James is finally done with school (except for a few minor details). We decided to take a break from all the packing and celebrate the end of the semester by going to Six Flags!


After a long drive in the car, we rode the shuttle to the park. Here's Sasha pointing to the rides. She was very excited about going to "the big, huge park!"



Giving Scooby Doo a hug:



She rode on airplanes:



A ferris wheel:



Spinning teacups:



Daddy's shoulders:



Cars:



...and her very first roller-coaster!



By the end of the day, having skipped her nap and being out in the sun all day, she was exhausted:



And shortly after we drove out of the parking lot, she was out:




A video of the three of us on a ride:





Here are a few more pics of Sasha in her beautiful, twirly skirt:

Sasha and her neighborhood friends:

Marianne and Toni:







Emma:



This is James' professor Amy, her husband Brian, and their son Luc:




Sasha playing in and outside of Boston College:





Our trip into the city to visit the aquarium. Waiting for the subway:



Having a conversation with Daddy on the train:



Befriending strangers:

New Address

Our address after May 15th will be:

12655 Kuykendahl Rd. #7303
Houston TX, 77090

Stalagmites and Play groups : )

James collected these stalagmites himself from an underground cave in Mexico last summer. After cleaning and polishing them, making boxes and encasing them in epoxy, and finally removing them from the boxes, he is now almost ready to cut them and view them under the microscope. This is really exciting news for many reasons, one being that this is what his thesis is going to be about. The hope is to find mud layers inside the stalagmite, indicating that there was a flood in the cave, which in turn is an indication of past hurricane events. Stalagmites can record this information for as long as they've been growing (up to 100 thousand years!). With this information they can create future climate models.
Here's James scrubbing with a wire brush:



Sasha showing us the stalagmite inside of the epoxy:




She helped in many ways. Here she is scraping the tape:



Modeling the gloves:



And being cute:



Here she is in James' office:



...where you can clearly see that he's a proud daddy:




PLAY GROUP:

Sasha (and mommy's) play group. Both Sasha and I are going to miss them very much!

"Magnetic, Non-a-Magnetic"

One difference between Montessori and regular schools, and which I noticed in my tour of Sasha's school, is the non-lecture type classes. Children learn through observation and experimentation. For example, one of the exercises I saw was the sink/float activity. Children put several objects in water and describe the characteristics of the things that float. They conclude, on their own, why some objects float and others don't. They are not told the answer until they discover it themselves.
A similar activity which Sasha started is to take things out of a basket, touch them with a magnet, and separate them into magnetic and non-magnetic (or as Sasha says "non a magnetic" piles.
Here she is experimenting:





Drawing more people:




Using her stamps and colored pencils:




I didn't quite capture it in this picture, but she's dancing ballet - one of her new interests.