AZ Science Center

Fun Day at the Arizona Science Center

Friday

July 22, 2011

Giant telescope.

Allison's eye looking into the giant telescope.

Crossing paths in the rope maze.

My three trying to figure out a floor maze.

The house that kids built!

Carter smiling through a "window."

Allison waving through a "window."

Allison seeing how many pennies her paper bridge can hold. 

It held more than 50!

Carter adding pennies to his foil "boat".

His held 193!  Beating the previous record of 80-some.

Then, with a little design help from Mom, Allison made a boat that held 238 pennies!

And a good time was had by all...

(...even me!)

 

   

Sunflowers & Artichokes

Today I cut our sunflower who's head was droopy and full of seeds!  Too cool!  When we planted the sunflower, I had not idea of how the seeds were formed...  but here they are:

 Also, in the garden, our artichoke plant is dying of heat stroke and the artichokes are small so I haven't harvested any of the fruit.  Instead we've let them bloom into these beautiful purple flowers!  Really cool! 

(Artichoke photos by Allison.)

Artichokes are perennials, so I wonder if this plant would come back when the Arizona heat lets up in the fall?  I won't find out this year because I am going to have our weed guy treat the garden which is over-run with weeds!  (see that pretty green "blanket" covering the ground?)  I have plans to plant the artichoke in a different location next year where it can grow as wide as it wants.

 

Carter's Karate Class

Here's a video of Carter doing a double center punch in karate class.  He wasn't testing for a new belt - just a regular class.  I think his belt testing will be next month and he'll be testing for his brown belt.

Here he is again...  Check out that tiger's eyebrow! 

Tiger's eyebrow means your FOCUSED!

Pretty cute, huh?

 

Allison's Karate Test

On Thursday Allison had her first belt test in her new karate "White Belts" class.  She was testing for a white belt with a black stripe.  She's been practicing every day!  She had to learn two forms to complete the test. 

Check it out... she's really good!!

And here is my karate kid with her new belt, her karate instructor, Master Guffey, and her certificate!

 

Carter's Smart

Jim and the kids are building a Lego dinosaur they saw in the Lego Club Jr. magazine. 

CARTER:  "I know that dinosaurs are really brown."

DADDY:  "Really?  How do you know that?"

CARTER:  "Oh. I'm just really smart."

(If all goes well, there might be dinosaur pictures posted later!)


   

Artichokes & Corn

From Our Garden!

Artichokes:

My first attempt at cooking an artichoke was a big success!  We all enjoyed eating it - one leaf at a time.  And we have more in the garden that will be ready to pick in another week or so.  (If they survive the 110+ teamperatures...)

Corn:

We've enjoyed watching the corn grow!  We picked two ears and they were a little dry.  I don't think they have survived the heat very well.  :-(

(Photo credit: James Maruschak)