An upcoming fascination of Brennan’s is Tornados, which I agree are really cool to look at but not too cool in real life for those that are unfortunate to be in one.  He has memorized the Fujita scale but hasnt quite latched on to the concept that the size of tornado doesnt dictate the strength of the wind.  That’ll be a next step. Here is a quick video of it in action:

To make a long design / science discussion short, the box is cut so that there are slits in the sides which make the tornado funnel spin as a motor on top sucks the dry ice smoke up. Email me at dana@danaedwards.com if youwant to know more about the physics of how it works. Here are a couple of photos of it in action:

We had a blast making it and hope to show it off to the grandparents for Spaghetti Night tonight and Thanksgiving Dinner soon!

- Dana

After practice last Saturday, we went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought a tee, a bat and a couple of extra tee balls. This was a big a step because Brennan got to pick out his own bat! Later that day, we set up the tee inthe yard and practiced for about an hour. He enjoyed watching me hit and I have to say that it was pretty cool cranking home runs out onto the golf course. The homers were a pretty good motivation for him to want to learn and the next couple of days we practiced hitting.

Overall, I am enjoying tee ball quite a bit and I think Brennan is too. We’ve never really played or practiced so we have a long ways to go but I am pretty confident that he’ll pick it up fast. After all, he did get his first hit off a live pitch today and he’s only been playing a couple of days.

Here are a couple of photos. The one in the red shirt is from day one practicing with Coach Matt at the tee. The second in the white shirt is from tonight after practice and he is proudly showing off his UNC baseball hat.

- Dana

So, after a brief discussion of the logistics of how we manage the kids as we bushwacked our way along side Stony Creek, we headed into the woods. As usual Brennan repeated a number of times that he didn’t want to go his way or that and Claire eventually convinced Jill that she should be carried instead of walk through the woods. All that said we did make our way through successfully.

Brennan did great for the most part and seemed to enjoy the time in the actual woods. Jill explained to him that when she was younger, she used to call rotting trees – chicken – because they pulled apart like chicken. Brennan took a few moments to pull of a few pieces of chicken. After a little bit of time we climbed over some other trees and brush.

Brennan ran quickly over to some fallen trees to find the cache! Claire was very excited to see what was in the ammo box and Bren was too. When Jill opened it up, the kids eyes popped open wide. Claire was immediately ecstatic when she saw a McDonald’s Doc car in it. Jill convinced Brennan to take a key chain level on her behalf because she “didn’t have an iPhone level like daddy”. Brennan loved it but I bet Jill ends up with it – clearly yet anoher power struggle to occur in the Edwards house. For those wondering how Kentucky fits into the picture, the cache was apparently named for the musical University of Kentucky bottle opener which was in with the loot and yes I did test it and it does still play some music.

A couple of pictures later and we were on our way. Jill and Claire’s first caching trip was a success and I am pretty sure that they had a blast.

Oh, and yes we did get Brennan registered for tee ball!

- Dana

- Dana

Thanks to Greg and Elizabeth Moser for showing us how to geocache!

-Dana