Science Project - Solar System

While I was at a training on Saturday for Royal Family Kids, a friend of mine picked up Little Sis and took her shopping for supplies for her science project. She had to create a solar system model, which was due today.

They used wooden balls, wooden discs, water colors, wood glue, hot glue, and he drilled holes so they could put the dowels in as stands.

While the sizes of the planets are not to scale, they are representative of their relative sizes (for example, Venus and Earth are about the same size, etc). The distance of each planet from the sun, however, are to scale based on their average distance and the size of the board. I eventually met up with them and helped paint a couple of the planets while Little Sis worked on painting the others. It was hard for me to let go and let her do a good portion of it.

I think it turned out great. I dropped it off at school today, and managed to get it into the school office before I knocked Pluto out of orbit. I was able to do a quick re-glue, since it only came out of the base, which was still glued to the board.

Neptune

Uranus

Jupiter (and the alien egg spaceship)

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (and the asteroid belt)

Saturn

All finished!!!

An Open Letter to my Friends, Family, and Readers

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers:

I am writing today making a special request.

As most of my regular readers know, I volunteer for a wonderful organization called Royal Family Kids. I've been volunteering since 2009, and am scheduled to go again this year in June. Our goal is to create positive memories for children who have been abused and neglected, and are in the foster care system. We strive to give them the "best week ever" and allow them to have a "normal" childhood experience they may not otherwise have had.

We've had several fundraisers already: the dinner auction in March, the car show in April, and Change to Change lives, where we collected loose change to fill a bucket. We have two fundraisers left, and our biggest one is coming up in less than two weeks.

I'm issuing a challenge today to you all. If everyone who reads this (including all 399 friends on Facebook) and donates just $5, I will reach my goal of $600, which is the cost of one child to attend camp for a week. Everything is provided for them: 5 days/4 nights at camp; every meal and one snack each day they are there; a HUGE birthday party for everyone (because some children have never had a birthday party before, and some don't even know WHEN their birthday is!) including ice cream, cake and presents; and anything else they may need for the week: shoes, a bathing suit, towel, bedding, hair brush, tooth brush, etc. because some children come with almost nothing but the clothes they're wearing and two-sizes-too-small shoes. We put on a drama for them, they get a duffle bag full of goodies (including a brand new Bible), give them tons of activities to do each day (girls get a Beauty Shop, boys get Marshmallow Guns. Plus bug boxes, fuse beads, painting, archery, sports). It's not cheap to run our camp, and the camp site is so wonderful. They're actually updating and refurbishing a lot of the camp area, including paving walkways to the cabins, which makes the camp more easily accessible to those who may be in a wheelchair or have other disabilities.

If you've read this far, I thank you. If you're willing to take the challenge, I've included the link to our church's website where you can make a donation: Crossroads Church, Home of Royal Family Kids Temecula. Please enter your donation in the "RFK Offering/Donation" section. There is no fee to make the donation, and it's completely safe. Every donation is tax deductible (you will receive a giving statement at the end of the year from Crossroads Church if you supply your address on the site). In years past I've made this a contest to win a gift card, but I'm not going to do that this year. I want my readers to donate because they've been touched by the stories I've posted here on my blog. If you want to read more, click the Royal Family graphic on the right side, and it'll link to all my posts with the RFKC label.

If you cannot donate, I completely understand. As a single mom working part time, I get it. However, I do ask that you pray for our camp, for our campers, and for our volunteers. Every year we have something "go wrong" but God always pulls us through.

Thank you so much. Please comment to let me know you're praying for us.

99 Things to do this Summer

Also known as "Summer 2013 Bucket List." I'll be blogging over the summer the activities we do, and will post the links in the list. 

We have 72 days of summer vacation (Phineas and Ferb live the good life), and the girls will be gone for a couple weeks with their dad, and almost a week each for summer camp. Big Sis is also going to be gone for a week for her mission trip to Bishop, California. They're putting on VBS for the kids in the community.

You can view the inspiration for my list on my Pinterest Board: Getting Ready for Summer!

Have you started a summer bucket list? Feel free to borrow some ideas for your own!