Happy Holidays!!!!

I know I have not been too active on this blog lately. I just wanted to say that I am still here, just busy. We went on vacation in November, and since we've been back it has been one project after another! And now...we are all getting over a cold. I expect to be more active in posting after the New Year.

I hope you all have a happy holiday season.

Enjoy the show from our family...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1552398511

Chemfest 2007

On Sunday, we attended Chemfest at Boonshoft.

On our way there, we passed the Weinermobile!

Once at Boonshoft, the girls each received a passport that got stamped after completing an activity.

The girls experimented with soap's effect on grease. They also tried cleaning a grease stain with just water, and saw the difference.

You can find out how soap works by visiting http://www.worldofmolecules.com/interactive_molecules/soap.htm

They also made some lip balm.

The girls experimented with liquid density. They used soap, water, and shampoo and a marble to demonstrate which one is more dense. They found out by dropping a marble into a tube filled with one of the solutions and timing it's decent. The shampoo won; it had the slowest time.

They made some paint impressions of fish.

And extracted the beta carotene from carrots.

They experimented with mixing colors.

And saw how to seperate colors.

The girls learned about surface tension and dissolving.

And tested for acids, bases, or neutrals.

Georgia's hypothesis was correct, Sprite is an acid. It turned red when she added the purple cabbage juice.

Olivia found out that Amonia is a base. It turned blue.

Vinegar is an acid. Then Georgia added some baking soda to it. Bakind soda is a powdered base. The acidity in the vinegar turned to neutral.

We saw how good, or not so good, we washed our hands with a special lotion that shows GERMS on your hands when placed under a black light.

And they made some paintings and changed the colors using different chemicals.

Eyes on Earth

We visited Boonshoft's new exhibit called Eyes on Earth, which discussed satellite technology.

The Orbit Table was a big hit. We saw the difference between elliptical and circular orbit paths as the balls swirled around the vortex.

The girls put together a puzzle.

We got to play with different technologies used in satellites...

...playing with heat sensors, magnetism, and an ultrasound altimeter.

Then they tried their hand at getting a satellite working.

And we learned about the importance of pixelation size in picture quality.

It is a very informative and fun exhibit.

The exhibit will be at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery until January 6th.

http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58

Noodle Art

In honor of El Dia De Los Muertos, the girls and I made some skeletons with pasta and beans.

Olivia's finished project...

Georgia's finished project...


And mine...

We discussed the Mexican holiday and what it means to those who celebrate it. We also looked at pictures of loved ones that have died, and talked about our favorite memories with each person.

Happy Halloween!

This year, Mark was a pirate, I was a queen, and the girls were cowgirls.

We attended the Halloween parade on Thursday.

On Saturday, we went to a Howl-O-Ween party at Boonshoft.

Here, Georgia is posing in front of a scary looking polar bear.

We got to see all kinds of creepy animals. Below, the girls are checking out a hissing cockroach. Neither of them wanted to touch it. I don't blame them!

We also learned about bats. We were able to meet a bat named "Echo" who was injured and brought to Boonshoft to recover. We saw him eat a meal worm. It sounded crunchy.



The animals in the Wild Ohio Zoo were particularly active that evening. Mark is checking out one of the snakes that is slithering his way.

The girls also played games, won prizes, and got tattooed.

(bats on the hand)

We also got to briefly check out their new exhibit, "Eyes on Earth". The exhibit is about satellites. Georgia worked on a puzzle of satellites.

And of course, Olivia found a computer.

We didn't have a lot of time to really check out the new exhibit, but we will be going back to Boonshoft this weekend for their Chemfest. (special event to learn about chemical energy)

From their web site:

http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117

Celebrate the science behind chemistry at the Museum. Taste liquid nitrogen ice cream, watch as a “genie” emerges from a bottle, choose from a dozen hands-on experiments or do them all! Children can complete a passport for a chance to win prizes.

Today, we had fun reading about Halloween traditions, scary stories, and fun facts about the holiday. We also read a story about Stingy Jack, and learned the history of the jack-o-lantern.

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=716&display_order=3&mini_id=1076

Hope you all had a spectacularly spooky Halloween!

Park PALS & Friends Picnic

Georgia received an invitation to attend the Park PALS & Friends picnic on Sunday at the Nature Center.

After a mixer activity, and supper, the kids played some games.

Georgia also received an award for her attendance at her nature classes.

Next...we were off on a hayride!!

The hayride was a lot of fun...and we got to see parts of the park that we had never been to...it is HUGE. The naturalist that was driving the tractor stopped periodically to tell us about what we were seeing, or to explain things they did there...such as prairie burning.

Here, he is telling us about the different plants found on the prairie, such as the Indian Grass.

And we got to see a beaver dam and lodge!!!

We had SOOOOO much fun!!!