Not to Be Forgotten- A Sledding Adventure and the Pinewood Derby

A few things came and went and I need to post about them so when I look back on this year it won't look as horrible as it feels.  OK, horrible is a bad word.  Stressful is probably a better way to describe our lives.
Anyway, winter break came and went.  Technically it's mid-winter break just because Christmas break is now called winter break so we don't offend anyone.  Calling Christmas break winter break offends me and I'm not doing that.  So for our winter break back in February we had a whole week of not much to do.  I tried to come up with some things that would interest the boys but then Landon got sick with double ear infections and the fun was over. 
However, we did manage to go up into the mountains, a short 40-minute drive away to play in the snow and sled.  We met up with our next door neighbor and her six kids so there were plenty of kids to go around.  Luckily my friend came prepared with an extra snow suit because I had nothing for Henry but a couple of blankets.  I knew he was toasty warm because he spent most of the time sleeping on my back.

 Our mountains covered in snow are a sight to behold

Marcus helped the boys cross a log to get to an igloo.  Luckily no one fell in!

It's hard to tell but this is the igloo that was missing the roof.  Someone worked really hard on it and it was pretty cool even if it wasn't complete.

The sledding hill we had to pay to use was ok.  The rude rule-follower guy running the thing kind of took away the fun

Henry in his giant girlie snow suit.  If you could see his toes they would barely be poking out from under Marcus's arms.  But he was warm so major fist bump.

 By the end of the week we had done nothing fun so I surprised the boys with lunch at McDonald's.  They were thrilled and I took them to a newly remodeled one which has an amazing play place.  Marcus said, "Some day I'm going to come here and eat all the Big Macs I can until I almost throw up." So that was our winter break.  so much fun.

Landon competed in his first Pinewood Derby.  There were a few dads who worked really hard to make a good car and of course some that barely held up on the track.  One car was weighted with quarters on the back and they kept falling off.

This year the wood shop teacher at the middle school let us come in and cut out our cars.  Landon was excited to use a shape other than the traditional and easy wedge that Randy prefers to work with.

Landon and Parker were excited to put on their aprons to paint the car

 Landon won first place fore his age group and 2nd over all.  He and Randy were quite proud!

The stickers were a big deal.  I keep trying to tell the boys they don't even need to paint their cars but they want them to look awesome. 

I think this was the 7th car Randy has had to build.  Every year he spends way too much time on it and every year he says "Next year I'm letting the boy do all the work!"  But as they get older the boys help more and more.  I'm just happy to be uninvolved!

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.

February Stuff

I love Parker.  I especially love that he still takes naps.  I love the photo above because he looks how I feel at 9:30pm every night after a day of going non-stop.  This morning my alarm went off at 5:40am so I could go running and after reluctantly climbing out of bed I walked into the closet and could hear the rain pouring down.  Perfect excuse to go running later! and I hopped back into bed for another hour.  It felt so good.

The Batmobile

 We survived another Pinewood Derby.  Randy and Ethan started out with minimal interest in the competition this year, especially since Ethan won 1st place last year, but Randy can't do anything half way so he still managed to put in lots of time building a fast car.  

But here's something you probably don't know about the derby.  Until you race your car for the first time, you really have no idea how it's going to do, regardless of the time you spent building it.  That first race is the moment of truth and that's what makes the whole thing exciting.  Well, to me anyway. Ethan's car did great.  He was up against 15 other cars and was holding strong at 2nd/3rd place when they raced the final four cars.  You'll have to watch the clip below to see the horrifying crash as Ethan's hopes are dashed to pieces.  After three consecutive crashes his car took a beating and finished 4th overall.  Oh well.

Ethan right before "the moment of truth"

The sun has been appearing more frequently which allows us to spend more time outside, specifically at the new park that just finished being built down our street.  Some rich lady in the community bought this huge property with a house on it and everything and then donated it to the city under the condition it remained undeveloped.  The city decided it would be OK to develop some of it which is annoying to us because we hate the trees and fence that were ripped out to make room for the parking spots that went in, but the slide, zip line, and walking paths are pretty great.  Oh, and the bridge over the swamp is pretty cool too.  Basically the whole thing makes me even happier about where we live. 

These blossoms wouldn't be appearing for another 2 months in New England.  So glad we live here!

The boys driving to our park

Over the swamp and through the woods to Landon's house we go

Landon standing proudly in front of what he thinks will someday be his house

This is Landon in front of the house that's in the woods at the "new" park.  It's a nice house and totally empty.  Landon decided that since he never wants to move out (I told him eventually he'd have to) he could move into this house.  He talks about it like it's just a matter of time before he moves in.  He even said, "I'll live so close to you, Mom!  And that way when you're going to the grocery store you can call me and I'll meet you there so you can pay for all my food."  I laughed so hard but was kind of disturbed that he's making big plans to be an adult who's still totally dependent on his parents. Hopefully he'll outgrow that!

 

That bobble-head looking boy running across the field is Marcus.  He's playing lacrosse now.  I know NOTHING about this sport and have never seen a game.  Neither has Marcus and his first game is Saturday.  I've decided to embrace my son's natural ability in all things sports and hope he can land a scholarship out of it.  Otherwise this is a lot of time and money down the drain but I try not to think about that.

His coach has a man bun.  As I stand on the sidelines watching and waiting for practice to end, I play out scenarios in my head where I run up and cut the bun off with a pair of scissors and run away before he knows who did it.  Can you imagine how awesome that would be?!

So Much Stress!

Story time in my bed while dad was camping with scouts

Don't let this picture fool you into thinking things are blissful around these parts.  Yes, things were good when I took that picture but that was taken at the end of the most stressful weeks of our married life.  You know it's bad when I fed my boys cans of chili for dinner.  Seriously, how sick is that?  I found them in the back of the pantry left there from some scout camp out, checked the expiration dates and decided it was good enough.  I felt like I was feeding them dog food!

We are getting ready to put our house on the market which means lots of painting, touch-ups, repairs, cleaning, organizing, and moving stuff to our storage unit.  Throw in the training we are both trying to do for the Ragnar despite Mother Nature's efforts at setting new records for longest/worst winter ever, Ethan's first Pinewood Derby, Marcus's birthday, Randy wrecking his car {and my Chariot}, and a couple scouting over-nighters and you can see we have been one bundle of stress and chaos.
Randy is the man for surviving a grueling and stressful schedule for weeks on end, while building Ethan a winning car in the Pinewood Derby.  Don't know how he managed a win since he spent less time on this car than any in years past and the only reason I'm mentioning this at all is so I don't feel like a failure as a mother for overlooking a big deal in Ethan's life.

Ethan sanding his car in 25 degree weather

The proud winner of the Pinewood Derby

Cabin Fever reached new heights.  This kept them entertained for hours until some serious damage was done to the fireplace.  I should've known but oh well.  The fun was almost worth it.

Rock climbing for Marcus's birthday {Randy multi-tasked by checking emails and reading texts in between climbs}

Getting creative as I try to decorate my house without using personal photographs everywhere. Staging a house is NOT my strong suit!

I went to Landon's school art show covered in paint from painting his bedroom.  At least I went with the theme, right?

I organized and washed piles of baby clothes to give to my sister and donated boxes and boxes of old, worn-out boys clothes I should've thrown out years ago.  It made me so sad to get rid of the baby stuff but I don't have time to dwell on it now. 

Randy's car {and home office} took on my Chariot.  They both lost.  So so sad about my Chariot.

The Celebrations Continue

Randy {and Marcus} has finally captured that ever elusive first-place trophy at the Pinewood Derby.  Celebrations will be on-going for weeks and months to come.  Blood, sweat, and tears went into this car and now that it's over Randy won't know what to do with all his spare time on his hands.  He had nothing but bad luck through the whole process so what should've taken a few evenings stretched into a lot of late nights, trips to Home Depot, and starting over from scratch after the car broke in half.  What's even worse is Randy had to work at the last minute so he wasn't even there to see the car in all its glory and a very happy, very non-disappointed Marcus.
So we're glad it's over, well until next year when Marcus gets to build the whole thing by himself while Randy builds Ethan a winning car.  Seriously, in a family full of boys it's pretty essential to know how to build a car that won't take last place because we've got lots of Pinewood Derbies ahead of us.  Lucky us.

victory tackle

the kid's entertainment during the race - brilliant!

 This has nothing to do with the race but if you like the 80's {who doesn't?}, or the movie Footloose {a classic} you must watch Kevin Bacon with Jimmy Fallon.  Click here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T2FpCDlyNg#t=230