More Adventuring

This week, Adventurers fell on Ash Wednesday, so we decided to go to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

This was very nice. I thought we would have trouble with everything being super crowded because of the day, but it was actually pretty empty.

We got a really nice tour guide all to ourselves.

She was fantastic. Choclo and Oob were.... well, not bad, exactly. They wanted to go up and kiss all the statues of Mary and Jesus they could find. They wanted to kneel down and pray at each altar and smell all the flowers. This was a bit distracting to the rest of the kids, so I ended up taking the Mini-Adventurers on their own tour.

There are a number of chapels in here that are very special to me. I started visiting here as a little kid, before the upper church (the main part) was even open. That would have been a 5 hour drive from where we lived!

I remember touring it with my grandma and mom as a young adult when I lived in Baltimore.

This one is Our Lady of Sorrows and it was my Grandma Marie's favorite. Choclo, Oob and I lit a candle for her there.


Now that I live nearby, it's been interesting to see all the nooks and crannies. I particularly like walking around the outside and seeing all the saints featured on the outer walls. The portico on the north side is especially fun (how often do you see tanks and fighter planes in a religious mosaic? There is a nice part dedicated to military chaplains.).

I also really like the mosaic featuring Creation. That one is inside over the southern arm of the cross. It has a wonderful polar bear near God's hand at the bottom!

This time, it finally occurred to me that the thing to do with little kids on a quiet day was have them lie down in the pews and look at the mosaics on the ceiling. Wow! They were transfixed for a long time.

This is the newest mosaic. The largest dome is still undecorated and there seems to be a continual stream of new side chapels. Every time I go there seems to be some new thing going on. I wonder if the church will be completed in my life time. I rather hope it isn't!

It was a very nice start to Lent!

Anyway, you can take a virtual tour here. Have fun!

Springing Back This Weekend!

Can you believe that we are going on Daylight Savings Time on Sunday?!

Yikes! I believe I have whined extensively about such things already so I'll skip that here.

The last time we were at the US History Museum, we saw a great clip of USO performances from WWII. Among them was this gem. I remember my Dad singing me a few lines of this on relevant occasions...

Back to Science Class: Earth Science

I didn't do the science class this week because I was having trouble getting my act together over the weekend. Then again, I hadn't yet posted what I had done last week, so here it is!

I started out talking about the structure of the Earth. I handed out printouts (that show the crust, mantle, core, etc.) and we talked about how the Earth is not a perfect sphere.

To look at why the Earth bulges in the middle, we assembled these nifty contraptions.

You cut out two long thin strips of construction paper and punch holes on both ends.

You thread the holes onto a pencil or pen so that you form a ball with the pen just inserted a little way into the ball (we stapled the part where the strips cross to give some stability).

When you twirl the pen, the ball flattens because there is nothing rigid inside to support the spherical shape.

Since we were already spinning things, I brought out a tray of 18 eggs - half hard boiled and half raw! I asked the kids to figure out which were which... The trick is to spin the egg and stop it briefly. If the egg is hard boiled, it will stay stopped. If it's raw, it will start turning again because the inertial motion of the liquid inside will still be spinning.

Now for the act of faith! Once two Zoomlians agreed that a particular egg was hard boiled, I chopped it in half with one really quick hard blow from a heavy kitchen knife. They were correct! This was one I move I had practiced beforehand. If you do it fast enough, you get a really clean cut and you can use the eggs layers as a model of the Earth with the shell being the crust, the white the mantle and the yolk the core. The core is not to scale (and you don't have an inner core), but the shell is. What I wanted the kids to see was that the crust is a very small, very thin layer of the Earth.

I then crunched up the egg a bit to show how the crust is in pieces (tectonic plates). We then tried to do a continental drift experiment. I was dying for this to work! I had cut up some paper continents and I laid them on diluted corn syrup in a pan on the stove (it was PANgea, get it?). I then heated the pan so that the simmering motion would disperse the continents. Which it didn't.

I had gotten this to work the week before (after a lot of trial and error), but the corn syrup must have formed a matrix with the water after a week in the bottle.

The problem with using water is that the paper absorbs the water and sinks. It's just too fluid. The problem with corn syrup is that it quickly forms a skin that glues the continents together. If you want to try it, add some water just before you use it.

We then demonstrated what happens when plates collide by using newspapers (sliding over and under) and fabric (folded mountains). We talked a bit about the Ring of Fire.

Then it was on to the favorite activity: volcanoes!

I had made play clay with salt, flour, and coffee grounds. To me, the coffee makes it look more like rock. Plus, the grown ups thought it smelled great! The kids were of divided opinion on the smell.

I also had some small plastic soda bottles (maybe a cup volume) and some plastic plates saved from recycling for just such an occasion.

I had a big bag of baking powder and a funnel.

I had a gallon jug of vinegar to which I had added a squirt or two of dish soap and some red paint.

The kids worked in teams to mold the clay around the bottles on the plates. When they were done, they carried them OUTSIDE to the driveway. When I've only had 3 or 4 volcanoes, I've done them in the bathtub, but I ended up with 7, so it needed to be outside!

The kids used the funnel to add baking soda to the bottle. They used between 2 tablespoons and 1/3 cup... Everything works.

I poured in the vinegar! WHOOSH!! Piles of red foam spewing everywhere! Kids shrieking with glee! Grownups taking two steps back! Do it again! Do it again! And we DID.

A perfect class!!

Happy Lent!

I know I posted it last year, but it's just so perfect!!


We'll be doing our Walking with Jesus poster, coloring in a footstep each day as well as flowers for the things we offer to Jesus.


This year, Mxyl and Klenda volunteered to make the poster. They did it on one long "time line" sheet instead of the big poster I've done in the past. They also did much more detailed pictures - it's well worth a click (on the picture) to see the details.

I love it that the kids are old enough to do this stuff! They pick up different details relevant to their spiritual lives. It's neat to see them grow in their walk with the Lord - although I kind of miss making the big poster!

We'll also be doing our vine and branches project, encouraging the kids to look for "good fruit" in others. Zorg and I made the vine this year.

I usually put just John 15:5 on it, but this year verses 8-12 also sprang out at me, so I put them on too. I'm hoping it's not too text heavy, but I figure the older kids are ready for more.


We're giving up sweets, except for Gospel Desserts on Sundays.

We'll be saving up for chicks and bunnies for Heifer International.


I am hoping to do some of this book with the kids as well. I like to photocopy the pictures and have the kids color them while we discuss the reading. I'd like to do 2 pictures a week. That may be overloading though...

That's about it! Mxyl will be confirmed in April, so we are focusing our attention there. I've learned the hard way not to over stuff Lent with all the great possibilities!

Happy Mardi Gras!

We are celebrating in two ways:

1. PARTY!!! We made masks with feathers and glitter and dressed up in crazy clothes and had our own parade! We are also eating all the goodies left in the house, the traditional reason for Mardi Gras. We will also have pancakes and sausage for dinner - yum!


2. We are getting ready for Lent! Taking all the non essential art off the walls, making our "Walking with Jesus" poster, setting up a vine with branches, that kind of stuff. That's fun, too!




Wait a minute... Did you notice something missing in the larger picture? Where did Oob's hair go?



Before

After

When I did it (yes, this was not self-inflicted by a three year old no matter what it looks like!) Oob looked in the mirror and said "It's Mxyl! No... It's Ooby, but the hair is Mxyl. I love it!"

Happy Birthday, Leena! Round 3

Mxyl's present:

First there was a big wrapped box...


Which had another box inside...








Which had a big shoe box in it....



Which had a smaller shoe box inside...








And then a plastic bottle...

Which had a wrapped envelope in it...







And a note inside...

It says: Why are you looking in here? The present's on the computer!!

Which it was: Chicken Invaders 2!

She was delighted!

Happy Birthday, Leena! Round 2

The Crazy Chicken Party!

We had egg jousting! You spin your eggs into each other and whichever egg doesn't crack, wins! This egg is labeled, "You crack me up!"

We played Pin the Beak on the Chicken!







And, of course, we had a jello chicken cake with ice cream!

And a very happy time was had by all!!!

Happy Birthday, Leena! Round 1

Leena turned 9!

Happy birthday, Sunshine Girl!!!

She had a fabulous day!

She got this fetching frock from her godmother!










Her brothers and sister really outdid themselves with wrapping.

Klenda did boxes inside a box: 3 Littlest Pets and a fancy ball.

Leena loved it!

Zorg carried on his grand tradition of fabulous presents with a Zhu Zhu robot hamster and hamster wheel!




Mxyl's present needs a whole nother post!

Happy and Sad News

Wednesday afternoon we got the very happy news that we were expecting a baby.

Unfortunately, Friday morning, we discovered that we had lost the baby.

Probably our little one was gone by the time we got the positive results.

We're actually doing pretty well. I spent some time at Adoration on Saturday and that was very healing. God gives in eternity, so our dear one isn't really gone, just in His arms instead of ours.

I'm still glad we were given the gift here, even if only for a little while.

Up and Down

Choclo's hair is growing up. Way up. Yes, perhaps I have put off the younger boys' haircuts for a little too long. Really long.







Our main bathroom walls have come down. It had been suffering from tile leprosy for quite a few years.

You know, the not too essential tiles would gradually fall off and make the room look horrible. We finally decided to do something before it spread to the rest of the bathrooms.

Really, I'm not too sorry (except for the expense) because that bathroom was built in the 60s when, evidently, turquoise, yellow and black tiles were considered a fantastic fashion statement. Also, the blue floor tiles had aged differently so they really didn't.. agree with the turquoise wall tiles. They must have matched originally, right? I should have taken a "before" shot, but, really, it's kinder this way.


The forsythia have come out quite nicely!

In fact, Choclo discovered crocuses blooming in the lawn yesterday- it must be Spring!

Sorry for the rather random posting lately.

The good news is that I have started some thyroid medication and I am feeling like myself again, so I should be posting more regularly.

We had a fantastic science class yesterday and I hope to get that post up by tomorrow.