Well, I took a path that has taken me to Sandia National Laboratories as a computer research scientist / engineer.  While I love working with computers, writing new algorithms, solving hard problems, I still find myself with a very strong motiviation to spend time helping and/or working with children and youth.  I’ve been fortunate this year, as I’ve been able to spend an hour or so each week teaching science in my daughter’s first grade class.  Sandia has a science and technology outreach program, where I can take time out of my work day each week to do this – its great!

I’ve been teaching since the start of the school year last September.  I’m known as “Mr. Todd” to the class, and I come in for one hour each Wednesday morning to teach a fun lesson in science ;)  The lessons are typically premade lessons provided by the school district, I just simply follow the syllabus (makes it nice and easy).  I really enjoy working with the kids, and it seems they enjoy my coming as well.  Here’s a class picture I took last week.

First Grade - Teaching Science - 2008-2009

Anyhow, I’d like to show you a few pictures from Christmas morning – mainly of the gifts I created, along with a few other pictures that just looked cute, exciting, fun, etc… and I didn’t want to leave out.

So, for Michael I made a marble maze.  This took quite a bit more time than I originally planned, and I have quite a bit of scraps of lumber to show for it (tries 1,2,3,…,10,… etc… all failed).  Not sure if you can make it out from the picture – but it’s a two sided maze and the marble drops between the two sides via holes in the center.  Object is to get it from one corner to the other.

I had originally planned on making them all mazes, but the time spent on Michael’s was soo long, that I modified my design for Trevin and Ian… their mazes are made from their names, with a hard plastic top to keep the marble in (rather than the way Michael’s is — with the marble still accessible to the touch.

For Kaylee Ann I made (with help — not enough time!) some socks with beads on them.  I actually just sewed the beads to some purchased socks.  Kaylee seems to like them though!

I ran out of time before I got to Spencer’s gift — but as you can see from the Christmas morning picture, a simple sticker is enough to keep him happy :)

Enjoy the pictures!

You’ve likely noticed the pictures of the lazer tag guns — they were a sure hit (thanks Grandma / mom!).  Michael was also (still is) very very excited about his skateboard Santa gave him… look at that grin!

Turns out we didn’t finish the game yet — as bedtime came before we were through.  No problem — as this just means we’ll have to play again later ;) 

There were some little chefs (and a big chef) at our house tonight.  We were making a masterful meal for the queen of the home – our very own Mommy Chef.  It was Mommy Chef’s birthday, so what better way to celebrate than to make a meal for her!

Mommy Chef wanted to eat an Indian dish for dinner, so she searched far and wide, until she found two recipes that she wanted to make for dinner.  To the little chefs came the duty of making Naan.  This is a very special bread that we have never made before.  Boy was it fun to make!

There was an AWESOME chef named Michael.  He was a master of the sword (ok, the butter knife).  He wowed us all with his excellent skills – and he served as our master bread cutter for the night.  You wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley in the middle of the night.

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There was a super duper sweet chef named Kaylee Ann ;)  As you can see – she loves cooking, and especially flattening dough before placing into the oven :)  She added the sweet spices necessary to make our bread complete.

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Dough Boy could not keep the dough off his face / mouth / hands / etc…  He was excellent at kneading the dough, getting it to the perfect consistency before tossing it into the oven ;)

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And then there was Tiny Chef… kind of like our little wonder dog – he was watching all of us, and helping keep us all safe ;)  He even saved all the food from burning, at least that is what sweet chef tells me.

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After making a healthy batch for Mommy Chef to enjoy, we decided to make our own ‘lil masterpieces to cook in the toaster oven… yummy to our tummies ;)

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And that is the end of our story this evening… we hope you enjoyed this little episode of “Little Chefs”, we sure enjoyed being Chefs!

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Ohh yes – and Tiny Chef worked so hard… well – he fell asleep after all was said and done ;)

(Story typed by Daddy as told to him by the little chefs, and with a bit of his own creative license)