Mom's done with her meetings!

So we went to the Magic House. It's ostensibly a children's museum, but I think the adults have at least as much fun, which is why John was under strict orders not to take the kids there by himself.

The kids went downstairs via beanstalk, (John and I took the stairs. We're boring.)



where they found the nation's capital.

They raised the flag,



then Rebecca took some phone calls at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.



while Kathryn held a press conference.



Next, the court, Judge Becca presiding.



Being a judge is hard. So they switched to construction.





If only she'd do this at home.



On to more literary pursuits.

Rebecca played the 'harpsichord' a la Beauty, of Beauty and the Beast fame. She actually looked at the color-coded notes on the music, matched them to the colored keys, and played them in the right order, without being told what to do (not that she'd have listened if she were told). My budding musician!



They also got to play dress-up.

Cinderellas:



Characters from Lan Po Po, a Chinese folk tale:



Sacageweas?



All that, and just in the first two hours! (Then the blogger got tired of uploading photos...)

We played at the Magic House for over six hours, and had an awesome time. It's not that easy to thoroughly engage both the 4 year old and the 9 year old, and this place did it impressively. If you're in St. Louis with kids, you MUST take a trip here.

We loved it so much it made our hair stand on end.

Building an arch

I would have liked a better title for this one, with technical sounding physics/engineering terms, but I didn't actually see the exhibits. Had to work. Poor me.

John built an arch at the St. Louis Science Center. It was so well built that the kids could actually stand under it.



Then they learned about optics.



And they did some brain teaser called the tower of Hanoi.



The teamwork exhibited in this picture is amazing. And rare.



Success!



Then they balanced 12 nails on one.






I am a little perturbed that they apparently learned a lot more physics/math on this trip than biology. Guess that's what happens when I'm not around to make sure they get a well-rounded education.

Mini-vacation!

I had to go to St. Louis for a workshop, so John and the girls tagged along to take advantage of the free room and mileage.

While I attended meetings in an over-cooled room with no windows, Rebecca and Kathryn brushed goats,



rode frogs,



sat in a hippo's mouth,



and climbed on a REALLY big bug.



They also saw some cool butterflies,



and goofed off in front of the penguins.



Tomorrow: the St. Louis Science Center.

What I did in July

We've come to the point in the summer when I realize that it's about time I started thinking about fall classes, fall syllabi, fall schedules. The luxury of not working for a living is almost past. And as usual, I have about the same list of to-do's at summer's end as I had in the beginning.

Sigh.

I feel so un-accomplished.

Except that I did teach in June. And supervise research students in June and July. (Yes, the 'not working for a living' thing is a sad myth.) And rip up a deck. And watch the Tour.

And I knit. Warm Woolies has a contest this summer. Six for six - knit six items that would fit a six year old child and win some knitting gifts. Sounded good, so I decided to go for it, even though I haven't finished the ten for ten contest - ten sweaters or pairs of socks suited for a ten year old.

I got started around July 6. And finished the last piece August 4.




Maybe I did accomplish something this summer after all.

Welcome, baby Isaac! Can't wait to meet you!

How to build a bomb shelter for spiders

(Or "How to build a deck that will frustrate the next home owners who need to remove it.")

There was a deck in our backyard, built around a big old maple tree. I suppose it once was a nice deck, but then the tree grew and buckled the deck. Besides, the deck wasn't particularly close to the house, so we (not known for ever going to any trouble) have never used it.

There was a big wind storm last fall, the remnant of a hurricane. It blew down some big limbs off the old maple, which unfortunately fell on the kids' playset. Then there was a big ice storm last winter. Big limbs cracked under the weight of the ice, and fell on what remained of the playset. Thankfully nothing fell on the house. But everytime I looked at that tree I saw a ticking time bomb.

The tree had to go. Which meant the deck had to go first.

Day one of deck demolition. After an hour or two of work, John managed to pry up ONE board.





We figured his lack of success was because we don't own the right tools. So a day and a trip to Lowe's later, he tried again.



That pick-axe ended up being flimsy and not particularly suited for the task, which necessitated yet another trip to Lowe's. I felt quite empowered walking out of the store with the new pick-axe and a crowbar. Deadly weapons, both of them.

Day two's work was thankfully accelerated by Bryan's arrival. I can't believe that he willingly spent his weekend helping us rip up deck boards, but I am grateful beyond words. (Yes, I know I keep saying 'we'. I helped. I, um... handed them hammers and crowbars and stuff. And threw away nails. And hauled a few boards away. Once in a while, I even got to wield a crowbar, just to prove to myself that I have no physical strength whatsoever.)

End of day two and 8 man-hours (and 4 woman-hours) of work: half the boards ripped up.



Why so slow?

Here's why:



Three spiral nails across the width of every 2 X 6 deck board to hold the boards to the joists. Joists spaced one foot apart. The deck was about 15 by 20 feet. You do the math.

Necessary? I suppose if you were building a bomb shelter for spiders...

Another reason why this took so long: we painstakingly removed every nail from the boards and piled them up neatly.



On day three we wised up.



End of day three and 8 more man-hours: Almost done with the deck boards!



Day four: Just John and I working today, for about 2 hours. Ripped up the last few deck boards and removed the joists. Luckily the tree roots had caused some of the brackets holding the joists to the wood underneath to pull out. There were LOTS of brackets.



Day five: John and I and less than two more hours, and we're ALL DONE!



Yes, yes, I know there are still 4 X 4 posts standing.



We suspect (since every single aspect of this deck-building was overkill) those are probably 6 feet deep into the ground and embedded in concrete. We'll just borrow a saw to cut them off at the ground surface and call it good enough.

Stay in school, kids. Manual labor really isn't fun, even if you get to take pictures and blog about it.

Birthday!

Rebecca turned 4 the other week.

The celebration started with a Dora pinata.



(Note that Becca's clothes match Dora's. NOT my doing.)

The pinata and mini-cupcakes were taken to preschool so that we could bless the teachers with 20 over-sugared 4 year olds.

When we got to school, Ben had to give Becca a birthday hug. (Ben as in "Yes, I want those yellow cupcakes because yellow is Ben's favorite color. Oh my.)



After preschool we came home for present-opening. We accidentally went overboard (PSA: only shop ONCE. Not multiple stores on multiple days.) and the grandparents also sent gifts, so she made out like a bandit. A very cool-looking bandit.



Wait. No birthday party?

But of course.

Since Kathryn had been psyching Becca up about her party for oh, a year (!) we couldn't escape this one. Since Becca had been talking about Sydney's Chuck E. Cheese party for the last eleven months, the venue was a no-brainer.

So we had two little friends (Sydney and Wyatt) and their parents and siblings, and two grown-up friends (Ann and Bryan) join us at CEC on Monday afternoon.

The party started with some playtime. Adrenaline junkie loved the roller coaster simulator.



Then came food and cake and the goofy Chuck E. Cheese stuff.



Our party coordinator was fantastic, but Becca was not going near that crazy mouse. So Kathryn went instead.



And then we continued with more playtime and more roller coaster simulators.



Everyone (yes, including the grown-ups!) had a great time. We made the dangerous discovery that you can actually get beer and wine (!!) at CEC. I think that John, Ann and Bryan are planning to sneak there some night after the kids are in bed to play pinball.

And since the party was 5 days after the real birthday, Becca seems to think she's had TWO birthdays and is now five. Oye.