Bird Watching

Our backyard has been alive with birds this year. They seem to like our vegetation as well as the occasional birdseed and crumbs provided by us. We heard about a study on urban birds through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We decided to participate. It was very interesting. The first day we only saw a pair of Mourning Doves. We knew we have House Finches and Sparrows sometimes. We hypothesized that it was the time of day or the absence of food. We filled the bird feeders the next day and waited. We saw a few more birds. We then changed from afternoon to morning and voila more birds. Apparently the birds like the early morning or early evening in our yard.

Try it for yourself: Celebrate Urban Birds

Herpetology, Archeology , Physics & Geology

We took a trip with friends to ASU to check out a few of the museums. Eamon & Aine had been asking to return to their snake display which we saw in March. We toured the Life Sciences building and saw the only complete display of Arizona snakes in the world. The kids loved it. One of the rattlers would shake every time we walked by the enclosure. From there, we headed to the Earth Sciences building to view the geology and physics museum. Aine was enthralled by Foucault's Pendulum, while Eamon was studying the pointillist picture of Einstein. Each enjoyed looking at the meteorites and fossils. We met Daddy for lunch in downtown Mesa to cap off the day.

Rockets

Eamon decided to make home-made air rockets for preschool at our house. I had found the link on another blog and thought it looked like a lot of fun. I assembled the launcher before the other children arrived with help from Eamon and Aine. Everyone crafted their own rockets, personalizing them with stickers. The launching took place outside in the yard. Everyone's rockets flew really high. Eamon's landed on the roof. It was a HUGE hit and a great activity.

Pump it Up

(not everyone is in our preschool coop)

For preschool today, we celebrated a friend's birthday at the bounce house. Aine showed no fear as she climbed up the walls to get to the slides. Eamon made a new friend. Each of them loved bouncing, running and sliding.