Falling Arches

ROUND TWO: We got the tank ready two days ago, but I've been putting off pouring the Triops eggs in because, well, I'm afraid of another failure.

As you may recall, we managed to kill and entire Sea-Monkeys colony in less than 24 hours in the not too distant past.

However, we can't just have the tank sitting there forever, filled with nothing but water, sand and a plastic castle. So this morning we took the plunge.

Precisely per directions, we poured one half of the eggs into the tank. And now, we wait. The directions said they'd start hatching in the next day or two.

Fingers crossed. ...

MORE TRICKSTER TALES: This morning we started a new book, Virginia Hamilton's "A Ring of Tricksters." This 111-page book has animal takes from America, the West Indies and Africa.

Today, we read four tales from America. The animals featured included a rabbit, an alligator, a buzzard, a wren, a cat, a rat, a fox and a wolf. There were tricks aplenty, as well as morals to the story. In one, the moral was "Bruh Flop ears is always asking for help. Then he helps himself!" In another, it was, "Never call in a bigger rogue to add, subtract and divide for you. For there's always less than honor among thieves."

WITHOUT WORDS: We also "read" a book called "Time Flies." Before I opened its cover, I asked the kids, "Do you think a book can tell a story without using any words?" They were skeptical.But together we paged through the book. When it was over I gave them a sheet of paper and asked them to write the words describing what it was about.

CJ wrote, "There once was a bird. He/she went to the museum. The bird thinks the dinos are real."

Annabelle wrote, "It's about a little bird traveling through time. Characters: Bird, dinos. The bird flys into a museum then travels in time to when the dinos were alive!"

I pointed out to the kids that oftentimes animation tells a story without words, and I turned to YouTube. There, I showed them three funny shorts in the "Simon's Cat" series. This one was CJ's favorite ...

ON THE INSIDE: CJ asked if he could check out Capcom's Web site, as he was curious about a new Mega Man game coming out. We checked out the fan forums and official Capcom blogs, and didn't find a specific answer to his question, but we did make another amazing discovery. We found photos of some cool sculptures people had created doing cutaways of oversized video game character toys. We found one of Mega Man, revealing his robotic inside; a neat-o one of Mario, guts and all, done by artist Jason Freeny, and then we hopped for Freeny's Facebook page where he posted a step by step of a Yoshi statue.

WADDLE, WADDLE: We headed to the Seattle Children's Museum this afternoon for Art Club. Imagine our surprise when we found out the museum was celebrating National Rubber Duck Day today.
We were there just in time for a Ducky parade. The kids were all issued blower beaks (courtesy of Ride the Ducks, a super fun city tour/attractions). And so a couple dozen kids waddled and flapped through the museum. We had to cut CJ and Annabelle's waddling short, so they could make their way over to Art Club on time.


CASTLE HASSLE: Today's advertised theme at Art Club (a one hour workshop that's free with museum admission), was building a castle. When we checked in, the two women leading the workshop both told me that I didn't need to stick around, that I could wander the Museum, but I had to stay on site. I found that kind of funny, because like your average adult is just dying to get time in the Children's Museum alone. ;) My first inclination was to stay in the room, but I reminded myself I don't need to be hovering over the kids all the time. That said, part of me thinks I should have gone with my first inclination. ...


I sat outside the workshop, surfing the Web on my cell phone. About 25 minutes into class, I notice CJ is roaming the room, definitely not castle building. I decide that would be a good time to check in. ... When I went in he was teary and stiff postured. Everyone else was sitting around a table, trying to build an arch out of croutons and clay - an odd combination, to be sure. And one that didn't work well for any of the kids, might I add. The crumbly croutons did NOT stick well to the terracotta clay. CJ was super frustrated, which I get, but his reaction to that frustration (tears and belligerent "I quit!" type talk) was completely unacceptable. He was acting about half his age, maybe less. We had a little Talk and I worked with him to try to build an arch, but honestly, it was an impossible task given the materials at hand. I told CJ it's not that he can't build an arch, it was just that these materials were troublesome. I told him we could have all sorts of fun building an arch out of marshmallows and toothpicks at home.


The next task at hand was drawing a castle. CJ's creative juices had pretty much run dry during the arch debacle. All he drew was a door. However, as we talked about his door, he explained it was a door to "a magical, mystical castle." I asked who lived in the castle and he said it was a fierce dragon. I asked how people get into the castle (hoping he'd draw a door knob or something) and he said they don't. :) I suggested that maybe people tunnel in. At that, I was told the castle has a metal floor. He did finally decide that smoke from the dragon's fire breath might be leaking out from around the door, so the castle did get that bit of embellishment. (Bee's is left, CeeJ's is right.) Once art was over, the kids had lots of fun in the museum. They spent a lot of time in the multi cultural villages - especially in the Japanese house, where Annabelle whipped up "sushi soup" and they enjoyed it sitting on pillows at a low table, Japanese style. Before leaving we also swung through the theater - an exhibit we'd never seen before. The kids had fun operating the backdrops and curtains and the theater lights. Here, CJ's commanding the stage. ..

Spinning

Photo by Joe Stockton

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN: We started our day with a delightful book called "Love and Roast Chicken - A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains."

I plucked it off the library shelves because I knew the kids had recently heard trickster raven tales during their Native American unit at Musikgarten. I thought it would be nice to augment that with a trickster tale from another culture.

The fantastically told and wonderfully illustrated story was about Cuy, a guinea pig, who kept getting the best of a fox. Near the end of the tale, a local farmer is angry with Cuy for tricking him, too, and threatens to feed him to his daughter.

The kids recoiled at the thought of eating guinea pig, but as the author explained, it's not uncommon in some places in South America. I was very happy to have a more personal example to use with the kids, telling them about our family friend Joe who just got back from the Andes. I was able to show them Joe's 100+ photos of the trip on Facebook. There are lots of stunning shots of the Andes, but there were several photos of one of the unique meals he had while there. Photos by Joe Stockton
It was really great to be able to tie "Love and Roast Chicken" to their music lessons and into a geography/social studies lesson. I also found a great teacher's guide online for the book (PDF here) and used some ideas from it.

The kids each took and aced Accelerated Reader tests on the book. They're piling up the points and have visions of prizes in their heads.

CHARTS: We had science homework to do before class this afternoon. The kids were a bit surprised when it ended up being very math homework like. ;)

Last week in class they made mobiles. The homework was a worksheet with a picture of a couple of mobiles and questions about how many pieces of each component (paperclips, rubber bands, straws, cards) a class would need to make the mobiles.

I told them that the best way to tackle the problem was probably by being organized. So, we created charts and plugged our data in and then the calculations were pretty straightforward.And in case you're wondering, that's chocolate frosting on Bee's cheek. (Scientists and mathematicians have to eat, ya know!)

TOPSY TURVY: After noon we were off to Shoreline for science. It's always fun wondering what we'll be doing in class. Today, it was all about tops.

Initially, the kids were given thin straws, some wheel shaped weights and told to make some tops, and that's just what they did.

CJ LOVED this activity. He was inventing all sorts of games (battle tops, obstacles courses) with the tops. Good times!

After class, we headed to the cafe area for some popcorn. The was plenty of popcorn but no bags to put it in. So, we borrowed some plastic cups from the cupboard and the kids sat and ate their popcorn while watching "Bob the Builder" with some classmates. That was nice.

ANCIENT CHINESE SECRET?: There's a story taking the Internet by storm right now. It popped up on three different educational lists I subscribe to, and one friend emailed it to me. It's an opinion piece by Amy Chua, a Yale law school professor, extolling the virtues of "Chinese" mothers. It starts with her list of things her daughters have never been allowed to do: "attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin, not play the piano or violin."

And she's just getting started.

It's a looong, inflammatory (IMHO) article that outlines the writer's opinion that Western parents breed and a traditional Chinese mother's approach is better.

My overriding thought when reading it is, "Wow. I'd hate to be one of her kids!" My second thought is that she is hoping to sell a boatload of her new book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by being controversial.

I'll admit, there were a couple of minor things she said that I agree with - things like I don't think all the kids on the last place team should get trophies just because, and I do think the parents need to act like parents and make decisions for their kids, BUT for the most part I thought her approach to parenting sounded downright abusive!

One of her claims: "What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it," hence her young children being forced to practice violin or piano for three hours a day (even depriving them of food or bathroom breaks if they can't PERFECT a piece). She claims, "To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences."

I just don't agree with the second half of that. Yes, you have to work at things to be good at them, but I don't think kids on their own "never want to work." I've seen kids work extremely hard on things especially when it's something they have a passion and affinity for.

Another ridiculous claim: "If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion." First of all, yes, of course it could happen and second, whose hair is being torn by whom?

And lastly, she derides activities like sports and drama and claims "no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, 'I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends.' God help any Chinese kid who tried that one." How funny that she has no clue that Villager Number Six would be the lead role. ;) What an idiot.

Call me crazy, but "joy" and "fun" are purposely built into our schedule here at MPA. I suppose that means CJ and Annabelle are destined to be horrible failures by "Tiger Mother's" measure. ...

Snowy Eve

NEXT VICTIMS?: Today we started down the path of another science experiment. This time we'll be trying to grow "prehistoric monsters" called Triops.

Our first steps today involved reading all the directions and setting up their tank (filling it with sand, water and their 'castle'). Tomorrow, we'll put the triops eggs in the tank and hope like hell we don't kill 'em all.
In reading up on triops, I learned that hundreds of thousands of them were taken to space on STS-121 in July of 2006. They hung out on the International Space Station for six months before returing to Earth in late December.

TAKE NOTE: Tuesday is Musikgarten day, so this morning we made sure the kids were caught up on their homework. They had to copy some note pattern cards into their workbooks, and locate those same note patterns in the song "Canoe Song."
MEGA MATH: Today we reached the end of Chapter 5 in the kids' math books. That meant it was time for a review exercise, which was four pages long and included addition, subtraction, some weight-related stuff, less than, greater than, multiplication and division. It was a bit daunting at first. "This is impossible," Annabelle whined.

"No it isn't, Annabelle. Nothing is impossible!" CJ said with gusto. And then they each powered through the pages and only missed one problem apiece. I was very proud of them.

HOW GOES IT: I realize we should have done some helicopter education ahead of their flight on Saturday, but figuring it was better late than never, today I found some great info - including an informative video on the How Stuff Works Web site.

ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM: We spent a significant amount of time yesterday getting ready for the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) game last night, pitting Oregon vs. Auburn for the national championship. (I heard on the radio today that game was the highest rated cable broadcast EVER. Amazing.)


We cooked and decorated and cooked and then cooked some more. About the third quarter Annabelle handed Christian and me a note labeled 'privite' on one side. The other side said ...I thought it was pretty darn cute. :)


GREAT GAME: This afternoon Annabelle was playing with the wonderful Nintendo DSi XL. She was playing a Brain Age game - which is actually many games. And one of the games shows the player a list of words for X amount of time, and then the words disappear and the player has to write as many of them as they can recall.


SNOW GO: We very nearly didn't go to yoga today because snow was in the forecast for this evening and I reeeeally didn't want to be stuck up on Beacon Hill in a snowstorm. However, when 4 o'clock came and it was snow free, I decided to take a chance.


Mercifully, the snow held off until about 7 this evening, more than an hour after we were back home from yoga. The kids (and Christian) played outside in the snow for a good half hour - all after bedtime. But it was now or never, as the white stuff is supposed to disappear early tomorrow.

Up, Up & Away

CUTRATE COPTER: Months and months ago, there was a Groupon special offering a helicopter tour of Seattle for three for around $80. Not cheap, but a more than half off price, and a rare educational opportunity, I thought. And what I found especially intriguing about the deal was the helicopter pictured - it was the bright yellow copter we see flying over our house on a daily basis (sometimes multiple times a day). So, I bought it.

We sat on it and sat on it all summer long. And then all fall. And then winter came. And then I got the email that it was going to expire at the end of January. Yikes! Time to book a copter flight. Christian booked it for Saturday, the 8th.

We were sooo lucky. It ended up being mostly sunny on Saturday afternoon!

The liftoff point was right by Boeing Field. Christian and the kids walked toward the copter at about 3:10 and their liftoff was at 3:15. Here's a view of the cockpit ...

And here's a view of me filming them taking off ...
It didn't take long for them to disappear from my sight. ...


The flight plan was downtown, the stadiums, the Space Needle, Lake Union, University of Washington, Lake Washington, Ballard Locks and Ship Canal, Fisherman’s Terminal, Elliott Bay Marina. Here, they're heading over Lake Washington. The 520 Bridge is in the frame.
They flew over Sodo, including both stadiums. They could see the 68,000 fans in Qwest Field rooting the Seahawks on (to a victory)!
They passed downtown and the Space Needle.They flew over Gasworks Park ...
and Green Lake. They flew over Husky Stadium ...
and then westward, toward Ballard. Here's the Ballard Bridge ...
and the Ballard Locks. And here's the railroad bridge just west of the Locks.
They flew over Magnolia - including our neighborhood! The yellow arrow points to our house (the one with the copper toned roof). And here's "hilltop playpark," or Ella Bailey Park as it's more formally known.Puget Sound, Lake Union, Lake Washington, the ship canal - there sure is a lot of water around Seattle.

Needless to say, I was quite happy when I saw the yellow copter returning to the airport, my family on board.

Afterward, we headed over to the Columbia City Full Tilt to score some very limited edition Memphis King ice cream (peanut butter, banana, and chocolate covered bacon), in honor of Elvis' birthday. While there, the kids, of course, played all their classic arcade and pinball games.

A good day, indeed.

All About Elvis

THAT'S ALRIGHT MAMA: Today MPA was all about celebrating a birthday - the birthday of a man gone long before CJ and Annabelle were born, but one whose mark on America is indelible.

"Before Elvis, there was nothing." - John Lennon

"Elvis changed everything." - Bono

"Elvis is my religion." - Bruce Springsteen

Without telling the kids what I was up to, I just cued up "Jailhouse Rock" on YouTube and blasted it through my computer's booming sound system. The kids wasted no time in spontaneously grabbing guitars and the trampoline and getting their groove on.

Not a bad way to start the school day. :)

Next up was "That's Alright Mama." I told the kids Elvis cut the track on July 5, 1954. Born on Jan. 9, 1935, Elvis was only 19 years old when it was recorded. The song was on the radio two days later and the rest, as they say, is history.

We took a break in the dance party to learn a bit more about the man behind the music.

First we hopped to BrainPop's biopic of The King. It was cute, informative and pulled no punches (explaining that in the end Elvis was reclusive and a drug addict). The kids took a quick quiz about the video's contents, and completed a word search puzzle involving Elvis-related terms.
Next, I gave them an Edhelper.com story, "The King." It had two characters (a pair of spiders living in Graceland) and a lot of dialogue, so I had them read it as a play. They really enjoyed that. At the end of that story, there was a comprehension quiz, which they aced, and a couple of questions.

One of the questions was "Elvis got his first guitar when he was 11 years old. Would you like to play guitar? Why or why not?" CJ wrote, "Yes I would and I have one!" Annabelle wrote, "Yes. I would if I had one, which I do!"

Another question was, "Would you like to become a famous singer? Why or why not?"

Annabelle wrote, "Yes. I would if I ever get good with my instruments." CJ wrote, "No thank you. I can't come up with songs."

Imagine CJ's surprise when I told him that Elvis never wrote a single song. :)

TOUR TIME: Next up, we visit took a couple of video tours of Graceland. We started with the "Visit Graceland" video to be found on the front page of Elvis.com. When the camera panned through the room with Elvis' jumpsuit collection, Annabelle blurted out, "I want to go there! I want to go there! I want to go there!"

I told her that makes two of us. :)

We also enjoyed the "Graceland for kids" video on the kids portion of Elvis.com. There, we also found a children's activity book (PDF), in which Annabelle found a couple of coloring pages. She also did some of her own artwork later in the day. Love the hair. :) At the suggestion of a lesson plan found on Elvis.com (PDF here), we talked a bit about goals and confidence and what the two have in common.

I played this video of Elvis singing "Confidence" from "Clam Bake."


The kids really liked it (and asked to watch it again). I think part of the appeal was that Elvis was interacting with kids in the video.

After viewing it, I asked the kids what they thought 'confidence' means.

"You have to have confidence because if you're in that kind of slide, there's no way out except sliding out," CJ said (referring to the girl in the video).

According to Annabelle, confidence means, "You have to believe in yourself!"

FIT FOR A KING: After a morning of learning, the kids were ready for a snack. But we wouldn't be having any ordinary snack, no siree. I told the kids they were going to make one of Elvis' favorites - a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Don't let some knock off recipes fool you - Elvis didn't like the bananas sliced. They were to be smashed in with the peanut butter, so that's what we did. Then we spread it on bread and grilled it in butter, of course.

I cut it into quarters and served it to the kids. The reviews weren't stellar. "I think it's OK," Annabelle said with a curled lip.

CJ was more blunt. "I wish this never existed," he confessed.
ONE FOR THE MONEY: Even our math was Elvis themed today. Our lesson was inspired by a PDF math lesson I found on Elvis.com featuring story problems starring Elvis. For instance, one problem was, "Elvis worked at Crown Electric. He drove a delivery truck For $1.00 per hour. If he worked for eight hours for each day for five days, how much would his paycheck be for the week?"

I reminded the kids that math story problems were like mini mysteries. Listen to the story and you get the clues you need to solve the problem. Annabelle got it immediately. She said, "He makes $8 a day, times 5 ..." and knew the answer was within reach.

Another one I threw at them was, if it's 2011 and Elvis died in 1977, how many years has he been gone? Next to her calculation of 34 years, Annabelle extemporaneously wrote, "long time ago."

And I asked them, "If Mommy is 45 now, and Elvis died in 1977, how old was Mommy when Elvis died?"

"You were a 'tween," CJ said, after figuring out the answer was 11.

LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY: I was OK with all this Elvis until I made the terrible mistake of clicking on a YouTube video that included news coverage of Aug. 16, 1977, the day he died. I managed OK through that, but when footage of his funeral procession started, that was too much for me.

But as hard as it was to watch, it was impossible to look away. ...

Hooked on Science

TAKE A DIVE: I feel very fortunate - we have so many nifty science-y things around the house, it was hard for me to decide which one to try today.

I ended up opting for a 99 cent Value Village score. A couple of weeks ago I found a Cartesian diver kit that had been untouched by its original owner. Their loss, our gain! And don't you just have to love a box that says "BE AMAZING!" on it?

Our first step in today's experiment was taking stock to make sure we had all of the elements - two "pipettes" (a plastic bulb with a plastic tube attached), two wires, two brass hex nuts. Check!
We had to affix the hex nuts to the bottoms of the pipettes, and cut off most of the tubes, which we did with no trouble. Annabelle helped wrap the blue wire around one nut and fashioned a hook shape. CJ helped wrap the red wire around the other hex hut and fashion a loop.

Per directions, we filled a recycled water bottle to the brim (that part was important), and squeezed the pipette with the hook-wired affixed to fill the bulb about half way - to the point where it would bob but not sink. We filled the bulb on the loop-wired pipette a little more, so that it would automatically sink to the bottom of the bottle no matter what. Our bobbing hook and sinking loop pipettes were placed then the bottle and then the fun began.

The kids took turns trying to hook the red loop with the blue wire. First they had to squeeze ... And then, at just the right time, let go!
It took them each a few tries to get the hang of it, but before long they were controlling their diver pretty well.

"What's a 'Cartesian'?" CJ asked at one point. Good question, CJ, glad you asked!

The literature that came with the kit did a nice job of explaining that a Cartesian Diver is an experiment that was first done hundreds of years ago. It's named from Rene Descartes (1596-1650) of France, who was a philosopher, mathematician and scientist. Descartes purportedly made his divers out of glass medicine droppers.

So why do the divers diver? Well, when they were squeezing the bottle, CJ and Annabelle were forcing the trapped air in the pipette to compress into a smaller space, making the diver's weight increase. Conversely, when they let go, the compressed air in the pipette expands, forcing water out of the diver and allowing it to float back to the surface.

The kids have played with the diver on and off all day. We certainly got our 99 cents worth!

SOAKING IN: After he finished math this morning, CJ asked, "Do you remember a song called 'Four Seasons'?"

I asked if he meant the one by Vivaldi, and he said yes. He started singing part of it da-dah da-da-da da da-da! and wanted to know which season it was from. I guessed "Spring," and we hopped to YouTube to confirm it. Bingo!

He and Annabelle then asked if they could listen to all four seasons. You know I said yes. :)

We talked about how Winter might be the best know of Vivaldi's "seasons" and guessed that perhaps because it's the most dramatic. Fall and Spring are both often used on soundtracks and for, commercials, too. After listening to them all, we decided summer is probably the least famous. We wonder if that's because it's the least dramatic (to our ears). But it's not that Summer is uninteresting - especially if you're listening to it while watching sand animation artist Ferenc Cakó at work.

ON POINT: The kids continued to rack up Accelerated Reader points today. They took quizzes on the five books we read yesterday.

Not like I'd want them taking standardized tests everyday, but I do see value in this exercise. First, it demonstrates that they retained and understood what they read, and second, it desensitizes (for lack of a better word) them to standardized tests. There are going to be tests they have to take in the future, and knowing how to take quizzes and tests is an important skill for them to have.

LAST CLASS: Annabelle's last soccer class was this afternoon. She and her one and only classmate got to choose their favorite games from class to play. They had a great time - her friend even running out of his shoes at one point (Annabelle kindly helped him put them back on).

At the end of class they got little certificates of completion. We wish we could sign her up for another session, but they are moving the class to Mondays, right at the same time as her ballet class. As an alternative, we're mulling over signing her up for an indoor soccer session at a local arena. Stay tuned ...

Balance and Books

STEADY AS HE/SHE GOES: Christmas break is but a happy memory, and today the kids were heading back to science class. Happily, I remembered to check their folders to see if they had homework. They did!

Fortunately, it was quite simple and all about balance, which is the unit the class is in the midst of.

The kids were predict whether walking a curb with arms down or outstretched would be easier. They both predicted outstretched, and their experiment afterward confirmed it. Next, they were to predict whether standing on one foot with one's eyes opened or closed would be easier. They both thought "open" was easier, and their follow up test proved that to be the case.

Lastly, they were challenged to walk balancing something on their heads. We chose a baseball scorebook. Annabelle went first. It took her a few tries before she was able to talk about an 8 foot line. CJ was up next. It slid right off his head initially, which prompted him to try to cheat (see below).

OUT OF THIS WORLD: Our first order of business this morning was unzipping another bag o' books from Seattle Public Libraries The kids were excited as I carried the bag to the couch. The mystery of not knowing what literary adventures awaited inside.

"It says 'Outer Space!' " Annabelle squealed with delight upon spying a tag on the bag.We read them in no particular order - I just reached in and pulled out a book. First up was "There's Nothing to do on Mars," by Chris Gall. It's about a young boy and his parents, who are colonists on Mars. The boy roams the planet trying to find something interesting. Along the way he finds old toys (one of NASA's Mars rovers) and even parties with Martians (who are stinky, because they can never bathe, because there's a lack of water). Davey and his robot dog manage to scare of some action that changes the landscape of Mars forever. We loved the book - the illustrations are wonderfully detailed and colorful.

Next we found "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers. It was about a lonely young boy who wanted a star for a best friend. Catching one was harder than he thought it would be. Rather than a rollicking adventure (like the first book) this book is "quiet." It would make a great bedtime story.

"Earth to Stella" is a journey along with a girl getting ready for bed. As she prepares, she has fanciful visions of herself rocketing through space, exploring planets and meeting aliens. The title comes from her dad's voice, as he often interrupts to keep her on track in the real world.

Next, we were surprised by "Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars," is a collection of space poems and paintings by Douglas Florian. It was a nice addition to the mix because the poems were non fiction, and the artwork was interesting, as Florian mixed media (painting, prints and collage, to name a few).

Lastly, we read "Astronaut Handbook," which is an engaging, early primer for young children who are thinking about becoming an astronaut.

All of the books were wonderful; we're really liking the books-by-the-bag from the library!

GOING MOBILE: Soon it was time for science.

Today, the kids got to get their Calder on - more specifically, experiment creating hanging mobiles. As the (Alexander) Calder Foundation will tell you, "He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony."

It was a cool exercise, combining creativity, physics and requiring patience. :) Making mobiles is hard - those darn parts move when you touch them! In all, they each made three mobiles, each a bit more complex than the last. CJ got frustrated a couple of times, but found a way to make it work.

CANDYLAND: I decided to mix things up a bit today by trying to find a new grocery store in Shoreline, since we're up there once a week. I would LOVE it if there was a Winco in our parts, but, alas, there's nothing even close size and price wise, really. However, today we did discover an enormous, new looking TOP Foods. I think we've found our new favorite grocery store.

Why, you ask? The prices aren't jaw dropping, by any means, but things were just a little bit cheaper there than we're used to paying at Albertsons and Fred Meyer. And I'd forgotten how nice it is to shop a suburban grocery store, with its aisles wide enough to drive an SUV down and a relatively small amount of other shoppers.

But the best part of our discovery today? By far it was TOP's bulk candy section. I've never seen anything like it at any other store (grocery or otherwise). This photo shows significantly less than half of it. It just went on and on with every kind of candy you can think of, including rock candy and margarita flavored jellybeans! Boy, will this resource come in handy on some of our crafty cooking projects.

MORE AND MORE: This is an increasingly familiar scene around our place at all hours of the day and night - CJ and Annabelle, reading independently just for the fun/personal enrichment of it. Bravo!