A little taste of the Pops Concert

Tonight was the Annual Pops Concert given by various members of the school's choirs.
Nathan Hataj asked son Clayton to come and play the bass for him, along with Richie on drums and Jessie on electric. Clayton I know had a lot of fun practicing with this talented group of guys.

The more expensive camera's batteries died, so we had to make do with Clayton's digital camera after the song started. The sound in person was much better and I'm sure the DVD will be excellent.

And for some reason, Nathan wasn't allowed to use his own very nice electric acoustic which is why he way off to the side so far away from his bandmates.

Wrap up of the BEST field trip EVER!

Joseph, Jayson, Clayton and Joel in the Engineering Centers Building at UW Madison

Friday, April 17th was a last minute 'field trip' day for boys.  It was just gorgeous out-sunny and 70 degrees and I was so glad that I got to go with them.

Clayton and Joseph along with their cousins, Jayson and Joel had the privilege of attending the

Engineering Expo, 

Pizza Brutta, handmade wood-fired pizza  on Monroe Street, 

Quarry Skate Park in Middleton (it's the 'bowl' kind-very fun), 

Eric's Bike and Skate shop, 

Guitar Center (!!!) 

and then Non-Toxic Teen Center.

Not a bad itinerary for one day, eh?

They were a fine, fine group everywhere we went.

 Clayton in the red shirt, to the left of him Joel, to the left of him is Jayson. 

This is just a little tiny glimpse to show how how crowded the informational booths were. Unbelievably, in this huge expo, the boys caught up with some of their friends from Edgerton High School-that's Wesley to the right of Clayton, who took the time to show the boys some of the cool places they'd already found.

  

This is a lightening machine. It was cool. What was it's purpose? No one has any idea. 

It was supposed to be hooked up to Guitar Hero and students could then cause the electricity in response to their playing, but since it was put on by the only slacker engineer students we saw there, it didn't work. It gave us hope though, that even in the field of engineering, a slacker is still welcome.

  

                  EnginEarrings

The shiny 'gems' here on these earring at the bottom are actually grains of high purity aluminum that have been "annealed" that is heat-treated to a very specific degree to cause the grains in the aluminum to grow.

This was at the Material Science's table, and unlike the lightening show across from them, actually taught us a lot about metal, how to retain it's strength when working with it and even then how that applied to guitar strings! The material science engineering student there really knew his stuff in order to explain all of this to us-very prepared and interesting.

 

Joseph (in the superfly sunglasses) and Jayson

Mucking About in Oobleck

This was waaaaaaaay fun. Clayton, who I didn't get a pic of, really liked this exhibit. They let you get your hands into this big, rectangular pool of gooey non-Newtonian fluid. When they just drew their hands through it gently it was like going through water, but if pressed down on it-it felt like a solid. Jayson and Joseph are making balls of it in their hands by quickly rolling it like snowball, when they slowed down though, it went through their fingers.

It was fun and it was messy!

The student there told us an interesting application of non-Newtonian fluids is being used to develop less bulky forms of bullet resistant clothing. It was way cool.

   

    Joseph, Jayson, Clayton and Joel

After we found our way out of the Expo by miraculously finding the magic door that we had accidentally used to enter it, we made our way to lunch with Aunt Rosemary. This was the first time Joseph and Clayton had wood-fired pizza from a brick oven. It was quite a culinary step up from their usual fare of McDonald's and Taco Bell. 

The pizza is made in front of you on delicate crust, the sauce is just tomatoes and olive oil and the pepperoni was thinly sliced to get crispy. All in all, a very nice experience in a cozy little restaurant on Monroe Street. We all recommend it.

  

Joel, Jayson, Joseph and Clayton's legs

Middleton's Quarry Skate Park was our next stop that was much anticipated. It is a 'bowl' style skate park unlike the Edgerton and Whitewater parks that are flat concrete with jumps on top. There were no bmx bikes allowed here but the boys were prepared with skateboards and helmets.

It was very difficult trying to get a pic with all four boys in the screen at anyone time! Everything is fast and noisy there.

We did get a chance to discuss all the engineering that goes into something like this-right down to their own boards, body mechanics and even protective gear. We learned that engineering is everywhere!

  

Jayson (in the black) and Joseph 

Joseph really got out and skated a lot. I had to go somewhere else and not watch as it all makes me way toooooo  nervous. To me, concrete + wheels + kids = missing front teeth.

  

Joel, Joseph and Clayton

We found a skate shop!! Erik's Bike shop in Madison by Westgate is a great place. Clayton got to pick up some much needed grip tape and all the boys got to take a look at everything offered there.  It was fun, especially after trying to find other skate shops only to find that they had closed down.

 

Clayton and Jayson 

Guitar Center At Last!

Clayton tries out a Jackson guitar, while Jayson plays the exact same guitar he just bought. Guitar Center is wild, crazy and LOUD!

  

Joseph tries out an Ibanez that he's thinking of getting.

  

Joseph and Joel jam together. Joel's picked out some pretty guitar that I don't what kind it is, but I'm sure he does.

  

The Daisy Rock Guitar!!

Okay, now this is a guitar that is marketed to girls and I wanted Clayton to try it out 'cause I've always thought that it would be cool guitar for the girls down at Non-Toxic. However, the girls there have expressed their desire to have "serious" guitars and we found out that despite it's pink rock candy finish and in-laid stars on the fret board-this is a seriously awesome guitar. It's got Duncan pickups and it has the approval of at least two 16 yr old guys! 

 

Jayson goes "old school" electric.

 

Clayton picks out a tune on flying-V guitar.

Ooooohhhh and the other 'boy' David had his own field trip:

 

Son David after working on Friday, though left out of our field trip, went and arranged his own. He got together with some friends and went dirt biking and then had a cook out. 

All in all- a GREAT DAY was had!!!

Clayton and his new guitar an Epiphone SG G400

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Happy Birthday Evan! Evan is 8 years old today so we celebrated with him at breakfast at Ray's.

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