Our Scientist

As everyone knows, Nathan is very much into dinosaurs. He is really beginning to enjoy science as a whole as well as math. Spelling and writing - not so much.

Nathan got this Electronic Playground for Christmas and decided to get it out last night to see what all it does. He really enjoyed it. He and Brandon are planning their futures and most of it revolves around engineering and palenotology.

A schematic of his experiment.

Scouting for Food 2009

Nathan's Boy Scout pack was scouting for food this weekend. Brandon helped out for the second year in a row. Next year he will participate as a cub scout and not just as a little brother. The pack collected over 550 cans of food. It was an increase over last year's numbers.

This was about half of what we picked up from the neighborhood.

Nathan's First Play

Nathan's 2nd grade put on a production at this month's PTA meeting. They practiced for weeks. The theme was Patriotism and they learned the songs for all branches of the military. Nathan had a speaking part where he shared what the 7th fold in the flag signifies. He was a little nervous, but did very well. He's pictured here with his best friend, Ben, who played a Minuteman and some other boy who jumped in the photo opportunity who was a Secret Service agent.

Brandon's camera fun

Brandon found the digital camera and started taking a bunch of pictures. I'm sure he had a great time with it. Here are a few examples of his work.
Then there's this one that is a fair copy of the Blair Witch Project. He wasn't trying to copy it - he's never seen such things. But, I saw the picture and that's exactly what it reminded me of.


Original from Blair Witch.

Dinosaur Auction

We saw in the paper that Heritage Auction Galleries was giving away free dinosaur teeth to the first 100 kids to show up. We got there about two hours prior to the start of the auction and we looked at the items they were auctioning off. There was a triceratops skull that they expected to fetch about $250,000. There were a few smaller dinosaur fossils as well as pieces of meteroites, and other things.

This is an "Extremely Rare Flying Dinosaur" item that was estimated at $55,000-$65,000. Looks a lot like Nathan's.

The last item is a "Dinosaur Egg Nest" found in the Gobi Desert that was expected to bring in a mere $4,000-$6,000. Nathan & Brandon got their FREE Spinosaurus teeth and we did not bid on any items.

Ft. Worth Zoo

OK - I'm actually posting this almost two months after the event and I'm trying to catch up on everything in between.





Nathan, Brandon, & I went to the Ft. Worth Zoo and met Jennifer, Abby, and Emma there. This was the first outing that Jennifer & I have taken with the kids with no Daddys around. I don't think the kids really even cared if we were there except to make sure they were fed and got to ride the train.

Abby & Nathan took control of the maps. They led us where they wanted to go and looked like little tourists. They were like two peas in a pod.

We fed the parakeets. Nathan loves animals from a distance. He wanted to watch, but he didn't participate. Brandon & Abby were brave enough to take on the task of feeding the birds.


After the zoo, we went to the Cattlepen Maze in the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We had done this with the boys last Spring Break and they really enjoyed it. They wanted to share the experience with their cousins. We completed the maze pretty quickly. I think it took us only 14 minutes. Woo hoo!

A Dollar Saved is... very hard to part with

Nathan has been saving his money for quite a while now, well over a year. He had over $100 in his bank and has been holding on the $100 bill with a tight grip. At Dinosaur World, he fell in love with this Archaeopteryx fossil replica. It was $70! He has been reading about and talking about this particular species for a few months. It has been described as a transitional fossil between birds and dinosaurs. Technically, I think, it's like one of the first birds. However, it has more in common with dinosaurs than modern-day birds. I think that's why Nathan likes it so much.

Anyway, Nathan decided to part with $70 of his money to purchase this replica. It is now proudly displayed in his room. He actually had about $158 in his bank. When he realized he was going to have to break his $100 bill, he was quite upset. Jason put him on a payment plan for the last $12 and Nathan's $100 is still intact. He will continue to the next hundred, I suppose, on his quest to save $1,000. Wish him luck!