3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Lift Off!

This afternoon Ben was super bored. He kept asking to do something fun with me. I remembered that we still had these rockets sitting around. After digging around the garage to find all the pieces, we went to a park to launch them off.



Ben was excited to launch his rocket first. Unfortunately, we didn't pick a large enough park. The rocket went up really high. I tried to track it's descent, but it was oven the fence and possibly made it over the nearby freeway. Ben was crushed to say the least. I had to promise him I'd get a new one for him tomorrow.

Now a smarter person would have called it quits. Instead, I decided it was a fluke and proceeded to get Jacob's rocket ready for launch. The kids started the countdown. 3 - 2 - 1 - Lift Off!

Looks like I'll be getting two rockets from the store tomorrow.

By this time, Sarah was sure the rockets were landing on the freeway behind the park causing all sorts of traffic collisions. I figured I'd take one more chance and launch the big kahuna rocket, figuring that being a larger rocket, it wouldn't go so high.

All systems go. Prepare for launch.

Ignition in 3....2...1..


Mission Control we have ignition.





The rocket soared up into the sky. After a few seconds you could hear the 'pop' of the engine and see the recovery parachute come out. The rocket floated back to the ground while the kids ran over to see if they could catch it.





Recovery successful! After quickly packaging the parachute, the rocket was ready for another flight. The second launch was another successful flight. Jacob actually was able to catch the falling rocket before it touched down.

This was a fun activity and I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the near future. But first, I'll have to help Ben and Jake get their new rockets ready. I'll also need to scope out a bigger launch field.