One McCoraline, hold the meatballs, please...

Jorja wanted to see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs today, so after the kids came home from school I took the girls to the theater. I was proud of my perfect theater timing - not too early, but early enough to beat the huge line that formed after we got there.

Things were great until I got to the front of the line and asked for tickets. "Sorry, we're not showing that movie today due to technical difficulties." What? That's a new one for me. I asked when they would be showing it, and was told that they might get a digital protector tomorrow to be able to show it. Hmmm.

So, Maysen and I led a sad Jorja across the street to McDonalds to get ice cream. They decided that the trip wasn't a complete waste. Jorja got a big vanilla cone and Maysen and I split a mint Oreo McFlurry.

On the way home, we stopped at the WalMart parking lot for a visit to the RedBox. We were glad to see that they had Coraline, which we'd been wanting to see for a while.

Pretty groovy show! Freaky groovy. Plus, it was only a dollar. Too bad it wasn't Monday or we could have used a free Monday code. (Did I mention I like free stuff?) It was better watching a flick in our basement theater anyway. Where else can your two year old dump out bags of popcorn and jump on a big air mattress during a show. Guess I'll be cleaning that up tomorrow...

Dragon Wings

Maysen has decided that she wants to be a dragon for halloween. (surprise). A couple of years ago I showed her these cool wings that someone made and suggested we make some. At the time she passed on the idea, but that was mostly because she didn't want to have to open/close/flap them by having her arms tied to them. She, being my daughter, wanted them to open/close/flap by themselves via some sort of remote control.

So this year, we're going to give that a try. Our wings will be slightly scaled down so that we can make the frame out of those big paint stirring sticks they give out at home depot. (Free stuff is cool!) These should actually be a good size for her.

Today we started putting the different pieces together for the first wing - mostly just roughing out the idea. One of these wings will be hooked to each side of a backpack type thing that we'll make out of PVC pipe or a padded scrap of plywood, which will be strapped to her back.

This is what one of the wings looks like closed...



...and this is what it looks like when opened...




(It reminds me of one of those extend-o-glove thingies they punch each other with in cartoons.)

We'll cover this skeleton with some kind of stretchy fabric. To make it open and close on it's own, we're going to made what is called an air muscle, as described here or here. I think we'll only need one, and by stringing it between the two wings it should open them both when it contracts. We'll find out next week when we give it a try! It means we'll be strapping a paintball tank of air on her back, wiring it up, and letting her open and close the wings with the press of a button.

We're excited to be making them, and I figure it will be a good thing to show/use in the robotics classes I'm hoping to teach soon. Watch for updates soon...

Raingutter Gardening

Steph is out of town in Utah this week for her brother's wedding, so it's been just me and the kids.

Today we made a raingutter garden. We had tried making a garden in the yard a couple of years ago, but as hot and miserable as it gets here, it was hard to get out and go all the way down to take a look how things were going.

So this time, I bought a $5 raingutter and some mounting brackets and screwed the gutter to the bottom of the railing on one side of the deck.


The girls took turns hauling buckets of our nice, dark dirt we had mixed up for the last garden and filled the gutter. They had an absolute blast!

We divided the garden mostly between Maysen and Jorja, though I have a small area on each of the two ends. If we get anything to grow, we may add a few more gutters along the other edges of the deck and add a second row near the tops of the railings. We decided to start with the gutter down low so that peas and things can climb up the rails. We can easily attach some kind of climbing net for them there if we need to.



This setup should work out nicely for us, since the garden will be visible from the main living area and it will be easy for the girls to go out to work without having to trudge all the way out and down into the yard.

Jorja went to the store with me to get seeds. She happily planted flowers and peas in her areas, and let me put carrots, and radishes next to her. Maysen planted flowers and strawberries. We really wanted to find some strawberry plants, but there was none to be seen. So, we bought a carton of strawberries from the grocery store and buried about 6 of those. We have no idea if those will actually grow, but it's worth a try.

(Perhaps my lovely wife could figure out a way to bring/send some strawberry starts from Utah? I bet she could weasel some from my brother's yard. Hmm.....)

Maysen let me plant tomatoes and peppers in my area next to hers.

When the seeds were planted, Maysen and Jorja went on a great worm hunt. I don't know how they found so many, but apparently they are good at finding them in the back yard under the leaves. They put 25 or 30 of them into the garden to help take care of it.

Each of them had their favorite worms...but I don't seem to recall what they named them at the moment.

It was very cute to watch them working together, sifting through the dirt to find their new worm friends and placing them carefully in their new homes.

I believe Jorja is holding "lightning" in this picture....

So one might ask what Preston was doing during all this time. I believe I'll let the pictures do the talking...

About this time we headed in for the tub.... (after getting mud out of Preston's mouth)

In case you can't read Preston's shirt, it says: "Mischief is my business, and business is GOOD!". How fitting!

Cheaters Never Prosper....Sorta

Maysen and I played Age of Mythology for Time with Dad tonight. It is one of her favorite computer games. A while ago we looked up a bunch of cheat codes for the game. Here are some videos of us picking on the computer players with our ill-begotten units. Namely, flying purple hippos and laser bears - something you don't see every day. Those greeks never knew what hit 'em!

Maysen loves these cheat units. The flying purple hippos (which she calls FPH's) attack with love -they throw red hearts at the enemy and leave a shimmering rainbow wherever they go. Laser bears wear a Canadian flag and shoot lasers out of their eyes.

Maysen also started her science project today. I am proud of her for thinking of her project all by herself and doing all the work. She is growing different groups of bean seeds, "watering" them with 4 different liquids: water, milk, orange juice, and coke. It will be interesting to see which groups fares the best.

Perhaps plants in the South enjoy the cool refreshing taste of Coke better? Or the fizz will make them grow huge? We'll report back when she's done with her research.

Spyro on the Wii

Maysen has gotten me addicted to Spyro on the Wii.

We had a lot of fun tonight taking turns and trying to defeat some pretty hairy bosses. First we got past a band of pirates.

Maysen did a great job jumping across the jellyfish forest and ridding the world of a few bad dudes inside a tree trunk. Then we had to take on this huge tree monster named Arborick. Crazy crazy.

Now we've been captured by pirates and are being forced to battle giant scorpions in some kind of gladiator arena.

Let's hope I don't have nightmares over this!

Board Games of Greece

Maysen is big-time into mythology. Today she started making a mytholology board game where you pick a hero, do battle with mythical creatures, and draw cards to gain favor from ancient greek gods.

Can't wait to give it a try when it is finished!

Making Movies With Maysen

Maysen decided to make a baby-einstein-style movie for Preston using his favorite toys, stuffed animals, etc. It will be a combination of stop-motion animation and live video with music when completed.

We shot a few scenes of her bouncing around on a big hippity-hop ball and me scooting along on a wheeled horse, and then moved on to some stop-motion animation of his toys.

When completed, she wants to surprise Preston with the video during a road trip. We'll post it here when done.