Fart noises for the treehouse doorbell: An inspiration

I've been on a DIY kick recently and today in the car I asked Ty, if you could have a button on your treehouse that you could press and it would do something (light a light, make a noise, move something, etc.), what should it do?

She thought about it for a moment then said she wanted a doorbell for her treehouse. A moment or two went by and she began to giggle, then announced that she wanted a doorbell that made "fart noises."

Looking around at the possibilities, if I'm not mistaken, I think I've figured out how to pull that off without breaking the bank. Looks like this little module and a 9 volt battery will do the trick for $12. Very cool.

UPDATE: This worked like a charm! Even better, we put it in a little case where the young'un could remove it and re-record whatever she wanted, and she changes out the message every couple of weeks. My only beef: I wish the "record" button were on the little green board and the "play" button was the one attached externally with wire (on the right in the photo) so you could better place the button you hit to make noises wherever you want. But we figured out how to make it work. It's been a big hit. Really cool module for the price.

Ready for another vacation

Wish I were in Mexico City right now. This was Ty's dinner at Sanborn's across from the Palacios de Bellas Artes on our last night there two summers ago. The arms and legs are taquitos; the eyes are hot dog slices with green pea pupils:

Shadow dancing in the zocalo:

When you go to the zoo, do you like your camels with one hump ...

Or two?

First panda I've seen, how 'bout you?

 
And unlike here, it's not too onerous to spend the day outdoors:

These days, a certain young'un is a bit more skilled at the monkey bars than two summers ago.

This was at the Children's Museum in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, which is also where the aforementioned zoo is located. At the time, Ty was a month shy of her 5th birthday: Our next vacation begins in a week. I'm ready for it to have started yesterday.

Future low-information voters

Yesterday, while picking up my six-year old granddaughter from a YMCA aftercare program, I walked in on a staffer from the Y quizzing the kids on their political knowledge. "Does anybody here know the name of Texas' governor," she asked them, and dozens of hands flew into the air. "Not the President," she said, "not Barack Obama, but who is the Governor of Texas?" Nearly every hand went down except for one, small child at the very back of the room. The staffer called on her and she confidently piped up, "Mitt Romney!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud and interject, "Wrong state, he used to be a governor, just not here."

When Ty and I got to the car, I taught her the names of Texas' Governor and Austin's Mayor on the way home until she could repeat them on demand. "It's important to know their names," I told her, "if only so you'll get the joke when people make fun of them, because almost everybody does."