November Dawns

MARK IT: November is upon us and that means it's time to vote! 

Christian and I are on permanent absentee ballots, so we voted at home. Because we had our ballots here, the kids were able to participate. They read the ballots, and we talked about some of the candidates and races, and we even let them each fill in one little bubble (per our direction, of course).  

I will be glad when the election is over. I am sooooooo siiiiiiiiiick of all the ads.

LEFTOVERS: Some Halloween leftovers that didn't make the cut yesterday. Here's CJ demonstrating the "Gangnam Style" dance for his science class.

  

And here are the kids slogging home through some puddles, post trick-or-treating in Magnolia's business district.

TALES OF TERROR: I asked the kids today to write stories about a Halloween gone terribly wrong. Here's what they came up with. CJ's is first. There was a boy named Tyler. One Halloween, just like the one yesterday, Tyler went trick-or-treating. That faithful day, he came across a zombie. He asked the zombie to give him a trick or a treat, but he said to Tyler: "I am not a candy giver. You should see my proof that I am NOT in a costume." Just then, the zombie pulled his brain out. Tyler shrieked with fear as he dialed his parents and 911. 911 responded to Tyler with this: "Really? Do you think tha-" It stopped when they heard the zombie yelling "Brains, BRAINS!" and straight after that, a police truck arrived to the place where it was happening. A few seconds later, the KIRO 7 news truck, the army, and Tyler's parents arrived to the scene. The zombie was brutally shot with a AA-12, a  AK-47, and a X1 calibur. The zombie was killed, and Tyler went home safe that night. During the KIRO 7 new broadcast that night, it was mainly focused on the zombie sighting.

And up next, Annabelle's. ...

One Halloween night, one just like the last... Emily, Stan, and Carlos went trick-or-treating. They were going around with Emily as a cat, Stan as a dog and... a Carlos-mummy."Sure is a rainy day!" said Emily."Sure is!"  replied Stan.The kids then came upon a big, spooky mansion... *while giving a nudge to Stan* "Hey, I dare you to go in, you two scaredy-cats! Especially you, Emily. Since you're a cat." said Carlos; Carlos always teased the two.Emily replied: "Are you sure? it sure looks *gulp* spooky.""It does look spooky," added Stan. Carlos pushed them both forward towards the gate."I double-dare you if you're THAT scared!" said Carlos, unlocking the spooky black fence gate, which was covered in cobwebs. Emily and Stan seemed to be drawn to the mansion in a  most particular way, and when they reached the stairs, their legs stepped up by themselves, Carlos-mummy back by the gate chuckling as if they were pretending they were being drawn inside... but they weren't!The door swung open by itself and the kids were marched in by ... themselves! Once they were inside, the door swooped shut and locked itself! Just as Emily turned turned around to unlock it and run out of the mansion... the lock disappeared! A note appeared in place of it reading this: To make your way to safety, you must find the ghost-key!Then, the couch (which was a spooky white) started to float and took shape of a big ghost! The kids could see there was a black key shaped like a ghost inside the ghost (for the ghost was transparent, like all ghosts) and hopped on a white chair trying to reach the ghost ... but the chair turned into a ghost too and made the kids fall! Then a pillow turned in to a tiny ghost, and it seemed to have some gloves inside it - a pair for each of them! They both grabbed a pair (since the ghost was flying low) and put them on. They touched the ghost again and to their surprise... their hand didn't go through! Emily took Stan's gloves in her pocket so she could pull down the biggest ghost while Stan reached through and grabbed the key. When Stan got the key out, the lock appeared on the door again - and the note was gone! Stan used the key in the lock and... it worked! They walked out of the mansion, calm, with Carlos standing outside, a look of glee on his face when he saw them."I was so worried! How did you get out?" said Carlos with a squeal of joy. "We found.... erm... a ghost key" replied Stan, holding the key in his outstretched hand. Once Carlos saw the key for about 10 seconds, it disappeared, and inside the mansion, all was back to normal.... at least they thought.  THE END

MIRROR, MIRROR: With all the Halloween hubbub, I neglected to report on yesterday's science class doings. The kids are continuing to experiment with mirrors. Yesterday they worked in pairs and sat across the table from each other, with a big black book separating them, so they couldn't see each other - until they were given four mirrors and were instructed to use them to check each other out. They came up with some interesting combinations.

Afterward, they built periscopes and then went and spied on people in the library. :) Can you spy the spies?

BE PREPARED: With all the Sandy coverage, we've been talking more about natural disasters the last couple of days. Today, I busted out a couple of booklets the kids received at the Wreck-It Ralph preview from a Radio Disney/Red Cross street team. Called "Ready Freddie!" the 11-page booklet was developed by emergency preparedness public educators in King County, Washington representing several agencies. You can view it (or download it) as a PDF here: http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/preparedness/~/media/health/publichealth/documents/disaster/ReadyFreddie.ashx

At one point this morning CJ asked me if we were going to have a disaster. (Apparently all this preparedness talk has made him understandably wary.) I told him I am not personally privy to such knowledge  and that many disasters come with little to no warning, so all you can do is learn how to try to ride one out and to try to be prepared for the aftermath.

We talked about post-disaster supplies and plans our family has and reviewed what to do in an earthquake or tornado.  

BEARY ENDANGERED: Yesterday I picked up a couple of "Time for Kids" mini magazines at the kids' Shoreline school. The cover story is "Saving Polar Bears." I had the kids read the story and then they completed a couple of worksheets about bears. One of them was all about how zoos take care of Polar bears, and the 'bonus' question was sketching a design for a polar bear exhibit. I was impressed with the thought they each put into it, incorporating guidelines from the article (at least 9 feet of water, 5,400 square feet of space for one or two bears, and so on). Annabelle even drew a "Cloud Maker 3000" in her bears' exhibit. She said it takes the moisture from outside and makes into clouds to help keep the bears cool. 

WELCOME TO MY WORLD: Another great composite image of MSL today. This one a high resolution version from the NASA peeps. 

                            Image credit; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
It's the port side of Curiosity at "Rocknest," the site where it took its first scoop of Martian soil. 

In the background (right) you can see Mount Sharp rising. In the distance on the left is the northern wall of Gale Crater.

The photos used to make this composite were taken with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).