Pinewood Derby Greatness

So, last night was the pinewood derby for scouts and it was great!  When I asked Caleb how he wanted to design his car he said he wanted it to be the Knight Bus from Harry Potter.  Ok.  I inquired to know wether this was just because he wanted to get out of sanding and cutting or if he really wanted to just make it easy on himself.  He denied all claims to getting out of working and said that is just what he wanted to do.  So, we got out the purple paint and began the design process of painting.  It was fun.  We made little windows for people we could paint.  We did the crazy driver, the purple clothed guy, Harry, the owl, and a lamp.  We had four more windows to fill and when I asked Haley what we should put in them she was determined to have her in a window.  So, we painted a Haley, a Peter, and a Caleb and William in the remaining windows and the Knight Bus was ready for action. 

 Here you see Caleb proudly holding up his Knight Bus and the award he received.  Now do not be fooled into thinking we are master pinewood derbymen.  This car was not the fastest.  But he did receive an award nonetheless.  And Caleb's most exciting moment of the night was when his car came in 2nd!  He ran around exclaiming, "that is my best record ever!!!!"  He was on cloud nine.

Peter was also able to run his Harry Potter car he made a month ago and also received a similar award as Caleb did.  Peter was also very excited when they did two free races (those not scout age with a car could run their car) and his car won both times.  Very happy times.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

We all know that Diedre loves soccer.  I love watching my boys play soccer, I love cheering for my boys, I love having them get excited about the game and doing their best!  It is awesome.

So, you can imagine the disappointment that Caleb and I felt when there was rain this morning and our first game of the season was canceled!  BOO and BUMMER!  Some parents and kids may not want to play in those conditions but Caleb and I were fine with it.  He was ready to get out there and make some saves and get his jersey dirty.  He is fun to watch when he makes a good dive as goalie and he shows no fear.  However, the game was canceled and we were left with plenty of rice krispy treat soccer balls to eat ourselves and share with the neighbors.  And we are also left with plenty of excitement for next weeks opening game and to show our stuff!

These are some photos from practice, because even that can be fun!

 Caleb is number 9.  Goalie gloves ready for the action.

His cheering section.  Actually Peter hates it when I cheer, I must be too loud or something. 

UPDATE 22 April 2013
I forgot to mention something that I wanted to remember for the future that Caleb told me after practice.  This last Thursday I dropped him off at practice then took Peter over to math night at the school.  About 30 min later we went back to pick up Caleb and he later told me that he missed having me there at practice.  He said, "I guess your cheering/yelling for/at me has become part of my soccer and I missed that tonight."  What a sweet kid to tell me that and how funny that it has sort of become something that he expects from me.  I love it!

Caleb's cleverness

So, the boys are playing ninjas right now and Caleb tells me, "Mom, this Christmas I want to ask Santa if he can make me do real spinjitsu."  (For those who do not know, spinjitsu is something that the lego ninjas can do when they are fighting and at the top of their game.)  I told Caleb that I was not sure that Santa could do magic like that.  He looked at me and said very matter-of-factly, "Mom, isn't a sleigh and flying reindeer magic."  I had nothing left to say in the conversation, he is pretty much right on all accounts.

Wedding Prep

Since I am pretty sure that not too many people will look at this before the wedding I feel safe in posting this now.  Emily and OJ will be married in about 3 weeks and it is coming along nicely.  I volunteered to help with centerpieces and I decided to make these colorful napkins to use for the tables and then they will have them for their home also.  

 

Since Emily is not having flowers at the wedding I also decided to give myself the project of button boutonnieres for the cousins, plus a few extra (surprise to anyone that is getting one! Hopefully you do not hate me).  I think they turned out fun and cute.  There is more to do and I am excited to do it, just not excited to try and find the time, but I love the planning and anticipation and the fun that it brings.

Easter 2013

Look at that cute bunch of kids!  So, excited to get out there and snatch up the eggs.

And look at that spread of eggs!  The little Haley is cute too, but man alive did we have a lot of eggs.

 There were quite a few kids who needed extra bags for all their eggs.  No matter how big of a bag they had, they did not have enough room.  In total there were over 600 easter eggs for 8 kids to grab up.  Very cool!

Caleb was the lucky guy who found the golden egg.  And no, he did not have any help from his mom or sneak around to find it.  He was just that lucky.  

After everyone counted up their loot and fattened up their felt piggy banks that they received (you can see Caleb's by is foot), we chowed down.   Good food, tons of eggs, happy kids and family all around; it was a wonderful Easter!