Ethan is the Man!

This boy has been busy being awesome lately.  With the help of his dad, Ethan put together a pretty awesome science fair project.  So awesome in fact, he was awarded 1st place and came home with a sweet trophy. 
Ethan decided to do his experiment about paper airplanes.  He built six different types of planes and came up with a hypothesis about which one would fly the farthest and why. Randy and Ethan camped out in the den for two days typing everything up and recording data.  They even drove over to the church, in a blizzard {so they had several detours due to cars blocking the roads}, where they performed the actual testing of the airplanes.  Although Ethan didn't actually pull an all nighter, he definitely stayed up way past his bedtime to get this done so he got a good glimpse of what high school and college life will be like.  Ethan was so thankful for all the time Randy spent with him that he treated his dad to ice cream to say thanks.  I thought that was pretty sweet, even if it was my idea.  And I thank my lucky stars to be married to a smart man who also happens to be a night owl.  Major fist pump over here that he will be the one to see the boys through these projects while I go to bed at 10pm. 

Here he is testing his hypothesis.  Which he ended up rejecting.  Doesn't that sound so technical?

 Ethan spent the morning explaining his project to interested kids, and trust me, they were interested!  There was always a crowd around his table because paper airplanes are way more interesting than eggs and battery experiments that are all over Pinterest. 

 Ethan also just competed in his last Pinewood Derby.  This meant more late nights spent out in the garage, working side by side with Randy to build a fast car.  {Randy isn't in it to win it, he's just scarred for life after Marcus's Pinewood Derby that ended in tears when Marcus was the only boy who didn't qualify to move on to the district race.  We laugh about it now, but Randy hated feeling like he failed his son so he works hard to ensure the car doesn't come in last.}  Also, Randy has only been able to attend one of the last six Pinewood Derbies.  Somehow something legitimate always comes up at the last second like an emergency root canal or this year it was Landon's soccer game.  Randy is always so relieved he doesn't have to be there to see how things go down so I'm constantly texting him with updates so he can determine just how happy or upset his son will be.  This year was a good race.  Ethan's car started out slow but got faster with each race and he ended up taking 2nd place.  Turns out there were several dads {one who is a rocket scientist} that brought their A game so it was fun to see how it played out. 

2nd place and another trophy to add to his collection.  Poor Randy, he's not even halfway through his Pinewood derby car building experience.  He's got 8 more cars to go!  It's no wonder he wanted a baby girl so badly.