Yesterday we were in the Dollar Tree, where everything's a dollar, and as soon as we walked in she spied a display with their featured product of the week - a solar powered dancing daisy. It was love at first sight.
Fortunately, this morning brought some blue skies and sunshine, so the daisy was doing a happy dance when Annabelle emerged from her bedroom for breakfast.
SPOT THE STATION: A week or so ago I received a press release from NASA about a new email and text message notification system in place to let you know when the International Space Station will be flying over your city.
If you know exactly when it's going to be overhead and what direction it's coming from, it's not that hard to spot, as the ISS is the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and the moon.
Image credit: Thilo Kranz, DLR (the German Space Agency)
No, your ISS sighting with the naked eye won't be as dramatic as this photo, showing the ISS transiting the sun (with shuttle Atlantis attached in the 11 o'clock position, BTW), but it's still really cool and worth taking those 5 minutes or so to check it out. (The other dot, near the center of the sun, is a group of sunspots, in case you're wondering.)I've been using another alert service, Twisst ISS alerts. It's easy - just follow @twisst on Twitter and they send you a tweet when the ISS is visible to you (it uses the location you specify in your Twitter profile). Twisst has been reliable and has led to many happy sightings for us, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to receive NASA's alerts, as well. So, I went to their Web site: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ and signed up.
NASA's notification service includes text message alerts for most major cell phone carriers, but they don't have a code for my cheap-o Virgin service, so I can only get their email notifications. :/
READY TO REVIEW: It's embarrassing how long it has taken us to get CJ's custom The Rootbeer Kid mug ready for his reviews. But finally, last night, we took the time to pick out the font he preferred (after looking at hundreds on Dafont.com). CJ settled for BD Cartoon Shout. We scaled the letters T.R.K. (for The Rootbeer Kid) to the just-right size and Christian carefully cut a template into the vinyl from a glass etching kit we had on hand.
Here's the final product. Sorry it's such a crappy photo. ...
HISTORY LESSON: Today, we started working our way through the great activity/education guide to go with the book we read on Tuesday, "D is For Democracy." The kids completed a fill in the word vocab/comprehension puzzle, and answered a few comprehension questions.
SWEET SORROW: In another history related note, this afternoon we spent some time cleaning out the kids' closet. It ended up being a bit of a trip down memory lane. Most of it went smoothly enough. We stuffed an enormous IKEA bag full of clothes that no longer fit. Unfortunately, for Annabelle, that included her Hello Kitty kimono pajamas. After she deposited them in the 'donate' bag by the back door, she came back to her bedroom in tears, snuffling about how much she loved them.
We agreed that they were lovely - and that some other little girl is going to love them, as well. That made her feel better.
Soon after, a 3-foot tall Dora the Explorer was on the chopping block. Both of the kids got a little wide eyed at the prospect of saying "Adios!" to one of their first favorite cartoon stars. I reminded them Christmas was coming and after we take it to Goodwill, their Dora may very well wind up being the biggest, best Christmas present some little kid gets this year. That made them feel heaps better about giving her the heave-ho. A pink plastic castle also didn't make the cut.
We'll be digging deeper in the days to come, but today was a good start in the right direction.
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