You're playin' with your food

The boys' scout group worked on the food pyramid, and we did an experiment with foods - the kids smeared samples of all sorts of things to see which had the highest fat content (glowing after dry)...the only real surprise is how neat they actually were with it all ;-)

Weird Al Yankovich's Eat It

There’s class and order and family

Busy days at school and lots of projects at home. Missing Daddy, nearly losing teeth, skinned knees, eagerly anticipating playdates....sweet boys!

Jack's short story, incorporating American symbols, rhyme animals, silliness and a great friend.
Harry's arty animal classification...I don't remember working on classification until middle school! It's turning into quite the education for me!

Robin Walling's Classify It!

My grandma and your grandma

Dean's mom got to come for a nice visit last week, and we did lots of fun stuff

Jack putting out his version of the welcome mat

Harry giving everyone a little schoolin'

Uncle Les even joined us for a trip to a science museum

Harry doing a little engineering

Grandma snapping Jack's successful building

They even got to do an ecology lesson with microscopes and note-taking

Harry and Daddy working to decide the habitat of these bugs

and we even hit the lanes for a few games

It was a really nice visit - thanx for coming to see us!

Trad and Anon's Iko Iko

sometimes you're the bug

Boys and bugs naturally go together, right? The boys got these little containers at a friend's birthday party, and have been putting them to good use with all sorts of things...this morning it was a little one we found flying around the house.
We ordered those caterpillars for a butterfly project, but one week in, it looks like they were a bust - will be sending for replacements and trying that one again.....

Dire Straits' The Bug

In the wax museum everybody can see themselves

I took the boys back to my old hometown this weekend while Dean went on a golf trip with a different sort of boys. We took in the local science museum (thanx, Aunt Jackie, for the gift that keeps on giving), and fun was had by all.

Jack insists on taking this magnifying glass with him on any scientific endeavor (another AJ gift!)

What a fishy nose Jack has!

They learned about sonic range.......and magnets....

...and even created their own electric circuits

Harry won the raffle for a new book by the author doing the presentation

and she signed books for each of them

Harry took in several displays relating to senses,

including this huge interactive mouth

He took a quiz

and, as is typical, getting the answers wrong was more fun than getting them right - the boy cannot resist a pun! (click on the picture for a bigger view)

He had more luck with ones he could actually reach

I wonder what the biggest pin structure is? They would totally dig it - I wish this one would have allowed them to do their faces or bodies

This is my favorite picture

They are really into making way for themselves lately....back to the taking turns lessons, I guess.

Aerosmith's Bolivian Ragamuffin

SOnshine, it's better than moonshine

We took a little trip to the science museum this week, and it was a lot of fun....and educational...and fun! They have a display representing the sun and moon - this granite moon weighs 1/4 ton
Harry, Zach, Graham, Aunt Jackie and Jack checking out the pendulum

Jack was digging the light display - bustin' a move and watching his shadow

Harry also dug the light and mirror displays (and I caught Jack going to the other side of this mirror)

The boys had fun playing in this hall of mirrors (and, no, Jack hasn't come down with any diseases yet...ewww)

Harry's head on a platter

then it was Jack's turn

There were so many cool displays, and the kids are really into space lately - the planetarium is on the agenda for our next visit.

Harry got in a little astronaut practice

...can you beat that smile??

They got to check out their weights on the different planets

And had a chance to go on several adventures - here's Jack as a scuba diver, checking out the various maps

Aunt Jackie and Harry went on a tour of Greece and Italy and a few other places

before Harry got a chance to test his meteorological skills

Jack took to the seas

Thank you, Aunt Jackie, for a great gift that we can use thru the year....

Here they are pushing the Earth around at the end of a fun day

Allman Brothers' Soul Shine

Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice

The boys were watching Sid The Science Kid this morning and decided they wanted to do their own estimation experiment...sure, it was really just a ruse to get at the spice drops, but we went with it - we're nothing if not supportive of the educational experience ;-)

Jack would NOT allow counting or any other shenanigans
He took his job as reporter very seriously....if you couldn't tell by the Jumbo Pencil (thank you, Aunt Jackie!)

Not the most flattering picture, but I thought it was cute

After getting everyone else's estimates, he carefully weighed his own guess

then they both reconsidered (this was my favorite picture - if you ever try to get two kids to do something cute at the same time, you can imagine my joy at this coordinated spontaneous moment)

The votes were all in...

And Daddy wins! There were 40 spice drops in the glass

Barbara Streisand's The Best Gift