Leprechan Trap

Dylan's third grade class had an assignment to design and build a leprechan trap using at least two simple machines (pulley, wheel & axel, inclined plane, wedge, screw, etc.). He decided to use Duplo Legos to build his trap and had a great time showing the results to his classmates. It's projects like this that keep Dylan interested in and excited about school.

3rd Grade Music Program

Here are some pics from the Northridge 3rd grade music program a few weeks ago. We came away from it quite impressed. I have some experience putting on large-scale performances, so I know how difficult these things can be. Their music teacher managed 104 kids onstage by herself just fine. There was no down-time between numbers because they vamped on a refrain as the kids moved around, which made the 35 minutes fly by. All in all, it was a very well put together presentation.


The program was presented in the Knaak Center at Bismarck High, which is a terrific performance venue.

Dylan got to play a hand drum for one song. He's got really good rhythm. Those are his two good buddies, Mack and Connor, also playing.

While Dylan loved playing his part on the hand drum, he seemed mostly disinterested in the singing portions. Oh well, we already know he's not really a performer-type. Hard to believe, considering his parents...

The New Gap

Connor passed another milestone of childhood today when he lost his first baby tooth. We were all very excited for him!



Last week, Connor's cousin Chase was here and saw Connor wiggling his loose tooth. I explained that his tooth was almost ready to fall out. Chase got a terrified and disgusted look on his face and said, "WHY?!" I tried to explain that everyone's baby teeth fall out, but he was having none of that. He declared that if his teeth fell out, he'd put them back in.

This week was Pirate Week in Connor's kindergarten class, to conincide with the letter of the week, "p". He came home with a pirate hat and telescope, looking SUPER CUTE.

Soap Carving

Dylan found a soap carving project in his Cub Scout handbook. He used his Cub Scout knife and some Popsicle sticks to do his carving. Here's his best end result, a bear:



He went through 18 bars of soap in a few days. At least they're still functional for hand-washing, too. And what a great activity for a nine-year-old boy.

Please Don't Stop the Music

I can't get enough of Rihanna's newest single, and it's been on repeat on my iPod since I bought it a couple of weeks ago. It's a delicious club song with a back-beat borrowed from a 25-year-old Michael Jackson song, "Wanna Be Startin' Something". I always loved that song, and especially the "mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ku-sa" at the end, which is the part that Rihanna's song uses. My copy of Thriller was well-worn, so I recognized it right away.

Here's Rihanna's song:



Here's Michael's song. Said section goes from 4:40 through the end.