UW Enginering day

The University of Washington department of Enginering had its open house this weekend. I had signed up quite awhile ago and was really looking forward to it. We were not dissapointed. First we went and saw the Rube Goldberg Machines. Some of them were so intricate that they had over 40 steps!!! They were each designed to meet a need and every step described what kind of energy it used to accomplish the task (gravitational, kinetic,) They were fascinating!!!

From there we went to see an exoskeleton robotic suite. A gentleman who had an accident in 86 was told in a few years he would be paralyzed. Turns out he is able-bodied but the experience struck an area of intrest in him and he is now working on building a suit that will allow paralyzed people to move and function. this is prototype 14 and it is able to walk a person forward, backward, up stairs and side stepping.

Ideally when it is complete a paralyzed person will be able to put the suit on and return to normal functioning as the suit will guide all their movement. After 3-5 years of wearing the suit, due to regenerating muscles and tissue they will be able to have normal function returned. He went into a lot greater depth and we were there listening to him for a good half hour. It is a fascinating concept and one I am going to keep a watch on.

From there we saw an underwater robotic fish, participated in a paper airplane contest, spent a good portion of time on the flight simulators, used a radar gun to see how fast we could run, and played with Oobleck.

Taken from a DR. Seuss book Oobleck is a big thing in the PS educating circles. It is a mixture of equal parts cornstarch and water and is said to be a non-newtonian substance because it does not flal under the classification of solid or liquid. They had mixed up a huge batch and let the children play in it, literally. Of course this was the highlight of their day.

It was also an interesting trip becasue we were on the college campus and it gave us an oppurtunity to discuss college and various things with seri. What a great day!!!

My bay girl..........

Just had to share. she is so sweet............

anyone know what this is?

I was out weeding the other day and when I pulled out a clump this creature came up with it. It is about an inch long and has a hard shell. The black thing at the tip moves as if it is the front of the thing. There are no legs that we can see. Any ideas? We are pretty curious but haven't been able to find anything. Of course we put it back and now it is gone. I should have put it in one of the childrens bug collectors and taken it to Michael's science teacher.

Fossils

To continue with our study of dinosaurs we created fossils. Let me try to sum up the experience in just a few words. Plaster Of Paris, Petroleum Jelly, three kids and a baby.........Yeah...........

Banana Splits

Last week for Family Home Evening Isaac was appointed to be in charge of the treat and decided that he wanted banana splits. I set about getting them ready and putting everything on the table with the idea that the children would make their own. I cut the banana's in half and put them in their bowls when Matt inquired as to why I hadn't split them. I looked at him funny and said I was just going to put the bananas in and let them do whatever they wanted. (Think of the movie "your's, Mine and Ours" now) He suggested that if they were going to have banana splits we should make them the proper way. I told him he was being anal and that the children would make them however they wanted to make them. He resigned (mother has spoken) and became intent on making the perfect banana split for himself. So here is his tribute.

Karma

My mother has a reputation of being a practical joker. While I was in highschool she was at the pinnacel of her escapades. Now she often reminisces about those days and we all share a good laugh.

When she was visiting for Easter she again went into story telling mode and told the children about some of her more infamouse practical jokes. Later that evening when she was heading out to go to the store with Matt she thought her shoe felt funny, and low and behold, there was shaving cream in it. Later that night our lovely Isaac who can not keep a secret told her to look in the freezer where she found her toothbrush frozen in a bottle of water. Let me just say that all of this was done without mine or Matt's knowledge :) However if we had known I can't promise we would have stopped it.

So, it is true. What goes around does come around....sometimes many years later from a most unexpected source.

digging for dinos

Michael is doing a unit on dinosaurs and so we pretended to be palientologists and go digging for fossils. We broke up the big German pretzels and scattered them in cake batter loaves. We then baked them and went searching for the "fossils". The children were only allowed to use chopsticks and had to be careful or they would break the "fossil". They categorized the pieces into middle sections and round sections and very small sections. Then they had the hard task

of putting the fossils together. We had a great time and have a better understanding of what a real palientologist goes through. Although I doubt they are allowed to eat the fossils they find or the dirt they dig through :)

How can you tell if a child belongs to our family?

Is there a controller in their hands?

Happy Easter

Yes, I know the post is a tad late, but at least it is here. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Our Easter was very nice. We spent Saturday decorating eggs and then Sunday when we left for church I called the Easter Bunny to let him know it was OK to come hide the eggs. This year Michael asked what the Eater Bunnies number was and right on que Seri said 1-800-THE-BUNNY. I taught the lesson in Relief Society on personal testimonie's and it went very well. Then we came home to find that indeed the easter Bunny had visited. The kids had a great time finding all their eggs and then we had dinner, Hamburgers, potatoe salad and deviled eggs, yum yum!!

Cake!!

So, Last night for Family Home Evening Michael was assigned treat. After last week's escapade he decided he also wanted to make cake. This time it went without incident and even Sariah thought the cake was delicious! Serenitie gave a puppet show on the story of King Noah and Abinadi and did a great job! Isaac has treat next week and has mentioned he wants another cake. Mom is getting a little sick of cake :(