Happy Birthday D!

Happy Birthday D!
Lots of friends and legos...
And a totally homemade cake...
Hope you enjoy yours just as much!

marble play

Can you take a bunch of glass marbles and make a flower?

Play before school

A bit of swordplay before school (J likes to play with D, and so far they get along pretty well)... reminiscent of Star Wars...



And the crew having fun together...

Fallfest

Fallfest was fun at school.  Pumpkins, painted hair and even a hayride...


This is also a fundraiser for the school. 

Practical Engineering

Now you might think we do a lot of theory and math with our LSU students (which is true).  But sometimes we try to find ways to apply that theory, or get hands on some of the concepts.  So we have been doing failure analysis, engineering design and machine design in general.  There is lots of math and equations, lots of fun.  But saying a shaft should fail in fatigue based on the Goodman criterion really does not give you the idea of a bent shaft on a Briggs and Stratton, and putting an engine together for real gives lots of hands on experience in shafts, bolts, tension, setscrews, bearings and more... so here we go...

Here are some of our LSU students enjoying the experience in our machine shop this week.  I did not instruct them to wear purple, only to wear comfortable and safe clothing to work on the engines.  They did.  And they all tore the engines down to the valves and pistons; and they all put them back together and got them to start!!  Now that was some true hands on learning!

 

This group included some student workers and even one of our babysitters.  Pretty overqualified but great people.

This group (above) was looking at gears and other engine components, while the helpers (below) got to try their hand at education.  Thanks to all!

Lego

Take several 9 year old boys, head to the local (but huge) movie studio, play with legos, get a tour of the studio and enjoy a private screening of your favorite movies (Lego Star Wars, who knew those could go together so well, actually pretty funny with lots of 9 year old adventure...)  They had to play with legos and gave and received lots of lego too.  Here is one creation...

New Bed - Project

B has been working diligently with some old wood we picked up on the road.  And here is the reveal, moment of truth... will the new bed fit??  Well, a few more little tweaks to make, but basically, the answer is yes.  Here is an initial test on the patio...
J had some fun climbing on it, but I really like the wood (and a great day too!)  Sleep well...

End of the mice

A sad day, little wheel, the pet mouse, passed away recently.  D made this memorial for the mouse, who was about 2 years old, so a pretty good age for a mouse...  G buried the mouse in her garden.  A good lesson, from dust to dust...  but enjoy the run while you're at it. 

The Zoo of Plants

I'm having trouble with my cabbage. I keep on finding mini worms underneath the leaves.

                                                    

I can't tell for certain,but I'm pretty sure it's okra.

 

                                                     Rosemary,from the farmers market.

                                                                          Basil

                                                  Strawberries,which have not yet grown.

                                        My mystery flower,bought at the farmer's market.

                            On the left side are my peas,right side is my 2 different kind of beans!

                                    I'm not sure if it is going to grow,but this is my pineapple.

   My cucumbers! there are 2,actually.If you look very closely on the left side there is a miniscule                                                               cucumber just growing.

Reptile season

This turtle got confused and climbed up into the shed, looking for a place to lay eggs??  Sorry but I think you will be happier out where there is a bit of soil!  We also have seen several snakes lately.  I think it is just late summer, last warm gasp and then the age of mammals and birds will be back.  Enjoying a "non tropical storm" of tropical storm magnitude.  We may be paddling in the neighbor;s backyard, water is nearly at the level we experienced with Isaac last year.  That storm did some real damage both south of us and up north.  Hopefully this will only have local impacts.  Our fall gardens and plantings are enjoying the rain. 

Happy Birthday Cousin

G's "twin" cousin was way ahead of the game and sent a lovely gift by mail from up north.  G has been working on this homemade giraffe for some time and finally finished it, so we popped it in the mail, hopefully just in time for delivery by the cousin's bday next week.  Happy Birthday to all!

Birthday!!

Happy Birthday G!
Wonderful day.   We started with pancakes for breakfast.  I suddenly realized I was making "cakes" (albeit pan-cakes), so I decided to make lots of birthday pancakes (a total of about 30!), then stacked them and added a couple candles for our first birthday celebration at breakfast. 

So we had fun at breakfast and then we had breakfast (she shared with all and there were plenty to go around. 

Then the fun really began, finishing the "big" birthday cake...

 She designed the cake, then decorated with two kinds of icing, then continued to develop the cake...

Wow, a work of art!

 With help from some friends who showed up at this stage, further decorations were added (skittles) to complete the design...

Then, blow out the candles and let's eat!  (Polka dot theme was pretty lively...)  We had lots of fun at the party!  Of course games and gifts, cake and ice cream, but also some pretty sophisticated crafts, basically baked clayware...

 Constructed, baked, then painted and sealed...  Quite a variety of artwork...  Our dear
Aunt and cousins called at this point...  and we had even more fun...

Lots of fun making stuff.  We finished the birthday by cleaning up and then went out for dinner at our favorite local restaurant, Logan's, where we could make a mess with peanuts on the floor, watch the grillers cook the food and just relax and enjoy.  Now off to bed...  Happy Birthday!

Chicks!

We got some Wyandotte chicks so are enjoying these little guys.  They hatched out yesterday at our friends' place, so there were a few extras at church today ("So, are you going to Sunday School?  What version of the Bible do you have?"  or... "Hey, a box of chickens, and a dozen real eggs!") Praise the Lord!  You know, the Lord is seen as a mother hen protecting the chicks under her wings in some passages of scripture.  What a great vision of protection...

 now we have to be responsible for these little guys, but we get to witness the miracle of their growth...  Have a great day!

Expandog

What a strange phenomena we witnessed today...  What does it mean?  Perhaps a wormhole has opened in the couch?  And how did that poor dog get in there.  Will Uncle Doug remind us of adventures of Spam-bear from our childhood??  Tune in next time for more silliness!

What do we hear in the couch??  What is that little white thing coming out??

Or should we say WHO is that??!

One friend deserves another, but how can they fit in the arm of the couch?!

Aren't you glad you stayed to see the final out-come!  Have a great day and be thankful for the space you have!

Pearls...

 Well they are good buddies but I wouldn't necessarily call them pearls...

 We were eating oysters and something was a bit hard...  I carefully separated them and found two rare pearls from Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea virginica.  Unusual, but kind of fun!

 They were only a couple millimeters in diameter but lovely little white pearls.  A good day.

Mole for dinner

That is mole', the Mexican food with hot peppers and chocolate in a sauce, in this case rice and chicken.  As a bit of an extra bonus, we tried the mole salsa as a kind of salad dressing. 

 Green salad with salsa dressing at Chez R, are we mixing metaphors?  It was pretty good, but we may have to work on the mix for the salad dressing.  Enjoy!

Off to school

 While waiting for the bus, might as well review your math flashcards...