To say this has been a long day for the kids is an understatement - particularly Caleb, who had coffee cake at a friend's house last week and wanted to make it at home. He and I got up before dawn to mix up the cake and put it in the oven. It was still dark so we lay down on the couch to "sleep" while it baked, which did not work because of so many reasons! We also hit our church's rummage sale before we went to RSMAS where Caleb scored a big roll of Christmas wrapping paper (something he's been asking for) and Annalise got the cutest dress for her doll - total bill $.25 and that included paying for the snow globe we broke!
Today was the open house/Alumni crayfish boil/Birthday party for a boat at
RSMAS - pronounced "Raz-mus" and standing for the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science - Rob is our alumni ticket to these events :) This is the 2nd time we've attended the open house and the crawdad boil, but last time the two events weren't combined. It was a nice combination and we had a really nice day.
First stop was the Aplysia farm. Aplysia are these extremely gooey looking sea slugs that have really large neurons. The University grows them and sells them for research. They start out tiny and kind of cute...
And become absolutely hideous! The biggest ones are about as big as a man's arm.
I've been to the farm before, but had never seen their eggs, looks like it's going to be a multiple birth!
In the same part of RSMAS, they are farming Cobia - a big fish that supposedly is very good to eat. Although they had tanks with juvenile and adult Cobia, the University sells most of them at the "fingerling" stage, which is when they are still babies and they are farmed off-shore.
In the coral lab - here they cut little bits of coral off and start new corals and grow them. I don't know if they sell them, but it's in the same part of RSMAS as the Aplysia and the Cobia, so maybe!
Caleb and a giant clam shell. This was a real treat for him because he saw some science program recently that mistakenly got him to thinking this kind of clam could eat a person - and even though I told them they don't close that fast, he had to ask the researcher just to be sure.
In the Mud Lab - here they take core samples of the ocean floor and x-ray and analyze the contents. They use a fine filter to wash out the dirt and there are tiny sea creature skeletons left behind. That's what's under the microscope here.
I am not sure why they had a rock saw, but it was a stop on our map. Technically they were letting visitors use the saw to cut their own rock. I was very glad when Caleb told the man he did not want to use the saw! The guy running it also thought Annalise was too little to do it, which was fine...
she thought it was much too loud anyway!
And the birthday boy himself - the 10 year old boat.
In honor of the boat, they had a gift shaped bounce-house!
Annalise in the bounce-house.
For the crawdad boil, you got a crawdad necklace for your lunch ticket. Annalise is demonstrating that you eat crawdads, which she later refused to taste.
Our table's portion.
Caleb checks them out.
I think Annalise thought of hers as a pet.
And after eating one, Caleb got to see a live crawdad.
The Boat's Cake - when we went to get our piece, Caleb told the girl he wanted a piece with the boat's picture on it. She wasn't cutting that part yet and and I told him he should just take another piece or he would have to wait until she got through all those pieces. I swear, we should have given him Persistent as a middle name because he patiently stood there, occasionally reminding her that he'd like a photo piece until she just cut across the cake and got a piece of it for him. He was unspeakably delighted. His persistence can be challenging for me, but I think it is something I will have to find a creative way to deal with - it gets him things like this too often for him to think it isn't effective - it is effective and although I do want to see him get past the negative part of this character trait, I know it is an extremely valuable part of his personality as well.
Patience is rewarded :)
Today was the open house/Alumni crayfish boil/Birthday party for a boat at RSMAS - pronounced "Raz-mus" and standing for the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science - Rob is our alumni ticket to these events :) This is the 2nd time we've attended the open house and the crawdad boil, but last time the two events weren't combined. It was a nice combination and we had a really nice day.
First stop was the Aplysia farm. Aplysia are these extremely gooey looking sea slugs that have really large neurons. The University grows them and sells them for research. They start out tiny and kind of cute...
And become absolutely hideous! The biggest ones are about as big as a man's arm.
I've been to the farm before, but had never seen their eggs, looks like it's going to be a multiple birth!
In the same part of RSMAS, they are farming Cobia - a big fish that supposedly is very good to eat. Although they had tanks with juvenile and adult Cobia, the University sells most of them at the "fingerling" stage, which is when they are still babies and they are farmed off-shore.
In the coral lab - here they cut little bits of coral off and start new corals and grow them. I don't know if they sell them, but it's in the same part of RSMAS as the Aplysia and the Cobia, so maybe!
Caleb and a giant clam shell. This was a real treat for him because he saw some science program recently that mistakenly got him to thinking this kind of clam could eat a person - and even though I told them they don't close that fast, he had to ask the researcher just to be sure.
In the Mud Lab - here they take core samples of the ocean floor and x-ray and analyze the contents. They use a fine filter to wash out the dirt and there are tiny sea creature skeletons left behind. That's what's under the microscope here.
I am not sure why they had a rock saw, but it was a stop on our map. Technically they were letting visitors use the saw to cut their own rock. I was very glad when Caleb told the man he did not want to use the saw! The guy running it also thought Annalise was too little to do it, which was fine...
she thought it was much too loud anyway!
And the birthday boy himself - the 10 year old boat.
In honor of the boat, they had a gift shaped bounce-house!
Annalise in the bounce-house.
For the crawdad boil, you got a crawdad necklace for your lunch ticket. Annalise is demonstrating that you eat crawdads, which she later refused to taste.
Our table's portion.
Caleb checks them out.
I think Annalise thought of hers as a pet.
And after eating one, Caleb got to see a live crawdad.
The Boat's Cake - when we went to get our piece, Caleb told the girl he wanted a piece with the boat's picture on it. She wasn't cutting that part yet and and I told him he should just take another piece or he would have to wait until she got through all those pieces. I swear, we should have given him Persistent as a middle name because he patiently stood there, occasionally reminding her that he'd like a photo piece until she just cut across the cake and got a piece of it for him. He was unspeakably delighted. His persistence can be challenging for me, but I think it is something I will have to find a creative way to deal with - it gets him things like this too often for him to think it isn't effective - it is effective and although I do want to see him get past the negative part of this character trait, I know it is an extremely valuable part of his personality as well.
Patience is rewarded :)
he's persistent like his daddy
ReplyDeleteHe is indeed!
ReplyDeleteI'll confirm that diagnosis ;-)
ReplyDelete