Daniel's Treasure Box

For Christmas the boys got a wood kit that had several different projects in it. Daniel really wanted to have some "Dad Time" and this is the perfect way to achieve it. The kit came with all the pre-cut pieces and all the nails and glue, they just had to put it together.

Daniel was cute using all the tools and figuring it all out.

Sterling is so patient and was so great at teaching Daniel to do it right!

Daniel thought this was all so exciting!

The building is done, now time for the stain and finish.

Is he not the cutest little red head you have ever seen?

Daniel applying stain to his treasure box.

The gloves are adult size, but did the job!

It was nice that Sterling was already working on a project that required stain and polyurethane finish. That is a whole other story that will be blogged upon completion! (Hopefully sooner than later.)

Daniel with his treasure box and first coat of stain.

Daniel didn't like the waiting part of the project. Sterling did the polyurathane finish a few days later.

The finished product.
It turned out great!

Daniel loves his treasure box.

He presents me with some type of suprise in his treasure box almost every morning.

Children's Discovery Center

Today was a Furlough Friday so the kids and I went on an adventure to the Children's Discovery Center in Downtown Honolulu.

There were all kinds of imagination areas that we all had a good time with. Daniel is the bus driver and Sophia and James are the passengers!

My very Hawaiian children!

This was really cool. You may not be able to see it but this is a huge bubble maker. James had the mad bubble making skills. Slow and steady all the way to the top. Daniel, couldn't wait that long and wanted to blow the bubble long before James was finished stretching it. Sophia was just standing back for fear of what may come from the bubble!

This blue screen ocean was pretty fun. Sophia is dressed up like and octopus, Daniel couldn't decide what he should be, first a star fish then a squid, James was a shark.

This isn't a great picture but you can kind of see that the kids could see themselves on the t.v. with the ocean swimming behind them. It was very fun!

James was trying to figure out which pulley to pull in order to get the "cargo" on and off the boat. There was a mock ship and it had cargo and pulleys and all sorts of fun things to figure out.

Here is Daniel at the helm making the boat go in the right direction with Sophia making the best face ever!

James, working a different pulley system with all of his muscles to lift the "cargo" onto the ship.

The little yellow guy is Daniel in full protective gear to lift the "cargo" onto the ship. Safety First!

Working hard!

Sophia is in full command of the fork lift!

Here is full view of the pulley system with James up on top, Daniel down below working some amazing team work to get the cargo onto the boat!

Sophia now driving the ship.

Daniel is now ringing the bell and steering the boat, and loving it!

Sophia back on the Fork Lift!

Crazy kids "at the beach"
Yes.. these days this is as close as my kids want to get to the beach. I think it is funny that my kids do not love the beach and we are in Hawaii!

There were lots of cute little houses that showed the cultures from lots of different countries. This house is the "Japanese House". Daniel likes any house that has chop sticks!

This was in the "China House".

Sophia loved all the cute little dishes and the "noodles" made of yarn and "pea's" made from fabric.

This was also in the "China House". Daniel and James working their magic on the Chinese Dragon.

Very Cool.

James checking out the dragon!

If there is building to be done you can count my kids in!

Daniel was setting up all the cones to protect the building site, then the building could continue.

Yep, found another hard hat! Doesn't get better than that!

James driving the Fire Truck!

Daniel couldn't resist fixin' the car.

Do you need anything fixed on your car? Daniel is your man!

Sophia driving the Fire Truck!

The fire man pole. The feet dangling above are a stuffed fireman, not really a dangling kid! James wanted to climb it, but leave it to his "Samoan" brother to be able to do it!

Daniel didn't even use his feet.. just knees and hands and he was up and ready to tell the dangling fire man to move out of his way.

This was the upstairs in the "Fire Department". Sophia was in little girl heaven. She had found a kitchen and was ready to spend the rest of the afternoon making dinner for anyone she could convince to eat her plastic food.

This little wood train was cute, but I think just to look at. Daniel assured me he could fit and command the train!

Yep, he fits alright!

Here Daniel is at home, dressed up in his new "builder" costume, with reflectors and all!

He was so cute in the gift shop telling me all the reasons he really needed this costume because he didn't have anything like it and he already had other costumes but this one was so much different. He is such a cute kid! I am sure he will have it on every day for the next month!

We had a great time at the Discovery Center, unfortunately or fortunately it is one of those places once you have been there, you don't really need to go back too often. Maybe in a six months or so we can give it another go!

Articles of Faith

One of our family goals this year is for each of us to memorize all 13 of the Articles of Faith. We practice every night before bedtime for about 2 minutes. Not a lot, but enought to keep it fresh in the kids heads. One night, Sophia said it right along with us. I was so suprised. She isn't 2 1/2 yet and has already memorized the first Article of Faith and is on her way to the second. She is such a smart little girl! Now she tells it to everyone! She is too funny!

Here is Daniel reciting the Second Article of Faith. He is very excited that he is learning them too.

Here is a random picture of Sophia after she had her bath and was eating her dinner, she fell asleep on her little table. She was so tired. Cute little girl!

Science 101

On Furlough Friday (Jan 15) Sterling and I took the kids to Bishop's Museum. It is a cool place. There is a planitarium, a volcano education center, and a whole building dedicated to Hawaiian history.

Daniel, never a dull moment when he is around! He can't just run down the lava slide.. he is completely animated!

Sophia coming down the "Lava Slide"

James and Sophia trying to actually slide on it.

In the Volcano education building during the "show" they had a display of an eruption. They used Seltzer water and mentos and in the gift shop they sold the little contraption so we could do it too. Grandma Packer had already sent us some Mentos in our Christmas Science Box so we had all we needed.

This picture is during the "Lava Show". After the soda eruption she showed us actual lava. Here she is melting lava to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit then she poured it into a flat bucket type thing and it cooled almost instantly to 500 degrees forming "volcanic glass". It was pretty cool.

On Saturday the kids were ready to see their own explosion.

It fuzzed... but no real explosion.

I think we would have gotten a better explosion if we just let James shake it up and take the lid off.

I didn't realize that it needed the chemicals in Diet soda to erupt!

With the failed Rootbeer explosion, the kids were ready to try another experiment. So we used the bottle from the first attempt and turned to another experiment from Grandma's box of tricks. This time it was baking soda mixed with vinegar. Daniel got to measure the baking soda and put it in and James got to pour in the vinegar. It didn't erupt but it made a great LAVA show. The kids were satisfied for today.

Pictured: in back are James and Thomas (our neighbor) and in front are Daniel and Sophia

Lovely Lava Flow

After a trip to the commisary on Monday we were ready to try again.

This is the blow up crew, with Sophia and I in the shadows. We collected a few stray boys on the way to the park. Pictured we have Daniel, Paul, James, Seth, Sterling, and Philip. Cat, Patrick, and Thomas joined us a little later.

It isn't a great picture as the sun was in their faces.. but you get the idea!

The first try was a bust. It would have worked pretty well but as Sterling was "pulling the pin" he knocked over the bottle of Diet Coke. So it made a big mess but no cool gyser to see.

Take 2

(Seth, one of our neighbors, was clearly pretty impressed!)

Take 3 for today

There it is!!!

Diet Coke with 7-9 mentos is the magic.

Thanks to Cat and her extra bottles of Diet Coke and Grandma Packer for all the packs of Mint Mentos we could try it again and again and again!

Little kid science at it's best!