Sunday, October 24, 2010

Dry Ice

The boys attended a program at Penn State this afternoon called Science U BOOt camp. They do neat things with chemicals and things like liquid nitrogen and dry ice.

Devin was pretty enthusiastic about all of it. Trevor went to Science camp over the summer, so he wasn't quite as excited about it.

Devin just said to me, "What is dry ice again?" I told him it was frozen carbon dioxide. He said, "Oh, I can take that to school." I told him I didn't think so. He told me, "but they have a dryer! They use it to dry food and stuff."

We told him it didn't really work that way.

Maybe they need to dive a little deeper at Science camp!

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

New pictures

As you know (because I've told you) I have trouble deleting pictures even when they suck.

But, still. Here you go...

Pictures from June and July.

Some highlights...
I know this one is sideways, and I apologize. But, I love it. Because Jaci said, "Trusha! Push me on this swing. I cain't swing myself" in the cutest little southern accent that side of the Mississippi.


And, I like this one because I think it will forever haunt her mother, that little attitude.


I like this one because it reminds me how Devin soundly rejected me when he first saw Memaw and then soundly rejected Memaw when Logan arrived:


This one is good because it reminds me how Jena wanders off and quietly joins other families when you're not careful.


I like this one because it's a great big turtle.


I just like this one:


This bear was sad. He or she paced back and forth. I wish they would let it go or euthanize it. That's not a highlight. It just is.


John took William out on the ATVs. Vikki and her family made it out for the 4th of July to pick up Logan It was dusty that day on the ATV.


He really does like watermelon:


Despite evidence to the contrary:


She's cute.


See?


Devin!


This is Trevor with patriotic hair.


And, a patriotic face:


Devin with patriotic hair and face:


As soon as she got on all the firemen's gear, she struck a pose:


Phineas or Ferb in FIREWORKS!!


Then, we went to Cape Cod in Mass.



We took a whale watching cruise.


We saw spouts:


And, we saw whales:


I think we saw 10. And, here's what we've learned. Each whale has a unique pattern on their flukes, the backs of their tails. So, the whales can be identified. The whales we saw had been named, and they were:
Cajun and her calf
Milkweed
Perseid and her calf
Alphorn (the big male)
Percussion
And, some others.

I will be honest. I could only remember Cajun and Milkweed. I found the rest of the cruise company's twitter feed!

We also learned that since the calves don't have to dive down to get food, they don't mind hanging out by the boat. They were very curious and unafraid. And, playful! They dove under the boat several times and came up on the other side. One calf batted some seaweed around. It was a great good time. And, we have about 500 pictures of it, so please go to the album link and click through.




fluke:



This is a baby



This is on the way back to the harbor after the whale cruise. We don't know these people. We just think it's a good picture.


I like this short because it looks panoramic, but it's not:


the boys


The boys took a fishing cruise with grandpa, Jim and Ramona. Devin caught a scary sea robin. He actually caught 2. Here is one:


Since I took this picture, Trevor has lost 3 teeth. The top two that were crazy loose and one on the bottom. So, that's 5 teeth all together. And, 3 (THREE!) in the last week.


Devin actually knocked him in the face and knocked one out, and Trevor gently took out the other two. Also, the tooth fairy didn't get these either.

Enjoy!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

And, today...

...Trevor studied density. I asked him what is the density of his head. He didn't test that, but he did test the density of a golf ball.

And, Devin made a coil bowl and a spider out of clay. He also came home covered in paint.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Father

We had a tornado warning tonight. So, being a good okie, we stayed outside.

It was getting a little ugly for the the non-Okies in my immediate family, so John took the boys back to the car before it started to rain. I stayed outside filling out a form so Devin could play Fall Soccer. Just as I was wrapping up, the storm started flinging a light persistent rain my way. So, I ran back to the car.

When I got to the car, Devin asked if I had dodged all the rain drops like him.

And, I said, "no, you must have gotten that magical power from your father."

He said, "which one?"

What he's learned

This morning, Devin complained of a tummy ache. I hope it was for nothing. And, I offered him some milk, telling him it would coat, soothe and relieve his upset tummy. Trevor piped up and said, "that's right! Milk is neutral and will neutralize the acid in your stomach."

Is this true? I don't really know. But, I think milk is slightly acidic and therefore is unable to neutralize acid. I'll let him know later today. He may have been getting milk confused with milk of magnesia...

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

How to tell the difference between an acid and a base

Both of the boys are attending summer day camps this week at Penn State. Trevor is attending a science camp and Devin is attending an art camp.

This morning, John quizzed Trevor on acids and bases because that is what on the agenda at his camp today. Trevor came up with an example of each. Maple syrup is a base and lemon juice is an acid.

One way you can tell the difference is if you get lemon juice in your eye, it stings. And, if you somehow "randomly" (that's what he said) got maple syrup in your eye, it wouldn't sting.

I sure hope he's wearing safety glasses today.

For the record, he insisted that he knew that this is not the right way to test the acidity of an item. He strongly insisted, in fact. But, I still thought it was pretty funny.

Here are some pictures from his summer camp.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Career goals

After our trip to Cape Cod, the boys both have new career aspirations. Trevor wants to be a marine biologist who teaches fighting in his spare time. Devin wants to be a surfer who entertains people, and when he's done doing that, he'll do something else.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

This really happened...

...Devin wanted to make lunch for everyone the day. So, he did. He made turkey and cheese sandwiches. And, he wanted to make those sandwiches without any help from me. And, when it was time to eat, and he called Trevor over, Trevor said very sincerely, "oh, thank you, Devin. That is so nice."

And, at the next meal, Trevor declared that Devin should go on the food network. Well, Devin agreed with that. He thinks that some day he will go on Iron Chef. And, after that, he will be the Cake Boss. Now, that's on TLC, but I didn't correct him.

And, today, he was hungry, so he made himself another turkey and cheese sandwich. And, then he asked me if he could make Trevor the same thing.

And, all that really happened.

PS, today, Trevor learned how to ride his bike with my help. Devin has been riding his bike a lot, and he can take off and stop on his own. He also does turns where he leans into them and makes me afraid he will fall and scrape his legs. But, he doesn't. He's got good balance.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Donuts

On our trip back to Oklahoma recently, we stopped at a Drury Inn in Columbus, Ohio. We got was was apparently their last room. That's what we guessed anyway, when we went in the room and discovered a conference table along with the king sized bed. On a side note, we're now too large a family of 4 to comfortably fit on one king sized bed.

The next morning, I took advantage of the conference table to hold a mock meeting. I brought to my mock meeting everything ridiculous about meetings I could think of. I went on too long, took off on tangents, etc.

Then, Trevor really surprised me by contributing his little gem to our meeting when he said, "Will there be donuts at this meeting?" and I was reminded of all the best meetings I had ever attended.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

the Lollipop Posse

We went to Oklahoma last week to visit my family, and we had the opportunity to meet the new chief of police. Or, is that the new Police Department. I'm not sure. I tell you what, I liked him.

Vikki and I had taken the kids to the school park. When I was a kid, I'd never go play at the school park. If I wanted to go to a park, I'd walk to the town park or try to figure out how to get to Williams Park in Pawhuska. Back in the day, that was a cool park. It might still be the coolest park ever. The play set is huge, and there's no plastic is sight! Now, every park I know of is the coolest park ever with monster play sets that are brightly colored. Now, since every park is cool, none of them are special. So, I bet Williams Park is retro cool. If it still has that monster play set. I'm going there next time I go to Oklahoma. There and Woolaroc. Can't stop me.

I digressed.

So, after the school park (which is cool, but not special like Williams park if they still have that awesome playset) we walked home. We were walking along the highway because that's quicker. Our cousin saw us, so I think she beeped and hung out the window flapping her arms. I might be making that last part up. After the arm flapping, she parked her car, and got out so that she could visit.

We were a large group there by the highway with 3 adults, 1 teenager and 7 kids. And, the kids kept wandering off, so we were all spread out and looked even larger than we were.

He didn't flash his lights, but the police department did drive on over to make sure everything was OK. Logan was pretty excited to see him and immediately asked for a lollipop. That confused me, but I assumed there was some history there.

The Wynona Police Department is very safety conscious, so he said that he would meet us at our house instead of distributing lollipops on the highway. That would be crazy. And, he knew where our house was. And, honestly, that's pretty commendable. He's new to the area, and he already knows where my parents live. Most of our group was from out of town, but he knew where to find us. How about that?

So, he met us at my parent's house and everyone got a lollipop. Well, everyone under the age of 13 got a lollipop. And as he was getting ready to leave, a local drove up the street on his lawn mower. It was dusk, and the lawn mower didn't have any headlights. So, the lollipop posse commented on that, and then drove himself off into the sunset. The lawn mower guy didn't get a ticket or anything. I think he was joking about that.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Strep!

Trevor has strep throat. I'm pretty sure he picked it up on school Tuesday or Wednesday. Blech!

His school had a camp out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. Trevor actually slept over Thursday night, and when he got home on Friday, his teacher told me that Trevor had a sore throat, she mentioned it might be strep, and sent him on his way.

(Did you see how nonchalant I wrote about that sleepover at a camp out in the woods I had never seen? That's how nonchalant I was in real life, too!)

I took Trevor to the doctor on Saturday morning. I realized that waiting and seeing probably was just prolonging the pain for no good reason since this struck so suddenly. The doctor told us to avoid sharing food with Trevor and that he should change his toothbrush in three days to avoid infecting himself.

So, since then, if we offer Trevor some of our food, say a french fry that we haven't bitten, his first inclination is to refuse since that would be sharing food.

And, he keeps telling me that we should change his toothbrush since he's been sick for three days. He's really taking charge of his own health!

As far as the rest of us, I don't know. John and I both had scratchy throats from thinking about it on Saturday, and Devin acted puny from 7:30 until bedtime tonight. I guess we'll just see.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Recent Photos

John took these pictures of Devin. I don't know how he knew how personalityicious Devin was gonna be, but he sure did:






We got new deck furniture and a sunsetter retractable awning so that we could actually enjoy it. (It gets super hot back there during the day)



The school asked for a photo of Devin, so I told John, "get the angel filter and go take a picture of Devin!" This is one he snapped using the angel filter.

Here's another:

(Sorry it's sideways).
I cut his hair the other day. Just a trim. He cried and cried and cried because his bangs weren't in his eyes any longer.

Here's Trevor READING!



John took the boys up Mt. Nittany the other day:

View from the top with the State College Area Hot Air Balloon floating by.


Note what Trevor is carrying. He brought reading material on his hike up Mt. Nittany!








he's reading his reading material!!


Here they are on the way down.


My nemeses.


my neighbor accidentally moved some sparrow eggs in one of her birdhouses. They started to hatch in her garage.


Helium balloons...sad children. Everything is as it was and always will be.

That's enough for now. Gotta get back to work!

you can see the rest for yourself here.