Scouts Weekend

I helped my Scout Troop run the flag ceremony contest for 4th and 5th graders at this year's Camperall. I got to judge them on folding and displaying the flag, and reciting a correct flag ceremony. It was pretty fun! 

The next day Tommy's den had a meeting at the Santa Ana Zoo, and I came along to be supportive, and because that zoo's fun!

Monkeys checking out monkeys. 

The giant anteater kept trying to climb this tree! It wasn't successful, but it was crazy to watch!

It was National Chemistry week, so we watched a Chemistry show...

And the scientist froze a banana with liquid nitrogen and used it as a hammer!

Next we made slime at another booth...

And ice cream made with liquid nitrogen at another booth. 

After talking about endangered and extinct species, we made our way over to a new exhibit...

The dung beetle roll!

You could roll these big plastic pieces of dung around a big trail. Needless to say, it was a hit with a bunch of 8 year old Cub Scouts. 

Good job, Scouts! Another adventure complete!

L to R: Kyle, Luke F, Liam, Lucas, Luke H, Tommy, Kat, Ryan, Derrick

Science Night at GoldenWest College

We went to the annual science night at Golden West College with our friends Cole and Sarah. Cole and Tommy practiced putting a brain together...

And got elbow deep in this blood cell simulation.

I can feel my skull!!!

Check out this cool scorpion that glowed in the black light!

Sarah and I waited in line to get hooked up the lie detector machine to test our physiological responses to stress and lying. 

I'm not much of a liar, but Sarah wrote out some questions for me that she thought might trip me up. 

Results: somewhat inconclusive, but it was established that history is NOT my favorite class. That question was pretty straight forward. 

They had a hand washing challenge where they put these luminescent "germs" on your hands, and you had to wash and put them back under the black light to make sure you got them clean. Gross, Tommy! He had to go back and wash again. 

We looked at hair, cheek cells, pennies, and bugs under the microscope. Did you know that on the back of older pennies there's a part that looks like a naked person's butt? 

Cole found it, and sure enough, take a look. It's really the seated statue of Lincoln, and those are his knees, not buttcheeks. But it's still pretty funny. 

We also saw students melt gummy bears in super hot potassium chlorate. The green one actually glowed this pink color!

At the end Sarah and I made ice cream in a bag. 

Science is yummy!

September Awards

Again this year, Tommy was the first person from his class to win the Super Reader award. His teacher said not only has he already met his trimester point goal with 100% on his reading quizzes, but he reads aloud with emotion and inflection, all signs of a very fluent reader. Good job, Tom Tom Frog! 

And I was awarded a GRIT band by my math teacher. Every month each teacher gets 8 bands to pass out to student they see continually displaying GRIT (Gratitude, Respect, Integrity, and Tenacity). Since each teacher has between 120-180 students every day, that's pretty cool that I got one!

To celebrate Mom and Dad took us out to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We decided to get dressed up. Hobbes even put on one of Tommy's Build-a-Bear tuxes!

Great start to the school year! And another shot from the HB Airshow over Peterson Elementary. 

Swimming Merit Badge

I got my swimming merit badge last weekend! We learned how to to pull each other in using a rope...

Demonstrated our floating and swimming strokes...

And proved we could do the survival float for 5 minutes straight. Although we look like we're dead, we're really surviving. 

Yay, us!

And Tommy got to do a little watersliding until it's his turn to get his merit badge in a few years. 

Soccer Fun

Tommy's having a lot of fun with his soccer team this year, The Flash. 

They're learning a lot, but they're also having fun gooning around with each other a lot. 

Scouts Popcorn Sales

Time to sell some popcorn! Both Tommy and I were storefront selling popcorn again this year. 

I got to sell with my friend Tiana, and afterward we went out for boba. Yum!

Tommy got creative with his displays. 

He also got to sell outside during the HB Airshow. 

Pretty cool to see all the planes and their contrails.