Busy Saturday

Saturday was a busier day than most of our Saturdays tend to be. David and I were out the door by 8:15 to go and sell popcorn. That meant that he was in full uniform and I actually looked decent for the day. We spent three hours asking people to purchase popcorn.

 David did very well and stayed motivated for the majority of the three hours. By the end of the day the boys had sold almost $700 in popcorn and gotten almost $200 in donations to the den. That was just day one. I have no idea what the sales from day two were, but they were on track to do the same. He's got one more weekend of selling, and then he is selling door-to-door. He set a pretty high goal for himself. I tried to talk him down, but he really really wants the $1000 sales prize. *sigh* I wonder if selling cookies is this exhausting for the girls/girls' parents...

Later in the day we went to the community's fall picnic. More of the same from earlier in the summer, only the trees were orange instead of green. We didn't stay too terribly long, long enough to grab cider and donuts, but the kids were pretty pooped after an hour and a half.

But the day was far from over for me and David. We got home, had dinner, then ran out the door again to attend Astronomy on the Beach at Kensington park. It. was. STELLAR!! see what I did there? ;)
There were a ton of astronomy clubs there, and we got to catch a glimpse of the sun through a few telescopes set up for us to safely view the sun. It was really very neat. David, who had sort of complained about going, and only went grudgingly, had an instant attitude change about the whole affair. We saw sun spots, looked at some solar flairs, and observed the corona. It was really quite fascinating.

After we went and checked out some of the displays from the vendors. LOTS of things to learn there! David learned about how a telescope works and how it is set up. We talked to a few clubs. And then we got to pick up some meteors...

 I should say we tried to pick them up. The one pictured above was too heavy for either of us to pick up. There was one about 1/3 of the size that we could pick up, it weighed about 50 lbs. In that instant I understood the term density in a way I never have before. It was pretty incredible.

After we went and learned about force, gravity, what it takes to freeze the air we breathe, and how to build a fire tornado. David was pretty impressed.

 Liquid nitrogen was involved in a lot of this. David now wants to be an engineer for NASA.

After this we checked out the portable planetarium (inflatable dome, it was pretty neat) and then went and joined the star party. They had a nifty scavenger hunt set up for the kids, so we went around checking off the list. We saw a ring nebula, the Andromeda galaxy, several different star clusters (one that looked like ET was David's favorite), a double star, and a colored star (blue, really pretty). We also got a good look at the moon and saw Saturn a few times. Some of the telescopes were HUGE! We climbed up painters ladders to be able to reach the eyepiece. We had a blast, and we talked about how amazing it all was. We are so tiny compared to all of that space!

After David got all of the signatures on his scavenger hunt he went and claimed a certificate and a prize. He also only has a couple more requirements to fill before he'll have his astronomy belt loop AND pin.

We got home around 10:30. It was an incredibly long day. But it was a great day! I am so grateful for all of the family friendly, free events our community offers. I have so appreciated being able to participate in all of these events with my family, and I know my kids love it too. We'll definitely hit up Astronomy on the Beach next year when Jonathan can go, I think he'd like it even more than we did!