Jacob's science teacher gave them the option of doing a science project and letting the grade for it replace their lowest grade in the class. I told Jacob he had to do one, so he quickly got on the phone and decided it was going to be a group project. Oh, joy.
They had 2 weeks to complete the project, but since they were just doing a volcano, the other mom and I decided we could want until that last weekend before it was due to get it going. Because we are lazy and like to sit around doing nothing. haha.
That Friday morning (everyone was coming to our house to work on it after school) as we were walking to school, Julian mentions that he has the supply list in his desk in school. I was thinking we could just google it, but I told him I would meet him in the office after he got to class and could bring it to me. Once in the office, Julian shows up and lets me know he can't find it. But he remembers it had something to do with Mentos. What?? We have had 2 weeks to deal with this and not once have I heard about having to do it a specific way. So I have to call the teacher and ask about it. Which basically lets her know that we are doing this at the last minute. And yes she did make a "Well, when I assigned this two weeks ago, I told them to come to me with any questions..." Yes, I deserved that. Thanks. Just answer the dang question.
But we got it done. We (the other mom and I) decided to build 2 different kinds of volcanoes and have the boys compare the 2 (because after the guilt trip the teacher said it didn't matter what kind of volcano they built, they just had to show some sort of hypothesis).
The above pics were the regular baking soda/vinegar one.
This one is the diet coke/mentos one.
They measure how high the explosions reached, and for how long the lava ran. We took pics and made them type out their findings. Then they cut out pics and facts and put those on the box. All in all, it turned out pretty good without too much work. Which is what I like in a science project (I always hated science).
First: the name of the project - JBJ Volcanoes - is made up of their initials (Jacob, Beau, Julian). Julian actually thought of it (as Jacob and Beau were coming up with names that also doubled as body parts and functions).
Second: They brought it home the 2nd to last day of school with this pink post it on there. When I asked Jacob and Julian what that was, they told me the classes had voted and they won 1st place. I was astonished. Especially considering that some kid made a ROBOTIC ARM. What. Anyway, I quickly went into proud parent mode and took pics and posted on FB. Later that night, I happened to say to them, "I can't believe y'all beat the robotic arm." "Oh," they say, "we didn't, we were just kidding with you. The teacher just numbered them all so we could vote."
I mean, they lied so convincingly. It was a little scary.
Above, boys eating. Below, boys playing on their ipods/phones. Eating or playing on those things. That about sums up the age 10 group.
We watched American Sniper one night. And this happened.
At Sonic one night with his friends. I'm really surprised I didn't have 50 of these on my phone.
And a little XBox. Thankfully, this is fading out. I'm really glad. The main reason I took this is because I have a really similar one of Keith and Michael.
Field day. That is Beau on the bouncy thing.
Julian
Beau handing off to Julian
Jacob
Beau kicking the ball to his team in "crab soccer"
Jacob in the red shirt toward the right
Jacob on the bouncy thing
"The Three Stooges" as their teachers called them. By the end of the year they weren't allowed to sit or stand next to each other. Apparently there were 2 people put in between Jacob and Julian in their line and one day, one of those kids was absent, while another was taking a long time to get in line. The teacher noticed Jacob and Julian next to each other and starting freaking out (I'm sure she just fussed at them). But it was pretty funny listening to Jacob talk about the "crazy teachers" all the while knowing I would have been the same way.
At this point it was raining. But this was the last event and for some crazy reason they decided to let the kids finish. Even though all these muddy, wet kids were going back to the classroom after this. Some of them got so bad I went home and brought some of Jacob's old clothes back for them to change into.
case in point....
old refrigerator + cheap popscicles + scissors on a command hook + garbage can RIGHT there = Leave Mama Alone
Even though Jacob doesn't really catch bugs, frogs, etc. anymore, my instinct is to always save good jars when I see them.
"Mom, I'm bored..."
"Go pick out a game and we will play."
This is what he brings me. Scrabble. What 10 year old wants to play Scrabble??
I bought a Groupon for laser tag at Shelby Farms. It was advertised as being outside so I thought it would be different and fun (usually laser tag is inside). It was SO awesome. There were 2 courses, one in the woods and one out in the open with hay bales.
Getting instructions.
Cooper, Jacob, Julian, Beau
Julian is behind that pallet, you can barely see his black shirt
Jacob is hiding behind the garbage can, you can just see a little of his gun sticking out.
When we first got there another group was finishing up their hour, so they played capture the flag.
Cooper in the bright shirt.
You can just barely see Jacob in the very middle of the pic. He was really good at this, he won every time.
Beau
Julian crawling along
Jacob and Julian were on a team at this point
Beau and Cooper were on a team
Julian is crawling in the middle, Jacob is over to the right
Julian's grandparents live down the street from us and have a pool. It's pretty convenient...
They all spent the night the night before the last day of school-which was a half day- and they all talked us moms into letting them skip the next day. Of course I'm sure it was an easy decision for the OTHER moms...
By noon the next day they were driving me crazy so I took them to Shelby Farms (this actually happened before the the laser tag thing), where I thought they would eat a shaved ice thingy and play football in the open fields while I relaxed and read a book. Well, they did, for about 10 minutes...
Then they found a trail, that looked like it was never used, and decided that this looked MUCH more fun. So we took off through the woods, me in my flipflops, and NONE of us with bug (tick) spray. Yay.
One day I needed to go run some errands so I told these two, Jacob and Tristan, to go to Tristan's house. No, they said, they want to go with me. What??
As we turn onto Poplar, I soon and made aware why...
I'm such a sucker.
I am dying over the "1" situation. 1st place over the robotic arm. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the trick to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins.
You are the best mom of a boy ever-it is no wonder that all of the other boys show up at your house!