2013-MAY

First Communion 23 images · 1 video

Ben 5th Birthday 63 images

Doug's 40th 53 images

1 On our way to the Pacific Science Center for talks with local scientists!	2 See the big scratch? Thought he was going to be ScarFace but it is healing. Nasty branch!	3 This is Gina - she is a PhD student at UW working in bioengineering. This demo is showing how she is making a test strip to grab enough cells or antigens to test positive for infectious diseases. There are little balls with velcro on them and depending on the angle of the incline they flow through faster or slower - more get caught at lower angle.	4
5 This is a neat lady who is at Institute for Systems Biology. She was talking about how bacteria adapt to extreme environments by collecting a "toolbox" of adaptations.	6	7 Making flattened souvenir pennies. They loved this!	8 Such cute boys. Many of these cute shots are for Daddy who is in Hawaii right now :)
9 Oh boy - cotton candy for the walk home?	10 Taking boys out to Souper Burger (not a typo!) in Winslow after a birthday party on Friday.	11 At Mora for ice cream afterwards. Right after this shot Ben said in a loud voice - "Croissants are PUFFY!" just out of nowhere! I had been playing a game with Sam and Ben to teach Ben odd vs even. I'd say " Ben, how many eyes do you have?" "Even!" "How many ears do you have, odd or even?" "ODD!" (Messing with me.) How many noses do you have, odd or even? Odd! How many belly buttons do you have, odd or even? "ODD!" What kind of personality do you have, odd or even? "ODD!" "You're right, Ben!" Then he said "Croissants are...PUFFY!" and Sam and I exchanged a look like this guy really is off his rocker. When we got up to leave I noticed a friend there and exchanged pleasantries. As we were cleaning up and Ben was quiet for a second, I said out loud to myself "Man, it's really quiet in here now that Ben isn't talking." This lady across from me nearly spit out her ice cream laughing and nodding. Those boys are NUTS!	12 Out on a mountain bike ride this morning. Olympics visible in the distance but blown out by the bright sky (I know hard to believe). This part of the trail is nice - high meadow up on a hill. It connects two trail systems so we did the whole route this morning - probably 3.5 miles. Lots of fun.
13 Back at the truck enjoying my men. Can't you tell how much they love this?	14 Ok boys, can you take a nice picture for Daddy? (He was in Hawaii the last 8 days or so.)	15 Ok maybe just one?	16 Ben says "Mom, I'll do a funny face one, please please please?!"
17 Three-head shot with my very small dumb-phone camera - no easy feat! I am crammed into the truck in the back seat to get this!	18 Ben says "Mom, I'll do a funny face one, please please please?!"	19 Lake Crescent noted again on the cover!!!	20 At the playground at Wilkes tonight.
21 Ben is getting very big and strong.	22 Sending this to my friend in Hawaii...miss my girls!	23 Yell-whispers (Ben has the loudest yell-whispers in the world).	24 With lots of action and spitting, drooling. Sam is in the distance laughing.
25 Oh boy! We were the only ones there although with all the concrete around I am fairly certain some neighbors could hear us!	26 Listening to Sam doing some naughty Captain Underpants potty talk!	27 And adding his own to the mix!	28 Bath time!
29 Working with a group of students on math. Problem to the top right is based on buying yogurt with the boys.	30 Found someone on the island who wanted to sell some of his rock collection. The boys really enjoyed meeting him and selecting some neat pieces. This is a stalactite.	31 A good reference book! Sam selected a Herkimer diamond and Ben pyrite, among several other smaller finds.	32 Ben can take the trash out now!
33 He's fast!	34 Resuscitated my yeast to make some bread. It was really pretty good - nice sourdough flavor. Didn't let it cook long enough, though.	35 Just about ready to ride without a booster!	36 Sam's science fair project: Horizons of the Earth's Crust with a diorama to show the various layers.
37	38 Sam really enjoyed digging down to hard pan in our back yard. He has a massive excavation site now that the neighbor kids enjoy coming to see and climb into.	39 The rocks are from our yard as well. He identified them with his Rocks and Minerals book and laid them all out to be seen.	40 The halite is from water we collected at a local beach. We let the water evaporate over months and collected the crystals. Sam put a few crystals in the bottom of the model to look like diamonds, which he is also really interested in finding!
41	42 Out on a date with Dave - this is the first time I've ever seen Absinthe and the little water thing! So cool!	43 The next math class this Monday - very busy keeping two levels of kids challenged. The boys were in the "chicken coop" area to the right working on problems and the girls were in the "castle" to the left. We had a Rapunzel fairy tale going with the boys working rapidly on their problems in order to "tunnel" over to the castle and blast through the floor to get at the girls. If the girls finished their problem they could block the floor or cut their hair so the boys couldn't get up. It was a lot of fun and very very engaging - did not realize it was time to go!	44 On a field trip to the farm - getting to hold baby bunnies!
45	46 Sam's teacher!	47 Wrapping up with a visit to the chickens - they planted potatoes, too.	48 Ben's birthday on this field trip! So next we are off to school to try school lunch - chicken nuggets!
49 Little guy really wanted a light saber/wizard wand so that is what we got him! He says he's Gandalf :)	50 Then to his favorite coffee shop for a cupcake! That is one cool wand!	51 Happy Birthday sweet Ben!	52 Love how the wand is parked next to the chair :)
53 Contemplating cupcakes and wizardry?	54 An unboxing, filmed by Ben!	55 This is what 2000 dominoes looks like on the floor! The night before packign up for Doug's 40th :) ha ha!