Saturday, February 21, 2009

Vrrooooommmmmm .......

Ever heard of "Pine Derby Racers?" I may or may not have but my husband knows all about them. You buy a little kit that has a block of pine, 4 wheels and axles. Then you design and create your own race car. As a boy, my husband raced his cars with his scout troop and enjoyed it a great deal. So we decided to buy kits for the whole family. Todd found a video of a Pine Derby race and we all enjoyed watching. The kits arrived and now the kids have been drawing designs of what they want their car to look like. Even my non-drawing oldest child finally came up with a design this evening. Isn't that great? I love it when an idea is received enthusiastically. Now the challenge will be for us parents to follow through with helping create the cars and keep the motivation going. Maybe we'll post a photo (don't hold your breath, however!)

I don't know if there are any Pine Derby Races here in our state (there are rules to follow for building the cars) but I think I'll do a bit of research and see. We are not involved in scouting but perhaps there's a way we can race them in a non-scout race. We will see.

In the mean time, the kids and Todd have drawn various cars that look like: a whale, an alligator, a submarine, and, hey, a race car! I'm going to let them design a car for me because I cannot draw (I'm strictly a word person.) But I know how to use sandpaper and paint. We will be facing long rainy days soon (ah, spring in the Northwest) but working on the cars should be a nice in-house project.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A Modern Fairy Tale

Once there was a handsome prince who was married to a good and capable girl of semi-noble upbringing. They had three fine, young children. One day, the prince came home with small, collectible toy cars for each of the children. His wife thought it sweet. Then the prince began bringing home more small, collectible toy cars more frequently, first for the children and then for himself. And later still, the prince began a collection for his good and capable wife. At last, the wife began to think that the prince was spending way too much of his hard-earned money on such things and worried what message this was sending to the fine, young children. As sweetly as she could, she hesitantly voiced her concerns to her handsome prince. His reply melted her heart, "Well, when I was a kid, my collection was stolen so I can't share it with my kids." That was all the prince had to say. Instantly, his wife totally understood, smiled and kissed her handsome prince and vowed in her heart to never, ever complain or worry about this issue again.

The End.