First Forays into Science, and Things Are Looking Up

Landon had an extra enrichment week at preschool starting Monday. The kids had activities based on the theme of bugs. He brought home projects related to insects and other creepy crawly critters. 

Eliza received new hair ribbons in the mail and modeled one.

On Tuesday, Landon showed off his thuggish side.

After he dropped Landon off at school on Wednesday, Mike took Eliza to the Rotary tot lot across the road from the Neighborhood Club while they waited for Hallie to get off from work. We had taken Landon there more often, but for whatever reason, we have not used the tot lot in a while. Eliza got into running around and enjoying all the equipment.

Later on in the afternoon, Hallie decided she wanted to go to the opening day of the new Whole Foods Market in Detroit. Mike was excited to see Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe open last fall. Hopefully a second larger national chain grocer just three blocks away will mean positive things for the neighborhood and the city generally. Considering we shop at Aldi and Honey Bee already, Whole Foods becomes another close-to-work choice for Mike if he needs or wants to pick something up on the way home from Wayne State.

As you can see from the boy's attire, it really was a last-minute decision. 

We got there in time to see the last performers, a local ballet folklórico group.

Bit of a line at checkout. Later on, we found out there was a shorter line. 

On Thursday morning, Landon brought Mike his explorer compass/whistle/thermometer and an idea for an experiment. He asked, “What will happen to the arrow [the red dial/pointer/whatever-it-is] if we put my thermometer in the freezer?” So, we did an experiment. Here’s the reading on the dial before we put the thermometer in the freezer, . . .

20* C or 68* F

. . . and here it is 10 minutes later:

~ 6.25* C or 43.25* F

He now knows that the dial reads a lower temperature after 10 minutes in the freezer, and his dad knows that the freezer cools items at a rate of about 1.4* C/min or about 2.5* F/min. So, who cares? Mike does. Now he knows about how long it will take for his freeze pops to freeze solid, assuming they start out at room temperature (about half an hour on a good day). Science! And Math! Of course, if we put a bunch of them in the freezer in the morning before we want them in the heat of the afternoon, we won’t have to worry about all that silly thinking and calculation. . . .

Eliza had her last day of Play and Say on Friday, and we also had her IFSP/IEP. She’ll start going to Barnes five mornings a week in the fall, so that says we’ll have both kiddos in some sort of school in September. Weird.

Dee had looked after Landon after school, so Hallie met up with them, and they all did a little shopping. Elisabeth is smitten with the boy. Landon is behaving like a typical clueless male. His other girlfriends are going to have to get strategic.

Later in the day, Hallie took Landon to a make-up gymnastics class. Mike went with Eliza to pick up Hallie’s prescription at the local pharmacy, and as we rounded the corner onto Kercheval, we heard easy listening music drifting through the air. Mike tuned his ears to the source and found these:

Things are looking up in our little downtown!

Landon had a ball game on Saturday, and while he was there with Hallie, Mike and Eliza checked out the farmers market and then went up to Lowe’s to get this week’s Build and Grow project. No one was selling starter plants. This does not bode well for Mike getting a garden going this year. Frankly, other issues, like preparing tenure review materials, have taken up his time to date. Later in the afternoon, he took the kids to the baptism of some new converts to the branch while Hallie worked the concession stand for baseball. After the baptism, he took the kids to play for a while at the school playground and say hi to Mom. The kids mostly avoided getting injured. Eliza only nearly fell off the horizontal ladder, and Landon only nearly knocked the wind out of himself leaping out to grab a high bar. Good times!

Mike took the kids down to After 6 on Kercheval, an event that will take place three times over the summer. We mingled with a few friends who also came out to taste the fare offered by local food vendors and listen to tunes played by a ‘90s cover band (piped straight from their mics on stage through the new lamppost speakers. Convenient!).

Sunday after church the kids and Hallie attended a birthday party for one of Landon’s school friends.

Hallie ended the evening by putting the Build and Grow project together with the kids.