Last weekend was Theo’s Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Last year he won a trophy for the “Most Realistic” car, so this year he decided he wanted a bit of a Steampunk look. After sketching it out on paper, he spent several days carving and sanding it out of the wood block. Then with his dad’s help, he covered the exterior with copper and silver tape. “Rivets” were added with a punch, and the dome was made from a plastic spoon.

Here is the result:





And the final result? Best Of Show!

I guess I’m always busy, but this week I was busy with fun stuff. First another trip to the Printing Museum with my class.

We are thinking of starting a “wall of shame” or maybe just a “binder of shame” for prints such as this:

Which doesn’t really look bad until you realize it is supposed to say “Wanted, Reward” which is why I later added the image of Einstein.

Then Friday I got to go with Theo and his 3rd grade class to the Aquarium of the Pacific.



We all had a blast, as the Aquarium was closed to the public due to the Long Beach Grand Prix. The kids even got some views of the Grand Prix trials over the fence.

Sunday we had a mini Grand Prix of our own
with Pack 007’s Pinewood Derby.

This was the first derby for Theo, and he and Dave had been working on the car for about the last month.

We weren’t sure it would go very fast, as last weekend they had a trial run, and the car was getting hung up on the rails. But they brought it home, and Theo cut out the bottom more with the dremel.

He wound up winning fastest in his bear division!

Not bad for a car we didn’t know would run!

His sister even designed a car (built by dad)
(it’s a hedgehog)

Hers we WERE expecting to go fast, as it was scoring under 3 seconds in the trials, but it just didn’t perform on race day. When we got home we realized the axle had been bent, and the wheel was rubbing against the frame.
Sorry Sadie, better luck next time!

Happy Halloween 2010! I thought I would share with you some photos of little miss Sadie circa 1999:


And little miss Sadie this Halloween, she was sort of an evil fairy: The good news is I got out of sewing a costume this year, as even Theo went as something that required no sewing. (I’ll try to post a photo of him later, he was pretty awesome!)

The bad news is that kids grow up so fast it is scary!
Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!