Marty's Message Unveiled

After weeks and weeks of work, B and Marty wrote their message yesterday. Here is what it said:

So what was the final message??? "Happy 67th" B created this as a birthday present for grandma. She liked it. But then what grandma wouldn't?!!! Way to go B. Saved us wrapping too :) (I took video of Marty working, unfortunately I can't get it to upload :()

Custom Designed Waterfall

Yesterday, while I was watching the Daytona 500 with my mom, B spent some time in her shop creating a custom made waterfall for his new habitat. He started with pink insulating styroboard, layered it, carved it, installed the feed hose, and painted it. It dried over night and was installed this morning. Below you get to see the final results (I've really got to get B to take step by step photos).

This is the fall:
This is the whole habitat:
Obviously the newt approves!

Watch the video B took of the falls working.

Burning the Midnight Oil

B is still working with Marty on his project. He's not ready to reveal the final written product, but getting very close :) Keep watching.

Marty in Silloutte
Programming
Testing
"The Thinker" rethinking.

Watch Marty work!!! Believe me, when B is ready to reveal the final product, you'll be much more impressed. But B does give a little clue in the video as to what he's working on. Can you guess??

Yet Another Live Project

So instead of waiting until St. Patrick's Day (ha, ha, to my CA friends), B started yet another live project today. This project is actually part of his school community service. At least that's how he sold it to me, but I know way better than that :)

Below is the new habitat B has designed and built for his Fire Bellied Newts. He thinks it almost looks like a zoo enclosure where you can see inside their hiding place (hold to the lower right of the tank).

B's plan is to get these newts acclaimated to their new habitat here at home (in the down stairs bathroom - bet the realtor loves showing this house). Then he is going to take them to the school library where they will be on display with a bulletin board type information display. Pretty cool project, if you ask his teacher, because it kills a bunch of birds (topics) with one stone. Like science, community service, research, and language arts. I say, "That's using your brain B!" Plus it's a pretty unique way to get a new pet without the parent saying no. All in the name of education :)

If you are interested in Fire Bellied Newts, here are a few sites you might visit:

care sheet - http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/salamanders/a/firebelliednewt_2.htm,

http://www.grizzlyrun.com/Pets/Amphibians/Newts/Fire_Bellied_Newt/Default.htm,

http://www.newts.org/~swan/herps/Cynops-1.html, and there are a TON more sites on the web.

The Gift that Gives off Light?? - GloFish

What mother wouldn't love to get a Glo Fish ecosystem for Valentine's Day??? Yes, only a gift that a mother could love. At least the mother of an animal/fish loving boy like B!!!

So what is it exactly that I got? I got a partially self sustaining ecosystem. Inside my ecosytem there lives 2 GloFish, a snail, a plant and a ghost shrimp. Plus a lovely, self made Valentine that described my gift. Below are the pictures of my actual ecosystem:

The fish are circled below.

So inside this styrofoam cube is an almost complete ecosystem for the 2 fish. The snail and ghost shrimp will do all the cleaning, the plant will provide the necessary oxygen, and all I need to do is feed the fish every other day. Simple and a very unique table center piece! (wonder what our realtor will think of this on the kitchen table?!) B definately gets credit for the most unique Valentine gift that I recieved.

Here is what my Valentine said (and below what it looked like):

"To: Mom, This present is a partially self sustaining ecosystem. It also shows our realtionship and our future. The fish are us; they are pink to show our love betwen each other. The plant is our house that shelters us from the weather. The snail is the garbage man and sewer system. The shrimp is the doctor and the dentist. The open water is opportunities awaiting us. From: B"

B says the opportunities are about selling our house. I've decided to name the two fish after us. They are Learning and Example. Can you guess which of these is who???

These fish were originally just plain Zebra Danios. But some scientist had the bright idea to genetically modify a zebra danio, and the result was GloFish - which come in three colors: red, green and orange. Now that was thinking - danios sell for .99 each, and GloFish sell for $5 each. Not a bad way to make a profit from genetic modification. That's not exactly why they were made fluorescent, but it sounds good, right?! Actually they were bred this way to be used in contaiminated waterways and the fluorescence made them easy for researchers to see. Then they became popular in the tropical fish markets.

Hope you are loved as much as I am, and that someone showed you!!! And I wasn't the only one who got treats today. I ordered B a heart shaped pizza for lunch with pepperoni and black olives (his favorite) and he got a small bag of Valentine treat candy. He probably would have preferred a live animal, but I wasn't that creative :) Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Oh, and an update on my live Christmas present. Remember my pink pea puffers? I'm happy to say that I still have 3 out of 4 alive. Thankfully, B takes very good care of them for me.

LEGO NXT LAB

Armed with new books and dad home for the weekend, guess what went on at our house?! "LEGO NXT Lab: My Boys Gone Wild," is what we are going to name this one :)

B got the robot built before T got home. B wanted help with the program. The robot is "Marty: A Performance Art Robot." (see we are trying to get more art in our curriculum, lol). So, meet Marty :)
B chose him specifically with a gift giving reason involved. So they have spent all day working on the programming and they are making progress. Come into the lab and take a look around.

Programming Section of the Lab:

Testing Section of the Lab:

Slight thrill of victory on the face of my favorite robot engineer, B.
Okay, just get this over with :)

Can you tell what Marty is writing???? You'll have to check back on future posts to see the final product of B, T and Marty!!!!

Who knows what will come next?!?!