Birthday, Take Two

Yesterday while Abram went to work, Owen and I took a trip to the Lancaster Science Factory. We had gone for the first time a while back, on Abram's birthday, in fact. While the weather was beautiful, the pollen seemed to be heavy in the air, so an indoor trip for my sneezing coughing boy was in order. He'd been asking to go back.

Owen had a blast building with Kinex, making a earthquake proof building (well, part of one at least - he had to turn the shaker on before the structure was complete!), playing with the minimal surface bubbles (you can't tell it here, but the bubble forms with planes that go in from each of the three lines of the three parallel lines in this one - very cool),


building with hex nuts between two really strong magnets,

filling the pendulum funnels with sand (and the sand table with more sand as the pendulum swung attempting to make a pattern which was obscured by the artistic efforts of Owen),

playing with the colored lights, rolling balls down slopes, and testing which things (wood, plastic, brass, and aluminum) conducted electricity and complete a circuit to make a light bulb glow. He actually didn't want to try to plastic or wood the second time he went to the table.

Since Owen as not in top shape but still wanted sushi for dinner, after we picked up Abram from work, we got take out and came home.
After dinner Owen enjoyed opening scrubs, overalls, and sticky notes from Anne and Granddaddy; a wooden pirate sword and hat from Grandma and Pa Billy; a pop-up Castles book from Daddy; and a jogging trampoline and small kitchen scale (which has weighed EVERYTHING in sight now) from me.

Here he is before bed time which we surprisingly well despite the excitement of the day.