MAKER FAIRE!

Sorry for the late blog post; I forgot.

Sunday we were at the Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is hard to explain, but I will do my best. It's where you get to make some stuff and see some stuff that other people have made.  It's for kids. You can get food there. You can even listen to music.  The Maker Faire is at the Henry Ford museum

When we just got into the faire, we listened to some music. I asked the DJ if he could put on "Get Lucky," my favorite song. He had it and played it for me -- YAY!

Some of the people at Maker Faire were showing a corn mill and a few early engines.  Isn't that exciting? I thought the corn mill was, but not the early engines:  too much smoke.

I got to make an egg maraca. You know those plastic eggs that you can sometimes get? Well, I filled that up with rice, macaroni (by the way they can't be cooked) or rice AND macaroni (like I did). Then we got to use our egg maracas and make sort of a symphony. They had all these different things that were glued to some wood. We used a drumstick to pound on them and shake our little egg maracas.

 I also got to make a race car. I made it out of a VCR tape. I can't explain how, but you can also make it out of plastic, styrofoam, or cardboard cones. I raced the car, but it feel of the track each time: lack of stability.

We got to do some tye-dying. I did red, white, blue and a bit of purple on a really small cloth of fabric. The purple was a mistake.

Doctor Who, Batman, and GDGS!

My favorite part of Maker Faire was meeting someone who was dressed as the 11th Doctor. If you have been to Books a Million and seen the Doctor Who stuff, you would have seen a bunch of Sonic Screwdriver toys.  The Doctor had one of those too.  My Dad took a picture of me holding the Sonic Screwdriver. It was awesome! Batman was there too. (Obviously someone dressed  as batman.)



By: GDGS

My Excitements About New York (and thinking about Baby T)

So we are gonna probably go up to New York this summer. I've got a lot of excitements and two things that I am not excited about and a bit of talking about Baby  T. going up to New York.

I am thinking that I would like Baby T. to go to New York with us, but I am not sure what she would want.  I am pretty sure that she would want to see the Empire State Building though--who wouldn't?

View of the Chrysler Building from the Empire State
Building ... at night (Taken by Mom).

My List of Where I Want to Go To:
1. Empire State Building
2. Statue of Liberty
3. Rockefeller Center
4. Brooklyn (more specifically the Brooklyn Bridge)
5. Lego Store
6. Riding the Subway
7. Central Park
These are also my excitements.

It would be nice going to Coney Island though.  YUM! I love Coney islands, who doesn't?

Mom wants to take me to the Metropolitan Museum Art to see the Temple of Dendur. It sounds pretty awesome!

Here are the things I am NOT excited about:
1. American Girl Store
2. Pollution
Well, of course I could avoid some pollution by going in the subway, maybe. And I am not really sure whether we are going to bring Baby T. or not (Mom: We are).

By: GDGS

Baby T. in Columbus

So, Baby T. went to Columbus with us for a weekend.  In case you didn't know this, most of us (except for Baby T. and Mom and Dad) were born in Columbus.  Mom and Dad lived there for 12 years, me for 5). We went to Columbus to visit our grandparents and some friends.

Anyways, we went to a restaurant called Max & Erma's. The food there is delicious! Yum!

So the wait was only a minute or two. Then we went to our table. Then we ordered. I only remember what I ordered. Two corn dogs with french fries. Then pap-pap(our grandpa) arrived.

Skippidy skip skip skip. So our food arrived later. It was great! See, I could only eat two corn dogs if I do them as separate meals, So pap-pap ate my other side(fruit).

The food was great. I bet Baby .T loved it.
GDGS

GDGS: My 1st Day at Camp

This week I went to a science camp, called "Cranbrook Science Explorers." This is what my first day was like. 

First, my DAD had to sign me in. Not my mom.  My Dad. Then I found my friends, Daniel and Zack: I had no idea they were going there! I was really happy. 

So we went to play a game. I can't remember what it was though. I do remember that it was really fun! But on to the topic, what you have been waiting for (I think): 

Acids and Bases!

I learned that there are these pieces of paper that are universal indicators. A universal indicator says how acidic or basic (get it?) things are.  At that one we actually tested out some acids and bases.  Of course the volunteer who brought the acids couldn't get anything higher than ketchup and vinegar. Otherwise, he would have burned his skin! Ouch!  

We put the universal indicator strips into things.  Did you know that water is one of the few things that is neutral--7 out of 14 on an indicator. I think air is also.  The most acidic was ketchup and vinegar.  

After that, we got to actually do some painting, but not painting.  There was another paper that turned red when a base hit it and the acid, when put on the base, evens it out more.  So we drew stuff on it with the base, using Q-tips. And then trace over it with the acid (vinegar). I discovered that the acid didn't even everything out. You had to dip the Q-tip frequently in the acid.   

We also did a lemon juice trick.  Lemon juice can be used to write letters. Then when the lemon juice dries, the letters disappear.  It takes a while for the lemon juice to dry.  When it dries, the letters have disappeared.  When you hold the paper up to a light bulb, or candle, the letters will appear (the sun does not work). So if you want to write a secret letter to someone, you can write your note in lemon juice, wait for it to dry, then no one can see what you wrote until they hold it up to the light. Isn't that awesome?

Before lunch, we played a game outside called Acids and Bases.  The person who was the acid had to touch the person who was the base.  If an acid touches the base, the people have to switch being an acid and a base.  The other players had to link elbows (only two people could link elbows) and then the base could attach onto the other elbow.  Then the person on the other side could become the base. 

We played another game in the afternoon and then went swimming.  It was a great day! 

by GDGS

Note that there are no pictures because Mom and Dad weren't there. 

GDGS' Vacation Highlights

Change of Plans:
Now we are going to talk about something that Baby T. wasn't there for. In this blog post, we are going to talk about the Dunes and going tubing.

The top of the Dune Climb

One day, we visited Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  I can see how Sleeping Bear got its name, because there are a lot bumps there.  The first thing we did was the Dune Climb.  I only saved enough energy for one hill, but I did two.  It was steep, but not as steep as another one we side.  If we had walked farther than the two hills, we could have walked right to Lake Michigan.  I did not have enough energy for a one hour walk, though.


Then we drove around to see different areas of the dunes.  There were some forests and some very steep dunes.  It was a very beautiful view, I must say so.  We had a view from the top.  I think it was about a 100 degree angle.  There is no way I would have had enough energy to climb up this dune!

People were climbing like bears up the dune!

Then in the afternoon, we went tubing.  Tubing is when you float in a tube on water.  Don't worry; the water is not supposed to be that deep.  However, if you missed Kittendorf Landing--where we were supposed to get off--you'd go straight into Lake Michigan! I don't think that is too safe....

My favorite part of tubing was the relaxation level. I was relaxing so much!  Going tubing is just relaxing.  I was tied to my Dad's tube, so he steered for me and I just floated along the Platte River.  I did pull my rope closer to Dad a few times because I was afraid of missing Kittendorf Landing.  

See you next time!

by GDGS

4th of July on Vacation (Part 2 of 2)

Leelanau Democrats

Well, it was 4th of July morning and we were going to go to the parade. We saw some cars. One was a police car, and Nate brought me a police badge: Thank you Nate! When the parade started, first we saw a few cars with the sirens on--the police cars, ambulances, and a police car or two. My favorite part was when the Democrats were going around.  Yep, just like before 1920, but in 2013, but different.  What I mean is, it reminded me when women were marching and holding signs. 

The BEST part of the parade was getting CANDY!  Yep, they threw candy. All I really got were the tootsie rolls. Claire and I did a little trading for a few jolly ranchers.  All was good, all was good.


Can you find Baby T?


by GDGS

Our Vacation with Baby T. (Part 1 of 2)

Baby T. on the shoreline.

So, last week our family went to Leelenau County for vacation. This is on Lake Michigan in northern Michigan.  We went to the beach with Baby T.  The beach was pretty clear of any rocks.  The bad part? They were dredging the marina, which meant the water was blackish sometimes. Well, not the whole lake, just the shallow part along some of the shoreline. Some days there was no black water, and those were great days.

We built sandcastles and walked the shoreline looking for petoskey stones.  Petoskey stones are actually kind of rare since so many people try to find them and keep them. That is what I really don't like about petoskey stone hunters: we can't find any!

For those people who don't know, petoskey stones have a bit of a hexagon shape on it with white lines around it.  They are fossils from about 350 million years ago!

Then we took Baby T. to dinner at the Bluebird restaurant in town. The dinner was really awesome at the Bluebird.  I gave Baby T. one of my pieces of pepperoni.

Baby T.'s dinner

Sorry for this post being a bit shorter than usual.  We haven't posted too much because we were on vacation.

By: GDGS