1 June 2014

Our family went to a Memorial Day barbecue and Sofi helped Becky make this beautiful dessert to bring.  The cool whip and berries cover two slabs of watermelon, so the dessert isn't as rich as it looks.

 Gibson swam until he was frozen.

 Abe also had fun swimming.

 Helen started a painting of fireworks this week.  

Sofi's Biology class started an aquaponics unit for the last 2 weeks of school.  We had never heard of aquaponics-- it's a system  for growing plants using dirty fish tank water for fertilizer.  Her class divided into groups of 3-4 kids to design and build an aquaponic tank.  The class then voted on the best design and the winner would get to test out their project with real fish and plants.  Sofi's group met at our house to build their project because Brandan has a wide assortment of power tools.  Everyone likes to use power tools.  Here Lexi is using a skil saw to cut the top off of the container they plan to put the fish in.

This is Sofi posing with the top of the tank.  They thought the top looked like a cat's face.

 Jorge used the nail gun to assemble the wooden frame that will hold the plants.  

This is Sofi, Lexi and Jorge with their finished project.  A small pump will pump the water from the tank up to the top to water the plants.  The water is purified as it drips back through the plants into the tank.  Sofi's group won their class vote and the teacher put fish in the tank on Friday.  We'll try to get a photo of the operating tank. 

 Becky looked out the window and saw Gibson's friend, Benny, pulling Gib in a wagon while he rode a ripstick.  Becky can't even stand up on a ripstick, so she ran out to take a photo.  Gib and Benny showed her how they did it.  First, Benny gets the ripstick going while pulling the empty wagon.

 Gibson runs alongside and hops in when Benny has enough momentum.

 Benny pulled Gibson all the way from his house like this.  Ingenious and talented!