Hijacked

EVERGREEN: We got to get out into the great wide open today and I we took the time to marvel at the lovely new growth on evergreens 'round here. I asked the kids to ID new growth vs. older, and to describe the differences. The lighter green needles are soft and pliable as compared to the darker needles. It may not be smelling the roses, but it's lovely to stop and contemplate the evergreens.

TROJAN HORSE: Today's blog is going to be brief because yesterday my PC got hijacked by a Trojan (and no, I don't think it was a USC student or alum).

So,  I'm trying to type away on Annabelle's laptop, which is encrusted with all sorts of things it shouldn't be, and has sticky keys aplenty. Bear with me.

LAST LAUGH: We spent a good deal of time outside today. For instance, with the kids' help, I actually mowed the lawn today. This is Significant, because three weeks ago today, attempting to mow the lawn led to an ER trip for me, with a bulb on the side of my ankle the size of my fist (shudder, shudder, bleech).

There, the doctor told me it was a bad Bad sprain and I would have been better off breaking it in terms of healing time. She said I'd be off it for six weeks. Pshaw! I say. I was not about to let our lawn have the last laugh.

And so, I mowed. Gingerly. :) I couldn't have done it without CeeJ and Bee, who helped move the loong, heavy cord and fetch and move obstacles. Nothing like teamwork! I don't think I've ever been as satisfied after mowing a lawn as I was today.

ZIP-A-DEE-DO-DAH: I decided we needed to get out to a local park since it was sunny out. My mind turned to Discovery Park and its zipline. That made me thing of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Disney's Song of the South. I sang it a couple of times before I could coax the kids into joining in.

CJ wanted to know the song's history (of course). It's from 1946.

We had a fun time at the park, of course.

GET IT ON: This afternoon we took Christian to get his Father's Day present. Practical person that I am, I decided he needed a skirt. ;) Actually, I took him to Utilikilt headquarters and he's now the proud owner of a Utilikilt - the Survivor model in Coyote color. It's fabulous. :) I think I might need one!

The store was super cool, as was the salesman. He offered us a beer and encouraged the kids to get it on, bang a gong (and he knew that was a TRex song). Every kilt store should have a gong, don't you think?

 

It was a delightful sounding gong. I told the 20-something salesman it reminded me of being at a Queen concert (the end of Bho Rhap comes to mind). 

Lego Maniacs

LAST DAY OF LEGOS: Today we did some math computations, some computing, lots of reading, and we had a long discussion about blood sugar, glucose, insulin and such (CJ was absolutely fascinated by that.) 

But most of today was spent dwelling with our minds firmly in LEGO land, as the kids' last day of LEGO classes was this afternoon. We knew there was going to be a little party during class, and so our minds turned to cookies (big surprise). I'd remembered seeing a post on Sugar Belle's page about LEGO cookies, and so we referenced it. Although, instead of using the "flood" method to ice the cookies, I went with fondant. Flooding cookies in multiple colors requires hours/days to dry and we didn't have that kind of time. So instead, we topped them with yellow marshmallow fondant and used edible ink pens to decorate the faces. 

One other change we made was instead of using the same face on all the cookies (waaay too boring for me), I mixed it up a bit. That made for lots of small skirmishes in the classroom, of course. Oh well. 

As part of the party, the kids got some LEGO-like candy treats. They were solid, interlocking artificially colored blocks of sugar. Also known as health food, they are not, but the kids had fun playing with them. 

As a parting gift, the kids got a CD with photos of them and all their finished projects through the quarter. Here are some highlights. I feel compelled to mention that I didn't take any of these photos. 

First, CJ's creations ... We'll start with a cute fish and a scowling CJ. 

 And here's a cool helicopter. That one took awhile.

This was a free-build - something the kids got to do after they finished a by-the-bricks' instructions build. CJ made some kind of human/vehicle hybrid. Hopefully it's zero emission.

 And there was this cool race car ...

 And check out this big ol' hospital. That was hours in the making.

And now up, Annabelle's project pics. Let's start with this interesting shot, where it looks like she's about to get a LEGO jet in the eye.

And Annabelle tells me this is a free build battleship, below. 

And here's a helicopter, which might be in for a bit of a rough landing. ...  

And apparently this truck was headed for a bit of trouble, based on Annabelle's expression.

And this plane didn't exactly have a happy landing. 

Annabelle did a series of builds that looked like pixel art, including this penguin. 

And here's one that looks like it could be a self-portrait.

This car wash/gas station was a really big build. 

 And here's a LEGO paddy wagon. I guess even LEGO land has a criminal element.

 And last but not least, Bee built the big helicopter, too.

During class today, instead of building with kits, the kids played a fun game that was a LEGO-twist on Pictionary. (Perhaps it should be called Bricktionary! Get it? Get it?!)

The teacher tasked a student with building a particular object out of LEGOs (anything from a stoplight to a guitar), and the team members had to guess what the builder was constructing. It was a lot of fun and something we'll be playing at home in the future, I'm sure.

A Poor Substitute

Greetings and salutations from today's substitute blogger, Christian. Please bear with me as we tortuously work our way through my tedious prose in a miserable attempt to emulate the effortless writing/blogging skills of the lovely and brilliantly talented Headmistress.

I wasn't actually present for some of these events, but I have notes and pictures from Kristine, and the no-doubt highly accurate memories of the children to guide me. Onward.

Fly Him to the Moon
For some time now CJ has been wanting to make a home brew energy drink concoction that he calls Rocket Fuel. The not-so-secret recipe is a mixture of Mountain Dew, Monster Energy Drink, Red Bull and a vial of 5 Hour Energy. So the other day he finally collected all of the ingredients and repaired to the laboratory, er kitchen, to assemble his elixir.

Into the cauldron with all.

I'm (not) sorry to say that I didn't actually taste the end result, but CJ assures me that it is not only delicious, but it is also "Your number one source for for energy." They also poured the liquid fuel into rocket-shaped freezer-pop molds to make Solid Rocket Boosters, which I'm sure will be equally as tasty and lively as well as a refreshing frosty treat on our hot day when it comes this summer. Both kids managed to imbibe some of the liquid and didn't end up in orbit, so we'll try to save the recipe as a special treat to serve to visitors.

Damsel in Shining Armor
Prepare to be amazed by Annabelle's Cyborg Party Bear Helmet, complete with chest plate sporting a pinkish-purplish star in the middle. But why bother trying to do justice describing it when you can feast your eyes upon the glorious reality:

Outstanding.  Bionics, protection and style... Does it get any better? I think not.

Taco Loco
Earlier today, out of the blue, CJ expressed a desire to have tacos for dinner. In other households this might not be an unusual request for a kid but, while his sister Annabelle is always ready to try new things, for the most part Mr. Ceej is, shall we say, a discriminating eater. So tacos it was. Of course they weren't all fancied up with stuff like lettuce, tomatoes, or salsa, but we are happy that his tastes are expanding bit by bit as he gets older. Both kids gave them a solid thumbs up.

Finalus Scientificus
The kids had their science final exam last week and got the results back today. They both studied really hard, practiced quizzing each other repeatedly, and their hard work paid off. They both aced it with 100% scores. w00t! Go CJ and Annabelle!

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled blogger. Thank you for your patience.

Keep on Trekking

TREK REFLECTIONS: Today we were still mentally at the Northwest Trek park. I had a lot of leftover photos to look at, a report about our experience to write, and, of course, I asked CJ and Annabelle to file their own reports with me.

Here's what CJ had to say: 

First of all, I want to tell you, It is great to go to the Northwest Trek Nature Park. It was fun going there, and you got to see the AMAZING animals they had there. It was beautiful at the Northwest Trek Nature Park, especially when it was sunny.

The gift shop in there was great. It had many cool gifts, like the fly eyes, the toys, the candy (I got the chocolate rocks), and much more. It was nicely decorated, too, an example being the toys on the display shelf. It was worth it getting the chocolate rocks.

When we went on the tram, we saw many animals in their natural habitats, like the deer, the sheep, the bison, and much more. In the tram, we had an annoyance behind us, and an annoyance in front of us. the annoyance behind us was a infant girl, at the beginning of the ride, she started crying out loud. The annoyance in front of us was a 6-year old girl. The thing she did that was annoying was her taking pictures (and video) of us for the whole ride. Halfway through the ride, we saw the trees burnt down from the great fire of 1924. The trees were STILL recovering.

I had to LOL that so much of his account was about the gift shop and chocolate. How very normal kid like of him. ;)

Annabelle's account:

One day I went to Northwest Trek. It was a beautiful wildlife park. They had lots of trees, shrubs and lush fields.

The animals were all acting like they would in the wild. They were playing like they would, eating like they would, and just minding their own business. They seemed happy. The porcupine agreed even agreed to come out for us!

It was all fun, but my favorite part was riding on the tram. We got to go through forests, grasslands, wetlands, and meadows. There were lots of animals. We got to see all 3 moose! It was super fun. We got to see rams, raccoons, elk, trumpeting swans, etc. etc. I loved my experience at Northwest Trek, and hope to go there again sometime.

Here's a yesterday leftover - a photo of the skull of a Canada goose. Note its lil teeth, used to chew grass, or so the volunteer next to the cart told us. She also initially told us it was a duck, so we're a tad skeptical about all her "facts."

One neat part of the Trek grounds is the Baker Research Center. It's a cool little cabin out by the gray wolves. The super nice volunteer there took a lot of time showing the kids all sorts of animal pelts, like this long dead wolf.

She also shared a number of fox pelts. CJ peppered her with questions about them.

This bison didn't seem to give a rip that he was being shot repeatedly ...

This one was slightly more energetic, but still moved super slowly. It would be wild to see these things running. Oh give me a home, where the buffalo, er, bison, roam ...

And here's a bonus shot of some baby bison. They look more like baby elk or cows to me. Interesting.  

In the shade of the tree you can see a big horned ram rubbing up against the bark, hoping to get some relief from what itches him.

Here, Annabelle and CJ see how they size up compared to a brown bear paw. 

JOY RIDE: On the way back home, the kids got more than their share of fresh air by hanging out the car window.

HOLY COW, THAT'S POINTY: On the way home we stopped in Tacoma for an early dinner. On the way to the restaurant, we found ourselves next to a building that has been intriguing me my entire life. It's a church with a super duper pointy spire that is just west of Interstate 5.

I asked Christian to pull into its lot so we could take a look. After all these years, I finally learned that it's Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

Here, CJ and Annabelle attempt to match its pointy-ness.

Now that I knew its name, I was able to go online and learn a little bit more about it.

The church doesn't have a whole lot of history listed on its Web site, but they do say that the Parish was founded by a group of German-speaking Catholics and that Holy Rosary's first pastor was Father William Eversmann, who arrived in Tacoma in July of 1891.

Northwest Trek

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: Today we took a field trip to the western foothills of Mount Rainier. Our destination was a unique zoological park in Pierce County, about 100 minutes/miles from our place.

We pulled into Northwest Trek a couple of minutes before 10 a.m. The 725-acre park is home to more than 200 animals native to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. It is on land donated by the pioneering, visionary couple David "Doc" and Connie Hellyer.

At the admission gate, we were assigned a time of 10:50 for a one-hour-ish tram tour around 435-acres of  free-roaming animals.

There, we saw bison, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, deer, turtles, raccoons, trumpeter swans and more, moving freely through meadows and woods.

We spent a fair amount of the day wandering along forested walking paths that weaved among naturalistic exhibits populated by black and brown bears, big cats (lynx, cougars and bobcats), wolves, birds of prey, wolves, coyotes and other native animals.

For the most part, your average zoo offers you a lot closer look at the animals. But the upside to this place is that it offers a glimpse at the animals in a more natural habitat - further away and a less caged in feel.

We probably got closest to the wolves today. CJ was thrilled when this one came so close to him. (I don't think CeeJ noticed the wolf was taking a whiz. ...)  

On our tram tour, we saw several bison, including this beaut. ...

Annabelle noted it has a hump somewhat like a camel. The naturalist assured us it wasn't storing water - it's all muscle, required to hold their big ol' heads up. I suppose is here where I should admit that for lunch Christian and I split a yummy bison burger, which made me feel a tad guilty having just ogled and appreciated the living, breathing thing.  


We also saw some baby bison. Altogether now: "Cuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

Throughout the tour, CJ asked if the animals were mooning him. I found it hard to say that they weren't. case in point - this female elk. ...

We also saw elk with velvet-covered antlers.

Apparently we were lucky on our tour - we saw three moose (mooses? meece?). None of them could be bothered to stand up, however. 

We caught a glimpse of a river otter before he retreated to his (or her) den. 

We learned lots about porcupines thanks to a "trailside" animal encounter with a naturalist (and a porcupine). 

We were happy to visit the wolves at feeding time. They got quite an assortment of taste treats to enjoy.  

We also saw some beautiful birds, including a couple of bald eagles, like this one, who can't fly any more. 

The nature trails section of the park was closed due to the ongoing installation of what sounds like it's going to be a kick-a$$ zipline. Can't wait to see that!