Future master suite

Here's the future master suite. The workers knocked out the wall between two bedrooms and taped off where the new bathroom and closet will go.

Family Science Day

Morehead Planetarium hosted a Family Science Day last weekend. It was co-sponsored by the UNC anthropology department, and the theme was "It's Only Human". An archaeologist was demonstrating stone tool-making, and kids could make tools to get (toy) bugs out of a log. Audrey loved that activity, as well as fishing for magnetic termites.



Mary attended a couple of lectures and used forensic evidence (fingerprint matching) to find out which of the grad student volunteers stole artifacts from a dig. Audrey drew animals on cave walls, listened to stories around the campfire and walked like a camel, gibbon and sparrow.

Of course, one of the highlights of the day was stopping for ice cream!

Marshmallow challenge

This week's challenge from Think! had us trying to suspend as many marshmallows as possible at least an inch above the table. We suspended 10, because that's all that were left in the bag after the "experimentation" phase of the project. I hope next week's challenge doesn't involve marshmallows!

Orange Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

This plant started sprouting up all over the yard last month, especially along the creek. I figured it must be some kind of weed, but the hummingbirds like it, so it's a good weed. Restoration Place, another blogger who's doing the 100 Species Challenge, had it in her list. So, now that I know what it is, I can list it as one of my 100 species!

I'm up to seven:
1. Poison ivy
2. Virginia creeper
3. Wild blackberry
4. Lamb's Ear
5. Great laurel
6. Fireworks Goldenrod
7. Orange Jewelweed

Bathroom renovations

Here are the before shots of our upstairs bathrooms.




The wall between the two bathrooms was knocked out to combine them into a big hall bath for the girls.



Coming soon: pictures of the master suite-to-be.

It's Fall!

We had a cold snap last week. Well, at least it felt cold to us relocated Floridians. I bought mini pumpkins for the kids, and Mary and I collected some fall leaves and sketched them. We tried to identify them, but so far no luck. To celebrate the fall (okay, to use up some left over sweet potatoes) Audrey and I made sweet potato bread. It smelled delicious while it was baking.

Apple Challenge

I found a new blog, Think! which posts weekly contraption building challenges. This week's was to:

Put the following items on the table:
3 drinking straws
6 toothpicks
3 large marshmallows (if you don't have any use 3 bandaids)
3 round plastic tops (size doesn't really matter -- we used the tops to bottled water)
18 lifesavers (or cherrios or fruit loops)
small apple

Tell students to raise the apple off the ground as high as possible for as long as possible. This time, they may use scissors during "construction" but may not use them to elevate the apple. Remember, the focus is the thinking part so if you don't have the exact materials, don't worry about it, just go with what you have. It is supposed to be fun and require no planning!

Mary's first design went for stability rather than height. We didn't time it because it looked like the apple would stay there forever, or at least until the marshmallows compressed enough.



Her second design held the apple about 2 inches off the table for 1:34.



Audrey enjoyed making contraptions with marshmallows and toothpicks, too. This one is a pufferfish. It's the only one of hers that doesn't have bites taken out of it.