Botanical Gardens


Today we went to the North Carolina Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill. We walked on the nature trails and checked out the gardens. This trip was prompted by M watching an episode of Dragonfly TV about nano structures. A group of kids went to the same botanical gardens that we did, and found some lotus leaves. They demonstrated nano structures by showing the Lotus Effect. M wanted to duplicate the demonstration. We also talked about the nano structures and how they keep the water from sticking to the leaves.

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at at 5:48 PM 0 comments  

Laptop Computer

One day M decided to make a couple computers. This is the second one she made, it had a mouse. The mouse even has wheels on the bottom so it can move. Notice the use of paper clips to hold the monitor on, and the fact that it can close. 

Posted in: on Friday, April 3, 2009 at at 9:28 PM 0 comments  

Vending Machine

M has been really interested in using the blocks and marble run to make things. This is a vending machine. You put the marble on the run to the left and the marble drops into the middle. Then you get to get a juice box out of the middle. She has all flavors of juice box, even the juice box with infinite number of flavors.  She is also very addicted to the number infinity, or as she calls it when she can't remember it's name, "The number that goes on forever".

Posted in: , , , on at at 9:22 PM 0 comments  


Today we made some french fries, and M decided that we needed a fry container.  So she made one. It says "French Fries" and actually held all the fries in it. She was quite proud of it. I'm not sure of the significance of purple.

Posted in: on Monday, March 16, 2009 at at 7:40 PM 0 comments  

Sprouts!


We have some little science kits, and one of them is about plants.  M decided to work on this one a couple days ago.  The first experiment we're trying is where we setup two petri dishes with seeds, and wet paper towels.  One we place in the dark (cabinet in the craft room), and one in the sunlight (window in the living room).  After a couple days this is what they looked like.  I bet you can guess which one was in the sun, and which one was in the dark.  M was quite excited about the differences. 


We left these to grow and they have both gotten pretty big.  We next moved on to starting some plants to plant in the garden once we get past any chance of frost.  M already has a spot picked out for her garden.  It's in the shape of a heart, and she wants to plant flowers to pick, and carrots. Not sure if the carrots will work, we have a lot of clay in the ground, and the spot she picked doesn't have much soil, it's mainly dirt, so we'll see.

Posted in: on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at at 8:15 PM 0 comments  

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

So we were at the store yesterday, and M picked up a big bag of pretzel rods.  I asked what they were for, and she announced, "For chocolate covered pretzels!" Well, we've been sick and need a nice a treat, so I said, "Sure!"


We used milk chocolate, pretzel rods, and some "toppings".

Difficulty: 2 of 5 (but the stove is used,)
Messiness: 4 of 5 (we were fairly covered in chocolate)
Funness: 4 of 5
Time: 30 minutes to a finished product

Posted in: on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at at 10:40 AM 0 comments  

Snow?! In March?!

Well, today we woke up to the world covered in white. It looks like we got about 3 or 4 inches of snow last night.  So, we already went out and played around a little.  It's still cloudy, and cold so it didn't last long.


We did spot some yellow daffodils hiding under the snow.  We also went looking for animal tracks, mainly birds, but M proudly proclaimed the spotting of some deer tracks.

We're now having a nice warm up, to get ready to head out for some sledding later.  Maybe we'll try to throw together another snow animal as well.

Posted in: , on Monday, March 2, 2009 at at 6:00 AM 0 comments  

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