Pinewood Derby

Today was Bradley's first pinewood derby!  He was very excited about building his car.  He and Andy worked on it over Christmas since Andy has some time off.  I was glad I didn't have to work on my first pinewood derby car.  :0)

I didn't get pictures of the building process, but this is the finished product waiting to be weighted in.

 Dad and Bradley with "Christmas."

 There was a kids zone in the back.  This was an excellent idea!!

Daniel, in blue, and Eliza, right behind him.

 Bradley at the "garage" with his car, #5.

 This is a look at the track and the monitors.  The chairs are lined up for optimal viewing!

 They had donuts with O.J. and chocolate milk.

Daniel, Dad and Nathan enjoying their snack.

 View of the race track from our second row seats!

A look at some of the competing cars.  Most of the cars are in this picture.

 This Batman car won as fastest over all.

 This silver one belongs to a friend of ours.  They used batteries in the side for weights.

 Some more cool cars.

 Bradley's car is the green one with the red tail fin.

A couple more competitors.

 Nathan was excited for the racing to begin!

 They projected the results and up coming races on the wall.  Bradley is in the second heat in lane one.

 Bradley getting his car ready at the starting line.

His den leader, Doug, is making sure the right cars are in the right lanes.

 The cars crossing the finish line. Bradley came in second in his heat.

 Daniel and Eliza watching at the finish line.

Daniel would get upset each time Bradley's car came in second.  He didn't think it was fair that Bradley's car wasn't winning.

 Dad, on the left of the TV, and Marek, on the far right.

Marek and Margaret came to watch the races.  We borrowed their scale during the building process to get the weight just right.  He was right on the money for weight. 

 Bradley getting ready for another heat.

His excitement at being able to race was clear!

 Nathan was sure he could win if they would just let him race!

Ready, Set, Go!

This boy keeps us busy and laughing...most of the time. :0)

Bradley didn't win an of the trophies, but I was very proud of him for being such a good sport.  He didn't cry or say mean things to any of the kids.  He did say on the way home that  he was sad he didn't get a trophy, but he had a lot of fun racing.  We already have plans for his design next year.  Way to go Bradley!  We love you!

(Andy and Eliza slipped out part way through to clean the font and returned in time for the awards.)

Cleaning at the Church

Have you ever wondered who cleans the baptismal font?  I never thought about it until Andy got called to over see the baptismal font and suits.  I guess it does have to be done by someone.  He has cleaned it a couple times, but we just never had the camera on hand until today.

 Eliza got to be his helper this time.

 Keep scrubbing away!

Eliza was good to rinse things off after Dad scrubbed it down.

Double Trouble Bubble Gum

I never understood as a kid why my parents didn't want me to go to bed with gum in my mouth.  Now I know exactly why.  Bradley has awaken a couple different mornings recently with gum in his hair.  The first time there wasn't very much and I thought it might be tooth paste that had dried in his hair over night.  (Sometimes he plays in the bathroom and wets his hair to make a mohawk.) After the second morning Andy was pretty sure it was gum.  We just couldn't figure out where it came from.  A few days after the second gum in the hair incident I asked Bradley to bring his bedding to be washed.  I found gum on all his bedding!!

 The pillow case...

 His blanket...

 Luckily there wasn't too much on the blanket.

 The bed sheet...

 A stuffed animal...

 The shoulder of his newest pajamas...

The shoulder of another pair of pajamas. 

It took over an hour to get the gum out of the pajamas and the bedding.  Then I washed everything 6 times and it still smelled like goo gone.  Finally I just hung it all out in the garage to let it air out.  After 3-4 days I think the smell is finally gone.  :0)

A Day At The Museum

The Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh opened a new portion last year including a large world with a movie inside.  We checked it out when we were there last, but didn't see everything inside the newest portion.  We headed to the newest section first to check out more of the exhibits.  They have a good sized tank with....

a Bonnet Head Shark!

It looks similar to a hammer head, but quite a bit smaller.  :0)

There were some good sized fish in the tank.  Too bad we could fish here.

My favorite was the Lion fish.

They are pretty cool looking.

This little shark kept cruising the back and left sides of the tank.  

Another lion fish.

I can't remember the name of this one.  It was red with light blue spots across it's back.  They look white in the picture.

Another favorite the Puffer fish.  The kids were trying to think of a way to get it to puff up.  That would have been pretty cool.  However this little guy was pretty chill and just hung out in the corner.

A trip to the museum isn't complete without a visit to the butterfly house, so we headed there as well.

There weren't very many kinds of butterflies in the house.  There were several kinds still in their cocoons waiting to hatch.  We were just there on the wrong day.

This milk snake was also in the butterfly house.  Don't worry!  He was behind glass and couldn't mingle with the other residence.

After the butterfly house we headed to the bug wing of the museum.  They have giant bee heads you can look through to see what they see.  It didn't work very well...either that or bees are really pretty blind!  They did make for some fun pictures though.

Eliza

Daniel

Bradley

Dad

Mom

Before leaving the kids wanted to check out the ocean wing.  Dad likes to read ALL the plaques on the wall.  He says you learn all kinds of neat things.  I thought I would try it and this was the result.

Nathan crawled behind the display into the window.

Bradley was close behind.

Whose kids are these?  What kind of a parent lets their kids climb behind the display?

"There's no one back here but us dust bunnies. :0)
This is what happens when you read the plaques and no one watches the kids.  Fortunately we didn't get kicked out.  :0)

On our way back to the van we walked past the large globe that is part of the museum.  It is three storied tall and they show video clips on the inside.  Since it is rounded it makes for unique viewing.  We are going to get one of these for our next house.  ;0)

Nathan, Eliza, Daniel. Bradley and Dad

Nathan near the base.  Nathan loved the museum and being able to wonder.  He likes to feel big, so even though we had the stroller he wanted to walk.  The only problem is that he wanted to go his own way.  He wasn't worried about keeping track of anyone in the family.  He is cute though. :0)

Jan. 4, 2014