Highland Road BREC Park Observatory Fieldtrip

On Tuesday, February 26th, we had a fieldtrip at the Highland Road BREC Park Observatory.

First we started off with a powerpoint presentation about the sun and the moon including solar flares and sunspots, lunar craters and maria.

After the presentation, we broke into 2 groups. One group toured the observatory and looked the telescope outside to see a solar viewing while the other group made a planisphere (star map).

Our group making the planisphere.

Our group with the completed planispheres

The other group working on theirs.

Touring the telescope room

The dome runs on a track so that they can point the telescope in whatever direction they need too without opening the whole roof.

Looking through the telescope at the sun...We were able to see sun spots. It basically looked like a circle with 3 black dots. At first, I couldn't see anything but then realized that was all it was. The worker kept having to adjust the telescope because the earth kept moving!

Miriam & Melody's Musical Party

For the girls' birthday party, I wanted to have a musical theme because of Melody's name and because Miriam in the Bible led the Israelite women out with a song and tambourine (Exodus 15:20-21). I came up with the idea to make a cd as the birthday invitation. I looked up lyrics on a Christian lyrics site to find songs that had the word "melody" in it. So the title of the cd ended up being "Miriam's Melody."


I always try to make the food match my theme for the party.

Jambalaya - because of the song "Jamabalaya" but after the party Luke told me that I had it because it had "jam" in it. White beans - beans, beans, the "musical fruit"

Bugles and symphony bars

Kitkat keyboard - I saw this idea on the internet. I used the white chocolate and dark chocolate kitkats. We even had 88 keys.

The solfege table...you know DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, TI, DO!
DO-ritos, RE-zins (chocolate & yogurt raisins), MI-so dip with "bell" peppers, FA-lafel chips with "hum"mus

Mini chocolate cupcakes shaped like a musical note and Melody's cake shaped like a quarter note because it gets "1" beat and sprinkled with candy pearls because her middle name is Pearl.

We made the microphone cupcakes into the shape of a "7" for Miriam.

Melody with her cake and big sister Micah blew out the candle for her

Melody wasn't too interested in her cake. I don't think she liked the texture of the pearls.

Some other random shots

I need to hire a photographer for the party because by the time the party comes around I'm too tired to take pictures. I just want to visit and fellowship with everyone that's at the party. So my pictures were not that great! I guess I just need to take them before everyone gets there.

At least Ms Sherry took some of the party too

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