Pine Wood Derby

What a fun night!  Kade and Darryl spent many hours designing, sanding, and painting this car and finally tonight he was able to race it.  There were some cars that were so neat Kade really wanted pictures of them too.   In the end Kade took 2nd place overall!  He was pretty proud-- and so was Darryl.  He's already started to make plans for next year.

  

Classic Skating

There was a great deal for Classic Skating going on so we met up with the Goodes to go skate around, play on the inflatables, and eat some pizza.  The kids really love hanging out with the Goode kids, and Darryl and I really love hanging out with Chris and Becky so we should get together more often. :)  We didn't snap any pictures of the kids so i had to get these of their website. :)

Ninja Course

The boys watched little part of a show the other night called American Ninja.  It's a competition show where the contestants have to go through an obstacle course to see who can be deemed the top American Ninja.  Well today I went into the garage and found Kade and Clint working on this-- the beginning of their ninja course.  It made my heart happy.  Even though those saws are something I'm sure the boys shouldn't use without supervision, I just loved that they were creating things with hammers and nails-- like the good old days.  Maybe Mayberry isn't gone.

I {heart} Electronics

The boys were in their bedroom getting ready for bed when I went in to check on their progress.  I found Clint weeping, "What's the matter?"  "I didn't play one electronic today!"  You would have thought the world was going to end by the way he was acting.  Wow!  I reassured him that he would survive and he'd wake up fine in the morning and maybe then he could play an electronic.  He was still pretty distraught over the fact that he had gone the whole day and never took the time to play something electronic.  Funny kids.

The Art of the Brick

The Art Of The Brick was an exhibit by Nathan Sawaya at the Kimball Art Center.  We went with the Grobs who were up here for spring break.  It was unbelievable.  Everything was made from legos and only legos.  Most of these were about 5 feet tall!  The guy with the heart in the middle was probably 6-7 feet tall.  It was incredible.  The kids thought it was amazing too.  My most favorite was the face coming through the grey wall.  I can't even imagine what the room looks like when the guys builds these.  He must have millions of legos in bins as large as closets.

Cole's New Phrase

"You're kidding me!"  Hu?  Really, did he just use that in context?  Yep, sure did.  We looked outside and saw it snowing and that was the first time I heard him say it.  I've noticed he uses it all the time.  He sometimes will shake his head and say, "You have got to be kidding me!"  Not sure where he picked it up, but it's rather cute.

Kade's Science Fair Project

Kade gets really enthused about everything they talk about at school, so it was no surprise to me that he, "Really wanted to do a science fair project."  Because they fell due during the week the Grobs were staying with us we forgot to do a board and all that went with it.  He did come up with what he wanted to do all by himself.  Even though I tried to explain to him that it would be hard to "measure" the results he still wanted to do it so he did.  He planned on testing it more than once but never remembered.  Here is what he wrote in the Science Fair Project Packet.
THE QUESTION I WILL TRY TO ANSWER FOR MY SCIENCE PROJECT IS:
What product makes your hands the smoothest?
THE TITLE OF MY PROJECT WILL BE:
Hand Smoothers
MY HYPOTHESIS IS:
I think that Marcia's Magic will make hands the smoothest.
THE VARIABLES I WILL TEST, COMPARE OR EXAMINE ARE:
-Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion
-Marcia's Magic
THIS IS HOW I WILL CONDUCT MY EXPERIMENT(MY PROCEDURE):
I will put lotion on half of your left hand.  I will put Marcia's Magic on half of your right hand.  Then I will look through my magnifying glass to see which one is the smoothest.  I will do this everyday to see which one is the best.
MY RESULTS"
Day 1: First hands were white and crusty.  The Magic took it all away.  The lotion took away the white but not the wrinkles.  The part that I did nothing to but got wet with water stayed white and crusty.
It was kind of entertaining to watch him be so serious about this.  His comments on the result made me think I better go drink some more water if my hands are described as crusty and white. :)

State Chess Tournament

When we resgisterd Clint for the State Chess Tournament I thought it would be a bunch of people playing chess.  Well I was kind of right.  It was a TON of people playing chess every spare minute they had.  Most of the kids had portable chess sets, mats included, that they had thrown over their shoulder.  AFter each game they would come out unroll their mat and begin playing another chess game with whomever they could find.  It was crazy, especially because these kids were as young as 5!
Clint's sportsmanship was worth the whole day.  He was such a great sport.  Even if he'd loose he'd point it out to the opponent, shake hands, and say nice job.  When we'd see the other opponents Clint would act like they were new best friends.  He would chat with them for a bit, but you could tell they were a little(or a lot) more focused on playing chess.  It was definitely a different experience.

What Does it Mean?

So from day one we've known Kade and Clint are two very separate individuals   One of those dividing identities is the love/lack of love for sweets.  Kade isn't really tempted by cakes, and candies.  Clint on the other hand can sniff out sugar if you have it in your house and once he finds it he would like to make a meal out of it.  So what is the reason for this post?  The boys had some candy from church or a party.  Typically they keep their stash of candy on their dressers.  Clint usually asks multiple times each day if he can have some of his candy.  It doesn't take long before his stash is gone.   What prompted this post was something that made me smile.  Sitting on Kades dresser was a starburst bitten in half.  That is how he eats his candy.  A tiny bit is all he needs and the rest can wait for another day.  Wish he got that from me.  I wonder though if that carries any indication of the type of person Kade is and links to some characteristics he holds.  Or, is it just that he only likes a tiny bite of sweets every other day.  :)

Style Sense

A conversation:
Clint: "Mom, is my button up plaid shirt like and undershirt?"
Mom: "I'm not sure what you mean."
Clint: "You know like a shirt that you wear under other shirts."
Mom: "Ya, that would be okay."
Clint: "Have you seen my orange striped shirt?"
Mom: "I don't think that will work with your plaid shirt buddy."
Clint: "Ya it will."
He goes and gets dressed, returns, and looks down to study his outfit.
"I knew that would look nice."  
Can't argue with that, so I let him go with it.  Does it really matter anyway.   Maybe he'll start a new trend we'll see on the runways in New York.   :)