Pinewood Derby 2013

This past Saturday was the kickoff for the 2013 Pinewood Derby. There were 18 little boys competing for 1st through 6th place and it was intense. Scott and the boys have been working on their cars for the past two weeks. This is our first time to compete in the Pinewood Derby, so we did not know all of the little secrets to making your car go faster. We were able to do a few things to the cars that we thought might help, but since it was our first year, we knew we would have to wait and find out if they really worked or not.

It was a beautiful day and all of the little boys in our troop were excited. Shaun and Mason signed their cars in to be measured and weighed and then waited for the race to begin. Honestly, I think I was just as excited as they were and I know that Scott was jumping up and down on the inside. It was one of my favorite things that we have all done together as far as Cub Scouts are concerned. My parents even came out. Dad offered to be Shaun's pit manager next year and wants to help him build his car.

The race began and Shaun's car was drawn to be in the first race and Mason's car was drawn to be in the second race. Both of the boys won 2nd place during their first races and were so excited to have not come in last. In the end, both of the boys had won 1st place at least once and Mason was able to place 6th place overall. He will be going to Regionals in February. We are excited for him and can't wait to see him in action. We plan on working on his car a little more before the race to see what we can do to make it even faster.

Here are a few tips we received at the race from the 1st and 2nd place contestants.

1. Put all of the weight towards the back
2. Have a sleek body style
3. Cover your car w/ something like polyurethane for a smoother surface
4. Build your car so that only 3 out of 4 wheels touch the ground

Here are a few pictures from the race. Mason's car is black with orange pin stripes and orange flames. Shaun's car is green with orange flames. 

I Heart Burlap

The boys changed elementary schools this week. I was nervous about the change, only because I know that if it was me, I would be nervous about meeting new friends, finding the bathroom, catching up, etc. However, I am a worry wart! The boys have done great so far. They seem to really like their new teachers and they both know a few kids in each of their classes from boy scouts and church. As long as they are happy, I am happy! At the beginning of this school year, the boys and I made burlap pumpkins for their new teachers. So, I only thought it would be fair to make their new teachers at their new school a burlap door hanger as well. Valentine's Day is around the corner so we decided that we would make them each a monogrammed heart. Here are the results!

We were happy with the way that they turned out. Both of the boys wanted the black, green and red heart because they thought it looked cooler, but we finally convinced Mason that his teacher would probably prefer the pink heart. I didn't want their teachers to have the same door hanger. They were both happy in the end.

I just love how simple these are to make. All you need is burlap, paint, hot glue, Wal-Mart bags to stuff between the two layers, and whatever you want to decorate your heart with.

Here is another one that I made for one of the ladies that I work with. I love the way hers turned out. I think I will start fraying the burlap around the edges from now on. It just adds a little something extra to the finished product!

Shaun Turns 10!

We celebrated Shaun's birthday this weekend. He turns 10 today! He decided to have his birthday party at Underwater Treasures this year so that he could have a pool party in January. There was a nice turnout of kids and family. The kids had a lot of fun swimming while the adults had a lot of fun catching up and visiting. Shaun was very blessed because he was able to spend so much time with his friends and family. He was also blessed with everything that he was given. We had one very excited young man by the time the party was over with.

This year, Shaun decided that he wanted a Ninjago themed birthday party. You would think, as popular as Ninjago is, that you would be able to find more party favors, plates, banners, invites, etc. However, most everything that I found was handmade on Etsy. I would rather take the time and make it myself than I had pay someone to do something I am capable of. Needless to say, I made Shaun's invitations using PowerPoint and bought  Ninja swords and little Ninjas from Amazon to make his party favors with. I didn't want to have the typical party favor bag at his party. I wanted each kid to be able to take home a toy. I put the Ninjas in little clear bags and attached them, along with a Thank You Note from Shaun to each sword. For the girls, I attached bracelets in little clear bags to the swords. I didn't think the girls that attended would be excited about getting little Ninjas and I was right. The party favors were a big hit.

Here are a few pictures from his party. I plan on posting a few more as soon as my photo editor is up and running again. As for now, this is what I have.

Christmas Pictures

I said that I was going to do so much better and take more pictures around the holidays. Well, I failed, yet again! This is all of the pictures that I took with my camera during our family get together in Arkansas and Crowville. I really need to improve!

Weekend Fun

This weekend went by way too fast in my opinion. It started with date night Friday night at Copeland's. Scott told me to come home, change clothes and to get in the jeep. I did precisely what he said and we ended up at my favorite restaurant. It was a nice surprise and a great way to end my bad eating. See, I struggle with eating the way I should. I have my months where I can do right and lose the weight that I need to and then I will have one bad week that will throw me back on the track of star crunches, pizza, chips, etc. That one bad week will completely erase all of those good months. I don't think that is quite fair, but it is the way it is. I even see a nutritionist to help. Meghan is great and she typically helps me stay on track, but with all of the holidays lately, I have not been in to see her. However, I have made the decision to start back on my own. I am determined to re-lose all of the weight that I have gained back that I had previously lost and then lose some more. I think this will help me get over this hump and hopefully help me lose a hump or two on the way. I am currently on Day 2 of doing better. I will keep you posted.

Yesterday, Mason decided that he wanted his room rearranged and we thought it would be a good idea as well. Well it didn't stop with his room, b/c when Shaun saw how great Mason's room was looking, he wanted his room rearranged as well. Well, that made Scott and I want to rearrange the Sun Room/Lego War Zone and that is precisely what we did. The house looks great and it feels great to have everything moved around in a way that I think will be more suitable for everyone. When we bought our house, we thought the Sun Room would make a nice Family Room. However, the boys had a different idea. They have so many Lego sets and that is what they live for, or so it seems. It is nice to have all of the Legos in one location in the house. Before, they were running back and forth to each others rooms as well as the Sun Room and Legos were strewn everywhere in the process. Now they are in one location and the room has been rearranged to where it can serve as the Lego War Zone as well as the Family Room. I am loving all of the changes.

All of the rearranging made me want to finish a few projects that I had started months ago. Here are the final results. Oh...and I do apologize for the terrible quality of pictures. They were taken with my phone as I had left my camera at work.

 The Hogs sign is in Mason's Room as he is a huge Razorback fan like his daddy. I took cardboard letters, painted them black, glued them together and voila! Inexpensive Razorback decor.

Shaun's was a little more tedious. I took wood letters, covered them in tiger print paper and glued each of them to a purple painted canvas. Then I framed each of them to dress it up a little more. I love the way it turned out as does Shaun. 

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

A month or so ago I was talking about a Handmade Christmas. I was finally able to follow through with some of my plans and start working on a few things this weekend. I had pre-cut the burlap and drawn out each design for each of the ornaments. I just did not have the opportunity to paint them until this weekend. I decided to use Tulip's Puffy T-Shirt paint and it worked perfectly! Here is a few samples of how they look so far. Please remember that I want to add wire and ribbon to each of them.

I love the way they look so far and cannot wait to put the finishing touches on each of them. I think they will make our tree even more special. I plan on letting the boys paint a few Tuesday night while I work on the ribbon and wire for the ones that are dry so far.

Scott and I started decorating for Christmas this weekend. I know it is about a week early, but we will be out of town all week and weekend long, so we wanted to get a jump start on things. The boys will help me put the finishing touches on our living room Tuesday night. We will turn on our outside lights as well. Scott spent most of the day, Saturday, hanging lights on our house, trees, bushes, etc. I let him "at it" and he did a wonderful job. He would like to be called Clark Griswold.....lol! He even made me do a drum role for the preview! I can't wait for the boys to see everything. They will be so excited.

Here is a picture of our mantle. It is not quite finished, but is coming together quite nicely.

 

The last picture is something that I picked up at an old barn sale. I picked up two with the thoughts of turning them into unique picture frames. I decided that we would use them to frame in our mantle for Christmas first. I added a little festive fabric and a burlap ornament to each of them to tie in our Christmas tree. I think they turned out great! I love antique stores. You can always find the most interesting things.

Two Precious Families

This past weekend, I was able to "shoot" two precious families. I love that I am starting to get back into photography. I have been able to learn so much from my editing software and from my camera. I have to admit that Pinterest has helped me learn a lot about my camera. I have pinned several blog posts that teach you all you need to know about your camera. Here is a preview of the pictures from this past weekend. Please let me know what you think. Your honest opinion will only help me learn and grow.