What-What?! Week of August 2nd

And it's August!

I actually cooked this week, though nothing particularly interesting.  I did a simple peach cobbler, and a delicious chili.  The husband barbequed chicken, which was also good.  Next week, I'm going to pick up 50 pounds of peaches from a local farm, then spend a day or two processing all of those.  I think I'm going to pack 'em all in the freezer, as I don't have the time or energy to can them right now.

Thursday was awful, for really no good reason.  The kids were snappy and fussy, and I had spent the last few days working late on projects, so I was a bit snappy too. xP

Paper airplanes saved the day:

First, we decorated out papers, made airplanes (Corwin and Saffron made their own, with help), then took them out to see how far they flew.

Saffron was the score keeper.  Hula-hoop to keep track of the starting place.

Saffron insisted this was the best way to throw her plane.  I tried explaining it, but then what do I know? :P

The next day, Saffron and I graphed the results:

I made the farthest, at 23 feet, while Ozzy was in second place at 14 feet.  Saffron and Corwin only made it to 10 and 9 feet, respectively.

We talked about the different things we could tell from out graphs, and then she illustrated her's with our faces.

Home Depot Kids Workshop

Home Depot also does kids events like Lowe's, so we decided to hit it up.  It starts at an earlier time, but despite getting there almost an hour after the start (we were sleeping), they had plenty of kits left for us to do.  They have a better setup here than the local Lowe's with a dedicated area that included tables and a painting station.  This month, the project was a chalkboard door hanger, which was very simple, but totally up our kids' alley.  We made them with the kids, then headed home to paint them:

Except for Corwin, who insisted on using crayons.  They had a good time.

Yesterday, we had some fellow geeks over to start a new roleplaying game.  It's similar to MouseGuard, in that everyone's a mouse.  I'm playing a tailor looking to move into the big leagues.  She's managed to get herself invited on a trade caravan, which could give her a good financial and political boost.  I felt particularly nerdy while I asking questions about economics and societal expectations.  It was a good time, and is a hobby that I've missed dearly.  I'm looking forward to getting back to it in a couple of weeks.

Woodland Park Zoo Visit and Review -- Everett, WA

Watching hippos eat their breakfast.

The husband and I took the kids and a friend to the Woodland Park Zoo, where we managed to walk through about two-thirds before lunch. This zoo is very large, and has some nifty amenities that make a go-to place even during the rainy season. We arrived at opening, shortly after all the animals had been fed, and the whole place smelled like oat hay. After raising rabbits and alpacas for many years, it was absolutely homey. We saw the elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, hippopotamus, tapirs, orangutans, snakes, a lot of birds, and many other animals that I can't think of right now.

The orangutans also had hay.  They were using it to make nests.

The selection of birds was pretty impressive; they had many different kinds of fowl, including bufflehead ducks, pheasants, and even guinea hens. There were various cranes, and some keas, as well. In one of the aviaries, there were the most adorable Blue Jays (and I mean Blue Jay, not Western Scrub Jay like we see in the wild here), and they were so close -- they didn't seem afraid of us at all.

Elephant, elephant!

We saw a handler give one of the elephants a bath. They wash each elephant's feet several times a day to monitor its condition and keep it healthy. The elephants have a large barn that's sided with glass, so you can look inside from on the patio and watch without being disruptive.

Checking the map while riding on a hippo.

One nice aspect about it being so large is that it never felt crowded. There was enough space in between exhibits to give a bit of a breather in between crowds. On most of the walks between areas, there were things to look at; there were many statues that were available to look at, and in the case of my children, climb on. We didn't realized how crowded the zoo was until we went to get lunch, and there were tons of people.

Beating on the drums.  We were pretty loud.

In addition to the regular zoo fare, the Woodland Park zoo also offers an indoor play area. It had an area for little children to run around in, a playground with slides for older kids, and a variety of blocks and building toys. It was a welcome break for both us and the kids, as they could run around more and do some self-directed activities.

Hiding in a meerkat burrow.

Also in this building is the Nature Exchange, where you can bring in objects you've found in nature --like rocks, leaves, shells, and so on -- and then exchange them for points.  The more information you bring in with you, like if you research what kind of tree a leaf comes from, you get more points.  You can then trade those points for things in the zoo's nature collection.  The husband and I think this would be a great thing to incorporate into our homeschooling efforts, and would be something that the kids would like.  My middle boy all ready has a collection of pinecones, so we'd only need to collect information about them, and bring it with next time we go.

Trying to climb into the animal enclosure.

Next time we go, we're planning on hitting up the entomology building, the farm area, and the arctic area. We'll probably swing around to see the elephants again at the barn, because that's really cool.  And we're definitely going again.  All summer, and probably all winter, too.

I have no idea what's going on here.  I just thought the expressions were funny.