STEM Night

To start this post, I just want to say--I love the school system my boys are in!!!

The other night, they had a STEM Night. You might be asking, "What is STEM?" Well, it stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

They had the children go into their grade groups, and they started with their projects.



Austin was to build a boat. They had an assortment of supplies to build with. They were to have the boat float down a trough (sort of) in a certain amount of time. Austin built one. Then found out it was too long. So, he had to cut it in half. Then when he had it go down the trough it was about 39 seconds. He kept working, and working on it until he got his time to 16 seconds. Mike was with Austin's group, but he told me that Austin was the only one that worked on his own. All the other students had their parents or sibling do the work. I was so proud of him!


Adam had to build a marble track. It had to have 6 direction changes, one tunnel, and one sound effect. Adam loved working on this. I only had to give a few suggestions. At one point, a lady came to see what he was doing. She asked Adam his name, he answered, then started talking about the track again. She asked his last name, he answered and started talking about the track again. Then she asked who his teacher was, I could tell he really did not want to talk to her, but he did answer her, then started talking about the track again. He had so much fun, and I was really proud of what he was able to create.

I am so glad we attended this fun evening. I am even more glad that these opportunities are taught in our schools.

Austin's Hair

Austin's hair is driving me crazy!! He is starting to grow it out some. I Like little boys to have nice clean hair cuts. Not requiring combing, etc. However, if this is the worst rebellion he does, I'll take it.

I have made some comments about heading out to get a trim to his hair. He has declined several times.

The other day I mentioned something again, in hopes of him giving in. He said, "Well, I guess I could have a little taken off my hash browns." I had to laugh and correct him. "Honey, they are called side burns, not hash browns." :)

I remember when Austin was little he used to ask for coffee with mushrooms meaning Hot chocolate and marshmallows. They are little mix-ups, that I find adorable.

Adam in Recent Days

The other night I was out for the evening. When I got home I checked my e-mail and found a message from a friend at church. She told me that she had asked Adam to take a message that she called but "he seemed a bit baffled" by this request. I e-mailed her back and decided it was good. The next day I was cleaning up some papers and found one that said, "arinhes" then a phone number. It was in Adam's hand writing so I asked who Arinhes was--thinking it was a friend from school. At first he said he had no idea. Then the light bulb went on and he said, "OH , she called yesterday and wanted you to call her back." Then it hit me--it was not Arinhes, it was Erin Hess. Thank you, Erin, you have provided Adam with the experience of his first phone message. Maybe next time I will recognize your name.

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Adam has started this thing...sometimes it is almost cute. Sometimes it drives me up the wall. We will be looking at him and say, "Adam...." and we will proceed with our question. He will look at us and say, "who? me?" The other option to this scenario is that Adam is the only other person in the room. When asked a question, he still responds with, "who?me?" Sometimes I wonder if it is just habit. I only hope it is a passing phase, and it passes before I have to say, "yes, you" too many more times. :)