may 13

"Mom, why does the sun shine?:
"Because the earth is turned toward it."
"No, I mean a scientific reason."
"Oh.  Because it's a ball of incandescent gas."  : ) TMBG.
"No, I want a really scientific-sounding reason."
"Oh.  Uh..... 'The sun is SO hot that all gases are ionized and turned into plasma, which is a very highly-charged state of gas considered a state of matter separate from gas.'"
"That's better."

There's been wiiiiiii for a bit - both of them together.  Maddie calls Trev to help her.  Trev spoke truly a few weeks ago when he said "Soon the wii will be just like my ds - just a regular thing, and no big deal."  They play for five minutes or so, then move on.  : ).  Mostly it's computer play these days.

They sing.

And play together.

 First one for me! - though Eric saw one yesterday.

Maddie invited me to play a game - a basketball game that she made up herself.  I liked it very much.

 
There have been puzzles.

And creations with kid k'nex.  I love those.  Probably one of my favorite toys in this house.

We're making contraptions for an hs eggdrop tomorrow.  :)

Trev wanted to know if it was a contest.  I told him yeah.
He said that he usually only entered contests if there was a prize.  (Never mind that he's never entered a contest in his life as far as I know.)  I told him that there would be lots of winners and losers, but that if he came with an idea completely on his own (we were discussing ideas and collaborating), and his egg survived, I'd give him $5.
"Cha-ching!" he said.  :)

 Test

 Entry #1 (Mama)

 Entry #2 (Mama)

Entry #3 (Madeleine)

Entry #4 (Trevelyn)

We got our Home Science Tools newsletter, and since the ideas totally related to our lives right now, we got on that today.

We've cut a celery stalk and placed it in colored water, but this one called for the same thing demonstrating water through root vegetables, so we're interested in that.  We'll cut the tip tonight before we go to bed, and then cut it half-way or so tomorrow.

I'd like to see what happens to a potato, too.

The other idea in the newsletter was a wormery.  It's been a while since we've done that, and Madd is all about worms these days, so we played.
Sand, compost, soil, and potting soil.

We put leaves and grass on top, and covered it with black construction paper, to keep the top dark.  We left air holes at the top for healthy circulation.

All is well.

And merry and bright.