Happy Birthday Susu!!

Last day of elementary school

She did some awesome things and met some amazing people during elementary school. Another milestone down and on to another adventure! 

Tomorrow is the last day of school

Got report cards today. Fortunately the kids passed. (District gave K-5 kids pass/fail only). 

Calvin pulled out all the stuff that hasn’t been touched for years, including the playhouse. He asked for rags and a bucket to clean it and he spent a while (most of the morning) cleaning it out. 

And then he decided he wanted to build another fort.

Last week of school

Today was the first day of the last week of school. For Ellie it is bittersweet as she is missing the celebrations associated with her 5th grade promotion. She’s been a little emotional but we keep staying focused on the future. 

Calvin, doesn’t know what day it is except that it’s a day when he can’t play video games. He’s gotten really into video games lately. 

And when I told him he needed to do work because technically he was still in school he decided to make a diorama. A dinosaur diorama. He came up with the design the how to build and attach the pterodactyl by himself but I helped execute the stencil to make the pterodactyl. 

It’s going okay

Bridge project

Ellie got an assignment to build a bridge for science this week. It had to span 12”, have a deck 3” wide, and had to be a minimum of 5” about “ground”. And it had to be made from materials found at home. 

Of course I gave Ellie some resources and set her loose to plan. She came back wanting a cable-stay bridge similar to the Zakim. She set to design and gathered materials. Some trial and error later and she asked for my help.

I explained that cable stay bridges are expensive and difficult to construct in the real world. She asked me what the easiest was and I told her a simple box-beam bridge was the CalTrans standard for everyday overpasses. She asked to see one, I showed her one that I’m working on as well as some other images. She said, I can do that with toilet paper rolls...yep! 

And with a CalTrans budget (recycled materials) and an iDOT schedule (short window for construction) she had created an segmented precast box girder bridge that met the project requirements. 

Efficient design. Completed ahead of schedule. Of course, it hasn’t been fully load tested (but that design criteria wasn’t in the project specifications), however, I’m sure it’ll be fine. 

Eye update

It’s pretty gross and ugly looking. But hasn’t stopped him from being active. 

Ellie’s teacher parade

Last week the teachers at Ellie’s school did a teacher parade. The route happened to go past her besties house, so we parked by their house for social distsncing socializing. And she got to see her teachers and a couple random friends as well.

Quarantine Birthday Win

Ellie’s friend Edith had a birthday today. Her mom took her birthday party to the next level with a themed video call. They also dropped off supplies at our house earlier today for the party. 

It was a Nailed It themed party, which is a Netflix baking show where people have to recreate decorated pastry masterpieces with little time and experience. 

 Other Cal and Ellie were invited and got a cupcake, decorating supplies, little cake stand, and an apron. We had a video call and them they opened the picture of what they were supposed to recreate and got started. 

The kids had a blast and got to celebrate Edith.