Penguins and Poison

The end of March/beginning of April was crazy with school projects. Clark had a penguin project for school and also the science fair project. They both turned out really well! He researched King Penguins and created a penguin out of a 2 liter bottle and some papier mâché. 

The class decorated their classroom like the Antarctic. It looked amazing. It was so fun to have Clark show us around and see how proud he was of his work.

Clark's poisonous snake project was really fun. He really knows a lot about snakes. I was quite impressed.

Love this one of the board in action. He was showing Gigi and Boompa how dangerous each snake was.

For the record: Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Brandon and Jenny also came to support Clark at the science fair.

Fizzy Eggs Experiment

Our winter break was extended due to the polar vortex. And while most of Chicagoland looked like this

We stayed nice and toasty working on our fizzy eggs. Clark watches YouTube a lot for Minecraft stuff, music videos and science experiments. He saw this video and knew that he wanted to try it out for himself. So we gathered our supplies and made some fizz eggs. I didn't have enough baking soda, so we used washing soda instead. It still fizzed but I don't think it made a good enough paste. The eggs were super hard to form.

Fizzy Eggs Part 1

Fizzy Eggs Part 2

And finally, my favorite video, Fizzy Eggs Part 3

Clark is anxious to do an entire series of science experiments and put them on YouTube. He is so funny!

Museum Day

Next time we think it's a good idea to visit MSI a few days after Christmas, stop us! It's crazy busy there and you can barely move! Even with our membership which gets us a shorter line, we still had to wait for almost an hour...and the sub tour sold out just before we got to check in! Ugh.

The boys had such a great time there though. We brought along Clark's friend which made Clark very happy! They loved the U-505 exhibit and the weather exhibit. We had fun looking at the Christmas Around the World trees. Cam posed in front of the Canada tree. I went to nurse Kara just as we were getting ready to leave, but I couldn't find a place to sit down. It was that busy! So I sat down on the floor in what I thought would be a very out of the way place. A few minutes later people start congregating around me and start asking, "when does it start?" I was so confused until I saw the snow coming down. Of all the places I could pick, I pick the indoor snowfall where a ton of people gather to see the snow. Not so out of the way...

Is it Science or Industry?

Days off of school seem so rare and precious! I'm finally feeling up to taking all three kids places...that is until I took them all to the Museum of Science and Industry! Haha! I know most of the exhibits are hands on, but I just wanted them to stop pushing buttons! Aghhhhh! We did have a great day though. Even if I needed a tranquilizer.

I'm so glad that Clark reminded me of our souvenir photo series. Here is the second photo in our series. You can find the rest of them (the other one with hopefully more to come) here.

We were also super lucky to stumble upon the "Bangs, Flashes and Fire" show. Clark loved it and participated every chance he could. He got a sticker for identifying safety glasses as protective gear...smart kid, haha! Kent hid behind me the whole time. Kara happily watched. The first thing they did was set some ice on fire. That was pretty cool, but we were wanting to see more than a little candle flame even if it was burning ice. So then they made some different color fires and we learned that the things they add to the fuel makes the different colors. Lithium makes pink and copper makes green. I can't remember what the super tall flame was, but it was high! The bangs came at the end when they blew up a hydrogen balloon. Then they filled a balloon with rocket fuel and blew that one up. I don't have a picture of that one since I had to cover Kara's poor ears for the bang!

The museum has SO much in it that I never feel like I even scratch the surface of what we can see. We walked down by the ships and race cars. Then went to the weather exhibit where Clark got to walk in the vortex. Kent didn't want to. Clark also wanted to step into a tornado and experience 80 mph winds. He's fascinated by tornadoes right now, so I think it's fun for him to learn the science behind them. We also went to the YOU exhibit where Clark was able to take a spin on the hamster wheel and Kent finally enjoyed something! He practiced with a Tai Chi master.

Jason stopped by the museum after work and joined us for the last half of the day. They had a special Disney exhibit there too. I was so excited to see some Mary Poppins stuff. The carpet bag was really like carpet - long carpet. I always thought it was a bit more like tapestry. I have to watch the movie again. They also had the prop storybooks from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I thought they were really cool to see. They had a lot of information about the animation process which always fascinates me. I am always shocked at how much goes into making an animated film. Simply amazing. The last stop of the day was at the Animation Studio where they taught us how to draw Mickey Mouse - without an eraser! It was fun and most of the Mickeys turned out pretty well! I always love seeing Clark's drawings!

Metamorphosis

Kent went on a fun adventure with Grandma and Auntie Melissa collecting tadpoles at Aunt D's home. They came back with a few of them and we've had a great time watching them turn into frogs. We have to let them go soon or we'll have frogs jumping around the house.

A little Sesame Street treat for you! Love that show.

For our other metamorphosis adventure click here.

Mag-NEATO!

There are some days when we are stretching to find something really cool to do, and there are other days when a huge magnet rolls up and parks itself at Costco. The Muon g-2 is now home at Fermilab. You can read about the whole journey and more here. It was hard to explain to the boys, but I thought it was quite cool. I was just hoping that I would see someone from the Big Bang Theory there. No such luck. I did almost break an ankle...that's something!

Our Painted Ladies

We finally did it! We were able to observe the life cycle of the butterfly up close and personal. Last year we tried to hatch praying mantises, but it didn't work. Butterflies are much more reliable.

Here they are after they have had a few days to eat and get bigger. We were so surprised at how fast they grew!

Here they are after they have formed their chrysalis.

And finally we have painted laides! They boys loved watching the caterpillars turn into butterflies. What shall we try next year? Nothing too adventurous...they are still bugs, you know.

And some other favorite shots from the butterfly release! Come on Clark...mooooooove over!

Making some observations...

Completely oblivious to the fact that the butterfly is on his shirt!

What is a Geode?

Clark had his school Open House/Science Fair this week. He was VERY excited about his project and seeing his school friends after hours.

Just a normal expression from this boy. He was on speed the entire night since he was seeing his friends.

He did such a great job on his project. He did a Research Project on geodes and learned a lot. 

Kent wasn't to be left behind though. Especially not if there was a hammer and rocks involved. Here the boys are breaking the rocks open to see if they have a geode inside. Sometimes they did. And sometimes they didn't.

We also found an "easy little project" to make our own geodes on Martha Stewart. Drilling eggs, working with weird stuff called alum and wearing rubber gloves were just a few of the highlights.

 Geologist at work...

We decided to celebrate with some ice cream afterwards. This was taken just before the entire table was covered in chocolate ice cream from the little one. Aye. I wonder what his first science project will be!

Clark is already brainstorming ideas for next year's event.

Gravity Hill

Before a vacation I always look on RoadsideAmerica.com for silly destinations near where we are going. That's how we found the Shoe House and a little detour for the way home called Gravity Hill.

Here we laughed at the laws of gravity as our car and water rolled uphill!

Jason defies the laws of gravity and feels pretty cool doing it!

Check out the video on the website. It's pretty cool. My video didn't turn out very good.

Sink or Float?

One of our favorite summertime activities....sink or float. We gather everything we can find and toss it in the pool to see if it will sink or float. Sometimes we like to make hypotheses about whether or not it will float. I wonder what his hypothesis was when he threw in the tricycle.