The Real Arthur

Saturday Dr. J. and I went to the Southern Kentucky Bookfest. First I saw Marc Brown talk. Marc Brown is Arthur’s author. Then I had a picture of me taken with the real Arthur. After that Marc Brown signed a couple of Arthur books for me. We met Jeff Kinney who wrote The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It’s a bestseller. Then we met Katherine Wilkie who signed a bookmark for me. Merkin read me a book by her about George Rogers Clark. After that I ate lots of popcorn. The Bookfest was good, and I should go again.

Cheekwood . . . Letter of the Week

Wednesday Merkin and I went to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville. It was a great day to go there, because the sky was very blue! First we walked through the gardens, but not all (we finished that later). We heard some noisy birds in the Botanic Hall. The Herb Garden had ruins of columns from the original state capitol building. Then we went to the art museum. I liked the building and wished it was my house. At one time it was the home of a rich guy from Kentucky. My favorite exhibit was on Faberge. I liked the eggs a lot. He used real gold! After the museum we went on the sculpture trail. My favorites were “Glass Bridge,” “Turtle, Two Hares, Frog and Hawk,” “High-Back Windharp Chairs” and “Crawling Lady Hare” (see picture for this one). Then we went to the Japanese Garden. There were tons of bumble bees. We then went back to where the columns were and saw a plant named Bear’s Breeches. My legs were hurting by the end of the day.

My First Earthquake

During the night there was an earthquake that measured 5.2, but I slept through it. While I was doing math this morning (around 10:20 am) the stove rattled and then the bookcase started shaking. There was also a bitsy rumbling noise. My first earthquake! We went to the USGS Earthquake Center on the internet and answered questions about our experience. It had a magnitude of 4.6. On the map, the red box is the quake I felt. And the big blue box shows the earthquake from last night. I realized what was going on, but I wasn’t scared. I was excited because it was my first earthquake.

DNA in a bottle

Wednesday we went to the Nashville Adventure Science Center for HomesCOOL Day. The theme was Forensics. First I did “Genes in a Bottle.” Dude Boy got some cheek cell DNA and put it in a bottle! It was easier than you might think. Today we looked at it with my microscope. The other session was “Are You Observant?” Merkin and I looked for clues at a crime scene (not a real one). We looked for physical evidence like fingerprints, footprints, hair, and examined the things left behind. We also played at the science center for a couple of hours. It was very, very, very fun!