Science Saturday: Crunchlab’s Turret

January 8, 2026 DanM 1 Comment

My kids found Crunchlabs on youtube and then nextflix, and my son really wanted to get a hack pack subscription for Christmas, so we did.

The first hack pack delivery was the IR Turret and it was a hit!

Crunchlabs Turret

So the kit first kit came and it was this IR Turret that shoots Nerf like arrows (Although I am sure crunchlabs is not allowed anywhere near the name nerf). It said it would take around an hour to make if you were new to building robots. We built it over 2 sessions that added up to about an hour (The kids got distracted and it was good to take a break). Our youngest at 6 was still able to help with some of the build, our oldest at 8 was able to do many of the steps.

A few days after we built it and fired many rockets, Theo wanted to “hack it” so we then went online and followed the video instructions. It was easy to get the software setup and start sending custom code to the turret, we started with the prebuilt stuff and within 30 minutes we were modifying the code ourselves with new customizations. Theo already wants to try to get some new sensors and possibly more motors.

Pros

This is one of the highest quality toy build kits I have had
This has great videos, tutorials, support
The programming and hacking was very cool and fun
The kids have enjoyed playing with this a good deal and are excited for the next kit
They offer 3d printable versions of the pieces and the kids are interested in learning about 3d printing
Dad had always been interested in Arduino’s and now he has written code for one

Cons

one of our motors started to have issues a few hours after use, a few days later it totally broke we had to order a replacement for the up / down motor
expensive
Kids keep leaving it on the floor and I trip over it

Summary

This was a hit and we are looking forward to the next one.

Theo’s Mom Attack

Theo Showing Off His IR Turret

Holiday Updates, kids, Pictures

Happy New Year 2026

December 14, 2025 Erin Leave a comment

We’ve been grateful for these good ole’ elementary school days with Theo (8) and Sasha (6) as we attempt to navigate the turbulent waves of our times. The kids have become tree skiers, snorkelers, and white water rafters! We celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday with a slightly-delayed Galapagos escapade, and despite the more-intense-than-predicted logistics (which were predicted to be intense), the kids proved to be adventurers. The highlight was snorkeling with sea lions in Punta Pitt.

This year we said goodbye to Great Grandma at 99. She leaves a legacy of love, warm hugs, watching her 9 great-grandkids swim in her pool, and always pulling up an extra seat to her table.

Wishing you love and peace in 2026.

See more pictures from our 2025 adventures here.

Advocacy, kids

Vote Yes on LL and MM in Colorado this November

October 5, 2025 Erin Leave a comment

Theo published his first Op-Ed in the Westword today. He’s a 3rd grader in DPS and a supporter of universal school meals based on his first-hand student experience.

He drafted the op-ed in response to a recent article on the two state-wide ballot measures voters will decide on this election cycle to fund the universal school meals statewide.

The op-ed is especially timely given the recent delivery of election Blue Books to households across the Denver metro area.

Theo argues for the importance of school meals and the passage of these measures based on his experience as a DPS student and the evidence supporting universal school meal programs.

See the full article over at the Westword.

Screenshot of the Westword masthead and framing for the readers responses that follow.

Additional framing and a screenshot of Theo's Op-Ed.

Science Saturday

Science Saturdays: Crystal Tree

September 13, 2025 DanM 1 Comment

I didn’t have high expectations for this kit but was surprised at how much interest the kids had. They set it up quickly and checked in on it for 2 days before smashing it and throwing it out.

I think that because the crystals started forming very quickly and grew larger than expected the kids were pretty impressed. Obviously, this is just a quick one off but it was fun to check in on it through out the day.

Theo’s review: “not a scam at all!” You will have to trust me that is high praise.

Gardening

Harvest Season

August 27, 2025 DanM 1 Comment

We all love harvest season.

Peaches Everywhere

A lovely peach season

Peach Ice Cream

The kids help make peach ice cream

https://photos.app.goo.gl/53YhZ4MX1DgbD7Mi8

Peach Caprese Salad

Erin Makes the peach version of our favorite summer salad

Apples Everywhere

A lovely apple harvest

Fun Apple Dishes

We make normal stuff, but also start to get weird as we need to use up so many apples.

German Chicken with Apples in mustard sauce
Home Made Apple Sauce
Apple Crisp
Shepherd’s Pie with beef, spicy peppers, and apples.

Spaghetti Squash

We have two plants making a bunch of spaghetti squash this year.

Our favorite dish is spaghetti squash burrito bowls… basically make taco filling and put it in a spaghetti squash and bake it.

Pictures, Quick Thoughts

Peaches, Gardening, and Japanese beetles

July 27, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

I was recently asked how I get such nice peaches and for tips on winterizing / care… I kind of laughed as I don’t really do anything in particular. I thought my response was kind of humorous so, here it is for others to enjoy, and I guess perhaps it might help someone out there.

Denver Peach Tree Care

I have crazy gardens both year round hydro-ponic and seasonal outdoors. I have what seems to be a very productive garden, but I treat all of it more as an art than a science. Too many of my hobbies end up very science, numbers, and on computer screens. So when I got into gardening, I basically made a rule of no book learning, just experimentation. So any advice I give needs that caveat, it might not be the best way to do it, but it works for me.

winterizing, um… I don’t do anything… I do put fruit spikes into the soil near the tree twice a year and one of those is in the winter.
You might get some tiny fruit in the first year, but if you pick them all off the tree will put more energy into making roots and you will do even better in the future.
peach care… I dug a big hole and put 3-year-old trees in the ground. I have a watering system that waters a bit daily

I prune the tree more on bonsai aesthetics vs any advice about being good for fruit
- I do prune any branches that look too thin to support fruit
I occasionally thin the fruit, but I mostly leave that up to the squirrels

I distract the Japanese beetles by letting them eat all my roses, and some of my apples… So they really don’t have any time left to eat peaches. The squirrels sadly prefer peaches over apples, which is why I have two peach trees and one apple tree. When we have a boom havest I pull about 500 peaches and apples… Squirrels extract about a 20-30% tax on fruit…. Probably higher for the strawberries, which they seem to go nuts over, and I thought squirrels like nuts.

Occasionally I spray with a mint based organic bug spray, but I am not convinced it does anything, but it does smell nice which is a plus.

Anyways, happy to share anything that might help, but my urban farming philosophy can mostly be summarized as plants really want to grow, put them in the grown and give them water and sun.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Windmill Generator

March 23, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Recently, we made a windmill generator that powers a light bulb.

Given how much the kids liked the Green Science: Eco Lightbulb I thought this might also be a hit… but it was not.

Kid Approved? No

So what went wrong why wasn’t this as fun…

The light even with a crazy amount of wind isn’t bright
There isn’t really wind indoors and for lights they turn off all the lights in a room to play with something.
It barely will glow if you blow on it
Outside we have to get up really high above our fences to get enough wind to turn the windmill
It keeps blowing the bottle over and falling at about the same amount of wind that will turn the windmill

Basically, building it was fine but they couldn’t find a way to play with it to drive the light in a way that would stay fun. So they lost interest quickly and now we have a plastic windmill piece of trash to throw out at some point when I give up on it.

Holiday Updates

Happy New Year 2025!

January 20, 2025 Erin Leave a comment

You’ll have to forgive the tardiness of our New Year’s greetings. I found it impossible to reflect on 2024 in the midst of holiday preparations – including my new responsibilities as a kindergarten room parent – *while also* preparing the so-far-for-me-inevitable summer camp calendar spreadsheet. A good friend of mine recently reflected that these hectic elementary years may in fact be “the good old days,” and I’m doing my best to savor every “hug attack.”

For my 40th we took a two-week family vacation to Italy — my first return trip since I studied there 20 years ago. We rowed gondolas in Venice, hiked the Sentiero Azzurro Trail from Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza in Cinque Terre, roamed my old hilly stomping grounds in Perugia between incredible meals, and saw the Colloseum, Forum, and Vatican in Rome. Sasha (5) most enjoyed the gelato, Theo (7) loved playing in the ocean with our friends’ dog, and both remember feeding the stray cats. In filling out his summer reading acrostic, Theo used the first M of summer for “Missed a train,” but I insisted he use the second M for “Made a train” – since we technically did both. In an effort to put off bedtime, Sasha will sometimes pack a small rolling suitcase for her babies, gather them into her arms and run around with her bag and babies talking hurriedly into her toy phone about how she is going to miss her flight (or train), “oh no, oh no,” – no idea where she got that.

Dan and I continue to manage to squeeze in some work, and work travel, between ski weekends, relishing contact naps with our new nephew, school plays, fencing tournaments, and family visits — including some to visit my 98-year old grandma in OKC.

Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and healthy 2025.

See more pictures from our 2024 adventures here.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: KiwiCo Explore Spain

January 11, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities. Over a couple days we explored Spain, in fact we still have some activities left.

KiwiCo travel the world from your home explorers kits

We ended up getting this KiwiCo Explorer kit for free from a camp. It sat around for a while, which might be over their heads. When we finally got it out, both kids were drawn to building the boat, while Sasha was also very drawn to making the cubist art sculpture. I knew we had a hit on our hands from the initial interest.

Spanish Galleon

The kids were both really into making the boat. They eagerly helped and quickly pushed forward the building to completion. They thought it was fun and played with it a good amount after first completing it. The longevity of this as a toy is low, but they really enjoyed the process and had fun with it for longer than I would have guessed (like 15m).

rocking boat 😉

Cubist Sculpture

Sasha, who is more into art, was very drawn to this sculpture and painting project. She needed a little help setting up the sculpture, which her mom lovingly did. She then pained and added all the decorations. She was pleased and proud with the result, which now sits in her room.

This turned out to be more interesting than I would have guessed.

Other Projects

We still have a cooking project from the kit and some reading, but this kit was a hit. A small warning from other parents who do kits like this often. One parent mentioned having a subscription to these, and after a few, they began to dread another arriving as it felt like a chore vs a fun activity with the kids. I get that, and if I had to do a new country every month, I would burn out, but if your kids are interested in some country or you are preparing to visit somewhere, these are great ways to explore and discuss another culture together.

Science Saturday

Science Saturday: Keva Catapult

January 8, 2025 DanM Leave a comment

Keva: Catapult

This was a kit to make a Catapult… It does make a Catapult, but it is hard and slow for kids to build… I ended up having to build most of the kit. While the kit said 8+, aligning the wood straight to make things work is pretty difficult for a single adult… let alone an adult trying to do this with children… Also, many of the steps require applying glue, which means you have to wait 10+ minutes between steps. The kids really didn’t have the patience for that. While the kid was good, it wasn’t as kid-driven as I like some of these activities to be.

Kid Approved? Yes

Yeah, the kids struggled to get into the building and wait for everything to dry. They thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed playing with it and asking questions. This will also have a longer replay value than many other kits or toys. We shot candy out of it to knock over toys, and you would get to eat the candy after hitting a target.