Moon Missions & Pumpkin Patches

PRICELESS PHOTO: Above, CJ and Annabelle are pictured with Al Worden, one of just 24 humans who have flown to the moon. We attended a presentation of his at The Museum of Flight on Saturday. It was a standing room only crowd in their theater. Nothing like a moon traveler to get people's attention!Worden was a wonderful storyteller. He basically took us blow by blow from lift off of Apollo 15 (his moon mission) through splash down and the Navy SEALS plucking him out of the Pacific. AMAZING stuff. What a treat to hear a living legend share his stories like that. I took lots of notes during his talk, which I'll transcribe at a later date, but here are a few fast facts:

-It took TWELVE seconds for their rocket to clear the tower (that's forever compared to most launches I've watched). It was the heaviest launch ever (and still is). So instead of the thrown back in the seats with an elephant on your chest sensation you usually hear about for lift off, Worden's experience was QUITE different. He said it was like being at a red light, having it turn green, taking your foot off the brake and NOT stepping on the gas!
- Yes, he drank Tang. He hated it and says he hasn't had it since.
- He didn't get along with one of the two other astrodudes on his mission. He said in the end, it was a positive result for the mission, as they were constantly trying to outperform one another.
- One of their three chutes was destroyed during descent - basically dissolved by toxic fuel being jettisoned as they descended. Fortunately, their capsule was actually designed to land with two chutes, with the third just being an extra one for safety's sake.
- Worden was fired from NASA just nine months after his mission. It's a long story, which he tells in "Falling to Earth," his new book. He was exonorated years later, but it clearly still stings like crazy.
- He was greeted and treated like a hero at The Museum of Flight.

Before the even presentation started, I asked CJ and Annabelle to look around the auditorium. I pointed out to them that they were two of just 5 or so kids in the audience. Most people were my age and older. I told them that they were SO lucky to have the opportunity to hear the stories of a man who has flown to the moon, as those astronauts are so few in number and will only shrink with every passing year. And I'm happy to report, CJ and Annabelle were awesome little audience members. In fact, three times during the talk CJ leaned over and said to me, "This is really interesting." :)

While we waited in line to get a book autographed, the kids enjoyed some freeze-dried, astronaut style ice cream.Afterward, when we got a chance to visit with Worden, he was nice as could be. We're so lucky to have been in a time and place to get to meet him!

Naturally, while we were at The Museum of Flight, we took some time to revisit some exhibits. I was THRILLED that CJ practically begged to go see the World War I exhibit. He really seems to dig this place - more than any museum/science center/zoo we've ever visited. In the WWI exhibit he was absolutely entranced with a multi-layered map showing Europe in the WWI era. He really wanted me to photograph each layer for posting to the blog, so here goes ...


ICING ON THE CUPCAKE: Sunday, we FINALLY finished Annabelle's custom "Vanilla Cupcake" cat hat. We made the arms/scarfs that attach to the sides of the head, as well as little pockets on the paws that serve as furry mittens. Naturally, Annabelle had to trick it out with some glittery pop poms, representing sprinkles on a cupcake. In order to get proper placement of the frills, Annabelle employed CJ as the model. I told him to pretend he was a "Project Runway" model, but he was nonplussed with the job. He found the hat itchy and too warm. Fortunately, he soldiered through.

THE GREAT PUMPKIN: Today we made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch. If we'd put full stock in the official weather forecasts for the day, we most certainly wouldn't have gone. They were all dire forecasts - 90 to 100 percent chance or rain, with some accumulations, perhaps even lightning or thunder. But when today dawned (grey, albeit), Christian and I looked out at the gray skies, sized them and some radar action up, and decided we'd take our chances. Good call on our parts. :)
We actually saw some blue skies while winding through the challenging and pretty corn maze, where the corn truly was as high as an elephant's eye! (Can you seeCJ?)

Above, the kids are at the entrance, eager but confident.
And here they are in a "Rocky" style celebration at the end. We did take a few wrong turns (four by my count), but for the most part it was a pretty successful navigation through the maze.
After the maze we visited the Kids Korral. There, CeeJ and Bee tried their hands at lassoing a 'cow.' They weren't good at it. Perhaps the pro rodeo circuit is not in their futures.

There was also a milking station the kids had fun with. There was also a bubble table. CJ spent more time there than Annabelle. He blew one bubble that went from his wand toward the farmhouse, made a 360 degree circuit around the yard, andwhen it got back to him, he popped it. :) After that it was on to a hay maze and a corn bin. I think the corn bin was the highlight of both kids' farm visit. They did snow (corn?) angels, dove in, swam, slid, you name it. It was sensory overload (in a good way).

We had to do the obligatory stand by the ruler pose ...In the Kids Korral, our two also REALLY dug the ducky races. They got to pump water to flood and flow rubber duckies down a gutter trough.

Of course, we visited the pumpkin patch, where we found a couple of cute pumpkins and a scary scarecrow. :)

Friday Funnies

SIGN OF THE SEASON: Yesterday we spied some Count Chocula in the store. Though it seemed omnipresent during my childhood, these days, it only makes an annual appearance around Halloween. We bought a box and the kids both had it for breakfast. (It's chock full o' vitamins! Really! ;) )

DO YOU SEE ME NOW?: This afternoon, Annabelle was darting around the house. She stopped only long enough to ask (with a straight face), "When I run so fast, am I a blur?"

Um, no.

PICKIN' AND GRINNING: This afternoon CJ harvested half of our apples. That's right, he plucked one of the two apples growing on a spindly, crooked, tipping over tree planted a couple of years ago.

CANT TAKE THEM ANYWHERE: This afternoon we had to head to Fred Meyer to buy more ink for the thirsty HP printer. (Seriously, I need a new printer. This thing drinks expensive ink cartridges like a Hummer burns gasoline.)

We're on our way in the store and in front of the home electronics department, Annabelle decides to start running. It was a poor decision, as about three steps into her dash she does one of those launch-horizontally-into-the-air-then-rocket-forward-before-landing-on-the-belly falls. It was impressive, as far as trips go, and awful, of course. We got her put back together and went in search of our ink cartridges. We find them and as we're checking out, a young boy, about 4, is standing about 8 feet away, absolutely STARING at us, unblinking. As we wait in line, the kid continues to stand and stare. And stare. Finally, CJ says, rather loudly, "What is that weird kid doing?"

Doh!

Naturally, we had A Talk about his choice of words. :0 Interestingly enough, in talking to CJ about it, what bothered him most about it was that the kid didn't appear to have any parent in the vicinity. That weirded CJ out. ;) I told him that we all frequently look at other people and think, "That's weird!" but calling someone weird out loud and in public is pretty much frowned upon. He felt horrible and assured me "There will be NO MORE embarrassing moments in Fred Meyer." AOK, CeeJ. :)

HOME WRECKERS: So, should I take it personally that while I'm toiling on Star Trek and Star Wars cookies for the kids' biggest bro's birthday that Annabelle and CJ are each browsing the Cake Wrecks Web site, laughing HYSTERICALLY. Wonder if they were expecting to find any of my past projects there ... CJ found the blog about awful Mickey Mouse cakes especially amusing.

Hopefully, these treats won't show up there anytime soon ...
I got the design for the Star Trek cookies from a great blog called Bakingdom.com.
OH AND: We did math and language arts today too. Srsly.

Spaced Out

THE FALLING LEAVES: The leaves changing color are pretty and all that, but I would have liked a couple more weeks of summer. I'm not digging how it's pitch black until 8 a.m. and dark by 6 p.m. And the days are still getting shorter. :/

TICKLING THE PLASTIC: Despite a bridge lift, we made it to Shoreline on time for music class. As usual, the kid enjoyed making noise, er, music, on instruments before class started. OUT OF NOWHERE: I got an email this a.m. letting me know that a photo I'd taken of Annabelle in ballet class had been turned into a swatch of fabric by a stranger. Interesting ... She combined it with some floral print and a quite from Shakespeare sonnet: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" (or Maie). The writer told me she ordered the fabric so she can make a ballet shoes bag out of it.
McLUNCH: Thursday is our long day. (Ironically, it's about the same length as a normal school day.) We have to leave home at 8:45 for the kids' music class up north, and then there's a big gap in the middle before their 2 p.m. LEGO class. So, we read books, do math, and go on adventures.
Today's adventure included a trip to Value Village in Lake City, as well as a McDonald's with a kick *&A^% Playplace. Seriously, the thing was HUGE.
As usual, it was CJ, Annabelle and the wee folk. One thing that was nice is that CJ and Annabelle both spent a fair amount of times coaching/coaxing toddlers through this gargantuan playground. They made some fellow McParents happy, that's for sure.

LEGOLAND: This afternoon CJ worked on a complicated helicopter design. When he was done with that, the got to put some time in on the group/class build of the space shuttle on the launch pad. And then he started on another solo project, some sort of boat.

Meanwhile, Bee's still toiling away on her Blue Angel.

The best part of LEGO class today was a special guest visitor right before. Grandpa R stopped by on his way between Vancouvers. It was nice to see him!

TO BOLDLY GO: See this picture? ...

It's cookies. We made. Right here on the MPA campus. And last night they were INSIDE space shuttle Discovery - on the flight deck/in the cockpit, specifically. And this is just one of several photos that blew me away. Amazing how far sugar and spice can take someone! :)

Scrappy

TEXTURED: In science class today, the kids used different swatches of fabric to make collages. Annabelle made a princess owl. CJ, well when I asked to see his creation he replied, "I hate to burst your bubble but I didn't finish mine." He seemed a little nonplussed with the project overall. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

CJ did do a lovely job on his homework for science class. I was really impressed with his drawings - especially his reproduction of my canvas bacon and egg shopping bag.

MEANWHILE, IN THE ART ROOM: I was pretty surprised to see Annabelle walking out of the art room with this today. I think the Susan G. Kommen Foundation would approve. :)

I asked her why she chose to make the pink ribbon. She said, "I was just thinking what would be an interesting project that I might be able to take home? I made it with tinfoil, paper and tape, that's all it is." She chose pink, metallic purple and metallic brown to paint it."

Today while the kids were in class, I actually got some work done. It was fabulous. I was able to file their monthly reports (a requirement to attend their school), as well as do some research for some IN ADVANCE lesson planning (instead of doing so many things on the fly).

SHOPPING: We've been working on an art project for the past couple of days. Rick's birthday is coming and as party decorations, we're putting his mug on some sci fi movie posters. This has given CJ and Annabelle an opportunity to improve and refine their Photoshop skills.

One of the posters we're doing is "The Matrix." Out with Keanu Reeves, in with Rick ... It was CJ's idea to change the actor's name on the poster to Rick's and he even had plenty of helpful suggestions to make that happen.
MASKED MAN: We're starting to pull the Halloween decorations and costumes out of closets. CJ thinks he looks pretty menacing in this. OVERHEARD: Overheard CJ muttering in his bedroom: "I can't seem to get my underwear on while eating this cookie ..."

I'm sure we've all had that problem at one point or another.

Slow Mo

THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL: On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, which launched humanity into the Space Age. To commemorate that event, we watched a couple of cool videos about Sputnik, and read some about NASA's take on the historic day.

I thought it would be fun for the kids to make their own satellites, so I gave 'em each a potato, some tinfoil, some stickers and glue and they got busy making Spudniks!

Sticking a toothipick deep into a potato is harder than you might think. Fortunately, no blood was shed, in CJ's case.

Annabelle chose to leave most of her toothpicks protruding, producing a rather lethal looking satellite. She said its design is "to poke away alien attackers."

And there you have it, two Spudniks.

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK: An email from the kids' yoga teacher today mentioned she wished there were eight days a week so that she could get more things done. That made me think of The Beatles' song, which I couldn't get out of my head. IT also prompted me to ask CJ and Annabelle for their thoughts on the topic.

CJ wrote: "The Eighth Day: The eighth day is Funday. Funday is after Friday. I like Funday because I wish there were 8 days in a week."

Annabelle wrote: "The Eighth Day. The eighth day will be Moonday, the opposite of Sunday. so it will be at the end of the week. And everything will be opposite."

What would your eighth day be? :)

THESPIAN: This afternoon CJ attended his first Theather of Possibility class. It's held at the University Heights Center which is housed in the century-plus old Seattle Public Schools University Heights School in the U District. Nice that the old building wasn't sold off to condo developers, as was the case with the old Queen Anne High School. Or that it wasn't handed over to well connected special interests/the lowest bidder, as was the case with other SPS property. We admired the old woodwork and architecture before class time.For the first class, one parent was asked to stay with the student. Christian stayed with CJ today. They both had lots of positive things to say about the experience when they got home. Interestingly, it sounds like several of CJ's classmates are homeschooled. We'll see how things develop here, but so far, so good.

SLOWING DOWN: The kids did lots of reading today, we did a math lesson and some grammar, but mostly I was trying to get over a cold. I should have been trying to do that yesterday, but for some crazy reason, yesterday, on 2.5 hours' sleep, I thought we should go to the Seattle Center and the Space Needle. While that was fun, it wiped me out for sure. Thankfully, I'm a little bit better today, as is CJ. Christian is still sounding pretty bad though;.

Monday, Monday

PUZZLED: A rainy Monday in Seattle. What to do, what to do? How about visiting the Pacific Science Center? We spent a lot of time splashing around in the fountains at Seattle Center this summer, but hadn't been inside the Pacific Science Center in months.

The kids have been wanting to see the new "Design Zone" exhibit. According to the PacSci Web site, "Design is everywhere we look and in everything we do, and math is behind it all. Behind every dance mix, there's a beat. Behind every thrill ride, there's velocity. Behind every half-pipe, there's a vert ramp. Design Zone uses hands-on activities to show how design concepts become real world experiences in the arts, entertainment, and extreme sports. Get behind the scenes and create your own dance beat, rollercoaster, skate park, video game and more."


The Design Zone exhibit was super cool and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. (No doubt this is due, in part, to the fact that my favorite time to visit such places is around 2-3:30 p.m., when we'll miss school field trips and the after school crowd.) It was all about math, but not in an overt way, which was fantastic. For instance, there was this larger than life Etch a Sketch type exhibit.
One player got to control the X axis, while the other one controlled the Y. With teamwork, you had to try to draw shapes the computer showed.


CJ LOVED this roller coaster experiment. By adjusting the height at which you released the ball up top, you would hit a particular tube producing a certain musical note down below.
There were a couple of other roller coaster themed activities. One let you move sections of coaster track around a display board. My personal favorite coaster themed activity was this one - where you were given a track to try to replicate. You could vary the height and depth of your whoop-to-dos (that's a technical term, BTW), to try to match the physics of the computer's track. Then there was this game - it was all about velocity. Three people raced to a finish line on the screen in front of them by pedaling with their feet or their hands. Christian won. :) There were a number of cool lights and music themed displays, too. Music = math, you know. CRAZY TRAIN: Before we went to the cool math-n-science exhibits today, we went to an IMAX movie at the Pac Sci Center. "Rocky Mountain Express." To be honest, I vacillated about whether or not to go. Would the kids be entertained for an hour by a movie about a steam engine? In a word: Hell yes! (Wait, that's two words.)

The film was about the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Christian and I were marveling at the story as we walked out of the theater and we agreed that if anyone proposed such a project today, it would sound ridiculous. Factor in that the railroad was built over 100 years ago and it's downright astounding.

The movie's cinematogrophy was breathtaking and the narrative was compelling. We were all rapt for the entire duration. We here at MPA HIGHLY recommend "Rocky Mountain Express."

WHILE WE WERE THERE: After the Science Center, we took advantage of our membership to the Space Needle and went on up. No surprise that the place wasn't too busy on a cloudy October afternoon. We enjoyed having free reign on the interactive displays on the Observation Deck. The view, even on a cloudy day, is wonderful.

On the way up, they FORCE you to take this obligatory tourist photo. Following is evidence why you should NEVER take the obligatory tourist photo.
FLY LIKE A BIRDY: Sunday afternoon we took a short jaunt down I5 to check out the crazy cool indoor skydiving facility iFLY Seattle. I had signed Christian up for a flight and he was a willing guinea pig. ;) No surprise, after watching Christian do it, CJ and Annabelle are all hot to earn their wings. We're hoping to go back there for Annabelle's birthday.