2009 Memorial Day Weekend Activities for Roseberry Family

Saturday
Eggs, vinegar, plaster and rocks. Two science projects.
Plaster and rocks was all about making a craterscape. This was for Hanna's astronomy class. We poured some plaster into a container, and just before it was setup, we dropped rocks and sand into it. I think we let the plaster set up just a little bit too much, but we still got some rocks.
Aimee's science experiment inspired more of a visceral reaction. The experiment was to see if soaking eggs in different kinds of vinegar would have a different effect on the breaking point of those eggs when dropped from various heights. The eggs had been soaking for many days (were supposed to go at three days, but that was last weekend and I was too tired for science). The three types of vinegar were red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar and white vinegar. Aimee held the yardstick, Tanya took notes, and I did the dropping. The shortest dropping height was four inches (white vinegar) and the highest was 12 inchest (red wine vinegar). The site of the experiment smelled of eggs and vinegar - go figure.
Before all of this we went to Bainbridge Island. Really this was nothing more than the ferry trip, a little lunch, and then back. It was more about being on a boat on a sunny day than it was about doing something. In retrospect, though, we really need to learn more about Bainbridge Island so that next time we have a better itinerary.
Really need to do the San Juan Islands...

Sunday

I forcibly wake up the family and get them in the car by 9:00 am. This is an astounding feat in our house, made even more amazing by the fact that there was no screaming, yelling or bloodshed involved.

We then headed north on I-5 until we got to the Bow-Edison, Chuckanut Drive exit. I took them west until we got to Larrabee State Park. Low tide was at 11:15, with a -3.2. We spent about and hour and a half looking at the tide pools.



Monday
On Monday morning, we don't do very much at all. The kids sleep in. I wake up around 7:30, but don't do very much until Tanya wakes up. The two of us eat oatmeal until we decide to rouse the girls around 9:30.

Hanna and Aimee have planned to see Night at the Museum 2 with a friend from Hanna's school. Tanya is going with them. I cause a bit of disruption right before the trip by resetting the passwords on all the user accounts for the kids... that got me in big trouble with the kid who was in trouble in the first place, which is why I reset the password to begin with.

I give the angry child a few minutes to chill out, explain calmly to her the rationale behind the disciplinary action and convince her to cheer up before going to the move.

While the girls are at the movie, I take Ethan out on a bicycle ride. This is only his second time on the bike. I take him to the biking trail that runs along bear creek behind Redmond Town Center (really, starts behind World Imports). I think we probably went a half mile, total. I checked my watch at the end. We were on the trail for at least an hour and a half. I had to follow him with the same speed you follow old people when you are helping them down the hallway with their walker. He kept doing that thing where he pedals so slowly that the pedal won't move once it comes just short of top dead center - that point where you have to transition from a rising foot movement to forward, but sometimes you do a push down movement that immobilizes the bike. Add to this that he hates being nudged or pushed... even when it means getting him out of the middle of the trail so the other light speed bikers have room to ride around him.

Back at home, I am helping Aimee with charts for her report on the egg dropping.