Canton and Dad ventured to the mall today for STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) day!

There were tons of exhibits, experiments, and demos set up; everything from computer games to robots to chemistry, you name it!

The day started building an air rocket. Canton cut some flaps, taped them to a straw, and launched his rocket about 20 feet! We also saw some LEGO robots that Canton got to operate. We did some tie-dye soap bubbles, gak, and saw a worm compost pile! Later we went to an inflatable dome which had a short movie on the moon formation and the future of space exploration (right up his alley!) Then we made a wind sock and weather vane while learning about wind power.

At the other end of the mall was a whole section on telescopes and constellations, you know he was super excited for this! There was a HUGE 12″ diameter telescope, probably 5 feet tall, that had a solar filter which allowed us to view the sun and sun spots. Canton had a great time even though the sun was so bright. He struck up an intense conversation with a retired NASA employee, he worked in the jet-propulsion lab, they discussed Messier objects, supernovas/hypernovas, blackholes, etc. He was quite impressed and said Canton should join Mensa, haha.

The day ended with a prize because he completed the “scavenger hunt”. We’re lucky to have such a curious little guy!

Liberty has been saying mama for so long now, but here we finally captured some dadada sounds, she still knows mama though 🙂

Canton and Dad ventured to JMU the other evening to hear Dr. Hammels, an astrophysicist, speak about Pluto and whether or not it should be classified as a planet. Although this was a science lecture and not really aimed at young kids, this was right up Canton’s alley! Canton had no problem answering questions in a several-hundred seat lecture hall and proclaimed “a planet needs a lot of mass to be a real planet”. Our less-than-bashful son also corrected another audience member’s claim that a planet needs to have a solid surface to be a real planet by responding “Jupiter doesn’t have a solid surface and its a planet!”.

Toward the end of the lecture, there was a question and answer session. Canton really wanted to ask a question and had no problem walking up to the microphone set up for adults. He was several feet below the mic but yelled out his question anyways! He asked Dr. Hammels “what planet is bigger than Jupiter?”. She came down off stage and explained there are planets in other solar systems that are bigger than Jupiter which Canton replied “oh, you mean exoplanets”. Everyone seemed to appreciate his knowledge 🙂

After the lecture was over, the few kids in the audience helped make a scale model of the solar system. Canton got to be Mars and held his red ball for everyone to see. Once that was over, he got to see his buddy and JMU planetarium director Dr. Virani. Dr. Virani told his group of JMU students to watch out for this kid, because he already knows more than most of you. His students laughed at this but he then corrected them saying “no, I am serious. He knows more about space than most of you!”. Hopefully we can keep Canton’s head back on Earth 🙂 Dr. Virani even invited Canton to JMU space camp this summer as well. Its normally for 4th grade and up but Dr. Virani said he will do just fine! It sound be a fun upcoming summer!

Liberty loves her BIG brother 🙂

Yeah, they look alike…

Winter storm Pax blanketed us with 15” and counting!  When did they start naming winter storms by the way?

Liberty is not a huge fan of the snow, but big brother sure does enjoy it! Roxy couldn’t even get through it was so deep in some areas. Liberty and I stayed out for about 10 mins, long enough to make angels and take a sled ride. Yes, it took longer to get ready 🙂 As soon as we came in I laid her down to take off her snowsuit and she fell right asleep!

Canton made his own Valentines this year, mostly because I knew we wouldn’t find space ones! He worked really hard at finding images online and writing all the names!