MaeLyn's Musings

The day was May 5th. The time: 6:30 pm. The event: The Pack 124 Pinewood Derby Peter was excited about his car. After debating several different ideas, he had finally decided he wanted a hamburger riding a skateboard. He developed the design, and helped saw the block of wood in half. His Dad helped with the shaping and the sanding. I helped with the shaping of the "hamburger buns", and then Peter painted it. Steven attached the wheels and added the weights inside the hamburger bun. (We were contributing our digital scale as the official scale for the race, so we were able to get the weight exactly right before we arrived, which was nice.) Before the official race, while some of the boys were adding weights to their cars, others of the boys, including Peter, had some practice races. Peter won most of those, but I think something happened to damage his car, because when the official races began, he consistently came in last place, much to his devastation. No amount...

Tuesday evening was our pack's Pinewood Derby. Peter designed and painted his car. Steven helped with the cutting and attached the wheels. The racing was a lot of fun. Steven was awarded the responsibility for determining the racing schedule, making sure all eight cars got a chance to race against each of the other cars, and on each of the four tracks. Peter mostly came in 2nd or 3rd, but he did get 1st place in one race.  After the racing, each of the boys received a small award (a gold car on a block of wood, it actually looked kind of cool.) The line of boys during the awards. Peter was at the end of the line, in front of the boy in red.

Last night, Josh and Peter participated in their pack's Pinewood Derby. (And I actually remembered to bring the camera!) Here is Josh with his LEGO car...  ...and Peter with his banana car. We arrived around 6:30, and had to do a bit of work to get the boys' cars as close to the weight limit (5 oz) as possible without going over. Below, Steven drilled holes in the bottom of Peter's car in order to insert a lead weight.  As Assistant Cub Master, Steven got to man the computer program which kept track of whose turn it was to race. They did the race in three heats, one for each den, and then the fastest two cars from each den raced at the end. Josh's car got second place for the Webelos, and I think someone said he got 4th place over all. Peter's car won third place for the Wolves. (I think when I took the picture, he was disappointed that he wasn't in the top two and wasn't able to be in the final set of races.) It was a great oppor...

Last night was our Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. It kind of crept up on us this year and we ended up cutting and painting Joshua's car on Monday night at 8pm, and attaching the wheels at the church just before the Derby started. Josh named his car the "Delivery Truck". Amazingly, Josh's car did really well. He got 1st place for the Bears Den, and 2nd place overall.

Last week was the kids' Spring Break. Five days, four kids, one mom, one snow storm. Monday was sunny and warm. We started by straightening up the house from the weekend, then we went to the library for books to read during the week, and then played for an hour or so at the park. Hannah made Rice Krispie treats for FHE and cut out the pattern pieces for a dress. (She loves to sew, and I thought it would be interesting to teach her how to make clothes from a real pattern and cloth rather from just her imagination and newspaper bags.) We (Hannah, John and I) started writing stories and I had Hannah and John practice their times tables while Josh and Peter watched a "All I need to know in 1st grade" DVD that Josh's teacher had sent home for him to watch. All in all it was a fun, busy, and exhausting day. Tuesday began crisp and cold. I got the laundry started for the day, and then we began a science experiment: making homemade yogurt. Once that was incubating (sittin...