Mirror Image

Okay, this was too funny not to share. Nick wrote this message for me, but when he did he somehow managed to do it in almost perfect mirror image. This is what the message looked like when he gave it to me:



Now, if I put it in mirror image, you can actually read it (can you guess what it says):



NO DOgS ULAOD
(NO DOGS ALLOWED)

Harvest Festival 2009

We went to the annual Harvest Festival again this year. It was a lot of fun, and it was extra special since Nana got to join us before heading home. As always there were lots of fun things to do. It was a bit chilly, as you can tell from the photos, but warmed up pretty quickly as the day went on. This whole week has been super cold.

Making Leaf Prints:

Nick got to roll yellow and blue together to make green, and then did his leaf print.


Here he is with the final product

Making a Bicycle License Plate:

Daddy helped with this one.

Rides and Games:

Inflatable Slide - Nick kept climbing part way up and the sliding down the stairs, but he did go all the way up a couple of times and get the full slide.
How did my little boy get so big?

Daddy and Nick in the Straw Maze




A Ride on the Bucket Train


There were also lots of games with little prizes, but there are too many photos to put on here. If you'd like to see the rest, you can visit our album at:
http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/socksinfox/

Digging for Fossils

We spent the week working on Nick's fossil dinosaur kit that his grandma got him when she was down visiting. He had a lot of fun with it, but it got sand EVERYWHERE. That's okay though, it was super cool. He finished it up today, and now just needs to paint the skeleton. Below are the pictures of it as he worked on it.



The beginning of day 2 of "excavation"



Near the end of day 2 of excavation - The bones are getting uncovered now. We'll have some more photos of this day later, but this is all I have available at the moment.


Day 3 - The dinosaur excavation is complete, and the fossil skeleton has been assembled.



The completed skeleton - only painting is left now.

Amberized Insect

As part of our study of fossils, we created our own amberized insect.

We started with an already dead insect, so no bugs were hurt. It's amazing how hard it is to find a dead bug when you need one!

Next, we put a little yellow food coloring into clear nail polish, and then poured a bit in the bottom of a 2 liter bottle. We then gently placed our bug on top of the bit of nail polish, and covered him with more "amber" (nailpolish). For the next couple of days we continued to add more "amber" each day.

I had hoped from the instructions that we'd be able to remove it from our bottle, but had my doubts. In the end we weren't able to, but that's okay, it still looks super cool, and Nick has a better understanding of this type of fossil.

Hawaiian Boy

Nick decided he wanted to dress up a bit, it was cold out but he decided to wear his new Hawaiian shirt anyways. It's a tad big, which is great, it'll fit next year that way, but it's cute anyways!

Digging For Opals

Sorry it's been a bit since I've posted, we had my mom visiting for a week so I took a break, and now I'll get everyone caught back up on what we've been up to.

Last Saturday, we went over to the Opal Mines in Spencer Idaho and searched for opals. We got a couple of really nice ones and some really pretty rocks with opal in them.

It ended up being a quite interesting trip. It flowed in with our current line of study really well, because while we weren't searching for fossils, the tools used are very similar, as is the care needed. Nick really enjoyed looking for the opal rocks and bringing us rocks to work on.

I didn't take my camera, but mom did, so as soon as I get those pictures I'll add them in.