Capillary action

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Tessa

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Today was a beautiful day!

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Tessa

A tiny LEGO sewing machine

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Tessa

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!

A proud Lego builder!

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.

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!

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. :)

Alpha Rex

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Tessa

Meet our new friend, Alpha Rex.

I’m tired and Alan is waiting patiently for me to go to bed, so I’m going to leave you with this for now. I’ll tell you more about Alpha Rex another day.

What’s going on?

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Tessa

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

Everything bagel pretzels! A grocery store score!

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

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

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

Blueberry picking!

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

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

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! :)

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

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

It started out as a simple puppet show…

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Tessa

Look at what happens to my living room when I have a cup of tea in the dining room with a friend and we ignore the children for awhile! This is a theater, I’m told. I’m sure there will be a more lengthy blog post on this later!

Our new toy

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Tessa

Like the juxtaposition of the old and the new? :)

Doggie pillows

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Tessa

We finally finished our first embroidery projects (started here and here). The kids made pillows for their doggies! Each pillow has a design on the front and the doggie’s name on the back. Mema and I helped Eve with the name side of her pillow, but she did the front and Lex did all of the embroidering on his. We sewed them together with the sewing machine, stuffed them with old quilt batting from a previous project, and I hand-stitched them closed. Don’t look to closely!

A proud crafter shows off his handiwork.

Yes, their doggies names are Alex and Jesus. Can you guess whose is whose?

The designs are kind of vague. Eve’s pillow, in the back, is a flower and some sky, I think. Lex’s is a flower, a sun, blue sky, and green grass at the bottom. Not too bad for design-on-the-fly by first timers! (sorry for the terrible photo quality!)

Lex wanted to rush right upstairs and give the doggies their pillows, but I said, “Wait! What do we always do first when we finish a craft project?” Lex stopped and replied, “Oh yes, we need to take pictures first!” Then he brought the camera upstairs to take pictures of the pillows in use. :)