So it was Thursday and the girls went to the store leaving Jake, Zac, and me here at home alone. I thought it would be a good time for Jake and me to do one of the electronic circuits in the kit we used for Theory Thursday: Electronics 101. I pulled the kit out and Jake got all giddy, he tends to love science and electronics like his daddy. As I flipped through the book to find a quick simple circuit I started to realize that Jake was probably able to do this by himself. I had to help him identify the resistors he needed but he put the entire circuit together by himself, except the battery that somehow I didn't realize was in the schematic, I added that once I realized we needed it.
Now I didn't take a lot of pictures for this one, above are all the pictures I took. All that is shown is the building of the circuit. Below is the video of the circuit in action, along with a lesson learned.
So we learned something, had fun, and made a mess all in like forty-five minutes or so. We even had the mess cleaned up before mommy came home.
The company that I work for, Blue Star Inc., has season tickets to the Detroit Tigers. Usually the bosses use the tickets for customers or for their own families, but every so often they offer the tickets to an employee. This was the case this past Tuesday. I got back from one of my runs and I was asked why I wasn't taking my wife and kids to the Tiger's game. My reply was simple, "I don't have tickets." The response was just as simple, "You do if you want them." So I was given four tickets to the Tigers vs. Blue Jays game. The seats aren't bad either; just to the outside of first base on the end of the ninth row. A couple years ago they gave me tickets to Tigers vs. Rays and we sat right behind third base. That time we invited another couple from the church to go with us, this time we took Jake and Alyssa.
If you don't live in the Detroit area you wouldn't know that it's been doing a lot of raining here lately. But the rain has usually been in the morning and clearing later in the day. The game was to start at 7:05 so I figured all would be well, just a little chilly due to the overcast skies. So we grabbed a couple blankets and three umbrellas just in case.
I waited a couple of hours after work to ask the kids if they wanted to go. When I finally did ask they both got really excited. Then Jake asked, "Do we get to play?" When we told him no he was heart broken and said he wanted to go to Grandma's house with Zac. We managed to convince him that he was gonna have fun. We did make the mistake of telling him that he could take his ball glove and might catch a ball. He was then determined that he was coming home with a ball from the park.
We dropped Zac off at Grandma's and headed for the D. When we got half way there it started pouring. I was convinced it would just pass over. And that is why I drive a truck and don't guess the weather. Only the pouring of the rain passed, it continued a heavy drizzle but we did it anyway. We parked at Ford Field and walked to Comerica Park where the Tigers play. Jake had his umbrella, Erika had her umbrella, and I had mine; along with the cooler and Alyssa. The not so short walk to the ballpark took even longer in the rain.
Once we got in the park we immediately had to stop to try and get what we were carrying situated. This we did in the rain, why? I'm not sure but we survived and the kids enjoyed it. Jake more than Alyssa I think. She had a little more trouble keeping the umbrella up.
As we worked our way around to our seats we stopped a couple of times to rest and watched a few of the side games going on. The first stop was right behind where the television cameras were. There was a gap in the fence that Jake seemed to enjoy looking out at the field.
This was in case you didn't notice the rain and were wondering why the game hadn't started yet.
At one point I asked Jake if he was having fun yet. He slowly began to nod his head then stopped and very definitively said, "Well, no." But when we asked him as we were leaving he had definitely had fun. The two of them had a blast umbrella-sword fighting and wrestling with each other. All while trying to avoid hitting anyone else who was sheltering from the rain. We ended up hanging out for about an hour after the supposed start time. We decided that they probably were not going to play so we headed back to Grandma's. Shortly after we left they called the game and rescheduled. So we will be headed back to Comerica Park on June 27 to try again to take the kids for their first Tigers game. But even without any pitches thrown or bats swung we had fun this time.
Well, what can I say? I'm not as efficient with my posts as Erika is. This Theory Thursday is from a week ago. My apologies for the delay, but let's move past that and on to the good stuff.
As I mentioned in the post about the Dinosaur Museum, we stopped on the way home and bought some books. One of which was a book titled "Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction: Build Implements of Spitball Warfare". As a father of two boys I knew I had to have this book.
Of course when Jake saw the book he got excited. When I told him that we were going to build something he began jumping in place. I asked him what he wanted to build. His answer, a simple point to the picture on the front of the book. Great! He has to pick one of the harder models to build. Oh well.
The Siege Catapult requires:
9 craft sticks (popsicle sticks)
masking Tape
4 clothes pins
7+ rubber bands
3 small binder clips
1 plastic spoons
ammo: mini marshmallows
When I got all the supplies together and started taking pictures the kids came to the table and got all excited. Alyssa said, "This is gonna be so cool!"
I don't think I'm going to type out all the steps here, but I'll try to get the basic idea across to you. First you separate your sticks into sets of three and tape them in stacks. One stack gets tape right at the ends and the other two half an inch from the end. You'll notice in the pictures that ours are all taped the same. That's because Daddy didn't finish reading the directions on the page. So, yes, they were undone and re-taped properly.
Bet you can't guess who did each one.
You then clip some clothes pins on to two sets of sticks and another set of clothes pins between that and the other set of sticks. Then wrap a bunch of rubber bands around the bottom... It was at this point, when I was having trouble getting the second set of pins to stay in place that Jake informed me, "Daddy, this is not so easy." Boy was he right! How did this guy ever decide this is was the best way to build this thing? Add a binder clip here, one on this piece, another on the spoon. Tape the spoon to this clip. Put the rubber band around here and here and.... viola! You have a functional siege catapult. Perfect for little green army men warfare.
Now that we actually have the catapult, let's launch some marshmallows!
Up till now it was just fun. Then Mommy said we had to turn it into science. Thus the orange. We researched the difference in flight if the spoon was pulled all the way back or if we only pulled it back halfway. Also what happened if we tried a heavier object. Believe it or not this little catapult launched the orange across the table completely clearing the opposite edge.
All in all the kids enjoyed watching Daddy struggle to get the clothes pins attached in just the right way. And then to have permission to launch marshmallows across the living was just awesome to them. Mind you we went through half a bag of marshmallows not knowing where they were all going before we realized that Zac was eating them all. Then it became a race to retrieve them before he got to them. But we did turn it into science and discover some of the laws of force and angles and stuff.
So we read a lot of Berenstain Bears books with the kids. They enjoy them quite a bit. There is one in particular in which Brother Bear gets really interested in dinosaurs. Jake loves it and started to get interested in dinosaurs himself because of it. It is because of this interest and the idea of wanting to start taking the kids to some museums and such in the area that we decided to go to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. It is not a "dinosaur" museum but they do have dinosaur bones on display.
The libraries in our area have a program going where you can "check out" tickets from the library for different educational attractions in the area. I do believe that it is Macy's this year that is actually paying for the tickets. It was through this that we got tickets to the museum. Although we found out that the museum was free anyhow. Coincidentally the museum had a special day for the kids with the Water and You exhibit. They had stations set up throughout with tasks, activities, games, and lessons for the kids to participate in. This made the visit. I do believe that our day would have been much shorter and less enjoyable for our young children had the water stuff not been there.
At first it didn't seem to me that the kids were getting in the museum and what it had to offer. I, of course, started to think that they were not going to enjoy it much, but Erika could pick out what they wanted to see and thus it started to become a hit. As I said there were stations about water facts and activities for the kids to participate in. At each of these they got a little bead for their "Water Cycle" band (yarn). This was probably the most exciting part for them since at each station they immediately went for the basket with the beads.
Activities included PH testing, bingo, and finding little animals from river water.
Some of the activities set up were things that our kids had already done with Erika at home for school. So they already knew the facts and impressed the UM students heading up the activities. Below and to the left Jake was helping demonstrate what items would float or sink in the water. In the center and right pictures Jake was making a color straw with water of different densities due to the sugar mixed in each. Next to the color straws was the water and oil illustration that the kids had just done a few days before.
Placed throughout the museum were large fans for air movement that I am sure are used in the hotter months. For some reason Jake thought that these were the coolest things in the world and wanted his picture taken with them. They were so cool to him that when I asked him to stand next to a huge leg bone for a picture he thought I was asking him to stand next to the fan.
Poor Zac stayed in the stroller the entire time and did great! He never once complained or whined. At the end of the day Mommy bought him a little dinosaur from the gift shop which he immediately went to roaring and attacking his sister with. Did I mention we've never taught him that dinosaurs roar.
All in all we had a great day even stopping to check the Borders in that area that was going out of business along with all the others. The kids had a great time and I do believed learned at least something that they did not know before. We walked away with quite a few beads, a book, some coloring pages, posters, tattoos, info on local parks, and resources from the local DNR. The Water and You exhibit was very well done. The students and other adults that headed up each of the stations did an excellent job in presentation of their task and in the work with the kids. This impressed us with how young our kids are in relation to the ages that the activities were probably meant for.
Well this week it was my turn for Theory Thursday. For Christmas Erika got me a couple of gifts specifically for me to do with the kids. (I know, it's March, but yes I said Christmas.) This week we pulled out the Thames and Kosmos electronics workshop_1. Now remember this is for kids ten and up but Jake likes the idea and his daddy is more than willing to mess with wires and circuitry. Some may have had a kit like this as a child, I did. You know the project board with all the insert-able components to build circuits. They make great learning in electronics, at least for some.
Of course the kit isn't as much fun unless you get to assemble the whole thing. As we cracked it open Jake told Erika that we had to be careful since we were working with, "all these dangerous things."
Get it all out of the box.
Break all the plastic parts out of the molding trees.
These were fun. A lot of little metal clips to insert in a lot of little plastic holes. They are what makes the kit like a breadboard for the projects.
We even had to bend our own jumper wires!
Now I am not as good as Erika so I didn't get all the pictures of assembly because some of it had to be done by me. Let's see you try to get a five-year-old to screw in a slotted screw that is only a few millimeters long and wide. For our first project we made a circuit with a couple of timers that made a pair of LEDs blink on and off. The book follows a story with characters to tell you what to do, but the kids were only interested in getting the "robot" built. So we left the story line on the page and followed the pictures. As we went I tried to explain to Jake what each of the different components were and what they did, but with all of them rhyming he got lost in their names. Alyssa, on the other hand, was in her own little world once we finished the assembly and didn't return until the lights starting blinking.
They were rather impressed with the blinking lights. And were in complete awe in the fact that if we pulled out a capacitor the LED would light solid instead of blinking. As I said I tried to teach Jake what each of the components did but he can't seem to keep them in order. He can remember what each does but can't match what it does with the proper name. Maybe if we keep it up he'll start to get it straight. Alyssa? Well, when we finished the whole thing I asked her if she learned anything and she very flatly replied, "no."
Have you ever had one of those moments when reality hits you and your mental time frame catches up to real time in an instant? Well, maybe it only happens to us, but it happened this past week. Friday we had Zachary's first birthday party. We know, his birthday isn't for another week and a half but Erika's grandparents head to Florida for the winter soon and we wanted them to be able to be there. The reality catch up thing came as the party drew near. It's a milestone, our last "baby" is no longer going to be a baby. It hasn't happened yet, but it will very soon. You get used to having a baby around after almost five years of little cries, screams, and laughs. It was one thing when Jake and Alyssa turned one, with each of them we knew we were planning to have another baby. This time this is it. Now we are down to a kindergartener, a preschooler, and a toddler. No baby. I'm sure there will be plenty more crying, screaming, and a ton of laughing; just not the little petite baby kind. There will be plenty more milestones leading to plenty more reality checks, but let's deal with them as they come. For now let's party!
What kid doesn't love a party, theirs or not? Jake asked when he got up Friday morning if it was time for the party. He was told it would start at dinner time. So, instead of asking if was time for the party constantly, he asked if it was time for dinner.
Again we turned to our sister-in-law for a birthday cake. She enjoys making them and does a really good job with different characters and themes. This time we only gave suggestions and left the final say to her. We got a fire breathing dragon complete with fruit roll-up wings. Pretty cool! Our little piggy ate the head and one of the legs, this was only after eating three bowls of spaghetti. I think we might have to start a stricter portion control.
We, of course, plugged in the chocolate fountain and did a lot of dipping, this was something that Jake looked forward to all week and just loved.
Opening presents has got to be the one moment in a birthday party that every child looks forward to the most, especially when you are going to be the one opening the gifts. And it was Jake and Alyssa that did the looking forward to and the opening of all the presents. I think Zac might have gotten a few tears in the paper but he didn't care, he just wanted to climb and beat on the boxes.
I got an early Christmas present yesterday: a new oven! The first thing baked in it was an apple pie, per Leighton's request.
Pie Crust (double recipe)
Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
Directions:
1. Mix shortening, flour, and salt together with a fork or a pastry blender until very crumbly. Add as much water as needed to hold together, and mix lightly with a fork.
2. Roll gently on a floured pastry cloth to about an inch larger than pie plate. Fold carefully in half, lift to pie plate, and unfold. Press into pan.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love my food processor?
Patiently waiting to be filled.
Honestly, I'd rather buy pre-made crust because it's so much easier to work with, but Leighton prefers homemade. I was pleasantly surprised though with this recipe. I had no trouble at all.
Apple Pie
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tbp. water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbp. vanilla
8 apples - peeled, cored and sliced
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the sauce over the apples. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Cover with crust.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
This was my first time making a double crust pie. Odd, since the crust is my favorite part. As I said, I don't like making it though. I usually top my pies with a crumble so I only go through the hassle once. It's a love/hate relationship.
I blame the crust for the lack of apples in the pie. I know that there should be a heaping mound of apples, but I must have been anxious about still having to make the top crust. Or maybe I should blame the kids since they put in the slices. Hmm . . .
Brushing some of the sauce on top.
Ready for the oven.
Well, I survived the double crust. And I know it'll only get easier with practice. I wonder if my family would be willing to let me try.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned how much Jacob and Alyssa enjoyed watching food coloring mix with water when we made silly putty as seen here. I found an experiment that is just that, watching food coloring.
Supplies:
Milk
Food coloring
Liquid dish soap
Dish- wide rim
Directions:
1. Pour milk into a wide rimmed dish, and let sit until it warms to room temperature
2. Place drops of different food coloring in the milk
3. Place two drops of liquid dish soap into the mixture
Simple enough? Yes. Except when you make the fatal error to heat the milk in the microwave for 11 seconds. I had taken the milk out and let it sit for nearly 3 hours. It still felt cold to the touch, so I nuked it. We then continued with the experiment. Dropped in the food coloring, squirted in the dish soap. Nothing. We sat there and stared at coloring slowly mixing in the milk.
first attempt
Leighton and I decided to try it again once the kids went to bed. This time, we followed the directions exactly. This time, it worked. It's amazing how smoothly things go when you follow the directions. People wonder why their lives are falling apart or why they are so unhappy. If they would follow the directions for life that God has given us in the Bible, things would go more smoothly. We need to stop trying to do things our way or look for shortcuts.
third attempt
Friday morning, we tried it again.
Again, I made a mistake by allowing Jake to squirt in the dish soap. I should know that a 4 year old (excuse me, a 4-and-a-half year old) would not be able to pour in just one drop. It's supposed to bubble and swirl if done correctly. The experiment was also compromised once they started blowing on it. Either way, they enjoyed watching the display and that's what really matters. After all, we are homeschooling for their benefit. Maybe this week we'll work on following directions . . . for the benefit of us all.
Jake and Alyssa love playing with flashlights. They must own ten of them. The problem though is that they don't remember to turn them off when they're done. I'll walk into a room to find an abandoned flashlight shining for no one.
Once again, they were digging through our stash of batteries trying to find ones that were charged. For some reason, we can't seem to keep charged batteries around here between three kids, 200 toys requiring batteries, and forgotten flashlights. We were able to find one set of working batteries. They had so much fun with that light, that I was inspired to use it for our science day. We made our own constellations. We used pushpins to make holes in paper cups. I made a smiley face pattern (I'm not very artistic). Jake made a grappling hook for Batman, and Alyssa made herself. At least that's what they told me as they attacked the cups. They had fun stabbing away and listening to the "thoop thoop thoop" sound that it made. Then, we shined the light through the cup to see the "constellations" on the wall. They thought it was pretty cool to see all the tiny holes. Mostly though, they liked playing with little, sharp objects.
I had never made an apple dumpling. In fact, I had never even tasted an apple dumpling before today. My favorite part of any kind of pie is the crust. The Backyardigans got it right when they sang about the Great Pie, "The crust is extra crusty . . ." I figured this recipe would be perfect.
Ingredients:
2 large apples, peeled and cored 1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 (8 oz) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup butter 1 (12 fluid oz) can Mountain Dew
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew over the dumplings.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
He told her, "Put your whole weight on it!"
I took the dumplings out after 40 minutes. The bottoms were extremely soggy since they were swimming in sauce. I put them in a new dish upside down and baked them for another 10 minutes. They are so yummy! Jake even told me they are better than cinnamon, and he's a big fan of cinnamon. Next time, (and there will be a next time) I will cut way back on the sauce. I can't wait to try one with ice cream.
While the dumplings were baking, we made an apple dip. Mix together 1 package cream cheese, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract until smooth. It could be used for just about any fruit. Actually, it's good enough to eat with just a spoon. Jake asked, "Can we make this all day every day?" Every time I tried to put it back in the fridge, one of them would be right there asking for more. Jake eventually said, "My tummy's full, but I can't stop eating!" Needless to say, it's almost gone already!
It's a little difficult to eat dipped apples when you have only six teeth, so Zac got to lick his first beater today. He loved it, of course. He loves to eat just about everything! The other two were not very happy about sharing it with him though. I think that I'm going to have to buy a new mixer, one with 3 beaters.
