The Little Nemeceks

David's gift to Nathan for Christmas this year was a 14-in-1 solar robot kit.  This was a rather complicated project, requiring a lot of adult involvement.  We needed to use wire cutters to punch out all of the tiny plastic pieces, organize them, build the body and head, test them, and then finally build one of the robot options. (the head and body are used for all the options).  Nathan supervised, David picked out pieces, and Josh and I worked on the building.  We tested the bot under the very last incandescent bulb left in the house (fluorescent lights won't power the bot), and today Nathan finally got to test it in the sunlight.  It works!  Happy kid :)

Clipping pieces

Sorting them into bags with stickers

Yes, it was this complicated

Josh helping to build the robot head

Nathan tests the bot under the light.  It works!

The finished bot

I have a goal.  A goal to take the kids on one field trip per month this year.  A goal that will likely not be completed.  However, we have successfully gone on our field trip for the month of January - the South Carolina State Museum.  (Actually, we went to Mammoth Caves this month too, so we got two field trips this month!).  We've never been to the state museum, even though it is right next to the children's museum.  We were very pleasantly surprised by how much the museum had to offer!  We walked through the natural history area containing habitats and dinosaurs, visited the Julius Caesar exhibit full of hands on Roman machines to try out, saw a planetarium show, and did the hands on science stuff.  There is much more to see that we were not able to fit in on this trip, so we definitely plan on a return visit sometime!

Mastadon

Giant Beaver

Glyphdont (armadillo-like)

Investigating earthquakes

Attempting to get a picture of the kids

Giant megolodon

Dinosaur exhibit

David loved digging for dinosaur bones

Investigating a Roman crank

Roman catupult

Building something to knock over

David plays with the abacus

And learns about pulleys

More Roman lifting tools

Light pictures

Making waves

More science :)

The kids in front of the great white shark jaw

Avila wanted to dig for dinosaur bones too

Josh told the kids to make the same face as the bust

In the planetarium

Colored shadows

Mommy and Avila investigate electricity

Kaleidoscope mirror

Well, the blizzard of 2016 has come and gone, whalloping our friends and family in DC and the Eastern Panhandle of WV.  We were lucky enough to get an entire inch out of the storm (ha!).  The kids were very excited to go out and play in the snow.  Nathan spent the whole time trying to hit David with snowballs, which made him very upset and he just wanted to come inside.  Avila would not let me put her down, so I was only able to get a few pictures.  Neither boy wanted to stay out to build a snowman, but at least they got to see snow at home!

Nathan has been reading Homer Price for his literature class.  In the book (summarized by Nathan), Homer's uncle makes a donut machine, and Homer accidentally puts a machine part in backwards, so when they press the stop button, it won't stop.  A lady makes a batch of donuts and her ring gets lost in the donut batter.  So they set up a contest where donuts cost 5 cents, and whoever finds the ring gets a $1000 reward.

So in honor of the donut making chapter, Nathan's literature teacher took all the kids to Krispy Kreme to see how donuts are made (and eat some too!)  Siblings were also invited, so David went along too! (I was teaching and was not able to attend, pictures courtesy of their teacher)

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Sean, Amy, and Ben the week after we got home from seeing them in MI!  They were on their way south to a conference in Florida, and were able to spend the weekend with us hanging out and playing games.  The boys loved playing with their cousin Ben, and many board games were played over the course of the weekend.  We were very glad to see them again!

Avila plays legos with David

A star wars game

Playing Blokus

Nathan had fun playing with legos also

Codenames

Scotland yard

Superhero baby!

The fun didn't stop even though we had to head back home to Georgia!  We decided to stay the night near Mammoth Caves so that we could take a tour of the formations before getting back in the car for the second day of driving.  Nathan enjoyed the cave, but David was super scared of slipping and falling and claims that he is never going to visit a cave ever again :(.  Avila rode in the baby carrier on my front and was fine whenever I was walking, but didn't really like stopping and listening to the tour.  Josh did get some good pictures, however, and we got David a book about the cave as a reward for being so brave and finishing the cave tour.