Pinewood Derby--

Last night was our pinewood derby.

Here is Callum's "car"--he decided to build our 'silver bullet' Airstream camper trailer.

I like his license plate ☺

This year the race went so well, I am still in awe of how successful & smoothly everything went.

We have 14 boys in our pack, & every one of them made a car.  Two boys were not able to be there due to illness.

But it looks like they all had a lot of fun!!
 

Last year Callum made dad's pickup truck.  So he wants the truck to pull the trailer ☺

Last year I felt that I had almost "failed" at our Pinewood Derby. 

In the past we have always had the boys race every boy.  We have a 2-lane track, so to make it fair, we had always let them race best out of 3. First, we don't use an elimination bracket for a couple of reasons: we want all of the boys to race a lot; it's really not about "winning"; & the boys know which cars win the most.

 And past derby racing lasted way too long. Especially last year.  I think we had 15 or 16 boys racing, & it seemed like the boys had a lot of "down" time between races.

We had tons of kids running the halls & sometimes we even had to go find the boys so they could race.

So right after the derby last year, I researched different ways to improve our race night.

This year I had 2 major changes:  The first thing we did was add a "nursery".  I put a road rug down, had some hot wheel cars & other cars to play with, provided color sheets & had the movie "Cars" playing.  I also had 4 young women there to help out (& two 10 yr. old girls).  Anyone was invited to go in (we had about 10 kids in there)--I just asked that they were either in the nursery room or in the gym.  This solved a lot of the "running around chaos" from past years & allowed the parents to actually watch the races instead of chasing their little ones around.

The second thing I did was change how we raced.  Each boy still raced each other, but they only raced each other one time (instead of best out or 3).  They were assigned a lane & the racing went by quickly!!  They didn't have time to get bored or "squirrelly' because there wasn't a lot of down time.

Everyone commented on how much better this derby was.  It was the quickest derby (& almost the quickest pack meeting) I have every had.  We were out of the church 1 1/2 hours after we started (that includes eating treats, awards given out, the track taken down, & the floor swept!!)

Rusty said it was too bad I didn't figure this racing schedule out 6 years earlier (this was my 7th derby as Cubmaster).  We will definitely continue this racing method & providing a nursery.  I still feel soooooo good about this Pinewood Derby!!! 

Basketball Weekend

This last weekend was filled with basketball--Zane played against Swan Valley on Thursday.  There are 14 boys on the team (6th-8th grade).  Everyone of the boys played, played well & they all scored!!!

It was a really good game to watch.

Zane was supposed to have another game on Friday--against Leadore, but it was cancelled due to the weather--it was snowing pretty good.

We got about a foot of snow (or more) last week.  And another few inches on Monday.

I didn't get any photos of Ethan playing in his game this weekend.  He usually plays in every game, but doesn't always get a lot of playing time.

But Saturday, he stepped it up, played hard & exceptionally well.  He scored 2 points, but almost made a nice 3 pointer & a few other shots. 

He was great at rebounding & playing defense.

And--He got a technical called on him.

Let me preface this by saying he was playing in the 3rd game that day.  We had the same 2 referees; the refs did a good job in game 1; game 2 was terrible (girls varsity); the mildest & least "aggressive" girl player fouled out & most of the other girls had 3 or 4 fouls; in game 3 there were 17 fouls called in the first half of Ethan's game;

And so there was a lot of physical activity in this game.  We were playing our biggest rivals:  Mackay.

Ethan went for the rebound, ended up on the floor with the ball & 2 other Mackay boys by him.  The whistle is blown & we assume it will be a foul called on Mackay or a jump ball.

They call Ethan for traveling (his bottom must had scooted an inch???).

And in his frustration, Ethan slapped at the ball to pass it to the referee.  But instead of a nice "gentle" slap, the ball did a nice big bounce. 

He didn't mean for the ball to do that & he told his coach that.  The coach wasn't mad at him (because everyone knows Ethan & that he doesn't have a violent disposition).

Tons of people said they had never seen that side of Ethan before--a bit of frustration coming through!!

But the most frustrating part of the night:  We lost by 1 point.

And all of the boys felt disappointed-- missed free throws; missed shots; and a terrible night of ref-ing.

 The team just hopes they get a chance to "redeem" themselves at district play-offs--against Mackay.

PS:  Notice how "few" fouls were called in the second half--unbelievable!!!  I would have posted the video of Ethan's technical (yes--it is caught on tape), but I don't have the right cord for my computer.

Benjamin's Black Eye

So Saturday I was doing laundry & heard Benjamin cry for 10 seconds or less.  I just assumed he wanted something & that Ethan or Brienna got it for him.

So about 5 minutes later, I went into the living room & saw Benjamin's eye--there was blood dripping down his check.  So I got a wet wash cloth & put it on his eye for about 5 minutes. 

He has a bruise on his cheek--luckily, it was his naptime, so I was able to nurse him & put the wash cloth on his eye.

He kept trying to wipe at his eye, so I was glad he slept for a while & let the cut scab over.

Oh--and this is what Ethan was doing when Ben hit his eye--and Brienna was on the computer ☺

But in their defense--there really wasn't anything they could have done to prevent it.  Benjamin was just running, tripped & hit his eye on the glider rocker.

Nativity Collection--Final Photos

Yay!  I finally uploaded all of the pictures I took of the nativities.

The first 3 are close-ups of the last picture on Part 3.  We got this one from my sister-in-law when she was in Germany (in the Army).  It is one of the kids' favorites. 

Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus in the  middle & the 3 wise men spinning around them.

Middle story holds  the shepherds

And the top is the angels.

I used 4 different nativites during Primary singing time with the children.  They love seeing the different ones & being able to help me put them up.

My piano students were glad that it took me so long to finally put them all away--they really enjoy looking at all of them.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my collection of nativites.  Taking the photos & organizing them has been on my "To Do" list for many, many years.  (now I can check that one off!!)

Nativity Collection--Part 3

I have a few more, but I'm having problems uploading them.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Nativity Collection--Part 2

I really don't have a favorite --I like how they are all different.

I can say that I am pickier now when I am deciding whether or not to buy a new nativity.  But I am still looking for more ☺