Experienced

 
CENTERED: This afternoon we headed to Seattle Center in search of a gift item, which we didn't find. Nevermind that, though. It's always a wonderful time at the Center!

We ran around EMP, enjoying the reflected sunlight oh-so-much. I swear, it was 10 degrees hotter next to the shiny building.

On the pavement outside, there's a labyrinth, which the kids always enjoy solving. It's actually quite a workout running the entire path from start to finish.

I happened to be standing under the monorail tracks, camera in hand, when a train came overhead.

You can see the pink tones of EMP reflected on the front of the monorail.

SPACE TREE: With great interest, we read a story online this morning about cherry trees in Japan which are defying Earth norms. Perhaps no wonder, as their 'roots,' you might say, are in space. Check out the story here: http://news.yahoo.com/cherry-tree-space-mystery-baffles-japan-085044593.html

KALE CONQUERS ALL: Our kitchen adventures continued today. Determined to introduce more greens into our diet, yesterday at Winco I loaded up on kale and today it was Operation Kale Chips.

I checked out recipes online and they were remarkably similar. Cut kale into chip-sized pieces, coat in olive oil, salt, bake for about 8 minutes, and EAT! We followed this recipe -
http://www.kitchentreaty.com/how-to-make-kale-chips/ - doing different batches with Maladon sea salt, garlic salt and jalapeno cheddar dustings.

Not gonna lie, the kids were skeptical at first.

However, one thing I've found is that if the kids have a hand in preparing something, they're waaaaaay more likely to try it. That certainly was the case today. I had them do the cutting ...

and the coating (with olive oil) ...

and they spread them out on the cookie sheets. They also did the dusting with the seasonings, then into the oven the kale went.

A short eight minutes later, out it came. To say they were a hit with the kids would be an understatement.

Annabelle declared kale chips her New Favorite Food, surpassing even riblets. :) She declared any parent with a child who "is a picky eater" should make kale chips and BAM! vegetable intake problem solved!

They really were wonderful, especially warm out of the oven. I am TOTALLY going to make kale chips our #1 go to vegetable side dish for dinnertime.

THANK YOUS: Today, we took a little time out to write thank you notes to Dr. John Covach, professor for our "The Music of The Beatles" class.

We'll send them, along with a few pages of Annabelle's Beatles doodles, to his office at the University of Rochester. It's just so generous of Covach and other professors to make the tremendous effort to offer their courses online, for a worldwide audience, for free. The least we can do is send him a thank you.

FORGOTTEN GENIUS: Perhaps you saw the Google doodle today? It paid tribute to Percy Julian. I'd never heard of him before today, unfortunately.

So, I started Googling his name, read a few articles, and eventually came across a great PBS program about him. I wanted to find something to share with the kids beyond a couple of paragraphs. Happily, I found a WONDERFUL PBS documentary titled "Forgotten Genius," about the brilliant African American chemist.

At two hours long, it's certainly more than a cursory couple of paragraphs, which is great! It's wonderfully written/produced and completely compelling. We watched the first hour today, and we can't wait to watch the rest.