The 100th Day of School

At my school (Willow Wood, for those that don't recall the name), we like to celebrate all sorts of things. Recently, our school won Best of Parade in the Brentwood Holiday Parade. It was our third year in a row winning. Amongst the other usual celebrations, we celebrate the 100th Day of School. You might be wondering, how does one celebrate the 100th Day of School...? (Unless of course, you've gotten stuck on the Why do you celebrate the 100th Day of School, a question I'm not going to address because I don't really know the answer). But, to answer how, we do it like this:


...we celebrate it with a hat of course! But not just any hat, a hat decorated with a hundred items! That's right. Our 100th Day Hat has 100 things attached to it! My 100th Day Hat had 10 groups of these ten items:

Squishy Frogs
Paperclips
Safety Pins
Monster Truck Stickers
Rubberbands
SpongeBob Stickers
Mickey Mouse Stickers
Zoo Animal Stickers
Legos
Metal Washers

Here's what that looks like in picture:





Not only were we tasked with making hats to celebrate the day, but at school we had a 100th Day Hat Parade (Apparently my school is big into parades as well). And after the parade, for snack time, we had 100th School Day Trail Mix (another at-home project where I got to choose ten of my favorite snack foods and make a 100 Day Trail Mix. You might wonder, knowing my limited snacking options, What could I possibly put into a trail mix that I would actually eat? Well, let me tell you:

10 Swedish Fish
10 Bow Pretzels
10 Cheese-Its
10 Gummy Bears
10 Rainbow Goldfish
10 Gummy Worms
10 Cheetos
10 Gummy LifeSavers
10 SpongeBob Cookies
10 Raisins

It was quite the unique trail mix, if I do say so myself. So, to all you schoolers out there, on this, the 100th Day of School, I just like to wish you all a very Happy 100th Day!


Hunter Out.

The Crystal Growing Experiment

For Christmas, my big brother Ethan asked for a crystal growing experiment. He got one and over the break we started growing his first batch of crystals. This experiment was called the "Golden Citrine Experiment" and it was designed to grow golden-colored crystals using a piece of granite rock as a base. Here's a look at how we documented the crystal growth:

Day One (the morning after the mixture and rock were placed in a plastic bath together):


You can small crystals starting to form not only on the surface of the granite rock, but also along the base of the plastic bath. So far, everything looks to be growing just as planned.

Day Three (there was little notable change on Day Two):


The crystals have made some noticeable growth and the water level has dropped in the bath, causing crystals to start forming where the water level had previously been. There are also more crystals forming around the base of the granite stone, more so than on the surface of the stone itself.

Day Four:

There was a considerable amount of growth seen in the plastic bath on Day Four of the experiment, so we took several pics to document the growth. This was also the first day growth on the surface of the rock breached the surface of the bath's liquid. It was very exciting!





As you can see from the pics, there is lots going on in the bath now. It's a lot of fun to watch and see how the crystals change and what surfaces they seem to grow best on.

Day Nine:

These two pics were taken from above the bath, one with a flash and one without a flash. Notice how the flash changes the color of the growing crystals.



Day Seventeen:

After over two weeks of observation, the crystals have stopped growing and the bath is empty of liquid. Daddy broke out the crystals and took these pics of the final crystals. Pretty cool.





This was a super fun experiment. Thanks Ethan for letting us keep it going for you. Hope you like what we did and can't wait to do it again when you get back this summer. My next experiment will involve the hatching and raising of prehistoric sea monsters!!

See you soon. Hunter.

Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, we spent most of the holiday sick and at home. But, if you've been to our home, you know the only thing we have to leave for is food, cause my brothers and I have tons to keep us busy. Between giant Nerf Wars and fort building, video gaming and science labs, books, movies, and LEGO building, and a host of other activities, we can stay pretty much holed up in the house for a long time without any complaints.

Daddy did take us out to see Tron: Legacy which was AWESOME! Daddy talks about the original Tron sometimes, and although I haven't seen the original, this movie rocked!

Christmas was cool. We all got lots of cool stuff and had loads of fun, but wait, I'm totally getting ahead of myself! I'm 5! Five years old! And what did Mama and Daddy get me for my birthday?





Yes, I really enjoy my drumset and have wanted one for a while. BestBuy got rid of theirs, so Daddy couldn't take me there to play anymore. So, now onto Christmas, just a quick look at some of the fun...





There was just fun and more fun for hours and hours, and it was the first Christmas that I really dug the whole present thing, unwrapping and giving, it was very exciting to be around all my family...




Along with all the festiveness, I had another gymnastics show at the Little Gym. This show was so much more awesome than the last one. I was adventurous, daring, fearless, which made the whole experience that much more cool!




So, that pretty much brings you up to speed with us. Cole had a few things to add, but I think I'll let him tell you about it. Oh, there was one other thing, I recently had to give up the chair that has been my good friend for a very long time, it was a sad goodbye...


Coming Soon...more Creatures From My World, but up next is Ethan's Crystal Growing Experiment! Check back soon, Hunter out.

My First Christmas Pageant!

December 17th was my last day of school for the year and we celebrated with a class Christmas Party, but the week before, we had our Christmas Pageant. The theme...The Mice Before Christmas. My class and I were gray mice...


We'd been practicing the play (songs and dances) and our lines for weeks. I didn't start out all that excited, but by the day of the show, I couldn't get my line out fast enough...


"Look! Look! A gingerbread house. A midnight snack for a little ol' mouse." That was my line and I delivered with a finesse that made my Dad (a Thespian himself) and Mama proud. Here's a look at some of the other shots my Dad got of me at the show...





It was a much better experience than I thought and a lot of fun. I have great classmates and a great teacher which makes everything else so much more delightful and easy. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

Plumbing Catastrophe!!

It started out like any other weekday morning. I got up, dressed, ate, and went to school. It was when I got home that things got out of control. And it all started with the downstairs toilet backing up. My Uncle Ben and Aunt Dani stopped by for the night on their way home from their vacation and we were just starting to talk about dinner when Mama called Drain Right Plumbing for help. That call ultimately lead to this when the toilet backed up again the next morning:




Yes, that's me inspecting the clean-out for the sewer main coming from our house. What you can't see is the giant roots that have busted through the clay pipe the city or original contractor installed nor the giant root clump in the pipe just out of view. Those discoveries lead to this front lawn disaster:



I can think of only one thing to say about this December catastrophe...Are you kidding me? Needless to say, but the tree causing the whole problem no longer communes with Mother Earth. Here is one last look at the tree from my Dad's curious point of view:


Chow for now, peeps. Hunter is out! Oh, and you can see more of my Dad's curious pics on his very own blog coming soon.

More SuperFly Photography LLC

I cannot even tell you how fast time is flying for us right now. It seems like every day my little brother is getting bigger and I am getting older. School is going well and I've taken up a new hobby, one my Daddy enjoys as well, photography. You can see some of my first attempts at capturing digital images in one of my previous posts, SuperFly Photography LLC, but my experience with the camera continues and I look for every opportunity to practice my new hobby as you can see in my latest works. I call this photo set, "People and Faces".

This first pic I've entitled "Uncle Ben and His Boys". My Aunt Dani and Uncle Ben were here visiting recently and I took this pic while my Uncle Ben, Caleb, and Nathan were all on the couch in the living room.


Next is a pic I call "Ward Missionaries". Again taken in the living room, I caught this scene on digital media before anyone could object. People from the Church are always stopping by to see how we're doing. Makes me feel pretty good that we're being watched over.


Next is a pic I call "MamaRoo Baby". I got this pic of Cole in his MamaRoo during one of his quiet times (which he doesn't have too often, seems like that little brother of mine is always wanting something. Mama and Daddy can't hardly put that boy down before he's crying for something. It's crazy busy around here.)


Last is one of my favorites. I call it "Father and Son". I don't think I really need to say anything more than that. The pic says it all.


Well, that's about it for now. I will get more writing done soon. There just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of time to sit and ponder much anymore these days, crazy baby days.

Uncanny Resemblance

Dad was going through some pics of me and came across this pic of me when I was about five weeks old...


And then there's this pic of Cole taken at about three weeks old...


Me in week one of my life...



And here's my brother Cole, last week...


Ya, I know exactly what you're thinking...What a pair of super cute babies! If you ask me where I get my cuteness from, I'll tell you...no, not my Dad, (Silly people), I get it from the Cuteness Store. Cole's been there too.

Talk to ya again soon, Hunter out.