Science Fun

 Right before school started our children's museum had a week of free science classes so they could try out some new ideas.

 The first class we went to was a paper circuits class.

 Even I managed to make the light bulb light up!

 Then they tried some more complex designs.  Alice made a house!

Jack made four bulbs light up!

 

They also went to a class on magnets.

 

 The last class they went to was on linkages.

They had a great time!

Little Green Thumbs

 This summer the kids took part in a kids' gardening class at our local teaching gardens.  In July, the theme was Art in the Gardens.  Alice made this picture of the koi pond.

 We always have to look for frogs when we go there!

 They also had all the kids come up with a logo for the class.

 The August class was centered around harvesting and the kids got to pick different things in the gardens.

 They also announced the winner of the logo contest, which was Jack!  (This is showing how Alice colored her tool box, which was printed with Jack's design.  All the kids got a box to take home!)

 Jack didn't get to take his tool box home that day because it was on display at the Mini Maker Faire, which we had already planned to visit after class.

 It was so neat to see his tool box there!

 They had a display showing how the boxes were made.

 The kids also entered the garden photo contest last week.

They entered some great shots!

KJAM

 During the first week of August the kids went to KJAM (Kids, Jesus, and Music) camp at church.  All week they worked on a musical and then performed it on Sunday.

 They had a red carpet-type entrance ready for the kids the first day! (These camp pictures are all from the KJAM Facebook page, so we could see what they were doing throughout the week.)

 Learning choreography

 Practicing on the big stage

 Dress rehearsal

 On Friday they got to go to Incredible Pizza!

 The performance!

They did such a great job!

BrickUniverse

 Today we went to the BrickUniverse Lego convention!

 As soon as we walked in we spotted Mr. Tiger!  (We got to see his original creator a few years ago!)

 They had lots of different historical displays like this D-Day one.

 

 They had several different themed areas where there were tons of bricks and you could build.  I made this little flower bed.

 Alice did a little more work and made this house!

 While we were doing that, Jack was participating in one of the challenge sessions.  Each person had a tub of random bricks and they had 5 minutes to build something on a certain theme before they were judged.

 Some more models...

Before we left, both kids tried another challenge session.

It was a lot of fun!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was big enough to be entertaining but small enough to not be overwhelming.  Jack even found some minifigures he was wanting!

The First Day of School

 We finally had our first day of school today!  It's later than we normally start, but with the move, there was no way it was happening earlier.

 Jack had requested Pop Tarts for breakfast.

 

 He's reached the age where he has trouble waking up. (He did sit up and smile afterward!)

 We took our first day of school pictures--with a photobomber.

 Then it was on to work on the paper roller coaster Jack and his team are building for a competition later this month.

We came home, did some math and reading and morning basket (even though it was mid-afternoon when we started) and then it was time for gymnastics and church.  We ended the day with Marble Slab!

It's going to take some time for us to get everything up to full speed, but I'm excited about this year!

August

 August was a crazy month.  We moved into the new house the first week, but didn't get everything out of the rent house until the end of the month.  Moving went slow because we were really busy, but as of yesterday everything we own is in one place for the first time in more than two years.  There's a lot to catch up on, but in the mean time, here's the August rundown, starting with basketball camp.

 Music camp!

 Alice lost her first tooth in the new house shortly after we moved in.

 She's also started gymnastics.

 We didn't get in as much swimming as we usually do through the whole summer, but we swam a lot the first couple of weeks of August.

 We had to work to get everything ready for Hobo to move over--and he's loving it!

 The kids took some science classes at the children's museum.

 Jack took a writing class with Andrew Pudewa.

 Braces!  This was a huge adjustment at first, but now he's doing really well with them.

 Jay turned 40!

Jack ran for a 4H office this week.  He's one of the new Junior Representatives for his club!

I'm hoping to get back into blogging now that things will (hopefully) be settling down, but we start school next week and there's all the moving in to do, so that might not happen as quickly as I'd like!