Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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.
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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.
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Our group with the completed planispheres
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The other group working on theirs.
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Touring the telescope room
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The dome runs on a track so that they can point the telescope in whatever direction they need too without opening the whole roof.
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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!
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Saturday, February 23, 2013

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."
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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"
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Bugles and symphony bars
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Kitkat keyboard - I saw this idea on the internet. I used the white chocolate and dark chocolate kitkats. We even had 88 keys.  photo 4x6-0313018_zps943864d7.jpg

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
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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.
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We made the microphone cupcakes into the shape of a "7" for Miriam.
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Melody with her cake and big sister Micah blew out the candle for her
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Melody wasn't too interested in her cake. I don't think she liked the texture of the pearls.
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Some other random shots
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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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