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  

Inside Day

Well, we had a rainy, cold, icy, and almost snowy day. So we stayed inside, and played with the new Marble Run construction set we have.  It was loads of fun.  We added dominoes to it as well, and that only added to the excitement.  M really seemed to love it and she usually isn't into block building.  I guess if there a goal in mind, and something to send down a path she likes it.


Difficulty: 3 of 5 (some of the things are hard to get setup just right)
Messiness: 1 of 5 (there are lots of stray marbles to round up)
Funness: 4 of 5
Time: Hours of fun

Posted in: , , , on Sunday, March 1, 2009 at at 4:12 PM 0 comments  

Dyeing Pasta

Today we dyed some pasta for a project for school. We used liquid watercolors and five different kinds of pasta. We made green, red, teal, yellow/gold, and purple/silver.  I think the purple/silver is my favorite, it came out pretty well.


To do this project we used one gallon zip-type bags, and put the pasta in them that we wanted to dye.  Add one of the colors, seal the bag and shake it up.  It only took about 5 or 10 minutes to get all the color over the pasta.  Then we poured the pasta out on wax paper, and separated the pasta with some paint brushes while touching up any parts of the pasta that was missed.  It took about a day for it all to dry, the yellow/gold seemed to take the longest.

We used the pasta in the project for school and had bunches left over for projects in the future.

Difficulty: 1 of 5
Messiness: 3 of 5 (separating the pasta got some paint on our hands)
Funness: 4 of 5
Time: 30 minutes total, less time if only doing fewer colors.

Posted in: on Monday, February 9, 2009 at at 9:09 PM 0 comments  

Snow Cream!


We just had the first snow of the year. A nice 5 inches, we played and sledded and had a lot of fun. We also made snow cream. You take a bunch of snow, add some vanilla, sugar, and milk and mix it up. It's like a fast version of ice cream.

Posted in: , , , on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at at 6:14 PM 0 comments  

Salad People


We have a couple cookbooks for kids, and M was looking through them, specifically Salad People, by Mollie Katzen. We found a fun recipe to do. It's from the title of the book, and called Salad People. You basically cut up a bunch of veggies, and fruits and turn then into people. I think we each made two people and ate it all up. It was fun, and tasted good too.

Posted in: on Monday, January 12, 2009 at at 6:28 PM 0 comments  

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