We have spent most of our week outdoors!  It's been so pretty out and we are enjoying it immensely!  These are pictures from yesterday.

Today we did another activity out of our Engineering Kit.  Last weeks engineering in air section was interesting but lacked a 'wow' factor.  Today's activity more than made up for it because we made a balloon rocket.  It took a little set up.  Gavin put a string through the middle of a straw and I tied the ends of the string to two chairs about six feet apart.  Gavin taped a balloon onto the straw.

Then he pulled the balloon back and unclasped the clip that holding the air in the balloon.

The balloon flew so fast across the string it took Gavin by surprise!  I love this reaction!

Here he is after the initial shock wore off.  We did this at least ten times Gavin liked it so much.  Just note where the refrigerator is in the picture below for future reference.

Of course then Gavin wanted to make the string longer and see if the balloon would still go all the way to the end so he pushed one chair to the dining room, leaving the other chair at the end of the living room.

The balloon went all the way across to the other chair!  This was another great reaction but it's hard to see in the picture because he's so far away.

Then he moved the chair back to the refrigerator.

The balloon still made it to the other chair but barely.  While doing this we talked about what we had learned about in physics that was at play here.  We talked about how objects in motion stay in motion until something stops them, in this case air resistance and friction between the straw and the string.  We also talked about push pushes back with equal force and how the air (gas) in the balloon pushes the balloon through the air just like the gas (not air) in a rocket pushes the rocket into the air.  Then I asked him what would happen if we just blew up the balloon a little bit instead of all the way.  He knew it wouldn't go as far but we tried it just to make sure.  He had such a good time with this we decided to leave it up and do it for Austin when he got home from school.  Austin really liked it too!

Gavin drew his experiment and observations in his science journal.  I appreciate how he made the balloon smaller as it goes across the string on his drawing.

We have had several picnics this week as well.  Adelaide is tired of being treated like a baby.  Yesterday I made burritos for the boys and something different for her.  When she finished her food (she gets served first because she's the loudest) she marched over to the picnic table, grabbed a bit of burrito off Austin's plate, shoved it in her mouth and turned around running away laughing.  A few minutes later she came back over and did the same thing.  She thought she was very clever!

Today she did the same thing but she came over and sat down at the table with her brothers.  I guess I'll stop bringing her high chair out to the porch for her to eat on since she can sit up just fine at the table.  Her brothers were happy to share their table, but she still kept taking Austin's food!

This is Austin telling her to stop taking his food.  As you can see by her expression, she was not cowed by his annoyance.

Here she is eating the bread she stole off his sandwich.

And trying to eat the carrot stick she took off his plate.  Unfortunately, it's hard to eat carrot stick when you only have a few teeth!

Then we all went to the front porch to enjoy the sunshine!

I have no idea what's going on in these pictures so you'll have to make your own caption.