Pinewood Derby 2016

This year I signed up to bring chips to the pinewood derby.  Easy, I thought.

The morning of the pinewood derby, Riley reminded me that I had made candy bar cars for past pinewood derby's.  

Yes.  This is true.  But does it follow that I must always make them?  

His face was all the reply I needed.  

Fine.  I didn't grow up with a mom like this, but let's ahead and spoil you rotten.

I ran to the store for supplies.

Then made 60 of the cutest little candy bar cars for Riley's cub scout group. 

Riley, the nine-year old, going on twenty-five, took lots of selfies with his friends.  Oy.

Spencer helped collect cars as the pit crew.

Riley made a shark car.  That he named Black Death.  I would like to pretend that I don't know where he gets his dark thoughts...but...he is my child...

His car did well enough and he had fun.

Ev got a front row seat to watch the action.

Riley and Black Death

Speech

This little guy is speech delayed.  He's been going once a week for a while and we just upped him to twice a week.  Progress is happening, just very, very slowly.

I (and his speech therapist) took some pictures at his last session. 

I cannot believe how old he looks here.

Zombie Killing

The other day we had some friends over after school.  

So we pulled out the slingshots and let them enjoy target practice.

The oldest, lifted up a large book.  "Hey Mom!  Can we use this big yellow book for a target?"

I looked over.

"That is a phone book.  And we used those daily before the internet."

He gave me a look.  Something along the lines of 'my mom is so old' and 'her facts are so boring'.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," I said.  

I can't believe he didn't know what a phone book was!

Anyway, they drew a Zombie face on one side and then practiced shooting it.

 We have these little berry-like things that they used for ammo.  There was no way I was letting them use anything hard.

Ev sat in his special window seat, cheering everyone on.  He loves that little ledge.

Friends

We love when the Digi's come to visit!

Unfortunately, I went down on the second day (and Spencer was throwing up for the first half of that day).  It sucked. 

I called a friend to take kids to school.  That was great!

But, I couldn't hang out with my friend who was visiting.

And she had to take care of Baby while Spencer and I were trying to get through it.  That wasn't great.  

Thankfully, she is amazing and rolled with it.  I seriously cannot imagine life without the Digi's.  We have a few friends that we are just super compatible with, even if distance is an issue at times, there are just some rock solid families out there that we have been privileged to know...and occasionally see.  And who get our senses of humor.  And still want to be our friends.

This was just a few hours after Spencer stopped throwing up.  He had eaten, was keeping it down, and playing on the trampoline.  Amazing.  I was still dying up in my room.  Several hours after this, I was able to finally sit up.  But I was glad he was better.  I hate seeing my children sick.  

Sleeper

Engineering Challenge

James won an engineering challenge for his school.

The Principal invited us to come to the school board meeting to see him be honored.

Two representatives from the Engineering company came out to the award the group. 

They had to devise a structure using very simple supplies (paper, paperclips, popsicle sticks, etc) that would sort large marbles from small marbles into different cups.  They were penalized for every extra piece they used so they had to be careful how much supplies they used to sort the marbles. 

Their group earned $1000 for their STEM program at school.

James demonstrated the device for the audience and the school board members.  After a nervous start, where marbles of two sizes went rolling everywhere as James moved them from their supply bag to a working cup, everyone collected the marbles and James put them into the device which worked perfectly.  

I am so proud of this kid.  

He used the opportunity to ask for cell service.  That's my boy...

New Family Room

I found an old picture of the family room.  We had bookshelves lining the front and side walls.  It looked very full.

Husband moved the room around and I added a red rug that we bought when we first moved and a chair from upstairs.  Then I pushed the couch over to show the fireplace and I replaced the old square coffee table with the old rectangle coffee table.  

Better.  But still lacking something.  

And the couch textiles were falling apart...they'd seen a lot of wild boy action over the last five years.

Not to mention Annabelle's old habit of pulling the fringe out of the pillows.  I tried to explain that the fringe was like barbie hair - it wouldn't grow back.  But still...

I'm not sure if she did it on purpose but the fringe was definitely thinned. 

And the armrests had seen much, much better days...

 I rehabbed the armrests, scrubbed the cushions and washed them, fixed the coloring on the cushion trim, and covered the pillows with a bright, new palette. 

I think I love it!

Sleepy Time