Artwork: Z & M

Kinder Konzert

Titled "Cloudy with a Chance of Music": weather themed pieces. Front and center was neat though the low railing made me nervous. Liked having the extra leg space for X to crawl around.

Sister Stack

Maple Sugaring

Dept of Conservation annual maple sugaring class at Burr Oak Woods. Learned history of syrup, legend of who first discovered it; what kind of trees are best for syrup; what minimum size of tree (10 inches in diameter); what temps are best for sap running (below freezing at night, above freezing during the day); how it's processed and how much is needed (40 gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup); grades of syrup.

Girls practiced (on dead tree trunks) drilling and tapping a tree. Sap runs right under surface of bark in the sapwood, so only need to drill about 2 inches into tree at upward angle.

One of volunteers demoed how she makes her black walnut syrup. Got to compare black walnut and maple syrup, samples of both syrups on popcorn. (Black walnut was our favorite. Unfortunately, black walnut syrup cannot be bought commercially.)

Piano Boy

Loves banging on the piano, esp one of his sisters beside him or sitting on their lap.

Valentine's Candy

From M's school, which she shared with everyone.

Candy rings.

The comb honey that Drew bought for me, we'd already cut it into pieces for everyone to try.

Wheelbarrow & Spacecraft

A Conversation

M (in Chinese): When I'm 16yo, will you be dead?
Me: Um, I hope not.
M: So when will you be dead?
Me: That's up to God.
M: Well how would He know?

Forced Retirement and Nacho

M2's previous babydoll (with open/shut eyes, no name) started to have a smell about it. Specifically, M2 had sucked its hair and chewed its hand so badly that the rubber of the fingers cracked, allowing saliva to seep into the interior of the arm. Drew had had enough.

So he ordered a new babydoll, whom we named Nacho, short for Ignacio and comically enough sounds like "not chou", "chou" meaning "stinky". Also, as it turns out, Nacho is the smaller version (same brand) of Z's babydoll Ruby. Previous babydoll was all but forgotten in the excitement of Nacho's arrival: seamless transition.

More Printing

This was a rocket-pack robot design we downloaded from the company website. Some of the smaller pieces didn't start off so well, been having trouble getting the filament to stick to the print platform just right or at all. But ultimately this project was ruined by little hands that stopped the print before it could finish.

I started this treads robot before leaving the house for a couple of hours, which was a mistake as the arms were completely messed up, so we decided to stop printing to save filament.

This teacup print was going really well until M2 pulled the power plug. we'll see if we can't get a successfully finished teacup by the end of today.