Happy Birthday To Papa

Today my Dad turned 70 years old. For me this seems quite accomplishment. He has worked hard in his life and has been there for his children. We are happy to be able to share this day with him. We baked him an awesome pineapple upside cake. Ya that's right it was AWESOME!! --Linda

Guapisimo

Joe decided to go all the way with his haircut today. He seems genuinely pleased with the new look - check out that smile. Actually, we all got haircuts this weekend. Anna took off 14", Lydi got a bob, and Amaya shortened hers up too. I went in the to the barber for mine. I like the warm-shaving-cream-on-the-neck treatment.

How do you know that Christmas is coming?

The Christmas season has officially started! We spent yesterday with Grandma T making cookies. We made russian teacakes, sugar cookies, and ricotta cookies. We learned that Grandma has two ovens, so she can handle all of the demand.

Visit to TN

Abby, age 12.

Aunt Jan and Cousin Paul. Paul is recovering from a 15' fall he took last week from a roof.

Lydia and Elydia.

All of us together just before saying Goodbye.

My Lydi, what big eyes you have...

Recent happenings

We've adopted a cat. It was a stray that the kids started feeding and petting. We've named her Mystery. She's already pulling her weight - she's caught two mice!

Here's Joe at a recent XC meet. This is his first year. The season just recently finished. Joe PR'd at nearly every meet, and by the end of the season he ran a 17:33. (~2 miles)

These are the potatoes we harvested from our garden. Everything from large potatoes suitable for baking, all the way down to a potatoes the size of a pumpkin seed.

Anna is in Marching Band this year. Here they are playing Tim Burton's 'Nightmare before Christmas'. The band just won 2nd place at a competition last night.

Guess where I'm at?

I traveled this past week to teach an internal course about the mechanics of rubber to Cooper materials and product engineers. Our Melksham plant is only 20 miles away from Stonehenge! One of my colleagues here took me on a tour of the area. So much history. We saw world's largest man-made hill, and other stone formations. Did you know the stones here (which are massive) came from Wales, and were put together around 3000BC?! How did they get them here? Nobody knows who or how.

Anna's quinceañera

Anna with some of her friends at the beginning of her quinceañera, and her little sister Elydia (also in white).

Joe and Izak hanging out in the DJ station. Joe did a great job with the music, and kept everyone dancing all night.

Anna opening gifts. She took donations on behalf of the Findlay Hancock County Public Library, and raised a total of $225!

Quinceañera coming...

Anna just turned 15, and we are gearing up for a big celebration on Saturday. Hope we see you there! 4 pm - ?
Food, Dancing, Cumbias...

A corny project...

We started this corny project on a whim when we found a good deal at Suter's. We got 15 dozen for the price of 10! Amaya invited her friends to come help shuck. They did a great job, and only left the buggy ears for Dad to do. Mom did the steaming and cutting, and now we have corn for the rest of the year. We'll share at Thanksgiving, or you can come over for dinner sometime...

First 5k

Joe ran his first 5k race this weekend. He ran at a pace of 13:06 per mile, and finished about 1.5 minutes ahead of his dad. Joe is the guy in black.

Welcome to the family, Tevita!

This is my (almost) newest brother-in-law Tevita. He is bigger than any of us, and he has a heart to match. Take good care of my sister, Tevita, and welcome to the Mars Clan.

Kelley's Island daytrip

Dad sitting in his chair on the beach at Kelley's Island. Kids making themselves into Mermaids, as viewed by Dad in his chair. Kids reading about how a glacier carved 3 acres of giant grooves into the limestone. View from the Ferry that carried our Suburban to and from the island. It was a great day.

Cuke #1

Amaya showing off the garden's first cucumber. It didn't last any longer than it took to cut it up and take this picture.

France

Linda and Anna accompanied me to Nantes, France for a week. While I worked with colleagues at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, they explored. Here are some photos of the week.

Mechanical Elephant

While Linda and Anna were in Nantes, we went to see a giant mechanial elephant.

Insurance man - don't look...

Here's Joe with his back flip.

Prepping for Father's Day...

I finished setting up the trampoline today, while the kids made 'Dad fan club' t-shirts, and Lydi watched Wall-e. For lunch we had veggie chili, and Amaya made corn bread. The chili featured fresh cilantro, which I failed to chop finely enough. So it was a little like seaweed in our chili. But the flavor was great.

Memorial Day Weekend

We have a family tradition now to go to Putt N Pond on Memorial day weekend to enjoy the go-karts. Kids were faster this year, and Joe was fastest. I think he got lucky with the car he picked. He whomped everyone.

Guest Blogger!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Anna)

Well, I'm the 'guest blogger'...(YAY) I am the Mars's eldest daughter.
We did this project in science where we lauched projectiles (Tennis balls) at different amounts of force. The hightest we were allowed to go, sadly, was only 50 lbs. of force. Okay, I guess that would have been dangerous. There were some Pullers (people who pulled back on the rubber thing) who fell over at less than that. Although, I have to admitt, seeing Brad launch was hilarious. He weighs like...eighty pounds. (He has a big head even though he's tiny) Anyway, so Brad is pulling back with more than half his weight, he's practically millimeters from the ground, and the Releaser lets the safety pin out and launches, and Brad like falls over. It was pretty funny. Oh, and one day Brad told his team, 'We have no idea', to dress crazy for the last day of launching. Only him and his marker ended dressing up. Brad wore a tie and a construction hat and his Marker, Lauren, was a scuba diver. She had a life jacket, goggles, and bright pink flippers. See, the Markers have to run super fast after every launch and try and put a wooden marker where they thought the ball first hit. Lauren did this with her flippers on. And very quickly I might add.
The whole thing was very entertaining to participate in because we have to go through a verbal procedure. The Puller is the head or leader of the group. They get to order everyone around. The procedure goes something like:
"Are all things ready to begin?" Puller to the Teacher in charge. The teacher nods.
"Releaser, retrieve projectile." Puller to Releaser. Releaser come to the Timer(me), who records the launch times, sled numbers, projectile numbers and what-not on a fancy graphy thing, and I give the Releaser a projectile and write it down.
"Timer, is stopwatch ready?" Puller to Timer. Timer clears the stopwatch and checks breifly for safety hazards.
"Stopwatch ready!" Timer to Puller.
"Releaser, charge projectile." Puller to Releaser. Releaser puts the tennis ball in the pouch.
"Projectile charged!" Releaser to Puller.
"Timer, what are we pulling to?" Puller to Timer. Timer looks at the appropriate box on the cool graphy thing and then tells the Puller a number no less than twenty and no higher than fifty.
"Ready to pull?" Puller to Teacher in charge of sled. Teacher points to the sled so that the Markers, way out in the field, can see who's team is pulling.
"Pull!" Teacher to all people (safety reasons) Puller pulls back till the scale reaches the force given by the Timer.
"Force obtained! Release safety pin." Puller to Releaser.
"Safety pin released. Projectile aimed? Scale tipped down?" Releaser to Puller.
"Projectile aimed, force obtained, scale tipped down...LAUNCH!" Puller to Releaser.
"LAUNCH!!" Releaser jerks on the pin hard to launch the projetile. This is when the Timer presses Start and when the ball hits the ground the Timer presses Stop. Writes down measurements and the whole thing begins all over again.
Signing out,
Anna

Joe Deere

Joe dismounting from our new Green Machine. The kids think its so cool that I'm thinking about charging them to mow the lawn. Hooray for Spring!

Sunday's Launch

Lydi's Visa Moment...

Lydi commandeered my camera on the way home and took this shot out of the Suburban window. Check out the surprised look on my face as I realize that my 3 year old is dangling my camera out the window...


Camera - $500
Look on Dad's face - Priceless.

Launch-time

Joseph and Dalton helped to build this rocket, which we finished last month. The plan is to launch next Sunday, weather permitting. Watch this space for launch news. You can check the weather here. The rocket features a G79 engine, which will produce 25 lbf of thrust for about 2 seconds. We are expecting a flight to about 1 mile in altitude.

Anna can dance!

Anna loves dancing. She went last night to a church dance with some of her girlfriends, and they had a blast. Linda and I dropped in during the last few minutes, and caught this photo.