The Pinewood Derby Chronicles

Every year the AWANA program that we attend hosts a Pinewood Derby. Awards are handed out for fastest car, car design, and non-car design.

In 2005, our then 4-year old son worked hard on his first Pinewood Derby race car. He chose the paint colors, painted the car and added a cool Superman sticker. The end result was a very cool looking race car (IMHO :))

He came away his first Pinewood Derby with an honorable mention for car design ~ and most of all, he had tons of fun.

In 2006, he decided to recreate the Batmobile for the Pinewood Derby ~ he had a blast decorating his car in preparation for the race.

He returned from the Pinewood Derby with a first place finish in the car design category!

Fast forward to 2009 ~ another Pinewood Derby, and another award, third place car design for his Jimmy Johnson car.

Not sure if this means that he has a future in car design :)

Menu Plan ~ April 26 thru May 2

With the weather we had last week, I'm not sure whether to plan for winter comfort foods or switch over to cool summer dishes: we started the week with chilly rain, followed by a couple days of beautiful springtime weather and then the weekend brought scorching summer temps!

So this week, we're just sticking with meals that we enjoy eating...and here's the plan:

Breakfasts

• toast & jelly
• Whole Wheat, Choco Chip pancakes
• breakfast cookies
• cereal & yogurt
• baked oatmeal

Lunches

• tortilla pizzas, apple slices
• pb&j sandwiches, oranges
• snacky lunch (pretzels, cheese slices, fruit)
• quesadillas, oranges

Dinners

• Broccoli Cheese Soup, homemade bread
• Baked Mac & Cheese, green beans
• Soft Tacos, corn
• Rodeo Chicken Sandwiches, leftover baked beans, carrots & dip
• Cheesy Brown Rice, mixed vegies
• Homemade Pizza, carrots & dip
• Crockpot Italian Chicken, homemade bread, mixed vegies

For lots more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Finer Things ~ Celebrating Springtime

Is there anything finer than beautiful spring weather (except maybe crisp fall weather)? It seems that spring has finally arrived here in our neck of the woods, and we have been outside enjoying our favorite springtime activities...

bubbles

basketball

drawing with chalk

more chalk art

and soaking up the rays during lunch :)


To see what finer things others are celebrating, check out Amy's blog.

Book Basket ~ Birds

I'm definitely a theme gal when it comes to checking books out of the library ~ and this month our theme has been birds with a bit of springtime thrown in...



This list does not include all of the books that we checked out this past month, it only includes the books that I will keep on my list as worthy of checking out again :)

• Robin's Home
  
• The Restless Robin ~ we loved this book, see my review post
  
• My Spring Robin ~ the simplicity of Anne Rockwell's books are great for my preschoolers
  
• The Little Lost Robin ~ very sweet picture book about friendship
  
• Daisy Comes Home ~ we always enjoy reading books by Jan Brett
  
• How Mama Brought the Spring

Check out The Happy Housewife's Book Basket series for more book recommendations.

The MACHE Convention

One convention down, one (or maybe two) to go...

This past weekend, my husband and I took our 7-year old on a date ~ after dropping the two younger ones at Grandma and Papa's for a day of fun, we headed over to our small local airport for some plane-watching and a bit of lunch.

From there it was a very short drive to our small local homeschool convention. This was the first year that we brought our son along ~ we thought he'd enjoy checking out the many books and toys (educational, of course!) on display.

When we arrived at the convention, my husband and son headed off on their own while I took my prepared list and began my browsing.

Here's what I brought home:

Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography

First Language Lessons

Whaley 4 or 8 Subject Plan Book

CLP's Nature Reader Book 5

Getty Dubay Italics Books (A & C)

and a very cute set of little nature readers

I also picked up a couple of miscellaneous items...but I am pleased to say that I stuck to my list.

After speaking with one vendor (and veteran homeschooling mom) I decided against adding a spelling program for now, we'll continue to work on copywork and revisit spelling when planning his third grade year.

I was not able to find a copy of StartWrite, so I plan on ordering that program on-line at some point.

There are still some things on my list that I was not able to purchase this time around, so they will remain on the list for our next convention - less than 2 weeks away :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering if the guys found anything interesting at the convention...

yep, my son is the proud owner of his first civil war style cap gun!

The Art of Exaggeration

I do believe that she has perfected the art of exaggeration...

She doesn't say, "Wow Mom, it's hot in here!", nope, she exclaims "It's hotter than 20 hundred suns!" (we're still workin' on the numbers thing).

And things aren't simply "big" to her ~ when asking me for help with folding her blanket she proclaims "it's as big as a dinosaur" - it's not quite that large, but...

Or my favorite, "that hurts as bad as 100 snake bites!" (wow, maybe I need to use some detangler when combing her hair) - and for the record, she has never been bitten by a snake ;).

Wordless Wednesday ~ Spring Photo Shoot

We'll call this one "Babydoll in a Tree", courtesy of my 5-year old daughter :)

There's lots more pictures at Wordless Wednesday.