Mami is an alien and other conspiracy theories

Mr E came up to me the other day, magnifying glass in hand, and an inquisitive look on his face. I was instantly proud of him, imagining him a play detective or scientist. And I suppose I was right, in a way! He inspected me for a minute, and when he could not find the evidence he was looking for, he still gave me a skeptical look, and a not so friendly warning. "I'll be watching you!" he said, dead serious, and walked away. 

You must already know what this was all about, but I didn't realize it at the time, until later that day when I heard him tell his sister that there was other evidence they should take into account. "What does she do all night after we go to sleep?" He asked behind the closed door of their bedroom, trying to convince his sister. "Everybody knows that aliens fix their spaceship at night, when no one is looking- yes, she probably has a secret button in the garage and some stairs that come down and her secret spaceship is up there. And isn't she suspicious when she makes new dishes, and why did she walk away from me when I was inspecting her!?!" He was all worked up by now, so he really can't be trusted. And also in my defense, I totally didn't walk away. I had just stood there stupidly, in fact, thinking something like, What the heck? 

But I was an alien now? My latest "new" dish had been a hit! And we do have a not-so-secret opening in the garage, and it does have a staircase that folds down from the ceiling, so one can go to the house's attic. No secret airships in there! Ah, well. When I told Quijote about this little occurrence later that evening (while HE was making dishes, might I add) Q said that E had also been looking for a zipper on him. Ha! So that's what the inspection was all about. 

Ms E could not be convinced of my unearthliness. But it doesn't stop here, of course, because the idea had been planted. And where other children have imaginary friends, mine construct entire civilizations. The next time she read a book on her tablet, she came up to me asking if I knew where her pink thumbtacks  could be. What did she want thumbtacks for, you ask? 

 Because there are aliens out there, that's why!

She had read a book about the Aztec pyramids, the Nazca Lines, crop circles, the Bermuda triangle, and other mysterious places of the world. She showed it to me, and said she had a theory and all these had to be evidence that aliens really must be out there. And did I know her book on space says that there are billions and billions of galaxies just like ours out there? Surely the odds that one of those planets can have life are pretty high. She's pretty sure the government is keeping secrets from us, actually. 

Still, since she has never seen an alien with her own eyes, she has started a record of the evidence she does have. This is what my children have been using their lessons on the scientific method for, you guys. She says she is going to solve the mystery of the aliens. And wonders if she can make a living out of this. In the meanwhile, while we could not find her little box of fancy pink thumbtacks, we did find some regular white ones, and she used an old stretcher as a board. And here is is her handiwork.

It is hanging on the wall next to her bed, and has all kinds of information she's gathered from her books, as well as personal experiences, like that time when she was out playing by the trash bins and a talking racoon kept bothering her. She doesn't remember what the trash panda was saying exactly, but perhaps talking animals could in fact be aliens in disguise. Also, some of her things have been disappearing, through no fault of her own, of course, and what other explanation could there be? I did mention that some cultures believe in fairies or even house gnomes, but she wasn't convinced. She has been collecting visual evidence with my camera, after all, and is reminding me now that I should post those videos, too. I promise to do that soon.

Well, she has also been reading up on the subject, and holding informational meetings with everyone who will listen. She even gave her spiel to my mom, who got a call specifically for this purpose and was so patient in listening to the whole thing, and even sent her a video, which she loved watching.

That weekend, I sent the hubs to check the mail, and we got a letter from Grandpa! The kids decided to put the letter, which included some interesting questions on plant structures and their relationship to mathematical structures, into their folder with all their plant information.

They also got a special package from our local church. There was a secret message written in crayon, and some watercolors so that they could read it. Thus, the sleuthing experienced a revival, and a couple more activities ensued.

She wrote a letter to her best friend J, whom she's missed very much this year. She is wearing her detective cap, by the way.

I also tried to get them to write their own secret message, this time with lime juice. We revealed our secret messages by heating them up with a hair straightener. It kinda worked. I think using grape juice might have been a better reveal technique, but we don't have any to try it with.

What was a little more exciting to both make and tell the kids all about was the cryptex from The Da Vinci Code. There are tons of videos on YT on how to make one from cardboard, but since these videos are mostly edited for entertainment value, they seldom explain any mechanics, let alone the entirety of the mechanism's important specs, which made it challenging to recreate a working, locking cryptex. I had most of the information, though, and I finally figured out a couple issues, and I just want to say I am super proud of myself for figuring this out. Here are my two creations, one for each of the kids. 

 I am re-watching videos and this one actually shows a correct mechanism. She doesn't explain it, but she does show every step in the making. I simplified it by using toilet paper rolls. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=659fGzWpLzg&t=279s

There are tons more interesting things to learn about in this topic. Ms E has already learned how Morse Code works- maybe I can get her to actually learn it? And I found lots of fun looking links on Pinterest that teach about forensics detective work- such as fingerprinting and shoe printing, DNA extraction, etc. Maybe I can convince them to do a couple more things. Should be fun!

Adventure Calls

 It has been calling for a while, in fact. But travel will have to wait a little bit. Since we have had to greatly reduce our travel, we are going to visit family for the holidays instead, and otherwise do our adventuring from home for now.

Indeed, adventure can take many forms! Miss E has just begun her 4th year as a Girl Scout.

 

I am also celebrating our little troop. We had a ceremony to celebrate friends, new and old, who are joining us in our quest to learn how to scout and hopefully make the world a better place. We spread out as much as possible. The second picture's angle makes it seem otherwise, but girls are 6 ft apart, unless from the same family.

 

You can see it better from this angle:

That was our little Daisy who "bridged" to Brownie. She's running across and getting her Brownie vest from her grandma. I get a little bit emotional looking at the pictures! I have tons, but since these are other people's kids I won't post too many, even with the masks and all...

But anyway. Here's to a new year of adventures!

A little bit of everything

 Now that I've fixed my last post, what else have we been up to? Time for a photo dump! Let's see...

Here are the kids reading story books before bedtime.

 

And playing outside...

And here are our empanadosaurus, as per my FB post.

Miss E learned to ride a bike!!! It was the grand finale to our Summer Fun List, a little "tradition" of sorts we started last year. Well, we were just needing to check that one box, and Miss E worked hard all summer (a little bit here, a little bit there) and finally feels super comfortable on her bike.

We also received a package from our friends!! The kids really enjoyed getting to read all about their pen pals, and then decided it was absolutely necessary to write back immediately. Of course it ended up being a very fat package again, so we had to wait another day or so to mail it. But maybe next time we really will write normal letters that fit in a normal envelope.

The kids we write to are friends of ours, and their dad painted that postal for us! It's so beautiful I think it needs a frame. 

 

 

I wrote back, too!

Miss E was so excited!

The kids looked so focused! haha

We had our first troop meeting.

And our first cold front. Any excuse is a good excuse, when it comes to lighting a fire and making smores. Miss E also got a little crafty (but she wasn't next to the fire, I promise).

School has been fun, too. Quijote is doing world history with them. I am going over the writing process, basic grammar in Spanish and English, and some science! We've been learning about Newton's laws of motion, which led us into forces such as magnetism- which has been a lot of fun.

 

Miss E got a science kit for Christmas or her birthday last year, and it's been so useful for all kinds of lessons. And of course she often sets up shop on the breakfast room table just for fun.

 

Looking at the effects of a magnetic field on iron:

 

Watching the first law of motion in action:

Learning to read music notation:

There's also been some end of the season gardening and flower and greens and veggie pickings... the end of the season really is upon us. I think all I really have left at this point is my one Cinderella pumpkin and some herbs. Time to look forward. I've upgraded my worm bin to a much larger container in hopes of getting some really nice soil for next spring. I'll also be doing some end of the season clean up soon- my least favorite part.

Our transition to clover seems to be doing well! I think the pumpkin is definitely misshapen, but hopefully it's just part of the process? Crossing fingers that it will fill out soon. Honestly I was also hoping for more than one. But I was not very good at catching those pumpkin blooms on time! At this point I'll be happy if we get anything out of our little experiment.

 

 

Today we decided to walk to the park and go to a playground. Something we didn't do for a long time. It was our first time playing on a public playground since this all started. It was fun, but the walk there was too much! Kids came back thirsty and overheated, and I in a terrible mood. But we all felt much better after a shower, refreshing drinks and a hearty lunch.

 

We'll probably laze around the rest of the evening.

Felices fiestas a todos los Mexicanos! Yo siempre hago algo rico el 15 en la noche y comemos y vemos o escuchamos el grito por television. Hoy hice un caldito, y antes hichimos empanaditas (otra vez, y esta vez mas normales jaja). El caldito esta hirviendo desde la 1pm pero creo k le falta un poco mas. Creo que sera un dia de fiesta diferente este an~o para todos nosotros, pero sobre todo para los Mexicanos, que tendran festivales ni ferias ni grito en las plazas. Hoy estaran como yo todos los an~os, viendo por medio del televisor. Mis pensamientos y mis oraciones con ustedes.

The Botanical Gardens

This post was written Sept 10, 2020. 

We have been trying to slowly come out of our shell. To be perfectly honest, we have been struggling with what a good balance is in terms of social distancing at this point. Because of the pandemic, we forced ourselves not to travel this summer, though we had many wonderful plans, and we are home schooling this year, as you may already know. We stopped visiting restaurants all summer, and Quijote did most of the shopping, while the children and I stayed home pretty much 100% of the time. We knew from the start of this whole thing that the summer was unquestionably going to be our hardest season, and that not everyone would be willing or able to do the same, but we accepted that, knowing that since it was in our power to protect our children (and others around us), then it was our responsibility to do so. I think summer was the time we knew it would be possible to be absolutely sure that our kiddos would be ok, and we didn't know if, or rather we hoped, that maybe things would go back to normal after that. If not, all we could do was keep the kids home from school, but then what? Would we continue to shelter at home indefinitely? For a year? We didn't decide that far in advance, other than "as long as we can." Fall is here, school has started for us all, Quijote's in person teaching included, and we are all feeling very claustrophobic. Our children, especially, are now showing signs of stress which have made me rethink our level of distancing. I do not think we can continue to stay home 100% of the time. Even though it is getting colder, we want to continue taking the kids outside as much as possible, but aside from that, we have also decided to slowly take steps towards a new normal that might be a little out of our comfort zone. 

We do want to minimize contact, aside from the exposure that by necessity Quijote will come across. But we will now actually start having a little contact. I told Miss E, whose birthday is coming up in early October, that while a full blown party is not possible, maybe she can have a friend or two over. She and Mr E are debating whether they should be birthday twins. (Quike side note~ maybe I should explain that they have decided that they are twins, ever since one of my friends told me there is a term, "Irish twins," which people use for siblings like Mr and Ms E, who are born only one year apart. So now titles, bedrooms, and even birthdays are being rearranged to fit this fun idea they've been entertaining.) Well, maybe it will be a double birthday bash. Who knows. We have also decided to very carefully start going to restaurants (though we'll be eating outside and during slow hours) and have actually already been to Blue Sky Burger for some hotdogs, burgers, and chocolate malts. And as I've mentioned before, we will be giving Girl Scouts a shot (mostly outside, with masks, and maintaining social distancing and overly cautious hygiene).

But all of that was to introduce a recent adventure we also had, in the spirit of being a little more fearless. Yes, I know that was a lot of explaining. But that entire thought process was an important part of our inner lives and, you know, posterity and all. In any case, though the A Botanical Gardens are outside, we did not visit before because we consider this place a high traffic public space. Still, I am so glad that we decided to scout it out last week! As it turned out, we only saw a couple once, and from afar, but the entire rest of the time, we were completely alone. The place is already a beautiful space, and the butterflies were everywhere! The kids had a great time running around and enjoying the wonderful weather. It was too short a visit. I want us to go back soon, as a family. The GS troop will have their start of the year ceremony there, too.

 

I apologize that this post is getting published later than its original writing date. Im not sure what happened. But I'll take advantage that Im adding this note, to also add some videos of the kids playing in the gardens. Quick reminder- if you're viewing this on a phone, you might have to click on the "view web version" option below (under the home button) to see the videos. Otherwise they dont show for some reason. Oh, or you could also just view this post on a computer web browser of course.

They are actually yelling "FREEDOM" whilst running amock in this one: 

 

They definitely had a lot of fun. But yeah... We gotta get them out more, before signs of stress go beyond a bad dream or two and a battle cry for freedom. Difficult choices...

Things My Children Say

"Do you know how old people often lose their dentures? Well, the gummy worm denture protector 3000 keeps your dentures right in place!" ~Mr. E, with a gummy worm stuck over his gums, under his upper lip. Jijiji 😆

"I know! Invisaspray! It's a spray that makes you invisible. Of course, it wears off in a couple days."~Mr. E

 Yup. Of course. 

Then he goes off to play, but comes back later to add "Imagine you put it on a pillow. You would lean on it, but everyone just thinks you're *cray-zeee*" He even waves his fingers around for emphasis.

He has been "inventing" new things almost every day.I knew he had to have a creative streak 🤣!

Miss E, on the other hand, has been ending all her sentences with "Man!" I find it weirdly annoying TBH. I'm like, I'm not a man. Stop calling me Man 🤣 She's like "This is a great movie, Man!" 😂