A Slithering Head, Waxy Wings, Hot Lava, and a Guillotine

Now, you must know, I hate science fair projects with a passion. Science? Pshaw! Who needs it? I am way too right brained to enjoy the rigid structure of the scientific method.

But when it comes to other school projects, I eat them UP!

Love, love, love to get creative, and to get a grade for it!

Give me a diorama assignment, and I am one happy camper!

Happily, I think my boys have inherited my project gene. They have come up with some amazing book reports, and social studies projects, and such in years past.

Here are a few of the projects they have come up with this year...

Medusa. Talk about having a bad hair day!

In 6th grade Social Studies they study the ancient Greeks and mythology, so Dylan decided for his 6th grade project to create Medusa's noggin, complete with snake hair and stringy guts coming from the "wound".

He used a styrofoam ball, a plastic mask, toy snakes, and marbles to create his pretty new friend. We sewed up a simple rustic bag for him to carry it in

He yanked her head out of the bag by the hair, um snakes, and turned his entire class to stone! Really.

Turns out a Medusa head can be quite useful in middle school. Every 6th grader should carry one for protection.

Not to be outdone, Derek decided to pick another figure from Greek mythology to do his 6th grade social studies project about - the ill-fated inventor and pilot, Icarus. Derek is an inventor at heart, so he really could relate to the guy who decided to build himself a pair of seagull wings with feathers and wax so he could take to the skies like a bird! Why not?

Only this time Derek made his wings out of foam core, white duct tape, spray adhesive, and, of course, lots and lots of feathers.

These turned out very cool! He did a great job.

Then he took his wings out for a test flight.

And they worked pretty great too...

...until he flew a little too close to the sun! Yikes!

And, of course, what school year would be complete without the proverbial volcano project? Dylan made this erupting beauty totally and completely by himself! It was like "Mom, i have to make a volcano," and then a few hours later, bam, there was an awesome volcano sitting on my counter! I didn't as much as make a suggestion. He just got clever.

He made it out of a can, some cardstock, some paint, and some netting he found in my fabric scraps. For trees and plants, he actually dug some grass and moss out of the yard. Cool huh?

And if you thought the Medusa head was great, how about something a bit more efficient to cut it off with?

For his French class Nathan actually built a real working guillotine!!!

Of course, he didn't use a real, working head, but he did successfully decapitate an aristocratic carrot for his class - a gruesome sight, to be sure. The streets of the middle school ran with carrot juice.

(With 8th graders carrying guillotines around, it is no wonder 6th graders have resorted to toting Medusa heads around for protection. What is this world coming to? Sheesh! What ever happened to the zero tolerance policy?)

He spent a few evenings at his Uncle Mike Keechler's house, who is a genius with woodworking! They designed it themselves just by looking at pictures of them online. They used an aluminum can for the blade. They did a fantastic job!!!

It was his French teacher's favorite project ever, and she did not want to see him take it home! She begged him if she could keep it, but Nate had a whole bunch of aristocratic carrots at home awaiting their date with Madame Guillotine!

He is already trying to decided which mortal instrument or torture device he should make next. Now he needs an uncle who is an electrician so he can make an electric chair. Fried carrots, anyone?

Helping Hands California

On Saturday, April 30 we participated in a special service project event - Mormon Helping Hands California. Thousands of LDS church members all over California donned bright yellow vests and went out to serve where ever needed in their communities. More info here.

Lots of members of our stake, young and old gathered Saturday morning to get their vest and assignments for the day. We were ready to work!

We had quite a large group from our ward, so they divided us into two groups and sent us to two different Boys and Girls clubs.

Our group was assigned the La Quinta B&G club, but unfortunately, when we got there, there was nobody there to let is in and give us instructions. We waited a while as we tried to reach someone for the club who could help us. They must have forgotten we were coming. Finally we decided to give up and go join the rest of our group at the Indio B&G Club.

But by the time we got there they pretty much had things under control and there was not a lot left for us to do.

Dirty closet? Clean it up!

These gals, Mary and Madi, cleaned out a storage closet. Nice work ladies!

Lots of folks working hard.

Then they gave everyone free bicycle helmets! Nice. Although, I don't think some of us put in enough work to deserve them (not because we were not willing to work, but because there were just too many workers!)

When were were finished at the B&G Club, it was only 10:30am, and I had a car full of able-bodied and willing young men, and I was not about to let that valuable resource go to waste, so I texted my sister to see where her group ended up and if they needed more helpers.

It turned out that their group was just down the street at Martha's Kitchen and Village, and homeless shelter, picking up trash. So we joined them and put these boys back to work again.

(BTW, that my my first visit to Martha's and I was very impressed! We spoke with the manager about what they do there. What a wonderful, beautiful, clean and happy place that is. They do a lot of good for a lot of people, and we were happy to help them this time.)

A parade of collected trash!

In the end, we had been to three different places in our community to help in whichever way we could. We did not do as much work as we could have, but we were were willing and worked hard where we could and in the end, that is what matters, right?

With our hands, and the hands of all the thousands of members of our church who volunteered for Mormon Helping Hands, I sure we made a big impact in California that day!

Now lets give ourselves a hand!