Friday, May 28, 2010

A Family Baby Shower

Yes, it's a boy - at least that's what the Ultrasounds say.  A lovely hot evening at the student park with close friends and family.
Wow - some lovely and very cute gifts.  Didn't think there could be such cute boy clothes either!


Aunty Char waiting for the food. 


Mervin decorated the cake.


Appetizing food.


More gifts kept coming.


Enjoying fellowship and good food, plus a few games.


Well, well.  It seems like A isn't the only one pregnant here today!


Digging into all the amazing and cute presents. Her two sisters are the helpers! :-)

We'll keep you updated.  The good news should come in July!

A Science Field Trip

What an enormous truck met our eyes as we drove into the Tellus Science Museum on Monday. Seems like the same size used in the Zambian copper mines - remember, anyone?
This photo is added from March 15, 2011 just to show a growth comparison! Did they grow in 10 months?

Inside the cavernous entrance is a huge replica of a dinosaur (no, not the T-rex - that is farther into the dark recesses of the fossil section). The planetarium entrance is in that huge blue wall. I didn't take any photos in there (by then my camera battery was dead). Inside the domed theatre, we watched "Extreme Planets". There were about 5 different movies to choose from but this one was at the convenient time (@3 bucks a pop)! Also in the lobby is a foucault pendulum which knocks wooden slats over as it (we) goes around.

Aaarrrgh! This huge sea turtle is after me, Mom! Watch out behind you, child - that one looks more ferocious!

In the Gemology section we were able to pan for gems! Yay - the highlight of the whole museum, me thinks! We were able to each find, and joy of joys, keep, a whole bag of little semi-precious gems including amethyst, carnelian, jasper, tiger's eye, obsidian, many coloured quartz, agate, turquoise and many, many others. In that area was also a fossil dig and the girls got to keep one each.


Some of the gorgeous gems - they seemed to have thousands of all shapes, sizes and colours. They weren't ALL in spherical shapes. Also had a section on volcanoes and earthquakes.


One of the ingenious exhibits was of the periodic table - visually (as far as possible) portraying the element; when it was discovered; how it's used and what it looks like etc. MOST enlightening - wish I'd had this to look at in high school chemistry!




In the transportation section we got to see the earliest of cars (with mirror underneath to see the "workings"), up to a modern sports car, a miniature steamtrain, then planes and jets, cockpits, and models of space craft of various sorts. Actually, I think there was also a real space module/capsule? etc.




Another section called "Your Big Backyard" includes a lot of hands-on exhibits exploring light and reflection/refraction; sound and sound waves; magnetism; weather (including a thunderstorm, and live weather for the area), force and air pressure, heat and conduction; natural history such as the life cycles of various animals; and electricity. Since it was more hands-on in this section, the girls enjoyed this section a lot.


Trying out all the noise makers modeled after the way various animals make noise.


The "house" of electricity and magnetism, and the yard "outside".

Well, that gives an overview of our visit.  Due to space, I can't include all the wonderful photos but this gives an idea.  Ta-ta.

Visitors from Florida and Outer Space etc

Here we have some visitors from Florida. We enjoyed their company for a few days before they had to whip back to FL via a CAP meeting in Mississippi. (Doesn't sound like "via" to me, but I guess they had their reasons! :-))


Here is Alana who visited us from...well, let's just say she is a transformed friend! Do you recognize the face?? I don't know, but she seems VERY familiar!



And then, we were so greatly honored to have two visitors from space grace our company with their presence! They told us a lot about space (and how lonely it was up there!). We're glad they've decided to join the human race again on earth.

I'll be giving a more complete "picture" of our amazing, most wonderful and fascinating field trip to the Tellus Georgia Science museum in a future bulletin. Until then, Adios!

Friday, May 21, 2010

School Days

Trying to focus...
Two schoolmates chatting through the door.


Let me out....


Working hard...


Outside work during orchestra (under Spalding's trees).


Lovely spring weather - why stay inside?  Working on spelling.

Leetle Owlies Grow up

Here are some family photos...of Molly and McGee's kids. They had four and this little sequence shows growth over about 2 weeks. I don't have screen shots of the eggs and their very early life as I didn't know how to take screen shots in those days... Anyway, they were ugly then! (Don't tell Molly!)

Let me look at you - THIS way

then THIS way...

Nope, it's no good.  Only upsidedown will do.

Here's a picture of 3 of us siblings. We're cute, aren't we? (Mommy Molly told us that!)


Here, let me kiss you, sweet brother.

A good view of our feathers coming in.  And, yes, I am trying them out - when I flap my wings, I seem to get lighter...hmmm.

Ahh, look at our sweet, round faces now!  Better take back those ugly words you said about us earlier!



Here we are outside our nest-box!  We're adventurous - but only at night!


During the day, we're as good as gold and stay safely in our box.


The rest of the story:  as of this week we're flying!  We take little excursions into the dark world beyond...how exciting!