The most awesome Lego launcher EVER!

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There is nothing better than coming across an awesome project on a blog and doing it that day. Even better is when it’s a project that doesn’t require me turning my computer back on and following the directions. A one-two easy-peasy project that I can pull out at a moment’s notice. A project that I can even whip up more parts when a neighbor comes over to play unexpectedly. Good times. Thanks Becky @ Rub Some Dirt On It!

Read her site for directions and beautiful photos. Stay here for the usual pics of my kids. :)

lex

Plastic cup, cut off the bottom. Balloon, tie one end, cut the other. Stretch balloon over cup, add tape (we add tape to everything, like salt). Pull on balloon “tail” to launch things. She recommends pom-poms, but we have a lack of those in our house so we tried cotton balls (too light), random pieces of plastic (too risky), and Legos (perfect).

targets

We set up a series of targets. We had some pricing stickers lying around that I though we could use for points. Somehow we used them for actual money and I ended up paying Lex $1.75!

setup

Setting the stage.

neighbor

Things got a little tricky when our neighbor stopped by. I whipped up a Lego Launcher for him in less than a minute, but the game held his attention for only about that long anyway. The problem was he drew Eve away from the game, thereby ending the nice family time we were having. Sigh.

last player

Nothing distracted this guy though! He kept asking the other two to come back and play, but they wouldn’t, so he kept on alone. He loved the game!

Back in the water

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After our favorite lake beach was closed due to Hurricane Irene we were forced to find a new swimming place this summer. We did! A real “treasure of an island.” :)

lake

Lake Fairlee

fish

Little fishes

beach

The beach

platform

Elizabeth and Alistair on the floating platform there (totally blanking on the proper word!) Eve and I swam out once too.

snorkel

We finally got to put our snorkels to good use!

walk

We did a little exploring on the little island nearby.

horse shoes

We found a horse shoe pit. Lex was the only one to …. get one. No idea what the proper wording for that is!

silly kids

Silly kids on a stump.

sandy

Tired, sandy kids.

Capillary action

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We have a new science experiment on our table. We’ve been monitoring it for several days now and enjoying the changing colors.

We started with four bowls of water and two empty bowls (gotta keep things evenly divisible by two when you have two kids :) ) Each kid got to chose two colors and put a few drops of food coloring into two bowls of water. Then the rolled up paper towels and made bridges between the cups of colored water and the empty cups.

in the beginning

The theory was that the water would wick up the paper towels and back down the other side, filling the empty bowls. Each empty bowl had two paper towel bridges coming in to it, so there would also be some coloring mixing as a beautiful side effect.

We watched it closely while we had afternoon snack. Within an hour or so the color was making good progress. For some reason we don’t understand the yellow wicked much faster than the other two colors.

1hr

lex

By the end of dinner the yellows had started dripping into the empty bowls, and creeping up the dry end of the other paper towel bridges!

3hrs

The next morning all of the colors had made it over their bridges and were dripping into the middle bowls, creating lovely shades of orange and green.

12hrs p1

12hrs p2

12hrs p3

Lex filled each of the water bowls up evenly, but somewhere along the way between the sink and the table some water spilled out of one of them (the yellow bowl across from the blue). As the water levels tried to level out, some of the green water started working it’s way up the yellow bridge!

Saturday evening, about 24hrs after we started the project, it looked like this.

24hrs

This afternoon, nearing 48hrs since we started the experiment, the green hasn’t yet made it to the yellow. The wicking action is slowing down. I wonder if the paper towels get saturated? I’m just guessing at the science behind all of this because I’m too lazy to look it up (ok, I did a quick Wikipedia search for the basics). Maybe we’ll leave it for another day or so. Eventually things have to get cleaned up around here.

48hrs

table

For now I’m just enjoying the beautiful experiment/table decoration. Especially considering the rest of my table decorations consist of two candles we haven’t used in ages, two vases of dead flowers (which will be freshed up at our trip to the farm tomorrow) and an empty yogurt cup with a dead flower and a (likely also dead) little worm Eve brought home yesterday.

Hooray for colorful science!

A tiny LEGO sewing machine

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Lex wanted to make this post himself, but I’m tired of waiting for him so I’m going to do it. He likes to talk about blogging, but so far he shows very little interest anything that involves much typing. I’m thinking about teaching him to touch-type. Do they still teach that in school? I was taught in high school, but I know kids these days are learning computer skills much earlier… but I digress…

Last week when my sewing machine was out and on the table, Lex started wondering if it would be possible to make a real working Lego sewing machine. We decided probably yes, but it would be hard. He decided he wanted to make a Lego model sewing machine instead, non-working. The next day, completely unprompted (great minds think alike!) Anna sent me a link to a Lego sewing machine tutorial. How timely! Lex was thrilled!

A day or two later Lex got to it on his mental to-do list and off he went. He made a few modifications, some he explained to me, others he didn’t. He was very proud of his final product and his personal touches. I was very proud of him and his excitement for even the littlest things in life!

lex

A proud Lego builder!

front

The red disks off the end is a spool of thread. The other colored things in front are extra spools of thread. He thought it would be good to keep a few extras on the machine.

side

The tutorial says to use a “tiny hammer or a pick axe from a mini-figure” to make the foot. Lex was so excited to find an axe, but when he started building he said, “Oh, this is from a regular figure, not a mini-figure.” The axe was too tall. Never fear though, he just made the sewing machine taller to compensate! Nothing stops him!

back

The yellow squares are lights. His addition.

The whole time Lex was working on this, Eve and I were also playing with Legos. Eve had a continuing narrative that she and Lex were workers in the Lego Genius factory and I was trying to be a worker. I worked hard on a building (I’m not real creative with Legos!) to prove to her that I am also a Lego genius and should be allowed to work in the factory. I eventually convinced her and we all worked happily in the Lego Genius factory for awhile… until I got bored!

I don’t think I really qualify as a Lego Genius. I get bored too quickly. :)

What’s going on?

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Here is a peek at what’s going on in our world.

pretzels

Everything bagel pretzels! A grocery store score!

obstacle course

An obstacle course for the Lego Mindstorm bull dozer Lex planned all week and eagerly built with Alan one Saturday morning.

bowling

A mid-afternoon trip to the bowling alley. Lex won both games!

bowling eve

Eve is the world’s slowest bowler, but she has fun with it. :)

blueberry lex

Blueberry picking!

blueberry eve

We went with some friends and it was a beautiful day.

eve

Eve eventually switched to collecting rocks and wood chips to bring home. Yay, more “nature” for the collection.

blueberries

We made muffins, which disappeared in a day, and froze a bunch. I think I’m going to make more muffins tomorrow. I could live on blueberry muffins! :)

tired

Poor tired kids couldn’t even make it up the stairs at bedtime.

playground

We had planned a trip to the lake today, but the weather was pretty sketchy so we went to the playground instead.