Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Latest Obsession

The Dukes of Hazzard.

I used to love "The Dukes of Hazzard" when I was growing up. A few months ago, I made the mistake of telling Sarabeth and Christopher about the show, and now they are crazy about it, watching it all the time, playing "Dukes" every day, yelling "yee-haw" and forever singing the tune of the General Lee's horn ("Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton!"). I never thought I'd hear myself say, "No, please! Don't make me watch 'The Dukes of Hazzard' again!" It's a lot dumber now than it was thirty years ago....

Sarabeth as "Luke Duke"
Zoe as "Daisy Duke"
Christopher as "Bo Duke"

Sarabeth's self-designed "Dukes of Hazzard" t-shirt

The 1979 TV show starred Catherine Bach,
John Schneider, Tom Wopat, Denver Pyle,
Ben Jones, James Best, and Sorrel Booke....
in case you wondered.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Quote of the Day

Sarabeth:  "Daddy snores louder than the MGM lion!"

Photo from Internet. cMGM

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Strange Medley

Sarabeth frequently sings the melody of "Here Comes the Bride" and ends the chorus with the final strains of "Happy Birthday to you." Bizarre....

I found a Sarabeth "selfie" on my camera!

Friday, April 11, 2014

Crazy Tennessee Fans

Sarabeth and Christopher love listening to "Rocky Top" -- the University of Tennessee's Fight Song! I enjoy it once in a while, but not over and and over and over....

They never get tired of it! The original version... the club mix version... the radio mix version... the championship mix version. Good and loud, too. (Dear God, please, make it stop.)

They recently dressed in their orange and white (and pink and blue) and had a Rocky Top dance party of their very own. (As you view these pictures, please sing "Rocky Top" in your loudest, most obnoxious voice.)




 

 


 



Lexi looks about as happy as I felt....

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Frozen...

Sarabeth "let's it go"...




Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Science Class

Sarabeth and Christopher recently got to dissect cows' eyes in science class at Friday Addition, their homeschool enrichment program. The moms were recruited as lab assistants by the science teacher, so guess who ended up actually doing most of the handling and cutting?

As the big day approached, Sarabeth was pretty sure this dissection plan was the most horrific idea she'd ever been exposed to. She wanted to be released from the class and was quite surprised when I refused to excuse her. Christopher wasn't as adamant in his opposition, but he was also very reluctant.

When the day arrived, both children were fully prepared to be offended, disgusted, and grossed out. They both insisted they would not participate in the dissection. As one of the official dissectors, I wasn't sure how I would feel about it either, but I calmly put on a brave face.

In the end, the dissection was so cool! Cows' eyes are very similar to human eyes, so the children were able to see firsthand what the different parts of a human eye are. After initially leaning back in their seats and shielding their eyes, Sarabeth and Christopher both ended up finding themselves fascinated with the cow's eye, begging to do some of the cutting, and confidently holding and manipulating the various eye parts so they could look at them close up.

A fantastic learning experience on so many levels... and the children even brought an eye home to show Daddy.

Christopher... all ready to explain everything to his daddy

Our cow's eye parts, on their official scientific dissection plate

The cornea  -- scratched up by our scalpel to demonstrate
how tough and protective the cornea is for the cow

The iris...
...and the hole in the center is the pupil --
Human pupils are round, but cows' pupils are oval.

The lens (which rests in the clear, jelly-like vitreous humor,
which had evaporated by the time we got home)

The retina (the white stuff) covers the entire back of the eye in a thin,
smooth layer. (Ours got a little "detached.") In the back of the eye, the retina
connects with the optic nerve, which takes the image information to the brain and tells you what you're seeing.
Or something like that....

The eye ball -- We first cut the top, to get to the cornea and iris.
Then we cut through the center of the eye ball to get to the rest of the parts.

The muscles and fat that surround the eye ball and the optic nerve.
A cow's eye has four muscles, whereas human eyes have six muscles. 





Tuesday, April 1, 2014

October Sky

Christopher is fascinated by the movie "October Sky," about a boy growing up in a coal mining town in the 1950s. After watching the movie several times, Christopher decided to create his own coal miner outfit. Looks like he's ready for work....