The Electricity Maker-Henry's Invention

Henry's class was given an assignment after their studies about inventors.  The kids were assigned to make their own invention.  Henry designed, drew out plans, made a list of needed materials, and asked Daddy for help on this project.  I present to you The Electricity Maker!  Inside the box is a battery pack, wires for the electricity to travel through, an on/off switch, and an LED bulb that turns on when switched to the on position.  He also had to fill out a question sheet about his invention and make a presentation board.  We think he did a great job and are praying for out little man this morning as he presents.  The kids voted against having their parents come to watch, it makes all of them more nervous.  Henry apologized to me for that because he said he knows how much I like to be there and be at school for special stuff.  I'm sure that we will hear all about it later this morning after early release today.

Update 2-May 2013-Go Go Gadget Nana, P&N's 50th Anniversary,School Talent Show, Finishing 1st Grade

And you thought I was done updating the blog.  Nope.  We have a lot to catch up on and so so many pictures and some video to share.

First off, Nana(Jenny's mom) had knee replacement surgery on May 6th.  The doc replaced her left knee with a new go go gadget Stryker knee.  Surgery went well, but her recovery is slow going due to what we think is a reaction to the anesthesia.  She has had a really hard time sleeping, is anxious, has had some depression, and has lost a little over 25 pounds.  Her PT therapists thinks that she will be able to use a cane instead of a walker within a couple of weeks.  We've been socializing her a lot lately and she is slowly feeling better.

Second, Papa and Nana celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on the 25th of May.  We have rescheduled our celebration as a family until the 22nd of this month due to Mom's health and recovery.  They asked that we keep it to a family affair, so we are all going to enjoy a 5-7 course dinner at a very nice steak house.  And we get to get all dressed up for the event.  So worth it to celebrate and honor two of the most important people in our lives.

Also, Henry and Emma both performed in their very first school talent show!  Emma and one of her BFFs were little comedians and told jokes.  Henry sang "Home" by Philip Philips.  They did a fantastic job and we are so very proud of them.  I was a teary mess, but cheered them on while taking photos of all of the performers.  They both already have plans for their auditions next year!

The last two weeks of school were jam packed with events.  Theme days and dress up days.  Fun filled, for sure.  On the 28th of May, Jason and I set up and ran Science and Art Day for the 1st through 3rd grade classes, around 125 kids. The kids enjoyed tables that featured homemade lava lamps, recreating a water tornado, a drawing robot, super powerful magnets, a claw robot, drinking straw airplanes, watching experiments fail and then watching those same experiments succeed after a longer wait time due to the chemical change, and huge giant glycerin bubbles that were over 4 feet tall.  We also took along some Moon Boots, but did not have an adult to supervise, so we could not let the kids try them out.  Maybe next year.  Art activities consisted of a table where they could make their own homemade play dough, tissue paper stain glass windows, bead necklaces or bracelets, recycled jewelry out of old t-shirts and water bottles, water colors, and face painting.  We were also set to do the melted crayon on canvas/heavy paper, but again did not have enough adults to supervise.  We had a small crowd of kiddos that did not get to do everything and were a little upset, but all in all, everyone had a great time!  Jason and I already have plans for next year's event and will change up a few things too.

Our theme/dress up days were-Super Hero Day, 60's-70's Day, 80's Day, 50's Sock Hop Day, and PBS Pajama Day/Kona Ice Day.  The kids and I dressed up for all of them.  I only skipped PJ Day because I was already whipped out and thought that wearing PJs on a day that I had to get things done was not a good combo and my Summer PJs need an update.  We also had our End of the Year party for the 1st grade classes that I guess I kind of ended up helping organize and run.

The last day of school was an early release day/awards day/graduation day.  And the last week of school this mommy only got about maybe 18 hours of sleep.  The last day of school was the 31st and I was up until 2 am that morning finishing the memory books.  And we arrived at school early to finish the other prep work for the awards ceremonies.

We are very proud and happy to say that we now have two 2nd Graders in our house.  They both worked so hard the entire year.

Henry overcame some big obstacles with the help of his amazing teacher, Ms. Julie.  She was a great help and a great source of support for him when he struggled with learning due to his dyslexia.  Daddy helped him with a few techniques that he(Daddy) used as a kid and still uses now and I learned new ways of teaching him things.   He loves all things math and science, robotics, puzzles, and sports.  He is go, go, go, all of the time.  He is our early riser:)

Emma is our little reader.  She is enjoying short chapter books and is quickly going through books and / or reading several at one time.  And she loves art!  She too had an amazing teacher this year.  Ms. Jessica was a joy to work with and learn from.  Emma loved being in her class and received loads of encouragement from Ms. Jessica in her art work and writing stories and in her ever growing love of reading.  Emma loves Junie B. Jones and Judy Moody books, Barbie, My Little
Pony, and drawing and painting.  She's our sleeper and is loving the chance to sleep in:)

Fair Park-Museum of Nature and Science-Dinosaurs Unearthered

Beautiful Fall day at Fair Park.
Walking around outside-checking things out.
In the Science building doing some hands on experiments. We must have spent at least 45 minutes in this area. They both loved it.
The main museum focus for us was the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. Henry was beyond thrilled! This is in the Ocean Dallas exhibit room.
This is the skull of an enormous ancestor of the crocodile.
Outside the Nature building "riding" on the elephant statue.
She saw some big kids posing like this, so that's what she did for her picture with the elephant statue.

Enjoying the fairgrounds again. Running around the fountain.
The weather was great yesterday, so we were outside as much as possible.
Waiting to go check out the fountain.
There are various little garden areas down the path we took and we investigated each and every one of them.
They remembered the Cotton Bowl and the Texas Star from when we were here a few weeks ago for the State Fair of Texas.
There were two huge squid like statue things on each side of the small pond/lake and we had to explore both several times.
Some Texas Fall color.
Henry was in awe of the T-Rex. We had to look at it from all angles.
A momma and baby triceratops. They both thought these were pretty neat.
Henry was so excited. He was go, go, go all the way through the exhibits. Had to see everything.
If the bamboo polls weren't in place, my children would have been up there exploring the dinosaur bones.
Henry was reassuring Emma that it was only a robot and not real. Emma wasn't liking the sound effects of roaring dinosaurs.
"Look Mommy, it's a T-Rex!!! My favorite! Look at his teeth!"
Digging for dinosaur bones in the activity center. I'm thinking that they both could have stayed here all day and had a blast but we had more to see.

T-Rex skeleton. I wouldn't want to run into one of these. But it was really cool to see.
Henry is finally starting to understand just how big dinosaurs were compared to us. He thought it was too cool!
Playing in the sandbox in the children's museum. There are different areas for the kids to explore and learn in.
Sliding down from the firetruck.
They had fire chief hats and turn down jackets for the kids to wear. Henry thought it was great. Emma decided to skip playing dress up for this one.
My little fire chief!
There is a water activity learning center and they played there very briefly. I think they were bored by this one.
Riding the horses in the farm area.

Daddy(Jason) had a robot competition(DPRG-Dallas Personal Robotics Group) this weekend at the Science building at Fair Park. So we tagged along because we've been to at least one other competition and the kids liked it. This time around they weren't digging it as much though, so luckily we had other things we could do. While Daddy competed, we went and did some exploring in the exhibits and around the grounds of Fair Park. It was a good day for the most part. We had a few issues, but made it through the day. I'll say this, I'd prefer to have another set of hands when we do adventures like this.

Daddy didn't win in any of the categories he entered, but had a good time. He's been pretty busy with work and didn't have much time to work on his robot entries. He'll be better prepared next time.