SEVEN

Our little guy is all the way to SEVEN! The world is getting bigger, he had a hard time deciding between Mt. Rushmore and France for his favorite places to go. We scurried out of town for birthday week, so our birthday conversation is a bit belated this year.
Happy 7th birthday bud!

Click here for 5
and here for 6

2nd Annual Birthday Train

Grannie Annie is on a mission to take FFM on all the trains in the state of Colorado. Turns out there are A LOT of trains. Last year they went for a ride on the Georgetown Loop, this year we all rode the Royal Gorge Railway near Cañon City.

We had reserved seats, and were free to move about all cars of the train. It was a really nice day and we all spent a lot of time in the open air car watching the rafters on the Arkansas River. Three even fell out in a series of rapids and we watched them scramble back to their rafts!

 Before getting to the actual gorge we rode through some rolling hills.

 Our waitress brought FFM special birthday cake!

 Another year of a fun tradition.

How to Get Psyched Up When You're Six-almost-Seven

Swim season has gone very well for us this year. FFM is still 6 and so gets to swim the 6 and under and his choice of 8 and under events. Weekly swim lessons most of the year have helped a lot, his stroke mechanics improved immensley over last year. Swim meets are fun and, new this year, he's much more aware of how he places and if his time improved.

A lot of athletes have special routines to get themselves ready for their competition. FFM's is remarkable. The video is shaky because of course I'm dancing, too.

 It's pretty consistent, when he dances before the start he drops time. I wonder if it loosens up his mind and body. He's becoming a bit famous for it, various other swimmers come up to greet him and comment on his moves and what he's going to do next time.  We also have a complicated set of hand and body gestures so that when he looks up to find me before the start he confirms exactly what he's supposed to be swimming. We're quite a sight.

Summer "Science" #3

Last week's science day was interrupted by a dentist appointment so we kept it short and simple.

It all started when FFM got a new bike accessory...

and while it's heaps 'o fun it takes A LOT of chalk. And of course it takes it's own special size of chalk. We looked up some homemade chalk recipes online and started saving paper tubes for molds. On project day the weather was a bit blustery so we took our project to the laundry room in case it got messy.

 First we lined the tubes with squares of wax paper. This is supposed to make it easier to get the finished chalk sticks out.

 Then we mixed plaster of paris with tempera paints and some water until it was smooth and easy to pour.

 Finally, the only part that got a little tricky, we poured into our molds that we'd set up on a cookie sheet lined with foil for easy clean up. Since we mixed in an old bowl that didn't have a lip it was challenging pouring into the tops of the tubes.

We're still waiting for it to dry, the plaster/chalk set very quickly but we can tell that it isn't all the way cured because some of the paper tubes are damp at the bottom. I'd guess another day or two and they'll be all set to strap into the Chalktrail and color up the streets around our house.

On the Subject of Bathrooms

1.  Only parents of boys will understand the pit that comes with hearing, "MOM! I PEED ALL OVER THE BATHROOM!" Even better, 6:15am on a Saturday.

2.  At the swim meet today the facilities for women were a little limited. No matter what there was always a line at least 4 deep for the 2 stalls. When I went in one stall was occupied (and apparently had been for a while) by a very young girl singing her lungs out to "Let It Go" from Frozen. On one hand it was totally annoying because, you know, we all had to go, on the other it was gratifying to know that my child isn't the only one who will sit on the pot for thirty minutes singing and telling stories to himself.

Summer Science #2

At the end of last summer both F and I felt like we'd frittered our summer away. We did lots of fun camps, but somehow never got around to doing all the fun excursions, experiments, and exciting things we thought we'd get squeezed in to our short three month break. This year I MADE A PLAN (who's laughing at the freaky planner?). We've got a summer bucket list and F and pal Emma both asked if we could do some experiments. I browsed the web and some of my old camp/school planning workbooks. I knew I'd get hung up trying to get all over town for supplies, so I took my list of projects and spent half an hour on amazon gathering all the supplies we'd need.

Last week we did the mentos/diet coke experiment. Kiddos learned that the CO2 in the soda interacts with the "dimples, like on a golf ball" that are found on mentos, causing the "explosion." We compared A&W root beer and Diet Coke and determined they're both fun to blow up.

This week we're learning about fluorescence and the light spectrum. We talked about infrared light and ultraviolet light and the light we can see and the light we can't see. We didn't get much deeper than that, but we sure had a good time with glow water.

We grew some water beads, a control group in plain water and our test group in glow water.

For the glow water recipe, and a whole list of other fun recipes, click here

First we made a sign with a yellow highlighter and a yellow marker. We talked about how the highlighter glows or, fluoresces, in the black light but the marker just looks black because it's not reflecting the yellow we normally see in the visible spectrum. our beads, using regular water in the while bowls and glow water in the blue bowls. Then we made our glow beads using regular water and plain water. The kids wrote their hypothesis on which ones might glow under the glow light.

 It took a couple hours for our beads to soak up all the water, and then we headed to the basement!

 They had a great time trying to figure out what color the beads were in regular vs. black light. We turned on the lights to check it out. Same handful of beads, both times.

 I have a feeling there might be drips of glow water all over the basement now. The kids splashed around for a while, I'm thinking we should save the water and make some glowing Ooblek next.