Moon Party

Did you know that last night was International Observe the Moon Night? Well, it was, and that is it's official name. I didn't know until I saw a flyer advertising a moon party at our little local library. I was a bit skeptical, but they successfully sold the nerd in me by stating they would have telescopes. Yeah!

The weather all day yesterday left me fearing any lunar observations would fail, but the kids ran home from the park [and their most excellent flag football game] at dark saying, "We can see the moon!" By this time I was frankly done for the day and still had to vacuum, dust, finish laundry, put sheets on beds, bathe the kids, and clean my bathroom. And it was cold outside. And Jeremy was at the BYU game. And I dislike crowds. But my curiosity won out. We grabbed some jackets and headed over to our blessed gem of a library. [More on that another day.]

We did find a decent crowd gathered. I overheard the head librarian say they had expected about 100 people but ended up with more like 400. Outside they had about half a dozen telescopes of various sizes set up. They had a station for building construction paper rockets to then launch with an air compressor. Another station had a "moon landscape" obstacle course through which the kids took turns guiding a computer-controlled rover. There was free pizza and water and cookies and moon pies [which were gone before we arrived]. Inside the library was a coloring station and computer games to test your ability to land a rocket. We ended up spending about 2 hours at the party. The sky ended up incredibly clear, and the moon was in top notch form. We also snuck a peek at Jupiter, which was bright in the eastern sky, and several of its moons [I was told it has upwards of 60]. I'm not an astronomy buff by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something about space and the planets that fascinates. After all my balking, and in spite of a late night for the kids and not finishing all my jobs, I'm glad we ventured out. Three cheers for the moon, and for itty bitty libraries.

Now if I may diverge for a moment, I just passed Marissa on the stairs. She had blankets stuffed in both of her shoulders and must have noticed the confused look I gave her, because she explained, "We're playing tackle football." Why do these things make me laugh so hard?