Movie Reviews

We drove past the local theater and saw this.  While many theaters are going to 3D, ours maybe is going several steps back in time.

The Reviews for the first movie might be:

• "Not much action. Just a line."
• "It's not 3D. It's not 2D.  It's 1D. Now, that's retro."
• "Straight ahead to boredom."
• "They'll be linin' up to see this one."

The Reviews for the second movie might be:

• "The sequel to 1D is already out.  Planes.  In 2D."
• "Many will be inclined to see this one."
• "It's plane to see, this one will be a hit."

Got Katie?

We've got creative girls.
Katie is now 7th grade vice-president.

This was one of our favorite posters.

Playing In The Rain

Ellie celebrated the evening playing in the pouring rain. Oh, the joy!

Running The Cascade Head Trail

Dad and Katie ran 4 miles with me on the Cascade Head trail. We started running down a very steep road for the first mile until we reached the trail head. From there we ran through the beautiful temperate rainforest (above) to the view point. We were able to see both the estuary and the ocean. After a quick break at the view point, we began our descent back to the trail head. When we reached the trail head, we were faced with the hills we had just run down two miles before. The climb was painful, but you felt a strong sense of acheivement when you reached the van.

 

  The scenery was awesome, but the hill was steeper than it looked and the following week I could barely move. 

 

The view was even more amazing without the thick fog. It amazed me that there was an ocean there, let alone one that beautiful.

 

Quotes heard on the run:

• Hannah: You can hear the ocean!
• Katie: No, that's my breathing!

•  Dad: [This road] can't go down forever!
• (Famous last words. The road went downhill all the way, making a not so fun climb back to the van)

 

Multnomah Falls - To The Top

We often stop to see Multnomah Falls on our way through the Columbia River Gorge. However, we are usually in a hurry to get somewhere and don't take the time to climb to the top. This time we had no schedule. We made the climb. Beautiful. Tough on the legs.

Ellie on the landing over the falls. 

We stopped to play in the riffles above the falls.

The Five of Us. Tired legs. Happy hearts.

Looking over the falls. Makes my tummy a little queezy.

Ellie was our photographer for this hike.

Quotes Heard:

-Wow!

-Oooh. I'm worried that person isn't going to make it.

-Ohhhh!  My legs.

-Twelve. More. Switchbacks. To. Go.

Winema Beach - All To Ourselves

After spending hours in the car, our legs were tired and sore and we were very excited to get out of the car. We quickly hopped out of the car, kicked off our sandals and raced down to the water.

Ellie collected shells and wrapped them up in her sweatshirt.

Hannah and Katie had a great time running down the beach and playing tag with the waves.

The sunset was spectacular.

Hannah's Future City Team

I'm proud of Hannah and her teammates. They have been working for months, in preparation for the "Future City" competition. Great scientific thinking. Great research, reading, and writing. They had some of the most innovative and practical solutions for dealing with storm water runoff and energy generation in their invented city.

We appreciate their science teacher, Mrs Ferro, who spent all of our 3 day weekend with the 8th grade "Science Ninjas" last weekend and also spent their "snow day" with the kids, building and revising their project.

The team did an excellent job communicating both verbally and by using visuals such as their model, pictures and diagrams. They made the judges' (engineers) eyes light up.

Postscript:
Their team did not make the final 5 teams at the competition, which surprised us and was a little disappointing.  However, they did win the "Best New Team" award and the "Most Sustainable Energy" award.  We found out yesterday that they also had the highest scores in the whole competition for their presentation.  The presentation was one of 4 parts (Sim City Model, Essay, Model w/ Moving Parts, Presentation).  Her teacher surprised the girls yesterday morning at an assembly with an award and $500 scholarship each form College of Idaho for representing their team so well in the presentation phase.

Apps For Learning On My iPad

These are some of the learning apps on my iPad. My kids and I are great guinea pigs. Almost everything is free. Quite a geeky (but fun) house.

A few highlights:

• Opposites: A vocabulary game in which you try to match opposite words as fast as you can, before it is too late.  Appropriately challenging for fluent readers.  The more advanced levels are even challenging for me.
• Dust Buster: This is a keyboard (piano) practice game.  A fun challenge.  It seems to be addicting.  It keeps adding new popular songs to the repertoire.  They can be purchased with points earned through practice.
• Cargo Bot: Basic programming and logic.
• RoboLogicLE: Program your robot to do simple tasks.  This kind of thinking (planning and sequencing) is essential to future success in many areas.  No coding required.  All programming is visual.  
• Hungry Fish: Early math (addition)
• NOVA Elements: Can you say geeky?  The periodic table comes to life.  They'll go to chemistry someday with a head full  of introductory knowledge already.  It is interactive.
• Numerosity and Scootpad: I'm just dabbling with these two more-structured learning apps.