Sleepy, Skip-bo, Science, School Projects

Neil, Isaac and I dropped Mark off at BYU to spend the day at the Central Utah Science Fair.  In addition to talking to the judges about their projects there were also fun things for them to do.  Mark’s friend brought him home and on the way they stopped for ice cream.  At three o’clock the winners number’s were posted online.  At about 3:01 Mark came zooming down the stairs to check…….drumroll….he had made the list!  And two of his friends had too.  Talk about excitement.  We all went to cheer him on.  (Although Neil has having a hard time being good, so he and I sat out in the hall for quite a while. :-( . )  Third place in the Physics category.  His friends both got second in their categories.  What an exciting night.  The announcer was really good.  Easy to understand and funny.  After the kids got their award they had to “bow or curtsy” for their parents….Mark curtsied.  I love that boy.  He makes me laugh.At Jessie’s school if you get really good grades you get a morning off to go watch a movie at a local theater.  All the movies were dumb this time, so Jessie just stayed home to be with us.  First she got to go spend time with Ken at work.  We thought this would be a fun non-distracting place to work for a couple of hours on High Honors.  And besides the guys who were high on drugs that came into Ken’s work “to get warm” it was a pretty good choice.  She got a couple of her illustrations all colored.  She hung out with me in the afternoon and played with Isaac while I folded laundry.  I love being with my kids.A couple of years ago Ken’s mom got a cat that rolls around on the floor and laughs and laughs.  I think it is hilarious!  This was Isaac’s first time seeing it and after a minute or two he thought it was funny too.Ken’s parents cut down the willow tree in their front yard.  Grandma invited Neil over to watch the workers in the morning.  He loved it.  We went over and loaded the wood into the truck to add to our wood pile.Mark got a late-over with Megan….and somehow Abbie and Jessie snuck in too.  When it was time to go the kids weren’t done with their Skip-bo game and so Megan taught them Speed-bo.  Basically it’s skip-bo with no turns.  FUN, FUN.  It’s Jessie’s new favorite game to play.Rachel came over late to do some laundry and found me up with my two night owls.Our stake set a goal for each family to index one batch a week.  We are trying to get into the habit.  We sure have a lot of helpers when we remember.  Mark, Abbie and Spencer really love it.Isaac is learning to give hugs and it’s so SWEET!  He’ll also give you slime kisses if you are lucky.A little happy birthday to Brian.I went up to cover up the kids before bed and found Neil had snuck into Jessie’s bed.  LOVE IT!  (Do you love the socks on Jessie’s hands so she doesn’t get bag balm all over her covers?  That stuff is amazing for cracked knuckles!)Mark, Spencer and Abbie all played in their grade level talent shows.  Neil, Isaac and I were running back and forth to the school all day long.  It’s a good thing it’s only 4 minutes away.  Mark played Song of the Ocean, Spencer Victory Bells and Abbie played Ode to Joy.

For Jessie’s photography class she had to take some animal pictures.  She found this beetle outside.  But it kept tipping over so she couldn’t get very many good pictures.  Her great idea was to bring the beetle inside and put it on the glass of the coffee table.  Then since it would just tip over she could crawl under the table and get its’ picture.  Neil was her excited observer.Jessie also had to do a “Rube Goldberg Device” project.  Basically it is a long chain reaction to do a very simple task.  Her science teacher scared me to death with the link she sent out for an example.  You can watch it here.  It is amazing….but not even conceivable for an 8th grader.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ

Jessie ended up trying to flip some chocolate chips into a measuring cup.  Using the marble works, a pulley, a ramp, some dominos and a catapult.  She had lots of help and advice from the other kids – so much that she probably felt a little like a mom  :-) .

It never quite worked right and so Ken helped her modify her project and have a mouse trap flip a ping pong ball.Here is Neil the very next night in Abbie’s bed.  He’s such a cute sleeper….once he finally gets to that point.Becca came out to visit for her spring break.  We didn’t get to see her too much.  But she had a lot of fun things lined up with David and Lisa.I was almost finished with Isaac’s birthday banner…but didn’t have a good one year picture of him.  It took me all day of trying to catch that silly crawling baby to get one.  But I sure love his dimple and staticy hair.