Oh the drama...from fish to pinewood!

So the other night Jack stands up to go put his dinner plate in the sink when there is suddenly a loud crash. Somehow his plate had slipped out of his hands and nailed the side of Connor's fish bowl which was sitting in the center of our kitchen table. Surprisingly the plate didn't break but within a a couple seconds I notice all the water is out of the fish bowl, pebbles are flying everywhere, and we have a missing fish on our hands. At about this same time, Connor is screaming "my fish, my fish". At first, I was completely confused because from the angle I was staring at the bowl, it appeared to be completely in tact until I noticed the perfect hole on the side. Because Connor's fish is blue and our kitchen table is black, it was hard to find him but luckily he ended up right next to my plate...limp. I quickly grabbed him and tossed him into a cup of water that Jack was preparing. I have to say I'm completely amazed he is still alive considering the shock of both the actual incident and the shock of being placed in a cup of warm water. Still not sure who had the near death experience...the fish, or our sweet Connor. I can say that the amount of water on the table, chairs, and floor seemed far more than what appeared to be in the bowl. Here is Luther in his new home. We decided on smaller quarters this round in the case of another flying plate...



This past Friday marked the boys' first Pinewood Derby. Scouting is something new to us since the boys just barely turned eight but boy were they looking forward to this. Surprisingly, the one person in our house who is not a fan of scouting (I won't mention Jack's name) seemed just as excited as the two 8 year olds. You always hear that Pinewood Derby's are more about the dad's than the kids so we tried not to have that be the case. The boys took their chunks of wood and drew across the side of them what they wanted the profile of their cars to look like and Jack did the cutting. They completely painted them all on their own and Jack did the weights and wheels. Since this was our first year we figured we'd let them design them whatever way they wanted even if they risked picking a design that wasn't considered aerodynamic. Overall, it was a great evening. Ty placed 3rd and Connor came in 4th. There were only 6 boys competing since about half couldn't make it but we were happy with the results. This was definitely not like the days in California where you'd have 40 kids competing in a big stake race (or should I say 40 dads...)! I guess some parents had voiced concern over the stake race because the same "dads" seemed to win each year and it was taking the fun out of it. In the end, we were just happy that our cars made it past the finish line with their wheels still attached. Our Scoutmaster was great and had made separate awards for each of the kids that didn't place in the top 3. Connor ended up getting "sportiest design" which he was thrilled with. Thankfully Connor is a really good sport and wasn't upset that Ty barely beat him out for third. You'll also notice a third, pink car. Jack decided to make one for Sage. I picked the design and with the exception of the racing stripe down the center, Sage painted hers and applied all the stickers. At the end, they let hers race. Let's just say it would have placed higher than the boys'.