Flat LaKeisha comes to the Fish Party

We're having a fish party. I've never been to a fish party. I wonder what it will be like!  We're having a party because Kendrick and Rosalie got some fish.




Kendrick just got a fish. This is a betta. He named it guppy. 

Bettas like small areas of shallow water. They are really smart.

 

Rosalie got a new fish too.  Her fish is a guppy.

She named it Sam, like her dad.

  



Rosalie is making a play cake for the fish party.

    

Surprise!  Rosalie and Kendrick's
grandma brought a cake
to the fish party.







 

Grandma got a fish necklace that
Rosalie made.

I got a fish necklace
that Rosalie made too!

Kendrick lit the cake.

"Happy fish party to you...Happy fish party to you.."



We had jello too.
Rosalie and Kendrick made
 a fish bowl with blue jello and gummy fish.



Flat LaKeisha celebrates Rosalie's 6th birthday

Flat LaKeisha happened to be visiting during the time Rosalie turned 6.  So Kendrick and Rosalie are working on food for the party.

Rosalie loves to decorate cakes.

Kendrick likes to make concoctions.  He's making different colors of frosting here.

I'm hanging with Rosalie before we light the candles. Rosalie has 6 candles on her cake. Kendrick has some candles in cups so he can light and blow too.

The cake before lighting...

The cake after lighting!

Flat LaKeisha visits the best place on Michigan State University's campus...

Lansing is right next to East Lansing, home of Michigan State University. 

Michigan State University was the first land grant university in the country. You can see a copy of the historic Morrill Act signed by president Abraham Lincoln from our country's archives.  Can you find Abraham Lincoln's signature on that document??

It was the beginning of our country providing federal aid to help all citizens receive higher education, not just a select few individuals who could afford the expensive education on the east coast.  Every state has one public university like that. The land grant college for Arkansas is the University of Arkansas.

And one of the best places to visit on the campus of Michigan State University is the dairy store where they make their own cheese and ice cream!

Here we are at the dairy store!  Kendrick and Rosalie are way ahead of me.  I better catch up!

There are so many flavors to choose from!  I don't know what to pick.

The lemon custard ice cream is delightful.

The lemon custard spritzer is delicious.

Everything is very "Spartan" around here.

Here is some of the antique equipment they used to use here in making the ice cream.

It must have been a lot of work to make ice cream.

See the statue in the background?  That is "Sparty," the official mascot of Michigan State University.

Flat LaKeisha visits Fenner Nature Center for Maple Syrup Festival

Here we are at Fenner Nature Center in Lansing, Michigan.  They used to have a real live buffalo that lived out here!  Sadly it died a few years ago but it was really old.

It's maple syrup time!

When the ice melts the sap starts flowing again in the trees.  The sap is like the blood of the tree.  It delivers nutrients to the tree.  During the winter the tree sap doesn't circulate.

Collecting sap from a maple tree using a bag.  There were 3 ants in the bag enjoying the treat.

More sap being collected here but with a traditional bucket instead.  We didn't see any ants.

Kendrick and Rosalie join me at the kettle.  In the old days this is how they used to cook the sap to make it thicker by cooking out the water.  (Some people still do it this way, so I guess it's not just in the "olden days.")

These are examples of different kinds of drills that are inserted into the trees to collect their sap.  They only tap into trees that are old enough (big enough) to be drilled without harming them.  They try to tap into different parts of the tree from year to year.

That represents the number of gallons of sap needed to make 1 gallon of syrup!

Here the sap is being cooked down to make it thicker.  You can learn more about making maple syrup in Michigan at http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Activities/activities_homemade.htm

This turtle was inside the nature center.  There are lots of different animals to observe.

Hello!

Lakeisha visits the Governor's office

Here we are at the Michigan State Capitol Building.   Lansing is the state capital for Michigan.  Can you find it on the map below? 

Michigan has two "sections." The top part is the "upper peninsula" and the bottom portion is "the lower peninsula."  Lansing is in the lower peninsula. 

We used to "own" the city of Toledo, but we gave that city away to Ohio in exchange for the Upper Peninsula.

It takes about 10 hours to drive from the opposite ends of the state! It takes about 12 hours to drive from Lansing, Michigan to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Lansing wasn't always the capital.  This is the third building. The one before this was a temporary wooden building here. And the one before that wasn't even in Lansing! It was in Detroit.  

The capital was moved from Detroit to Lansing because it was further away from enemy territory.

Detroit was considered too close to a foreign country being ruled by our national enemies at that time. Can you look at a map and figure out what country that was?

Now we're inside the building....much warmer!! 

The capitol building was in really bad shape and some people wanted to tear it down. Some people decided it was worth saving and a LOT of very talented people worked to restore the building over many many years.

We went up to the first floor of the capital dome.  The floor is made of glass!

You can see light coming up through the floor. It was kind of scary but the tour guide said the floor was really strong and we didn't need to worry about falling through.

Guess what we saw when we laid down on the floor and looked up? This!  There are so many beautiful hand painted murals and designs and they go way up high.

 

Here are a bunch of flags in the capital rotunda.  These are all replicas of old flags...some dating back to the civil war period.

Outside the governor's office is a picture of Gerald R. Ford. He is the only President of the United States that came from Michigan.

Here is the entrance to the Governor's office. Can you see the sign above the window? 

There are alot of original lights in this building. But building was made before electricity was invented. So the lights used to work by burning gas rather than using electricity. Now all the lights use electricity. But there are no light switches anywhere in the building.

How do they turn on the lights?  We learned that all the lights are connected to a computer in the control station.  The computer automatically turns all these overhead lights on and off.

Here I am inside the Governor's office. The governor doesn't work here much. There aren't any computers in here because the building was not modernized to keep it in its original character. So the governor does most of his/her work in a building across the street. 

The current governor is Rick Snyder. He is just getting started on his job as governor.  He was born in Battle Creek, Michigan. That is where Kellogg's cereals are made.

But just before that Michigan had its first female governor, Jennifer Granholm.  Who is the governor of your state? Have you ever had a female governor before?  She was a two-term governor and did some work with President Obama when she was still in office. 

She will never be president though because she was not born in the United States.  You have to be born in the U.S. to be president.  (She was born in Canada, a nation that was once occupied by our enemy!) Isn't it interesting how countries change who their friends and enemies are over time?

On the way out I got to go behind the desk at the tour guide station.  I picked up a bunch of materials to bring back home.



Lakeisha visits Stevie Wonder

On our walk in downtown Lansing we saw one of the many "Michigan Stars" on the walk of fame.

These stars show important people who were born or lived in Michigan. This star is for Stevie Wonder.  He is a famous musician from Michigan. 

He has been writing and singing music for a long time. 

Here is just one of the songs he sang on Sesame Street.  This was back in 1972. I guess Sesame Street has been around for a long time!

People have loved his music for a long time and still go to hear him sing and play piano.
More recently he sang at the White House (2010) with another famous musician Paul McCartney.

I really like this very popular song they "Ebony and Ivory."  It's an old song but it is still important as it reminds us that we are all important, no matter what color our skin might be.

You might notice that he wears sunglasses. That is because he is blind. But that hasn't stopped him from making beautiful music and sharing wonderful ideas with the world.

Lakeisha visits Lansing City Market

I went to visit downtown Lansing with my new friends, Kendrick and Rosalie. Lansing is the capital of the State of Michigan. There are many things to see downtown.

Our first stop was the Lansing City Market. This indoor "farmer's market" operates all year.  It's a nice place to go to find local produce and unique foods.

This is what it looks like inside the building.

Here is some locally made Maple Syrup. Yum!

Here we are outside the building. It sits along the Grand River. In the summer there will be "boat taxi's" on the river and there will be lots of people walking on the River Trail right beside the water.  It's sunny today, but still chilly. Brr!

The building behind us is the old Ottawa Power Station.  It was built back in the 1940's using different colors to make it look a bit like a flame. It used to burn coal. Then it was empty for a long time. Now it is being restored so it can be used for offices. Here is a story about this building that my friend at our local PBS station wrote.