August 24 is Ride the Wind day, and what better way to celebrate a summer breeze than by flying a kite? Here’s a fun and simple kite-making activity we found at tlc.howstuffworks.com:

What You’ll Need:

One 12-inch wood dowel with 1/8-inch diameter
One 24-inch wood dowel with 1/8-inch ­diameter
Strong string or cord
Ruler
Blunt scissors
Wrapping paper
Craft glue
Colored tissue paper

Step 1. Make a cross with the wood dowels. The longer dowel should be positioned vertically. Use a piece of strong string or cord to tightly tie the two dowels together at the cross section. Cut a piece of wrapping paper in a 16 × 28-inch diamond shape. Cut off the corners to make tabs. Place the crossed dowels in the center of the paper diamond.

Step 2. Put a dot of glue at the end of each dowel. Run a long piece of string around the dowel frame through the glue. Add another dot of glue to each end to cover the string. Let the glue set. Fold the wrapping paper tabs over the string and glue each tab in place. Let the glue set.

Step 3. To make the flight cord, cut a piece of string and tie each end to the horizontal dowel. To make the kite string, cut a long piece of string and tie it to the center of the flight cord. Tie a piece of string to the bottom of the vertical dowel for the kite tail. Make tissue paper bows to fold over the string and glue in place. Let the glue dry, then fly your kite!

For illustrated instructions and more information on kite flying, go here.

There are less than 10 days left in August, and you don’t want miss out on celebrating peach month with a delicious, healthy bite into a fresh peach. Here are some fun facts we found about peaches at www.factmonster.com to whet your appetite:

Peaches were once known as Persian apples.

“You’re a real peach” originated from the tradition of giving a peach to the friend you liked.

Peaches were mentioned as early as 79 A.D. in literature.

There are over 700 varieties of peaches-some Chinese varieties are even flat like hockey pucks!

In China the peach is a symbol of longevity and good luck.

1565 is the starting date of the first peach orchard in Florida.

Nectarines are just peaches without the fuzz!

“Free-stone” peach just refers to how the flesh of the peach separates from the pit.

Peaches are sometimes referred to as “stone” fruit due to their pits.

Today, we’d like to wish a very happy 21st birthday to Hayden Panettiere! This young actress got her start in Hollywood doing commercials when she was only 11 months old. By the time she was four, she landed a role on the soap opera One Life to Live where she stayed until 1997. After that, she switched soaps and played Lizzie Spalding on Guiding Light until 2000. Bigger things were coming for the eleven-year-old, though, when she appeared in Remember the Titans alongside Denzel Washington in 2000.

After stints on Ally McBeal and Malcom in the Middle and a supporting role in Raising Helen with Kate Hudson, Hayden’s big break finally came in 2006 when she was cast in the NBC show Heroes as a cheerleader with regenerative super powers.

Currently filming Scream 4, Hayden has a future that looks anything but scary. Have a great one, Hayden!

Yesterday, we celebrated human flight, but today we’re taking one small step into space! On this day in 1977, NASA launched the unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2. It was the first space probe to explore the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, where it also discovered and photographed many previously unknown moons, rings and other features of the planets. A record player carried on board contained greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

Take a minute for a little space exploration with your family today and go check out some of the cool shots from the Voyager 2 in NASA’s photo gallery.

Today, we would like to celebrate an outstanding right-fielder and the first Hispanic player inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, Roberto Clemente. Check out this neat biography we found of “The Great One” at the Smithsonian Education website:

As a boy in Puerto Rico, Clemente displayed both a love and an aptitude for the game of baseball. The Brooklyn Dodgers signed him in 1953, and placed him on a farm team in Montreal. A year later, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he remained for the rest of his career. Clemente’s baseball achievements were numerous. He won twelve Gold Glove awards, given annually to the best league defensive player at each position, and he made fourteen All-Star appearances.

As a batter, he hit above .300 for thirteen seasons, and he topped the National League’s batting list four times. In 1960 and 1971, he led the Pirates to world championships, and in 1966, with 29 home runs, a batting average of .314, and 119 RBIs to his credit, he claimed his league’s Most Valuable Player award. A baseball veteran once called him “a one-man team.”

During his eighteenth major-league season in 1972, Clemente was still at the top of his form. In his last game that year, he became the eleventh major league player to accumulate 3,000 career hits. However, tragedy struck that New Year’s Eve. Long dedicated to supporting Latin America, he died in a plane crash while on his way to Managua, Nicaragua, to help in relief operations following a severe earthquake.

In Puerto Rico, which had been the beneficiary of so much of his generosity, Clemente’s death was deeply mourned. At his funeral, the Puerto Rican governor, Rafael Hernandez Colon, declared, “Our people have lost one of their great glories.” Not long afterward, baseball paid its own tribute to Clemente by waiving the post-career five-year waiting period to induct Clemente into its Hall of Fame.

Today, actress Debra Messing celebrates her 42^nd birthday! Debra is best known for her role as Grace on the popular TV show Will & Grace, which lasted eight seasons and earned her an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy TV series.

Starpulse.com has more information about this talented performer’s ascent to fame. Take a look to learn more:

Early roles such as Dana Abandando on television’s NYPD Blue garnered much attention for the stunning starlet, and it wasn’t long before Messing made her feature debut with A Walk in the Clouds (1995).

Jumping back to the small screen for the short-lived Ned and Stacey the following year, she next turned up in the feature Prey (1997) and a subsequent television series based on the film.

Launching her career into overdrive in 1998 with her role as Grace Elizabeth Adler in television’s Will & Grace brought Messing critical and public praise, and her role as the interior designer living with a gay lawyer charmed audiences with its snappy writing and talented cast.

The massive success of Will & Grace helped Messing gain a foothold in a film career. She tested the waters gingerly at first, taking small but key roles in films as diverse as the thriller The Mothman Prophecies and the Woody Allen comedy Hollywood Ending.

She played Ben Stiller’s newlywed wife in the hit comedy Along Came Polly in 2004. Although audiences ignored her romantic comedy The Wedding Date, Messing scored her most prestigious post-Will & Grace work yet landing a major role in Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You in 2006, the same year as she lent her vocal talents to the animated film Open Season.

Look for Debra in the Emmy-nominated TV miniseries, The Starter Wife, and in a new ABC comedy series, Wright vs. Wrong for the 2010-2011 season.

What do Marilyn Monroe, Nicole Kidman, Barack Obama, Jimi Hendrix and Robert Deniro have in common? They’re all left-handed!

August 13th has been named Official Left-Handers’ Day—so all you lefties out there, go out and celebrate!

Here are some interesting facts about being left-handed that we found on the site Lefthandersday.com that we would like to share with you. Take a look:

Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.

There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed.

Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing

Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers

4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed

1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed – 250% more than the normal level.

Did you know that today, August 11th, is Play in the Sand Day? If you can’t make it down to the beach to build a sandcastle, though, don’t worry! We found instructions on how to make some beautiful sand mosaics with your little one on the site FamilyFun.Go.com. So go ahead and celebrate Play in the Sand Day anyway!

How to make sand art:

Materials
Scissors
Black construction paper
Shoebox lid
White glue
Sand
Assorted seashells

Instructions:

Cut a sheet of construction paper so that it fits inside the box lid — this will be the portable canvas.

To make a picture, draw with the tip of the glue bottle, then sprinkle on loose sand.

Once the sand is dry, shake off the excess by gently tapping the side of the lid.

For added detail, glue on shells, pebbles, sea glass or any other beach-y finds.