Today DIane and I drove up to Spruce peak to do a sceince show as part of the Stowe Homgrown festival. Our freinds Julliane and Belinda had helped organize it. >> It wa a beutiful hot day.. We were the first thing in the festival .. so there weren’t many people around. but we were able to rustle up about 15 kids and their adults.. It was a small but apriative crowd. It was really fun workign with Beaker.. she has such great energy !
We did optical illusions were we used spinnign black and white patterned disks to appear colorful, and to make your head expand or squish.. really coo demos and easy to make.
We did elephant toothpaste.. which went really well its30% hydrogen peroxide, dish soap and food coloring.. mixed at the end with a potassium iodide solution
Then we made liquid niotrogen ice cream.. deliicious and messy !
super fun.. they even fed us ~ we packed up and headed home
Later that evening we went to Chris and Kims to see a comedy show on their ackyard stage. DIane and I served pop corn and snow cones..
The comics were great.. the crowd was very appreciative even through a little rain.
at the end of the show, I made more liquid nitrogen ice cream.. I had so much left over liquid nitrogen.. why not ?!
NIce queit day.. began with furit salad made by picking from all of our fruiting blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries and currants.. So delicious when picked right off the plants !
Mid morning we went up to Jullianes and Belindas to do a quick practive for tomorrows sceince show in Stowe. THere we met ‘Beaker’.. their lovely freind who was goign to do the show with us. We practiced a few sceince tricks.. Elephant toothpaste , spinning disk optical illusions. and smoke ring shooters.
Then home.. look at the gunk in my coffee cup .. Looks like an ‘S” .. (thanks Sam!)
This evening we went up to Tim and Jens to hang out on their beautiful porch.
Today is the 4th of July.. it’s sometimes can be a bitter sweet day for us.. We have such great memories of doing the parade with the kids, fireqworks.. picnics.. now it can feel a little empty.. Today turned out to be mostly sweet. It got off to a very sweet start.,. Diane made us red, white and blue frozen smoothy bowls using fruti from the back yard. That put us in the 4th spirit
We then rode our bikes to Jean and Grys.. thats the place we always meet to watch to parade. Its a good time to catch up with some old friends.. By now, the kids we knew are all grown up with kids of their own. Fun to see
The parade was cute as always.. fire trucks, ambulances, folks on horses, farm equipment and a coupl of floats. Soem floats through candy.. one even through cheese !
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My favorite float was our freind Austin.. dressed as rapunzel.. driving his high lift.. Super funny.. .. glad he ducked under the bridge !
Our friend Marshall always stilt walks at the end of the parade. He always carries a sign.. and we always have to look up what it means
We looked it up the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 . The Core concept of the pact was to make war illegal. It was intended to stop the kind of horrible bloodshed that had just occurred in the first world warThe pact was signed by many nations.. Well… I guess that didn’t work.… Maybe it’s time to go back to that pact !
we pent the next hour mingling with friends… Some whom we see every week and some we haven’t seen since last Fourth of July. It was really fun and is yet another reminder of why I love our town so much.
We got to meet soem new babies ..!
t was getting hot.. so we rode our bikes home and hopped in the pool.; we figure we’re on our own micro triathlon… A bike ride, a swim… And later on a hike
The hike idea we had was around fireworks. We were debating whether to go to the Richmond fireworks, but we knew they were fireworks and other towns… Diane had the great idea why don’t we watch them all. So at sunset, we hiked up camels hump… It was a hot climb, but by the time we got to the top, it was freezing. From there we were able to see, everybody’s fireworks from Morrisville, Stowe, Hinesburg, Sherlock, Shelburn, South Burlington, Dan Moore, New York, and… At the very end… The Richmond fireworks. It was such a great experience!… Walking down in the dark was hot and the moths really loved our head lamps.
Finally it started getting dark. .. and we started to see fireworks.. they started slowly, mostly small hom e shoes, then they strarted popping up all over, Morerisville, Stowe, Charlotte, Shelbourne, South Burlington, Danamorea New york,… and last of all Richmond..so fun watching them all.. and it was FREEZING !!!
Sometimes you could see fireworks from several differnt towns in one area !
Richmonds fireworks were the last to go.. and the closest.. we could even hear them.. though much delayed
Then it was time to hike down.. though it had been freezing at the top.. we were hot again as soon as we left the top of the mountain.. The walk down was fun.. though the months really liked our headlamps !
Start of a longgggg weekend.. It began with a quiet morning eating fruoit form the garden and a run
THen it was off to Hula to help set up for Fluffy’s showing at the South End Block party. We had a great placement right on the lake.. Each tiem we assemble Fluffy it gets a little easier
While we set up, many other vendors and orgs set up booths for food, crafts and info. My freind Joe was there with FIRST robots.. even one you could ride on !
The first set on FLuffy started around 4.. way to early for lights or fire.. It was the first time we’ve had a live band on FLuffy.. it was Mal Maiz and his band.. they often play with Chris at fire events.. they sounded amazing.. it was a great first for Fluffy.
We had tons of folks drop by.. here’s my friend Gary from Beta pointing at his name on the contributers list (We had over 100 people who helped us build Fluffy)
Here’s our freind Chris (aka Scooby) wiht his super nice family
FInally the sun began to set and we could turn on our lights and fire
I made us some new bling just for the event !
Here’s what RD’s look like through Cocos heart glasses
Then came the fireworks.. We dimmed our lights as not to distract.
After fireworks.. it was time to pack up.. an early night !
Then.. I put the lights on to bright white to help us light up the take down..
Uh-oh . the bus didnt start.. now thats a long story…
