The Race

Posted by Steve:

The Pinewood Derby Cars are complete, the boys have tuned them up and it's time to race!

Here's Ethan after his first run. He won the first heat with his "Black Beauty."

Matthew also won his first heat - with his car dubbed the "hot, hotter and hottest" by the judges.

We have a great Scout leader, Robert Frame, and he always does a fantastic job running the races. The track is surrounded by police tape and only the boys racing, and the timing officials are allowed inside.

Matthew's Race


Ethan's Race






Matthew won first place in the wolf pack...






Ethan won Second place in the Weblos Den...


And Matthew won Third place overall!

Congratulations to Ethan and Matthew!!! Way to represent Team Spendlove!

Matthew designed this paint job all by himself and got plenty of compliments.

Ethan's Black Beauty was the most unique design there that evening. This was Ethan's last official Pinewood Derby Race, as he'll be in Boy Scouts next year. Here he is posing with his three cars, oldest to newest from the outside in.

Friends/Neighbors

Now that the weather is perfect, it is time to take advantage of it before the heat sets in. That also means it is time to bring out the Karaoke Machine and the Hula Hoops.

{Rachel, Lauren, Isabel, Iliana and Alex}

Jennifer, Elsa & Melissa

Lauren & Aedan

I took this picture just a couple of days before Aedan and her family moved. Aedan and Lauren happened to be at the same Valentine Party. They moved the day the twins were baptized and I had been a little overwhelmed.

I wanted to give a proper good-bye to the whole family, or even have Aedan over to play but it never happened. Well, this picture reminded me of another picture taken almost 2 years ago when Aedan and Lauren were about to celebrate their 3rd birthdays. They are only a couple weeks apart, so we decided to have their party together. Wow, how time flies!

I just want Aedan's family to know that we miss them and hope all the best for them in their new adventure. I know that wherever they go, the people there will always be blessed by their kindess and charity. We have been blessed having known you for only a couple of years. Thanks for being true to who you are and Good Luck!

Retired

My sister-in-law just gave me a new scripture case. It didn't fit her scriptures very well, so it was like new. And I have been needing one for a loooong time. I think I have had mine for at least 25 years. The zipper was broken, it was torn, the handle was cracking and it was pretty ugly, but it was MY scripture case. I had it through seminary, college, institute, my mission, my whole married life, 11 years of raising children. What am I am suppose to do with it?

Well, I thought a tribute blog post would suffice.

Here is my old precious blue vinyl scripture case.

Here is my new special scripture case that will probably be there for me through the rest of my life.

The making of our Pinewood Derbies

Posted by Steve:

Pinewood Derby has always been one of my favorite annual Cub Scout activities. My dad taught me well and now I'm passing the Spendlove Speed Secrets on to my boys. Each car starts out with a top and side view sketch (or in Ethan's case, about 20 variations) and then I help the boys cut the rough shape out on the scroll saw. Once the main shape is cut out, the detail work of sanding and shaping begins.

This was Matthew's first official year and he chose a classic race design very similar to designs we've used before. Here he is sanding his car to perfection.

Ethan tried a totally new design this year, kind of a wedge design with a cockpit on top. Once most of the final shaping is complete, I help them drill some pilot holes and the boys carefully chisel out a space for the weight.

Pinewood Derby racing is all about maximizing your car's weight - no secret about that. We bought an inexpensive food scale and weigh it all up to figure out how much weight to add. Five ounces is the legal limit. We do the paint job last so it doesn't get scratched up when we put everything together.

Now for the weight. When I was young, my dad would have me walk around the block and look for lead wheel weights to use. We later moved to the lead foil in the x-ray films he used in his dental practice. Being a dentist, he had a Bunsen burner and a whole lab full of equipment. My garage lab isn't quite as sophisticated; I have a small propane torch and a melting ladle I made from a galvanized steel pipe cap. This is Dad work, but I let the boys help pour the lead.

You've really got to keep it hot while it pours. The lead sets up pretty quickly. We use fishing weights for our lead.

One more weight check and then some more fine tuning. Ethan had some lead protruding from the bottom of his car, so he is filing it down with a fine rasp. Yes, led is poisonous, so he is wearing a mask and collecting the shavings.

Paint schemes are also designed by the boys, and I help out with the application. Matthew wanted a triple fade with black flames, which I thought might be difficult. The fade was not too bad, and I think his design turned out pretty cool. I free hand the flames onto a template and the they're spray painted on (somehow, I picked up drawing flames after Ethan was born - he liked race car drawings and wanted flames on his first broken bone cast).

Ethan wanted a simple and fast looking paint job and did a great job on his wedge/rocket car this year. His car looked great and was one of the more unique designs in this year's race.

Great job boys! Thanks for letting me "help" again this year!

Tournament Week

We finally made it to the tournament week. Only Matthew won his game, but they were all extra exciting. I don't know that my nerves will be able take this when we get to Junior High or High School games. It is way too much pressure for Mom. And yet I love every minute of it.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday, Ethan recieved a trophy for 2nd place in the tournament, Matthew recieved a 1st place trophy for the season and Rachel recieved a 2nd place trophy for the season. This was a great honor for our family, since they only give trophies out to 1st and 2nd place teams, they each got a trophy. Yeah!!! I know, I am show off...







Rachel's team had a little party at Fuddruckers after the award ceremony. It was a first for our girls. Lauren thought that her Vanilla Shake was the coolest and Rachel loved the idea of making her own hamburger.

Positively U - New Beginnings

Our Stake New Beginning's theme was Positively "U". We tried to tie it all around this quote, "To all who radiate outer beauty, because they treasure inner beauty" by Michael F. Roizen.

After the girls arrived and signed in they went to make a Positively Me journal, which turned out so cute. I don't have a picture of one, but Colleen Anderson got them all prepared with cut out letters, scrapbook papers and embellishments. Poor thing was sick with the flu and didn't even get to come.

We had four workshops that the girls rotated to: Exercise & Diet, Modesty in Fashion, Hair and Facial Care & Make up. All the teachers did a wonderful job.

Jessica Wheeler did a great job. She is a trainer and is known to have done a few marathons. She is a long time friend from a book club we were in about 8 years ago. So easy to get along with and talk to. I will miss her as now she is in Australia living with her family. LUCKY!!!

Heather Swope is one of those people you could listen to all night long. She went all out for this night and did a beautiful job.

These ladies worked hard. We had four women come in to do hair. And I think they were able to do 2 hair dos a rotation. So there were quite a few new looks.

Kelly Stoddard, Melodie Arnold and her friend did the Facial Care and Makeup workshop. You can tell the girls enjoyed this. They talked a lot about how to take care of your skin also. I met Melodie that night and we have a common interest and that is cakes. Actually, we discovered that she loves to just bake and cook and would love to have her own catering business. I don't really love to bake, I just like to decorate. But we keep in touch to help each other out.

Then Alyson Felt put together a slide show with all of the girls throughout the year and of course it was loved by all.

Kathy Cline was in charge of the program and it turned out really nice. We recognized all the girls who turned 12 this past year and all those who received their YW medallion. We had a special musical number by some young women and Cindy Morris and President John Allen spoke.

I wish I had a copy of Cindy's talk. It was about standing tall and so much more.

I did the flyers, the welcoming table, arranged a few of the teachers and the dessert and dessert table.

I thought it was a great evening.

Lauren and Friends

I remember arranging all kinds of playgroups with Ethan and a bunch of his friends, and doing a few for the twins, but it just hasn't happened with Lauren. Thankfully Ella's mom, Marci, helped arrange this play date for our girls. We take turns every Thursday and it is so convenient to pick them both up from school. It is also fun to see Lauren get so excited for those days, especially when she gets to go to Ella's house.




These pictures crack me up. Lauren is looking a little too friendly and Andy is looking a little too cool! Andy is a sweetheart. Check out Lauren's leg positions in these pictures. That is how she likes to pose pretty.

Logan is the coolest and the cutest boy ever to have come play with Lauren. He loves her Polly pockets and her American Girl doll. Notice their dress up shoes in this picture.

Rodeo Day w/ Lauren

And yet another fun day at preschool. It is Rodeo season around here, so to celebrate we get Rodeo Day at school too. Lauren was a little hesitant to wear what I had pulled together without having to go out and buy anything, but when I brought out the pink bow for the hat she was good to go. I was also ready to put cute bows in her braids. Well, she slept in braids and when we took them out her hair was nice and wavy and she HAD to wear it like that, thus the big hair day.

Ride'em Cow Girl

They had all kinds of fun Rodeo games; horseshoe, cow patty toss, bucking bronco ride, lassoing and stick horse races.
These fun days at Lauren's preschool always get me a little anxious. I an never quite sure what to expect from her. She is having a blast being silly one moment and then wants to hide from the world the next.

I tried taking pictures of her and her friends, but they all look like they are not sure what to think of this cute thing giving them hugs.

Can you find Lauren in this picture? They had practiced some really cute songs and this is one of those moments where she wasn't into it. Silly Girl!!!