Lift Off

BARRED:  This afternoon, as we were delivering  sunflower cupcakes to a neighbor in need of a pick-me-up, as we drove toward our 'hood's hub I remembered it was Thursday and that meant drop in art day at the library.

Annabelle immediately perked up and so after the cupcake drop was complete, we hustled to the library. She was literally skipping with joy as we headed to our destination. 

I'll let her tell you a bit more about the session. ...

Today I went to a fun drop-in art class at our local Seattle Public Library. The library has drop-in art classes every Thursday, from 4:00 to 5:30. Today, we made soap! The ingredients we used were rose petals, chamomile, lavender, flax seeds, coffee beans, scents (we used sweet-grass or tangerine. You only need 1 or 2 drops, because the scents are very strong,) and for the actual soapy part, glycerin. First, put rose petals, chamomile, lavender or flax seeds, along with coffee beans if you want, plus a drop of scent into a soap bar mold. (you can also put a marble inside for extra fun! When you use the soap enough, you’ll be able to get the marble out!) Melt the glycerin until it’s a liquid. Then, you pour the glycerin into the mold! While we waited for the soap to harden (about 20 minutes), we did scribble drawing! To make a scribble drawing, you just scribble on you page and then draw what you see in the lines! Once your soap hardens, you can pop it out of the mold and wrap it in tissue paper. These little bars make great gifts!

Annabelle eked every one of the 90 minutes out of the session. Our house certainly smells lovely because of her efforts. 

PRESENTING:  Today, it was CJ's turn to share with peers a topic he's researched for the past few weeks, human-fueled climate change. 

CJ came out wearing this for the presentation. I promptly sent him back to his room to reconsider his wardrobe for such an important topic. 

Once he got his clothes in order, the rest flowed nicely.

In fact, he got a standing ovation from his classmates when all as said and done. :)
Here's a link to the graphics CJ used during his presentation. 
http://prezi.com/bd92wc6q43p_/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

ROCKET REMODEL: Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows we're scavengers. We love finding treasures for free or next-to-nothing. 

Recently, a resident of our neighborhood posted they had a surplus rocket on a Facebook group. This rocket happens to be a kids' play structure. Immediately, a number of people weighed in saying they wanted it. We were lucky enough to be gifted it. 

It's a neat little unit. Sturdy, stable. No sharp edges. The slide is commercial grade, in good shape. The rocket fuselage is made from wood and compressed fiberboard, painted.

We're definitely going to repaint it before it goes to its new home. I think it needs to look more Saturn V or SpaceX than Fisher Price.  That, and it needs lights. And some sort of sensory station in the crew capsule - lots of toggles and buttons! And a star map inside

its nosecone. This will be a fun project. We've always wanted to build a better rocket! 

Stay tuned for progress shots.