "Is it just me, or are these the ugliest Ants on a Log ever?" CJ asked.

Apparently the look on my face was a clear indication I was, shall we say, NONPLUSSED at his comment.

He quickly assured me, "I'm not trying to be insulting, or anything."

Oh, OK. That makes EVERYTHING better. ;) Needless to say, he'll be making his own gol darn Ants on a Log next time.

TUT TUT: Just a couple short miles from our house, ancient Egyptian treasures are being installed for what's sure to be an eye-popping exhibition: Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs at the Pacific Science Center.

We checked out some photos and video from the Seattle Times showing preparations for the exhibit. You can check out the video here: http://bcove.me/2725io5x

The show opens on May 24. We'll be seeing it on the 28th. Can't wait!

AROUND MARS IN 80 DAYS: Thanks to a Facebook post from a soon-to-be Martian rover, we were reminded that 80 days from today, Curiosity will be touching down on the Red Planet.

Thanks to NASA's fantastic Eyes on the Solar System software, we can follow Curiosity's journey in real time. Here's a still shot from this morning. You can see how far the spacecraft has traveled since leaving Earth late last November, and how it's closing in on the target.

We spent a fair amount of time poking around on Eyes on the Solar System. You have to download some software to be able to use it, but it's SO worth the two minutes or less it takes to install. You'll be zipping around our solar system in no time!

MOON UNIT:  Today I had the kids complete a workbook all about the moon. We got it from a CD a friend was kind enough to pick up for us at NASA Headquarters when she was there last month for the Tweetup in conjunction with orbiter Discovery being transferred to the Smithsonian.

CJ and Annabelle worked their ways through moon-related word-find and crossword puzzles, they read a short article about the Apollo missions, and they had to use the article and a mission log to answer some fill-in-the-blank questions about the Apollo program. They learned lots in the process, including that EVA is an acronym for Extravehicular Activity, which describes any activity for which a crew member must go outside the protected "shirtsleeve" environment of the orbiter's crew cabin, that 843 total pounds of moon samples were brought back over the course of Apollo, the names of all of the Apollo astronauts, from the Apollo 1 souls who never made it off the launch pad (Chaffee, White and Grissom), to Eugene Cernan, the last human to set foot on our moon, via Apollo 17.

Later this afternoon, I 'hosted' a game show type quiz about the Apollo missions. I was impressed with how much of the info they retained. CJ, especially, shined during this activity.

DANCE PRACTICE: After several days of technical difficulties, we are now finally able to access Bee's Bollywood dance practice routine online, so we/she did a few run throughs today.

The routine is for a flash mob that will be taking place somewhere in Seattle a week from this Saturday. Ought to be interesting when it goes down ...