Pinewood Derby

Yesterday was pinewood derby day for my youngest son's cub scout pack. My son Kaleb is in the back row all the way to the right (showing his thumbs up sign!) You would have thought that it was the Daytona 500 for all the excitement in the room. Last night was bitter sweet. I realized that it was my last pinewood derby that my boys would be in. My oldest daughter and I were helping get the cars checked in and weighed. We had a can of washers and a hot glue gun to add weight to some of the cars. One boy was questioning why he needed weight, and his dad said, "She has been doing this a long time listen to her." It made me think back to when my son Joshua made his first car. Grandpa helped him shape the car, but it was up to me to help him get it to the right weight. We have a total of 10 pinewood derby cars from my boy's cub scout years. We have had a pick up truck, a big rig, a GTO,... and last night a ghetto car with graffiti. I just hope that the boys will have as good memories about their pinewood derbies as I have.

Army of God

Last week I shared that we were getting ready for our scout cubanapolis. Kaleb wanted to make his box car a Hummer. He wanted it painted camo and he wanted to call it ARMY OF GOD. He did the design work, and the cutting. I had to help with the hot glue gun, and dad helped with the spray painting so that we didn't end up with our dock more painted than the box. He camped out the night before the race in 40 degree temps and rain and had a blast. The morning of the race was damp and cold. The boys still had a lot of fun. Kaleb's car won overall best design out of about 70 cars. He was so proud of his trophy, he wanted to take it to church to show his friends. We are planning on using his ARMY OF GOD hummer as part of his costume for our fall festival at church.

Where the real action was. Kaleb racing fellow cubscout Blake.

Trophy winner!!

Best design out of about 70 cars.

Kaleb in his Army of God Hummer.

Cubanapolis

Every fall for the past couple of years our cubscouts have attended the fall cubanapolis. The boys decorate boxes and pretend that they are race cars. They run around a track. They have 3 pit stops. After the first lap, they have to FUEL - they drink water from a dixie cup.
After the next lap, they have to have their WINDSHIELDS washed - we spray their goggles with a spray bottle and wipe them off with a paper towel.
After the next lap, they need to get NEW TIRES- the boys have to take their shoes off and put another pair of shoes on.
Then comes the final lap towards the finish line.

Some of the parents go a little overboard buying accessories for the cars, and you can tell that the boys didn't get to touch the cars until the day of the race. What fun is that? Kaleb has had a lot of hands on for his cars. This year he want to make a HUMMER. That is our project for this week. We are getting ready for this Saturday. I hope to have a photo of this years car soon.

This was Kaleb's car last year. It was a Bakugan car per his request!

This was his car the year before. It was actually a big rig truck!

An adventure with butterflies

Yesterday was a busy one for me as a mom and a scout leader. In the morning I lead a group of cub scouts on a butterfly tagging expedition. A lot of children in our area spend all their times on their computers or game stations and getting out into nature is so foreign to them. For the past few years I have been bringing not only my own kids but others, including my cub scouts to an event hosted by our local conservation office. Monarch butterflies are caught and tagged, and released. The conservation officer said that of the butterflies that have been tagged only one in the past few years has been tracked all the way from Iowa to Mexico. That butterfly flew over 2,000 miles. That is pretty impressive. We had been hunting the butterflies for about 15 mins when we caught one. It was a little female. Here is a photo of the boys as they are getting ready to release the butterfly. My son is the one in the turquoise colored shirt.


Here is a photo of the fearless butterfly wranglers!!! They would have liked to catch more than the one butterfly, but after hiking around in the open field of flowers for 2 1/2 hours they were ready to go get some lunch. I hope it is a memory that the boys will have forever.

After the parents picked up their boys, my son Kaleb and I went to the park to enjoy more of God's creations. We both had our cameras and we wer taking photos of the flowers in the gardens there. Here are a few of the flowers that I took photos of.

The irony of yesterday was that after spending all morning looking for monarch butterflies, that after we were done looking, that we would find one. Kaleb and I saw this male monarch butterfly sitting in the garden. We approached very quietly and were able to get very close. We both got photos of him.

What made the rest of the day busy was marching band competitions. My daughters had 2 band competitions yesterday. Their band took first place for their division at both competitions! YEA!!!!! We didn't get home until late though... Next week's band competition is even farther than this week's one. I guess I can catch up on sleep when they are grown. Sleep is overrated anyway...