Free-for-all Friday.

Randomness.

- Sometimes, while the boys are at Options, Nathan and I go out to breakfast. ;) Recently, we tried out a new place (Doug's Day Diner over by Council Tree Library for you local folks) and they had HUGE breakfast burritos...like as big as Nathan's head. That one burrito fed Nathan for three meals, lol. That big mug on the left? Coffee. Yup, two thumbs up.

- Love that my niece seriously loves the boys. She hugs Noah every time she sees him. ;) 

- How does Micah get the ice cream all over his face still? The answer...he eats from the opposite side of the cone. I don't know why.

- Wednesday, while Noah was at his third Ameritowne day, I got to enjoy some time to myself and the glorious Colorado sunshine. It rocked. I leisurely wandered IKEA and then REI and got a drink there and sat outside by the river. Bliss.

- Wednesday night, during our dinner out to celebrate 20 years of knowing each other, I finally had a chance to wear my fun black patent leather heels that I picked up on sale for like $3 at the end of the summer. :)

- And, since it was Pi Day, we had apple pie. Because you should. :)

Yesterday.

It's only part of the story, but check out this post over on the Ormolu blog. ;) 

Done.

Science Fair number four is officially...done! :) The boys joined roughly 60 other kids in our homeschool group to celebrate science on Sunday. We had a great time...enjoyed seeing all the other projects (so fabulously diverse!)...and Micah got to use the blow torch again. ;)

Here are pictures of all three boys and also of our "closing ceremony" where we had all the participants (that were still there at that point and could be wrangled up, lol) up on stage for a round of applause.

As you can see, Micah made more of his creme brulee samples. (I'm not sure whether there were more parents there for the samples or kids there to watch him use the blow torch, lol. Either way, he was a hit.)

Noah's project was about creating his own Leyden jar to store static electricity. He measured the spark between the nail head and an aluminum sheet to determine voltage. Or something like that. :) He did his project pretty much on his own.

And, yes, during his testing, he spent plenty of time shocking his brothers. ;)

Asher's project was about a Gauss rifle. He used rare earth magnets and steel ball bearings to create a Newton's cradle-like effect. (Yes, Nathan, I know that's not really how it works. It still makes sense to me, lol.) He tested how the number of groupings (stages) of magnets affected the distance the last ball bearing would shoot.

And so, thus ends our fourth annual NCHA Science Fair. ;)  

(Now we just have to finish up the two projects that Noah and Asher have for their Investigative Science class Science Fair at Options. It'll be in May. Noah's will be a more extensive testing of his Leyden jar. Asher will be switching to testing compound bows and the speed at which they shoot. Stay tuned...)

Random thoughts...

Am I the only one who's paranoid about geese flying overhead? After all the goose poop on the road and sidewalk that I dodge while running, I figure being caught under a flock of them is potentially pretty bad. (Yes, this is one of those weird things I think about while I'm out running...)

Is it wrong that I "trick" the boys into doing spelling when I give them a custom word search with their spelling words?

Why doesn't someone come up with a better way to bag flour? Seriously. Opening those suckers up and trying to transfer the flour to a canister is ridiculous. I can't be the only person to complain about this, right?

Awhile back, Nathan was making me some eggs and hurriedly called me over to see the map of the US that he'd created:

Eerie, don't you think?

That was all. Suppose I'll admit that I'm procrastinating now and head back to working on stuff for the science fair... ;)

Six foods & a blow torch

Guess what we did over the weekend...

(The pic on the far left is a slice of cheddar cheese. On the far right...being boys, they all ended up burning things in the backyard, lol.) 

Yeah. We do potentially questionable things in the name of science. ;) You see, our fourth annual NCHA science fair is coming up. For his project, Micah (who's been so loving his weekly cooking class at Options) decided he wanted to learn to make creme brulee...mostly so he could use a blow torch. Being as I love creme brulee but so rarely have any, I was in favor of this particular project. ;) 

For the project, itself, we ended up using our new propane blow torch from the hardware store (no little baking torches for us, no siree, lol) on six different foods and Micah tasted them both before and after to see how being burned changed the flavor. Not really the most scientifically sound experiment or anything. But, hey, he's six...Nathan got to buy a blow torch...and I got creme brulee. ;) Everyone wins!

(More on Noah and Asher's projects later...I don't have any pictures of the prep work that happened over the weekend...)