Pinewood Derby Fun

Well we've reached that pivotal point in every boys life where it is time to build a pinewood derby race car. All the pioneer boys and girls 1st grade and up build cars at church. It is really cool because 2 weeks before the races they have a craft night where all the woodworking guys from the church bring fancy saws, sanders, and tools to help the kids build the cars they want to build. Unfortunately, we weren't there for craft night and last week Wednesday we were handed a block of wood, and told the race was the following Wednesday. We went to work right away building a "fast, cool" car (these were Connor's only requests). Connor was a little aprehensive about the power tools, but he eventually figured out the palm sander and was doing great with that. He also loved the spray painting, I'm sure our car had the most paint out of every car there. During the building we had a small mishap with brother Dylan, he kept taking sand paper and (I thought) pretending to rub it on his chest and yell "I'm shaving, I'm shaving" Well turns out he wasn't pretending and that night at dinner he is in tears going crazy because he basically sanded all the skin off of his chest. I felt so bad, and wanted to laugh so hard all at the same time. He survived, and I don't think that will be a mistake he makes again.

Well last night at the races they do 3 heats where all the cars get to race once in each heat. That's it, no elimination, no winners or losers except for in the individual races. Connor's car got 2nd place in it's first heat, and 1st place in the next two heats. Each time a heat finished they would say "Connor Hommes has won the race." He was so excited and I have to admit it was a lot easier than trying to get excited about 3rd or 4th place, which is what I was gearing up for. It was tons of fun. Check out the pictures.

Last Wednesday

Well, last Wednesday our phone rings and the caller ID says Cherry Creek #5. That's Connor's school, whenever this happens it is always one of those heart skips a beat things. Did Connor get hurt, is he sick, in trouble, forget something? He's sometimes forgotten library books or left his lunch etc. This time I answered and it was the school social worker. (Not good) Basically, on Tuesday Connor had written the message to the left on the bathroom wall. A kid from another class came and told his teacher about it on Wednesday. When confronted Connor claimed that he didn't write it and that there are a lot of Connors and Parkers at the school. When told he had to go to the principals office he "refused" (his words). Once he finally arrived the principal and vice principal were doing classroom observation so he ended up in the school social workers office. At this point he began to cooperate, I think out of fear, and explained the whole story to her and helped her dial our phone number so she could call and explain what had happened to me. He then had to go and try to erase the note off the wall, which didn't work, and then had to write a apology to Mr. Tony the school maintenance man who would have to repaint the bathroom wall where Connor had written his note. He was then sent back to class for the remainder of the day (15 minutes) where he was probably living in fear of when his parents came to pick him up. I got off the phone and explained what had happened to Son, she never does really good with news that our kids have gotten in trouble, I think it makes her feel like a failure mom. She was obviously upset and we talked about what his punishment should be and that I wouldn't talk about it with him until we got home so it could be a 3 way conversation. When I got to school Connor played like nothing had happened, but when we got home and started the conversation he started bawling immediately. I mean graffiti the bathroom, get caught, clean it up, write a letter to the janitor, get a phone call home, heck of an emotional roller coaster for a 1st grader. Funniest part of the whole deal was later that night when we were talking about it, Son says I can't believe he had to go to the principal's office. And she asks me if I ever had to go to the principal's office. Uh, yeah. I asked if she had, and she has never been to the principal's office in all her years of school. I explained to her how these things happen, they will happen again, and she is not a failure mom because her kids (Dylan's trip to the preschool principal's office is a whole nother story) go to the principal's office. In Connor's defense he was sick, and tired, and was being held inside during recess for something he didn't do when this whole thing happened. He's been an angel at school ever since, (I think he wants his wii privileges back). At some point though I am going to have to have a conversation with him about, when you write on public property don't sign your name. :)

Birthday Fun

Today was my birthday, and we celebrated with breakfast of homeade cinnamon rolls, and my favorite egg casserole. I spent the morning at the gym while Son and the kids went to Bible Study. It was a lazy afternoon around the house and an amazing dinner that Son made capped off with a bicycle birthday cake. I've been a little bit into cycling lately training for the 380 mile ride the rockies this summer. I think Dylan picked up on this when he made Sonya make me the bike cake. It was a great day and we had tons of fun.

It looks like Dylan is my prom date the way he's posing with me.

Valentines Day

Well I noticed some pictures on my camera and wanted to update the blog about valentines day. We've spent the last few years on Valentines day doing dinner for our kids and trying to make it really special for them. This year though we were celebrating Fast Eddies 60th birthday that night, so we needed to do breakfast. The kids came down and found the kitchen decorated and we had heart shaped red pancakes. It was a ton of fun. And mom and dad actually got to go out on Valentines night.

For my dad's birthday we went to a cool place called Water 2 Wine which is a winery where they make wine, you have a wine tasting where you decide what kind of wine you will make. After we decided we made a batch (5 gallons) of white merlot it will be ready to be bottled as "Fast Eddie's '49 it was a good year" on March 31. After that we went to Joes Crabshack which was amazing. It was a ton of fun.