Science Fair

Last week was the school science fair.  

Rex and his friend got to display their findings on the catapults they had tested.  

They get to go on to the District fair in a couple of weeks.

And Ocean had his own board about his experiments with how a magnets shape affects its pulling ability.

It really was a fun night, with getting to see about everyones experiments and eating ice cream.  They also had some students from the university with a hands on table with liquid nitrogen.  One of the demonstration involved balloons.  The kids could blow up a balloon and put it in a container of the liquid nitrogen, and the balloon would deflate, then when it was taken out, the balloon would re-inflate.  It was really cool.

MESA Day

Rez and Ocean are in the MESA club at school.  It stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement.  They do really cool math/science/engineering activities and then have a competition near the end of the year.  This year Rez and Ocean were on the same team working of the windmill challenge.  They had to design and build a windmill that would pull a car so far and lift some weight so high, plus create a display board about it and write up something about it.  They had been working so hard to get ready for the competition.  Their teacher had hurt her hand and had been out for a few weeks and so they were all behind leading up to the competition.  The week before it, they were at the school every afternoon and the day before MESA day (the competition), Rez got sick.  He was sick all afternoon, so he couldn't go the next day.  Ocean and the rest of their team were at school the day before until 8pm and came home that night with still more to do before the competition the next day.  They were gluing their display board together on the car ride over. Ocean wasn't sure he wanted to go without his brother, but we convinced him to go (his best friend was going too.)
And it all paid off.  Ocean came home with 4 medals!  Two gold first place and 2 bronze 3rd place.  He even brought home Rez's 3 medals he had earned for their team events they had placed in.  One was the windmill competition.  They got first place for middle school and 3rd place out of the high school competition with that.  They also took first place for their balsa wood glider and Ocean got 3rd in the Math Olympiad.  I am so proud of them.

They now get to take their windmill to the State MESA competition in a few weeks.

They have had a 4-5 days to write an expanded paper on their windmill.  They are so burned out, staying at school Thursday and Friday afternoons and going in Saturday all morning to work on it.  They came home from school on Monday, the due date for their paper, and told me that Rez had worked on the paper for 4 periods that day.  Ocean had worked for lunch, one period and some after school.  They also had the other members of their team and some other students helping.  

 Their paper is 17 pages long.  Not bad for middle schoolers.

That was not all though.  They had to stay after school on some of the other days too.  They expanded their display board and had to prepare an oral presentation.  They also had to fix some problems with their windmill.  The kids in MESA club really came together, the team that had the best board before, helped them with their new board and the boy that had a better windmill design helped them incorporate his pulley idea into their windmill to make it even better.  The kids that were good writers, helped with their paper.  It is too bad that only their 4 team members could go because they had so much help from some of the other kids in their club.

Finally the day came.  Trip was able to go with them to the State competition.  They had more problems with their windmill.  Mostly it was that the table at the state competition was a different hight then the one they had used before and so when their windmill was lifting the weight it would hit the table.  They tried to make it work by raising the windmill up higher, but then the fan that powered it was the wrong hight.  Oh, well.  There team did place 2nd for their display board and paper and 3rd for their oral presentation.

Here is team Moose Hippo, with their wonderful teacher in the middle and some other MESA people.

Here is a close-up of their display board.

And how they looked for their oral presentation.

I am so proud of them for all their hard work and seeing it through.  

(Ocean doesn't speak in public if he can help it, but he did!  and did well.)

Sunday Afternoons

Ruby, one of our chicks, is exploring the Hazelnut tree.

The family relaxing after church.

Harvey has been throwing dirt around.

Daphne holding Summer and Ruby.

Zelda (and Rez)

Mo

Zelda trying to hold Summer and Ruby.

And trying again.

That is the look of success!

Zelda is getting pretty good at holding chickens.

Happy Mother's Day

Rez gave a talk in church today.  It was of course on Mothers...

Here is what he prepared.

"Hi, some of you know me but for those who don’t my name is_____________.  Last Sunday brother Lear gave me a talk.  He said that it could be about anything that had to do with mothers but it had to relate to mothers.  My mother has always been a good example to me.  When I did a report in third grade I chose to research komodo dragons.  Komodo dragons are not good mothers.  After they lay their eggs they leave them and live life like before.  Not only that but when the babies hatch they must climb up trees so that the adult komodo dragons (including their mothers) don’t eat them. 

In the Family-A Proclamation to the World it states that, “HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.” This means that you must set an example and love and care for them. 

They look up to you mothers.  The Proclamation also says “Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.” 

On the other hand parents should still have fun.  They should not be so serious that they never enjoy themselves or fulfill their other obligations such as visiting the temple.  One of the many times that my mother showed her ability to have fun was on April Fools Day when she put paper in the pancakes that she gladly volunteered to make us and made just a few for herself with no paper.  We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the pancakes until we dissected one of them and discovered the paper.  Then we dissected mom’s pancakes and there was nothing there.  I bear you my testimony that…(he said something about mothers loving us and then said that his is always right.  I am going to have to remember that.) in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

It was a very sweet talk.  Later, Trip was asking him about his classes and he told us about one teacher that was asking him what his mother did for him.  As he was thinking the teacher prompted, "Does she do the dishes?"  

"No," replied Rez, "my dad does those."   

"Does she clean the house?"

"No, my dad does."  

Then the teacher said, "Don't tell my wife this."

I have a great husband!

Rez did come up with things that I do.  And for the record, I do do dishes and clean, but Trip does them much more, and more often when the kids are home.  I do them more when they are gone and when they are home, I have them do it.  

The kids had been wanting to make me crepes for breakfast in bed.  I got them about 9 pm complete with flowers in a vase on the tray.  Daphne had told me something like, "Why don't you go lay down for a while,  we will take care of things here."  

I love my kids.  Mo gave me some flower plants he had gotten at Cub Day.  They were in a cool wooden box with a handle he had made there, but he informed me that the box wasn't for me, well, we could share it.

Julius and Harvey gave me dish cloths that had their hand print turned into a fish on them they made at preschool  and Harvey gave me a tile with his hand print on it he also had made at preschool.  

Daphne gave me a card she had made at school with jobs on flowers that I could pick for her to do this week.  And she made me an omelet for breakfast.

Rez kept telling me what a good mom I was and how he was glad I was his mom.

Ocean made his own omelet for breakfast.  

Trip made dinner and got a cheesecake for us.

I LOVE my family!

Daphne Turns 10

This week Daphne turns 10.

We didn't have 10 candles, or a 0 to go with our 1, but if you add 9+1 it = 10.

She wanted a volcano cake with carmel sauce lava.  

It was delicious.

We had family over for a little get together.

Grandma and Grandpa (Trip's parents) were in town visiting.

And my sisters that live close by came.

Neoma and her family (she has more kids than just the one you see here).

Tora and her husband.

And Carol (with me).

The kids were all playing outside.

Zelda finally got to hold Ruby.

That didn't stop her from chasing her around and 

holding her again. 

She is just so excited to be bigger than someone.  The hens steal her food when ever they can, and she cries when they get near her.  But I think I would too, if they were as big to me as they are to her.

It was getting a little chilly, but Daphne kept Ruby warm.

We all came inside and did the Hokey Pokey.

 Julius and his cousin Rhys love to fight.

I stopped this move even though they were both laughing.

Julius was jumping up and down on his back.

We all had a fun time.

Happy Birthday Daphne!

Mo Turns 8

When Mo woke up, he was greeted by siblings, very excited to show him something.

This is what he was looking at.  

The other kids had used legos to spell out Happy Birthday to him.  

Then he started opening his presents, a whole bucket of legos.

But wait, there is more...

A giant bin of legos.

(Some friends of ours had passed along their outgrown legos, Thanks.)

He also received a new bike helmet.

And some mustaches, 

because what 8 year old doesn't want a mustache for their birthday.

It looks good on him.

In fact we all had to try them on.

 There were only 6 in the package, so we had to take turns.

Then, he climbed back in bed (Daphne's bed) so he could have breakfast in bed.

Later we had cake.

He wanted it to look like an Easter Egg, like his cake his Aunt had made him last year.

But she has since moved out of state and I attempted to make the cake.  I discovered on Sunday morning when I was ready to decorate it that we didn't have any food coloring.  He got an undecorated egg for his cake.  He was a good sport and was just happy to have a cake.

Also turning 8, he got to join cub scouts.  He has been so excited to become a cub scout.

And he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by his dad.
Here they are before.

Mo was so excited to be baptized that it was hard for him to sit still, well even harder than it usually is.  At the baptismal service, during the speaker before the actual baptism and he kept saying, "I already know that, I already know that."  He was so impatient. 

When it was finally time for his baptism, he and Trip went down into the font and he was baptized.  But his foot came up out of the water.  We believe in baptism by complete immersion, so it had to be done again.  This was about too much for him.  He could not hold still, he was bouncing around, hanging onto Trip's arm and lifting his feet off the ground.  He wouldn't listen, so Trip let go of him.  He splashed down into the water.  After a little talk, he had calmed down enough that they could perform the ordinance again.  This time he went completely under, Hurray!

I love that boy!