Egg Drop Contest at the Virginia Air and Space Center

Eggs drop. Contraptions smashed. Yolks splattered. And at the end of the day there was a small pile of eggs that survived the fall. Amazing!

The concept of an egg drop is simple. Create a contraption that will stop an egg from cracking when dropped from a balcony onto a target. The lightest contraption that hits closest to the target and protects the egg wins. Yesterday we all participated in an egg drop at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton. Benny won his category -- it was very exciting! And Dan and I even got in on the action.

It started over a month ago, when Benny's first contraption idea was to wrap the egg in a bunch of layers of scotch tape. I was determined to stay out of his creative/scientific process, so I quietly let him work away on his tape egg, then we hurled it off our second floor porch, and it smashed on the sidewalk. From these drippy, yolky, messy beginnings came the journey that would lead him to a successful drop on the day of the contest. I'm happy to say I resisted the urge to make his project for him. It was a strong urge, but I let him struggle on, through five designs that failed miserably, to the one that worked. We provided the materials, asked that he write down his plan for each design and also his results, and let him do the rest.

Here's one of his design plans:



Here's one of his test runs:



Here are a couple of videos that map the process a bit:





Finally a successful design. And egg drop day arrived. When we got to VASC we realized there were bazillions of homeschoolers there. This was awesome. We watched the parachute category, and as each kid was announced as a homeschooler, Benny cheered rambunctiously. When a kid from an elementary school was introduced, Benny would shake his head and say something sorrowful, like, "Oh, brace yourselves. Another schooled child." At first I thought I should correct this behavior... but then I thought, no. Kids in school are encouraged to have "school spirit" so why shouldn't homeschoolers have "unschool spirit"? As long as he wasn't being unkind or obnoxious, I decided to let him root for his homeschool team. Anyway, he has lots of friends who go to school and he doesn't recoil from them as if they're lepers or anything. As long as I don't see him crossing the street to avoid a kid from school, I think he'll be alright.

As it turned out, Benny won the two-egg category. His was the only contraption that kept both his eggs safe. Here's a video of the drop itself, and the award ceremony:





Here are a few pictures from the event:





Here's Benny (holding my egg-dropping contraption) with another child and her mother. They called their contraption Chicken Little and had thematic outfits -- we love it!



Here's Benny with Dr. Byles from VASC, and Tom Finley, one of the adult winners. Benny has two medals because he also won for the most creative design in his category.



The egg drop contest was a lot of fun. I really appreciate the people who set it up, made it happen, and cleaned up all those smashed eggs.

I have many more pictures of the event in my Flickr set from the egg drop. I highly encourage anyone with a gadget-minded child to seek out an egg drop and get to dropping. It was an excellent learning experience for Benny, and a good time for the whole family.

Sadie is Three

She's been three for five whole days. In that time, she started ballet lessons, acquired a penchant for wearing her Cinderella dress around the house, and learned how to correct me for not saying "bless you" promptly when she sneezes. Charming.

Here she is:



How am I supposed to cope with this person GETTING OLDER? Possibly even someday hollering at me, "MOM I HATE YOU - YOU NEVER UNDERSTAND ME" before she slams the bedroom door and throws herself on her bed? Maybe even leaving the house without me? Going to college? Getting married? Changing diapers on her own kid?

*thud*

That was me dying inside.

In better news, the birthday was fantastic. We drove to the balloon store and got a dozen balloons, drove to the cake store and got her Ballerina Pink Princess Magic Sparkle Glamor Barbie cake, and then had a small party with our closest friends and family, right at our house. It was so nice. Everyone ate cake and sang and Sadie blew out candles, and then she played outside with her brother and her two best friends, and it was very very sweet and calm and charming. Maybe next year we'll do the serious birthday party situation, but I'm glad we got one more year in where the action happens in the living room and the kid can just relax at her party. Benny wants to have his at the YMCA this year. I guarantee that will not be relaxing for anyone.

Here she is, the birthday girl. I think she looks just awesome in a tiara. ;D

Trunk or Treat Rained Out

The downtown Norfolk YMCA does a great job of planning cool stuff for families. Unfortunately, they cannot control the weather. Now I've got a fog machine and a black light crying in the corner because last night's "Trunk or Treat" was rained out!

It's not that we're hypercompetitive (okay, it is that, but it's not *just* that). We just really love Halloween. We love the spooky stuff, the dark, the drear, the ravens, the severed hands, all of it. If we had a little less common sense, we might be in danger of being one of those families you see on Wife Swap, where they sleep in coffins and wear shrouds to school. Okay, probably not, because most of the year, we're as cheerful as anyone else, but in October, when the wind gets a little chilly, we always find ourselves browsing the spider web aisle.

We live on a bad street for trick-or-treating. Nobody comes down this street. So our burning desire to decorate way more than is reasonable has never been realized -- we anticipate the grief and frustration of having dressed the house for a party, and having no one come to dance.

When we found out about the Trunk-or-Treat at the YMCA, where you dress up the back of your vehicle, park it in the parking lot, and let the kids trick-or-treat around to everyone's car, it seemed the perfect opportunity for us to shine. And there was a contest for best trunk. We needed no further enticement.

We got a fog machine. And a black light. Decorations. A thingy to make it so we can plug in a bunch of stuff in the back of our van. We have, I must admit, an eight foot inflatable bat that lights up and runs with a little fan inside to inflate it -- you know what I'm talking about.

WE WERE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT TRUNK-OR-TREAT PARTY.

Then it rained. And they moved it indoors. Which was just not going to be any good, what with the fog machine messing up people's workouts and the black light trying to work against the fluorescent gym lights... to which we say... never mind... I guess there's next year... sniffle snuffle.

Today we are going to get conciliatory pumpkins.

Neighborhood Art Walk

A local neighborhood puts on an annual "Art Walk" where local artists put their work out on their front porch. Some of the work is for sale, some is for display, but the most fun is just walking around, talking to people, and seeing what creative people are behind the doors you drive past every day. Last year after we went, Benny came home and asked to be an artist, so I bought him a few canvasses and some "real" paint, and let him have at it.

This year he showed his work, and sold signed prints that I had made from photographs mounted on cardstock. His prints sold out in two hours, and one was even bought by the guy that owns a nearby restaurant and he hung it on his wall!

Here's our little set-up in the back of our van:



Here's a picture of the painting that people liked the best:



Benny loves to talk to people, so he had a really great day. Here he is talking to a customer:



And here's one final picture, of one of our friends who stopped by and bought *two* prints of Benny's work. Why, that cost a *WHOLE DOLLAR*!!! :D



Benny also gave away free visors he had made, and sold little drawstring bags and baby hats that I had made, and all of our proceeds went to support the next Community Bike Ride.

It was a good day.

Colonial Place Community Bike Ride

Benny was so excited to do this, and he loved it more than I can describe. If Sheila Janes would organize a community bike ride once a month for crime prevention or any other reason, I'll bring the water! A whole gang of people on bikes set off from beside the dog park on Deleware and Llewellyn, and meandered all through Colonial Place and Riverview. Benny (and his Dad) rode along for over four miles of it, then when the ride passed the dog park again, Benny and Dad peeled off, Benny to come and drink water and go home to bed, and Dad to go off on his regular 30 mile ride.

Can I just say that I cannot believe I allowed my child, even under the watchful eye of his very efficient father, to go out on the STREET and ride his bike WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS for four miles?!!? I'm not only learning to let go, I'm starting to go insane. Okay, he wasn't the only kid on the ride, but... I wouldn't have thought myself capable. I didn't even run after the pack screaming, "DON'T KILL MY BABY!" I barely even thought about doing it.



Nothing bad happened. Benny came back triumphant, having crowed the whole way about riding his two-wheeler and how great it was to be riding "in traffic" (help me) and doing the Tour de Colonial Place with Dad. Benny sure loves his bike. I hope a lot of people registered their bikes with the police last night and that raising awareness of bike theft will keep other kids from losing their favorite toys.