Beyond Binkies, Code and Make-Believe

Science Project - all on her own

Our daughter came home with a packet of instructions for the annual science fair at her school. She's in first grade, so it is still optional.  The part of the instructions which really sank in was that it was to be HER work - not a parent's. HER work.  She took this to heart.

We had just repainted our kitchen and the fan was in there blowing it dry.  She and her brother were playing with a balloon and decided to see how long the balloon floated.  Then, they tested a piece of paper.  VIOLA!  A science fair project was born.  She carefully documented her experiment, hypothesis, methods and results.

Technicolor Rosaries for First Holy Communion

Yes, that's me, Catholic.  I don't flaunt it, I don't defend it, debate it, etc. I'm just Catholic.  Our daughter is 7 and that means next year she will be making her First Holy Communion as her father and I both did around that age.  We go to the classes because she attends the school that has a bus that drives by our house in the morning. 

At these classes, there is a parent class for the parents of children preparing for this event.  I've met two friends on Mondays. I look forward to seeing them and they look forward to my lively debate and razzing of our volunteer teacher.  Last night we spent the evening with the two families from the classes.

It's time to celebrate Dr.Seuss

Our family needs a break from the school auction, the news, the rain.  "...to wet to go out And too cold to play ball.So we sat in the house.  We did nothing at all. So all we could do was to sit, sit, sit, sit..."

I thought about our author, Dr. Seuss and an appropriate, fun, off-the-wall way to celebrate his life, his contribution to literacy and the man.  My husband and I are going to come up with 5 - 10 activities and put them in ... a hat, of course.  It will be a combination of art activities, zany fun and food fun.

I had an idea and dragged home a 20' branch

We don't have much room in the house for more large, tall toys.  Doll houses in particular.  I'm constantly building with blocks to create temporary housing.  This isn't very practical, as they are not very durable with all of the residents and vehicles.

I had the idea to make an outdoor tree house large enough for Barbie, Han, Luke and Leia.  Poor Tom.  Savannah and I dragged home the 20' branch the other day from the neighbor's yard.  These will be the supports underneath and for the 3rd level roof. 

The rest of this will be painted/sealed on the inside and then the outside will be covered in split logs from the infamous wood pile that arrived one snowy afternoon.

We have a trap door, rope ladder with a pulley planned and some other touches.  We'll update photos as we make more progress.  Since it is snowing again -- WAAAAA and our daughter will most likely NOT go to school -- double WAAAAAA, I'm sure Tom will make a lot of progress tomorrow out of self defense.  He even has a propane heater rigged up since the garage is about 38 degrees at the moment

PROGRESS January 17, 2009:

Today we painted.  It was, "today I painted" until they realized what I was doing in the garage and came running with paintbrushes in hand.  It started subtle and then each room took on a new personality.  It's a bit more Patrick Nagel than I would have liked but we were using sample paints from the house.  Our house isn't going to be any of these colors; thankfully we got over the purple idea and have moved on to blue and brown.  Back to the tree house. These are from today.