ALL GIRL!

We have DEFINITELY moved on from Thomas The Train days. We haven't watched one of those movies for a LONG TIME! Good-bye Bob The Builder - Wendy doesn't even cut it!

We are now into dresses, babies, cell phones, necklaces, earrings, tu-tus and lipstick (AKA CHAPSTICK)! (Tu-tus even when it's a high of 40!)

HELLO PRINCESSES - there's Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, Snow White and one of our favorites... CINDERELLA (or Cinderelly)! We just can't get enough - well, I can, but EMMA CAN NOT!

Oh, did I forget to mention - FANCY SHOES and SUNGLASSES!

Biography Bottles

Benjamin has been very busy working on his Biography Bottle for his 4th grade class. Each student chose a famous person, of Texas decent, and a wrote a 2-page summary. They then made a 2-litre bottle image of their Famous Texan and prepared and presented an oral report for the class. Ben chose Howard Hughes.

Howard Hughes was big into airplanes and Hollywood. His incredible wealth came from his father, and Howard did his best to manage it all! One of his tactics was to live in motels and hotels. He lived in Beverly Hills, Boston, Vegas and many others. He would only stay in one state for 5 1/2 months, then move. It was a law that if you stayed in a state for 6 months or more, you would have to pay income taxes.

Ben prepared the bottle, complete with brown pipe-cleaner hair. He also fashioned a leopard-skin tie and a million dollar bill in his upper chest pocket. Nice job Ben!

Trick-A-Trout

Once a year the City Of Frisco Parks & Rec Dept releases 3,750 rainbow trout in a nearby pond. Any and all kids ages 0 to 17 are invited to fish for FREE! Since water temperatures will begin to rise and trout cannot survive in warm water, all were encouraged to "catch and take" up to 5 fish. Sounds easy - 5 kids, 25 fish! YUM! Glenn promised to clean the fish at the park! :)

As you can imagine, there were people EVERYWHERE! We didn't arrive till 8 and some were there by 6. But, we baited and began to fish! And fish! And fish! It's now 9:30 and there is not one caught, but people around us are catching fish. We fish! And fish! And fish! It's now 11 and "the troops" are beginning to get restless.

Christopher gave up and was delighted when the people next to us gave him their leftover nightcrawlers! SCORE!



I left at 11:30 and offered to take whoever wanted to come. Everyone but Zachary left with me. He and Glenn stayed for another hour but still NO LUCK! He is now a GREAT caster of the rod! Maybe next time guys!

Birthday Time

My birthday came and went - I had a lot of kind deeds done during the day. One that is so cute is Christopher: I asked him to unload the silverware from the dishwasher while I went to dry my hair. When I came back, he had unloaded the WHOLE dishwasher. He neatly organized the dishes on the counter and with the BIGGEST smile on his face he said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I unloaded the whole dishwasher for you!" It's moments like those that make my day!

This morning we road our bikes to school. There are only two ways into our neighborhood. We ALWAYS go down Blackstone. So, on the way home I explained to him in the simplest English how we were going to go down Del Largo (the other entrance) just for a change of pace. He said to me, "I know. I know. I know that there are only two entrances into our neighborhood Mom. I already know that!"

So, as we turned into our neighborhood (to go down Del Largo) he says to me, "Mom, are we still in Frisco?" :)

I love that boy!

Beautiful Creations!

There was the possiblity of a school closure this week - due to ice pellets one morning! It never happened; the temps have been in the low 40s for the past week (20s at night). A bit brisk. The trees look pretty dead!

This afternoon when the temps got up to nearly 65, we were all playing outside when this friendly neighborhood cardinal came soaring into our backyard (click on the pic). Glenn says that he has seen him before; I sure hope so. He is so beautiful and has a lovely song to sing. I hope he makes a home somewhere near!

The Derby Results

We went down to the church building as scheduled on Saturday night. The Derby started promptly at 5pm - with dinner! WHO WANTS TO EAT DINNER at a moment like this!?!? We ate our tube steaks and had quiet conversation. There was much hush hush talk about car structure, weight distribution, etc.

WE THOUGHT we had it made in the shade. Race #1 (or should I say Heat #1) featured Benjamin's Daytona Dreamster (complete with a Lego driver)... Ready, Set, Go! He won! The Daytona Dreamster continued to win and win and then there was a few losses but then more wins.

The Scout Master had hired this "handy dandy" computer system that came along with the track. It would keep track of all the heats and tabulate the data - SO WE THOUGHT! (More on that later!) Each car would run 8 races and then the 4 slowest times would be dropped from the results. The remaining 4 times would be averaged! PRESTO - the car with the fastest time would be declared the WINNER!

Up next was Zach's Maroon Indy Dragster. It was a sharp looking racing machine! It was sleek and stream-lined. He too won and won and won! There was one or two losses Zachary had, but most likely by Ben's Daytona Dreamster.

We were getting into an hour or so now... racing, racing, racing... There were 12 Cub Scout cars plus about 5 additional cars (leaders, siblings, Dads). We were down to the final race and I was called up to the table by the Scout Master to fill out the Certificates Of Award.

The last race was won - I looked at the man running the computer system - and I knew I knew there were problems. You could see it in his face. Then he frantically began pressing buttons, shaking his head, muttering under the collar. I was looking at our Scout Master - wondering how this would be handled. Of course, I wanted to blurt out - WHAT! YOU LOST THE DATA! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! But since we are the newest family on the block out here, that would be really really unacceptable and I didn't want to embarrass our family!

The man running the system looked at our Scout Master and said that this had never happened to him before. He continued to press keys as the Scout Master looked at me. He said to me, "Well, we will just have a run-off between the 5 fastest cars. The cars that will race will be the Johnson's, Jensen's, your two sons and the Slay Boy." I agreed and at that moment, the man running the system butted in - "I have some results. Here are your winners!"

Well, Ben & Zach came in at 5th and 6th. We didn't even make the TOP 3! BUT - we did learn that sometimes life has its ups and downs. Sometimes things get messed up and we have to just show our best side. What was kinda' hard to see though was Ben and Zach's faces - a bit let down! But... they showed great sportsmanship and we still all had a great time - WE DIDN'T COME HOME WITH THE FLAT TIRE AWARD EITHER (though it might not have been such a bad deal)!

Zachary, till next year...

Flat Tire Award

Who's coming home with the Flat Tire Award tonight at the 2008 Pinewood Derby?

NOT Ben or Zach!

We only volunteered to bring it!

Zach's car is to the left (red).
Ben's car is to the right (blue).