Busy Bakers

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The kids have a big art project this week. Once again, they're participating in the Edible Book Festival hosted by the Shoreline - Lake Forest Park Arts Council.

Last year was their first time participating. They made a cake based on the classic "The Little Prince,"  by aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but if featured a figure of Prince, the musician, and some of his lyrics, instead of the standard prince from the story. 

They have decided to go with a musical inspiration again this year. The book they're doing a play on is "Horton Hears a Who," but instead their Horton hears The Who. (Puns are encouraged in the event.)

CJ baked two big chocolate cakes yesterday that will serve as the base for The Who's stage.

Annabelle spent a lot of time sculpting an elephant and rock stars of of modeling chocolate they made. Below, she's working on Roger Daltry's head.

And here she's sculpting Pete Townsend's sizable nose.

CJ sculpted some tree trunks and tops, some shrubs, and a seat for Keith Moon.

They have made good progress, but have a lot more to do. It's going to be tight making their Saturday morning deadline.

DONE DEAL: It's definitely worth noting that CJ has completed all of his assignments for the Western Aerospace Scholars program he is fortunate to be a part of. For it, he had to complete two essays (one about why space should or shouldn't be explored, and another about a potential career in the aerospace industry). He also tackled two gnarly math problems (one about the escape velocity for a launch from the sun and another comparing the costs of launching a Saturn V vs. a SpaceX Falcon Heavy). And he took two quizzes.

He's still awaiting grades for his second essay and math problem, but he got 100 percent on his first essay, As on both quizzes and an A on his first math assignment, so I think he's in pretty good shape. 

The second part of the program involves a week long camp this summer at The Museum of Flight. We should know the date for that by the end of this week.

Projects

BOXING DAY: Saturday morning, we finally got around to constructing the bee hive kit that's been kicking around our basement for a few weeks.

It was a super straightforward process. The kids can tell you more about it.  Annabelle is up first: 

In building our own beehive, we were able to see just how the hive works inside and out. The wooden box is divided into removable "frames", which hold the bees and honeycomb. Making the frames from wood and glue is a rather tedious process, but absolutely necessary for the hive to begin. The outside part of the hive is a rather simple wooden box, with special attachments to limit the number of bees that can enter and exit at once (usually rotated during the summer and winter, when numbers swell and falter respectively). Building the hive was a good experience overall and definitely worth the minimal amount of effort it took.

And here's what CJ had to say about the endeavor. ...

Recently, my family signed up for PerfectBee, a service that offers a course about bees (and subjects such as their biology, honey-bee honeymaking behavior, hive rituals, etc.) After doing some reading about honeybees in PerfectBee's course, we ordered some bee equipment (alongside some honeybees, of course) so that we could have the bees make honey for us at home. After the equipment arrived to our house, we started construction, in front of our garage. The first part of this construction mostly consisted of gluing and hammering together wood pallets, to contain the fake honeycomb frames. The second part of the construction involved gluing and hammering together the actual honeycomb frames, with large amounts of both small-size and large-size frames being made.

SPROUTS: We are happy to report we have some itsy bitsy pepper and tomato plants in progress after our seed-planting efforts a couple of weeks ago.

Annabelle captured this photo this morning, when she and CJ were watering them.

BOARD: Since it's a new month, we had to go install the birthday board we do at a local learning center.

We thought it would be fun to do a kite-themed board for April. All of the kites were from different colored paper. The tails are made from chenille sticks (pipe cleaners), and I got wired string at a local craft store.

We used some cut sections of a dollar store pool noodle to put behind the kites to give them some lift off the board. 

The cloud is cardboard covered in cotton, stuffed with plastic bags. Annabelle did the face, of course. (BTW, the birthday kids' names and dates are purposely obscured in the photo above.) 

DONATION: Saturday morning, we put the finishing touches on some Star Wars cookies we donated to a local school's auction. 

We were happy to hear the platter sold for $70. 

We always have a little fun with them - like Stormtroopers that are pink or have a Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt.

The Old Ballgame

BACK TO BASEBALL: Thursday afternoon we made our pilgrimage to the Sodo (south of downtown) district of Seattle to the Mariners' ballpark. Finally, the long winter was over and baseball was back!

In the off-season, the park was renamed. Safeco Field is no more. Now, it's T-Mobile Park.

It's worth noting that T-Mobile's corporate color is magenta. And from first-day impressions, it wasn't just a matter of renaming the stadium. It's a whole corporate make over, in magenda in this case. ...

We bought the cheapest seats possible for opening day. That put us under the Blue Jays' flag in left field. We quickly abandoned that spot, as we were penned into the end of a 20-seat long row.

 Before we got too crowded and abandoned that place, we watched the field crew get their acts together. 

Earlier, when we were standing in the bullpen area, we checked out the turf farm and the future garden.

Pre-game festivities included Seattle's own Macklemore performing. 

He performed two songs. Up first was "My Oh My," his tribute to Mariners' broadcaster Dave Niehaus.  

It was nice to see Dave's widow Marilyn on hand for the ceremony. 

We watched the Mariners' team introduced. They ran out on the 'red' carpet. When they rolled it out, I thought, "Geez, the Mariners' need to spring for a new carpet. That one is faded." 

Turned out the new carpet is T-Mobile magenta. Ugh. 

After the intros, it was time for the national anthem. It was performed on guitar by Mike McCready, of Seattle and of Pearl Jam. 

 He shredded it, as always. 

Right after the anthem was a fly over. 

A pair of EA-18G Growler from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island buzzed the stadium.

There was a ceremonial first pitch, of course. This one was super special. My photo is awful because of the smoke from the fireworks that proceeded it, but it was Hall of Fame inductee Edgar Martinez.

 You know, the Mariners' hero, the guy the American League batting championship is named after. That guy.:)

The Mariners unveiled a Countdown to Cooperstown banner. 

We're looking forward to late July when Edgar is inducted!

As day edged toward night, the stadium edged even more toward magenta. I'm not down with that so much, but we do love the fact that the Mariners are 3-0 and in first place. 

And that makes us tickled pink. :)

ROCKET MAN: Part of CJ's homework for his Washington Aerospace Scholars program involved watching an hour-long documentary about Wernher von Braun. Naturally, Annabelle and I watched as well, because who doesn't want to know more about the Rocket Father?

The program we watched was called "Missile to Moon," made by Alabama Public Television. It covered more than the Rocket Man, though. The program also showed how Huntsville, Alabama evolved from the "Watercress Capital of the World" to "Rocket City, USA."

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it.

"Missile to Moon" is a documentary about Wernher von Braun and his part in the Apollo missions that helped the United States begin the space race. Though it shares its name with a 50's Science Fiction film, it's much more grounded in the fabric of reality. The documentary goes as far as to show film feeds from the launches without narration, really bringing the viewer in and making them feel as though they're watching live coverage of something that happened years ago. It also does a great job of informing the viewer on exactly how von Braun was instrumental to the programs and his journey to joining NASA. It's definitely worth a watch even for those who already know the story, as it may be able to provide a fresh take.

You can watch the documentary for yourself on YouTube:

Cake Wars

SUGAR STRUGGLES: So, we had a cake due today for Birthday Dreams, a great nonprofit that provides birthday parties for kids in homeless shelters.

Our birthday girl wanted a galaxy cake. We had watched a number of videos on YouTube and felt confident we could decorate a cake accordingly with the nifty airbrush food coloring sprayer tool we have.

Until ... we fired it up today (for like the second time ever), and it didn't work. There was no control with the on/off trigger, it was just on On ON. Spraying everything, everywhere.

We really didn't have a Plan B. This had to work. So Annabelle and I devised a work around where I would control the 'trigger' by turning the whole unit on or off while she sprayed. Not ideal by any means, but we had no choice. 

We started with a plain ol' white covered cake. (The cake underneath is chocolate brownie with whipped chocolate filling and some mini chocolate chips in the mix for fun and texture.)

The rule for air brushing a galaxy cake is layering colors and starting with your lightest color first. We went pink then blue then purple then black.

 How do you like our super low-rent paint booth? It's two paper grocery sacks on the sides and the bottom of a case of  Top Ramen on the back. Very professional! ;)

From the air brushing to the 'stars' Annabelle did all of the decorating. 

The cake in and of itself was super pretty, but we wanted to make a cake topper for the birthday girl. So, yesterday, we made a shooting star out of gum paste.  This morning, we got up and found it had dried with numerous cracks. TOTALLY not acceptable. Time to reboot.

And so, that's how I found myself suddenly making a batch of cookies and fondant. 

So cake topper 2.0 was a whole lot bigger and more delicious than the first version, so I guess it's OK. Tragedy averted. (Oh, and, yes, the name is blurred.)

Mixed Bag

DAFFY-DILS: We went and visited Kennedy at his new classroom space today. He teaches fourth grade at a school in Seattle's Fremont/Greenwood area. 

It was great to see his classroom was big and bright and organized and inspiring. He had some neat-o math graphics up on the white board that I should have taken a photo of. Instead, I took a(n out of focus) photo of these crazy flowers on the way into the building. They most certainly have to be a daffodil varietal. Pretty cool! They look like yellow fireworks!

Speaking of out-of-focus plant photos, we have lift off! I mean life! Here's the first greenery from the seeds we planted a few days back. Can you picture the future tomato plant?

DESIGNER BAG: Last week we stopped at a thrift store to drop off a bag of clothing. Naturally, we also left with a (smaller, at least) bag. One of our scores was a silver vinyl bag I snatched for $3. "You can do something with this," I told Annabelle.

The something she did was (at my exhortation) convert it into a custom Queen (the band) bag.

One side now sports a silhouette of Freddie Mercury. ... 

 The other has silhouettes of the band members' faces from the cover of their album "Hot Space."

Annabelle used her Cricut (a cool, programmable design cutting machine), and some heavy duty 'outdoor' vinyl to create the images. 

They look so great!

SENSORY: We continue to learn about bees before we take possession of thousands of them in our hive in the not-too-distant future. 

Using the PerfectBee curriculum, we learned that bees possess a delicate sense of touch throughout their body, and that their antennae are especially receptive. This is important, because in the darkness of the inside of their hives, senses other than sight are important, and touch is essential.

This cool video below shows how bees keep their sensory antennae clean, so that they're ready to be receptors. 


We also learned about the bees' waggle 'dance.' By their movement, they communicate important information quickly and efficiently, be it about their next meal or next home. Amazing.

Secret Garden

DIG IT: We're totally enjoying a warm welcome to Spring 2019. 

Yesterday, we visited a "Pea Patch" (community garden) in West Seattle. It's a small spot, easy to miss. But what a treasure! We had a picnic dinner and enjoyed it at a park table and benches. There were ornamental cherries in bloom. So pretty!

And there were lots of beds in baby steps, ready to start producing produce. Cool that part of the garden bolsters an area food bank.

AWESOME OPPORTUNITY: Thursday morning, we tuned into a live STEM in 30 webcast. It featured National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution curator Tom Lassman, who was ready to answer questions and talk about the future of commercial spaceflight. We watched via the STEM in 30 Facebook page, and viewers were encouraged to submit questions as a comment under the video feed post.

We were about 5 minutes late to the broadcast, but late was better than never. I was kind of mortified to see (per the Facebook graphic) that only TEN people were watching. :(

Fortunately, one of the 'ten' was an entire classroom somewhere. But still, seemed like under 50 people for such a cool event. :(

Anyway, we totally took advantage of the situation. CJ is currently enrolled in the Washington Aerospace Scholars program, and his next essay is supposed to be about what kind of aerospace-related career he might be interested in. CJ loves research and history, and is a really strong writer, so he's interested in museum curating and communications as it pertains to aerospace. We were watching via my desktop, so I posted the following question: "My son is interested in working as a museum curator in the future. Any advice from Mr. Lassman about college classes to take or pathways to pursue toward that goal?"

His question was answered post haste, and you can see it in the video below (fast forward to about 17 minutes in). Pretty cool to have access to ask Mr. Lassman a question, and CJ quoting that answer in his essay for Washington Aerospace Scholars will probably look pretty legit. 


Also worth noting: During the webcast, the host pointed people to a Smithsonian website: ISS Science. 

I gave it a brief look and, Wow! We'll definitely be visiting it in the future. Lots of great resources for teachers and engaging information for students of all ages. 

Something Fishy

BIRTHDAY BASK: Tuesday, one day short of spring, the temperature was nearly 80 degrees and it was Ivar's birthday. Both causes to celebrate. :)

If you live in or around Seattle, you know of Ivar's, a chain of seafood-focused fine dining and take out cafe restaurants. March 19th is the birthday of Ivar Haglund. This excerpt from the Ivar's website sums up the genesis of the Ivar's legend. ... 

The story of Ivar's Seafood Restaurants began in 1938 when 33-year old Seattle native Ivar Haglund opened his city's first aquarium on Seattle's Pier 54. Droves of people lined up and paid a nickel to view the sea life that Ivar had collected from the surrounding Puget Sound. Noticing that his patrons often came with an appetite, Haglund began to sell red clam chowder and fish n' chips from the site—an instant success that began his career as a restaurateur.

Smart guy, that Ivar. :)  All of the restaurants in the chain offered buy one (full price), get one entree for $1.14. Great deal! Count us in.

So, the kids (and the dogs!) and I went down to the Renton waterfront Ivars for lunch on Tuesday.  Seems like we were not the only ones with that idea. ;) All totaled, that venture was 45 minutes between waiting in line to order, and waiting for the food. While the kids did the line/food stuff, I managed the dogs, who were pretty unmanageable.

However, the food was good and the sun was delightful and we felt bad that Christian missed it so we went for Round Two when he got home. I stood in line and ordered and waited while the kids and Christian took a lakeside walk.

There is a big deck repair project going on outside of Ivar's.

The work included a patriotic crane. ;)

We checked out the Boeing plant, of course. 

And we thought this 'island' looked like a perfect spot for a future picnic.

EJECTION: Interesting news from asteroid Bennu. Would you believe it's spewing particles from its surface?  Check out this photo, taken on Jan 19, 2019, by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft:

(Image: © NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin)

NASA reports the 1,650-foot-wide Bennu "is one of just a dozen or so known 'active asteroids' — and the only one to be observed up close." 

During a March 19 news conference, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, said the discovery "is probably the biggest surprise of the early stages of the OSIRIS-REx mission and, I would say, one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career," 

The OSIRIS-REx mission launched in September 2016 and arrived in orbit around Bennu on New years Eve, 2018. In mid-2020, the probe will descend to the asteroid and collect a sample, which is supposed to be returned to Earth in 2023.