Category: Adventurous kids

Pinewood Derby 2011

Here’s the shiny Pinewood Derby track from last night. I filled in for our Cubmaster at this Pack Meeting. We did the cheese grater cheer, the race car cheer, the rocket cheer, and the big canary cheer. These photos were taken by Phillip Flores, one of our den leaders.

Here is Timothy with his awesome car. He has a Lego man inside.

Richard’s computer program kept track of race times and generated the order of races. We projected the race stats from the computer to a big screen. It was very cool.

Trying to contain his delight…

This boy won 4th place!

He earned his Bobcat, too!

Sweetie

Richard has been going through pictures this week and he asked that I cull oh, about most of them. This one survived the cut because it shows Timothy really enjoying his time on the bumper cars with Daniel and his cousin Ray.

Timothy will jam his tongue into his cheek to suppress a smile if he thinks he is the only one smiling. He’s a soft-spoken sweetheart of a boy. He is very funny when he feels comfortable. I am glad that he has so many cousins whom he calls friends.

Look out, Timothy. I’m coming to hug and kiss you for no reason.

Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

On Friday we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the Butterfly Magic exhibit. We did this last year in December and loved it. This year I decided to organize a fieldtrip for one of our homeschool clubs. This way, we were able to get in at discount and see our friends.

When we walked in to the butterfly house, we were immediately aware of the tropical conditions. The cold camera lens fogged up for a while. A butterfly quickly decided to camp out on Paige’s head.

Daniel took most of the pictures of this exhibit.

Here we learned about a Citrus Swallowtail caterpillar. Its strategy for staying alive is to look like bird dung and when you touch it, it rears its head and shoots out reddish orange tentacles and an odor that will curl your hair (imagine an odor as you note the reddish orange “tentacles” on the head).

As we finished our visit, a butterfly finally landed on me. Yes, it’s on my rear end.

How silly.

This one’s for the boys

We decided that Grandpa needed to see the Air and Space Museum where he could see hundreds of planes and drink up some history.

The boys spent most of their time with this big guy (Blackbird). Its allure was power, speed, spy capabilities, and history.

Richard asked for a picture alone with the plane to remember the special moment in his life. (Richard, are you reading this?)

I enjoyed the museum, not for the planes but for the walking history inside its hangers. There were veterans and historians everywhere just ready to tell you their stories. I loved the displays about individual pilots with their uniforms, photos, and mementos. As much as I enjoyed the day, I did not experience the museum on the same level as the boys. Oh, boys in paradise…

Here are a bunch of shots of kids. This picture above shows a real plane.

This was very educational… for me. I saw my boys like I have never seen them before.

When Mark gets angry he threatens that he will not come and visit me someday in his airplane.

Daniel helped with transportation.

And since most readers of this blog are girls, here’s one for you:

Tomorrow I’ll share our gingerbread house masterpieces.

Nutcracker 2010

This weekend we spent with the Sanchez grandparents. We had many adventures, but the main event was Paige’s Nutcracker performance on Saturday night. She danced as the Dewdrop Fairy in Waltz of the Flowers (above).

She danced in the Snowflake number.

She was also a Chinese dancer.

She was lovely and she was strong. I can’t believe the stamina she showed in the Waltz of the Flowers. I’m so glad she had this opportunity.

A Summary and a Question about Timing

I hope you had a nice weekend. We did many things, but I won’t bore you with every detail.

We had a nice Veteran’s Day. I invited a WWII veteran to speak to our homeschool group #2. Since all public buildings were closed, I rented a hall for the event. The kids decorated handkerchiefs with patriotic messages to send to soldiers and we also collected goods for 4 care packages to send to Afghanistan. The guest speaker served in the South Pacific and was very good at speaking to children. I felt really good about the event.

The 3 boys sang a trio in the adult session of Stake Conference on Saturday night and I played the violin. Richard sang with the choir. Mark bumped his head on the podium as he was climbing up to sing, but managed to sing through teary eyes and some pain. It was a good experience for the boys and they enjoyed some Lego rewards when it was all over.

I was reading about discipline in an education magazine that I receive from BYU. One article said that the greatest measure of how well you are doing as a parent is how your family treats one another. Do you think I can measure my success during a time when the kids are all watching a movie together or playing around in the mountains? The results would be so much better then.

To Do Today

Today I need to sew ribbons and elastic on these new pointe shoes. It’s a surprisingly difficult task. Shoes don’t fit well in a sewing machine and I usually sew the elastics 3 times because the shoes have to fit just right.

I love new ballet shoes. Aren’t they beautiful?

Paige’s costume for the Chinese dance just arrived and there is some altering for that, too.

Paige’s debut in the Nutcracker ballet is on December 11.

Robin Hood

For today’s post Daniel brings you a night at the movies.  This is a stop-motion animation video that he created.  He has produced about a dozen of these little clips so far, and they are delightful.

The sound on this video is quite low, so turn up your speakers/headphones.  Notice the details such as the staff and hat floating down the river, the bubbles, and Robin Hood almost falling backwards but catching himself.  Enjoy.

By the way, this post allows comments.  If you would like to comment, click on the post title (“Robin Hood”) above, then find the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Video Player

Arrow of Light

Daniel is a good scout and this means he usually has a pocket knife and a screwdriver handy. He is good with tools, first aid, and swimming. He received his Arrow of Light last night and we are proud of him.

Looking for Work

Daniel took this picture at the Desert Museum.

This boy, I tell you, can do some amazing things. He’s currently looking for work. He’s discovered that *expensive* Bionicle sets are the way to go. After building his enormous creation the other day, he said, “This was the most satisfying Lego set I have ever built.”

Back to the money thing. We live away from all our people. What can be done? Well, there is mail order.

Does anybody need a pamphlet on Pearl Harbor? He wrote a good one.

How about some photos of lego creations? He has several hundred he could share.

Are you interested in a good book reviewer? He reads at least 3 books a week, sometimes 5.

And then there are his piano compositions. There is Weber River and Carousel Ride. Each has its charms. You know.

I’d pay good money if I had any (darn school books!) for a good photo of his amazing eyes.

Wow, I think I just remembered where I stashed some cash. Never mind on the sale. I want to keep all of those things for myself.