Fun with Paint and Wood

Ladies, start your engines! Our local Girl Scout organization hosted their 3rd annual pinewood derby race last week. Which means that once again, I had to clean the sawdust from my tools from last year's car and help Sweet Pea create another wheeled work of art. Each year I let SP choose how she wants her car to look. I try to cut, sand and chisel her wood block into a reasonably similar shape to her idea. Then I let her work her magic with paint and accessories.

To view previous pinewood derby cars just click here and here.

This year SP decided she wanted her car to look like one of the minions from the animated movie, 'Despicable Me'. A minion is a cute yellow Tylenol-shaped worker who wears goggles and denim overalls. This design was actually much simpler for me because I only had to round off the corners of her block and glue a round, washer holding cup to look like a one eyed goggle. Did I mention that some minions have one eye and some have two eyes?

So, using the DVD case as a guide, SP created a very believable likeness with bendaroos used as arms.

SP decided that her minion would have a smug, contented look about him so she drew an eye with a half closed lid. You can't see from the picture but her minion has one black curlicue hair on top of his head.

Our cars usually are not made for speed, but this year SP won her first heat and got second in her other two heats. Not good enough for a trophy but still OK.

So when SP wasn't racing, I had plenty of time to view the competition. About 160+ cars of competition.

There was evidence of much creativity among the wheeled wood blocks. Some cars had better paint jobs than the van we drive.Each girl scout got to vote for their favorite cars. This walrus car won for 'Most Creative.'

Here is some more of the girl scout's artistic ability. Someone actually carved that panda bear riding a toboggan. We also saw a car with working headlights.

With all of the talent and creativity on display, SP got some good ideas for next year. I will have to look into how to install headlights and probably add a working radio too. Hmmm...a derby car in the design of an Ipod perhaps?

Vrooooooooooom!

Ladies, start your engines! On Saturday, Sweet Pea and I entered her pine wood derby car in her girl scout race.

My dad helped me build my own pine wood derby car when I was in cub scouts. So I was excited to relive those memories with my daughter.

First, I asked SP to pick out a few of her favorite toy cars to use as a template. Out of those, I chose a design I felt my woodworking skills could live up to.

Here is the body design with it's first coat of paint.

It is a convertible sports car and it already looks fast. After SP applied the Malibu Barbie pink, I asked her if she wanted any skulls or flames or lightning bolts on her car. She opted for jewels, sparkle snowflakes and flowers.

She also wanted to paint a picture of a girl with a green dress on the hood. She said it was a picture of Mommy. I said, "Well, if your car travels as fast as when Mommy is driving, you will set a new record."

Once at the race, we weighed in. Her car needed to be as close to 5 ounces as we could get it. I needed to remove one of the cars washers for weight and it brought us to 4.8oz. Just street legal enough. They also made me remove the small turbo charged motor I had added at the last minute. Apparently, they have some bogus rule about fairness and no cheating.

We were told to arrive early for weigh-in because over 100 cars were entered for the race. That meant 100 little scouts and their parents squeezing into about half as many chairs. Luckily, SP had a 'Pit Pass' and could kneel next to the track to watch. Before the race, all of the cars were lined up on the table to inspect and vote for in categories such as 'Prettiest', 'Most Unique', 'Most Colorful' and others. Two scouts made cars that looked like bathtubs and two others made their cars look like Orca whales. The organizer of the derby said that he had done many cub scout derbies but this was his first girl scout derby. "There is a lot more pink and purple to the cars today.", he observed.

Since we had a little time to spend before the races started, I told SP she could get a doughnut to snack on. Of course, she had to pick the messiest one they had.

So I told her to stroll over to her car and brush some of her powdered sugar onto her car's axles to make it faster. She didn't want to waste good powdered sugar on that.

So I sent her in undercover to dig up some secrets that the other scouts used on their cars. She came back to report that other girls painted their cars really pretty too.

At the end of the day, our car was built more for beauty than speed. She didn't win any of her heats, but her car's times averaged right in the middle of the pack. She was a little disappointed that she didn't win anything, but said she still had fun.

The scouts were then offered a chance to build their own wooden car stand. I pre-drilled some holes in the pieces and handed SP the screwdriver. She gave it a good try, but we had to resort to the power drill. She then had to wrestle paintbrushes away from the dozens of scouts all trying to do the same. And guess what? More pink and purple.

All in all it was a memorable day. Even though we didn't win anything we still get to keep the car we made together as father and daughter. And next year, we're going to be faster, smarter and sneakier.

Greetings from Camp

Number One Son completed his first ever basketball camp this week. We are always a little nervous when he starts something new. Especially if it involves lots of people, action and noise. There are times when he will get sensory overload and things will start to bother him. He has played basketball before with his team, so he was familiar with most of the noise and action. When dropping him off at the camp, we were pleasantly surprised to find a few boys he knew from school. They didn't recognize him at first due to his expressive hair, but once the initial shock had passed, they all got down to ball playing business.

I was only able to stay and see a few minutes on two of the days so I had to rely on N1S to fill me in.

"Did you have fun?, I would prompt.

"Yeah."

"What fun things did you do?", I pried.

"I don't know."

"Did you dribble?"

Staring at Spongebob on television, "Uh-huh."

"Did you shoot the ball?"

Still staring, "Uhhhhh.....(trails off)".

"How many touchdowns did you score?", I tested.

"Oh, I didn't count.", still in TV trance.

So I gave up on that conversation. He did come home sweaty each day so I will assume that he actually played some basketball.

At the end of the week, he got his tee shirt and the coaches said he did fine. We are always a little nervous sending N1S alone to a noisy, crowded situation but he did pretty well for himself.

This week Sweet Pea also finished up on her week long Girl Scout day camp. She went for four days from 8:30am to 5pm. This week also was the hottest of the summer with each day reaching 80 degrees. Each day SP came home an exhausted ragamuffin. Even though she was tired, we always got the full story of her day. They made crafts, learned songs and did science experiments.

SP would usually relate most of what they did for science.

"First we took a cup and put some vinegar in it. Then we put some other stuff in it, and it crackled. Then we put some different stuff in it and it foamed over.", she explained.

"Do you remember what the 'stuff' was that you put with the vinegar?", I asked.

"Um....I forgot.", she answered.

Very excitedly, "Then the teacher took a bottle of pop and put some candy in it and it shot up."

"Was it Diet Coke and Mentos?", I hypothesized.

"Yeah! How did you know, Dad?"

"I used to be a girl scout, too.", I joked.

I'm glad she got the joke.

On the last day of the camp, all of the girl scouts went to the beach for a beach party. SP was a little frustrated that morning getting her new swimsuit on. Lady Di said she had two legs in one hole and the top on upside down. Lady Di straightened her out and showed SP the little logo on the swim pants.

"See where this says Speedo? That goes in the front.", instructed Lady Di.

Just then SP frustration left as her face lit up and her eyes widened with excitement.

"This is a Speedo!"

Where did a six year old learn what a Speedo is?

Lady Di was lucky enough to be a chaperon for the beach trip. She thought she would be able to lay on the beach and relax. On the bus ride to the beach, Lady Di was treated to a girl scout sing-a-long. The entire way. Listening to a busload of little girl scout shouting campfire songs was enough to make Lady Di rethink her luck.

On the way home, Lady Di had the idea to sneak over to the second bus. That way she would be able to sit with Sweat Pea and enjoy a little peace for the return trip. As Lady Di settled into her seat and lowered her eyelids, she heard a familiar voice from the back of the bus.

"I heard that this bus didn't get to sing on the way to the beach! Well, we'll fix that for the ride home!" , cheered the song leader from the first bus.

Lucky Lady Di.

One Man's Junk...

Happy Belated Earth Day. Hope you all have been recycling and reusing and planting trees.

I'm sorry to say that our recycling practices are staying about the same. One new thing we are trying out is observing National Turn Off Your TV Week. We started on April 21st and we haven't really missed much. We did turn the TV on twice to see the ten o'clock news and once to watch The Office. I just couldn't help it. But other than that, we can say we haven't needed much TV.

We have been lucky since the weather has been very nice, so we have been outside most of the week during TV watching hours.

Sweet Pea's girl scout troop talked about Earth Day at her meeting this week. The troop leaders asked each scout to bring a bag of things going to the garbage. They spread out a tarp and dumped all of the bags together and created a mountain of cartons, paper, ribbon, beads, tools, cans, bottles and anything else headed for the landfill. The purpose of this idea was for the girl scouts to reuse the refuse, and 'invent' something useful from it. I'm not sure if anything of actual use came out of the pile, but many creatively decorated pieces of art were generated.

The girls dove into the pile of garbage just like it was a pile of new toys. Luckily, Lady Di had the foresight to send a couple of glue guns with me. Once the little scouts were told where to get their stuff stuck, I had a line up for the rest of the meeting. I got to glue nuts and bolts to boxes and plastic things to cans. One little scout wanted me to hot glue pieces of paper to a Dixie cup. First, we tried plain white school glue, but the Dixie cup had a wax coating which repelled the glue. I then went for the big gun and tried to hot glue her paper. The wax on the cup foiled the hot glue too, as all I was able to stick were my fingers together.

To match Lady Di's foresight, I also brought a useful item to the inventing party. Duct tape. I did not have the foresight, however, to realize that kindergarten fingers struggle when tearing duct tape. And since they were unable to tear the tape, it was, of course, what all of the scouts wanted. So when I wasn't burning my fingers with hot glue, I was tearing strip after strip of duct tape.

At the end of the night, Sweet Pea had put together a robot made from straws, a votive candle and an empty liter root beer bottle. Her robot was also prepared for camping with a broken flashlight around its neck.

We brought it home, showed Mom, and recycled it as soon as SP went to bed.

Now where is that remote?

Food, Glorious Food.

A few weeks ago, Sweet Pea and her girl scout troop, visited a food shelf. It was a real nice field trip. The girls got to learn about people who don't have much money for food. They also learned that the food shelf has more than just food. They have diapers, aluminum foil and other household items as they come in. Some community groups will periodically donate quilts or home made baby blankets for the food shelf to distribute too.

The director of the food shelf also said that corporate stores like Target will send some of their clearance items to them. They even had a few clearance car seats that were greatly appreciated by the families that needed them.

They also had a hallway filled with donuts, rolls, cakes and pies. It took all the will power I had to stop from sneaking a bismark out of the box. I don't think Sweet Pea would like me stealing from the needy. Unless I split it with her, of course.

It was nice to see that someone in the community is making sure that families in need in our area have the necessities. It was also a little humbling to see that, even though the basics were covered at the food shelf, they had very few luxuries. The shelf had a few semi-exotic items like, mushrooms, fancy olives or ethnic foods. But they had no ice cream, chocolate or fun snack items. I know that kids don't have to have fun snacks, but if you are eating boxed mac and cheese and hamburger helper every day, a surprise sweet would be reason to celebrate. For most families, the food shelf offers a temporary crutch to get them through the month. But we were told that there are some families who depend on the food shelf to get them through the year. It made me want to donate on a more regular basis. I also want to donate foods that will fill the gaps that the food shelf needs, not just clearing out the cans of lima beans in the back of the cupboard.

When Sweet Pea and I returned home we told Lady Di all about the food shelf. Sweet Pea told her all of the things that the food shelf had, even car seats.

Lady Di asked, "Were the donated car seats used? I didn't think used car seats could be accepted."

I explained that they came from clearance stock from a store.

Lady Di then said, "That makes sense. I didn't think they could give out used car seats."

Sweet Pea then stated quite seriously, "And for sure they can't give out used diapers."

I'm certainly grateful for that.

Strike!

Tuesday night, Sweet Pea invited me to escort her to her Girl Scouts' bowling night. All I could thing about was, I hope the alley had insurance. With ten wild scouts pounding their lanes, it could add up to some damage. Thanks to Lady Di's good directions, we found the bowling alley, which happened to be in the middle of a dark corn field with no lighted signs. We deserved a scout badge just for finding the place.

First, we had to get bowling shoes. Sweet Pea ran to the counter and politely asked, "Size 11 please."

I asked, "How do you know your bowling shoe size?"

I guess she had already bowled at an after school program earlier that afternoon. Which meant, either her bowling arm would be tired out from bowling earlier or it would be warmed up just enough to win some serious money. I then found out that wagering is not allowed at Girl Scout activities. I was also disappointed to know that only the scouts were going to be bowling and not the parents. I felt that, against Kindergartners, I could have had my best chance of actually bowling better than someone. Although, when I saw all ten of them bowling at the same time, I was glad that my toes were safely in the sitting area. Even though the 'bumpers' were in the gutters, a couple girls found a way to get their ball stuck there. And only a few bowling balls ended up rolling back toward the parents instead of the pins.

There were many bowling styles on display this night. Rolling the ball between the legs was popular. Also, the two handed swing your body three times was used. One scout thought it would be good to hold the ball above her head and let it drop from there to the lane. Let's say that that wasn't the only time the adults winced.

Sweet Pea came ready to bowl. She liked to run to the line and push her ball down the lane. It worked pretty well for her. It was probably fortunate for me that adults weren't bowling this night. Sweet Pea scored a 99 in her first game! I was thinking that I have got find a father-daughter league to enter. Then I remembered a few of my many sub-one hundred pin games. A mother-daughter league would be much better. Lady Di is the bowler in the family and she, apparently, has passed on her ten pin talents to Little Peatie.

After her 99 game she cooled down a little and bowled a 74 for the next game. Still pretty good. Regardless of the scores, all of the girls had a fun time. There was lots of talking, giggling, squealing, dancing and laughing. I think I was the only one following the scores. Many girls didn't even bother to watch their ball snail down the lane before skipping back to laugh with their friends. Which is fine, because the point of the night was to have fun. We were at a nice alley, I got to meet some of Sweet Pea's friends, and we had some fun father-daughter time together. I hope, someday, when Sweet Pea is grown with her own life, she will think back to times like these. Maybe she will even ask me someday, "Dad, do remember when we went bowling?"

Hop on the Wagon!

As if Sweet Pea wasn't busy enough with Kindergarten, gymnastics and piano lessons, now she has joined a Girl Scout troop. She is thrilled with her new endeavor. Lady Di is trying to find the 25th and 26th hour of the day to get everything in.

Her troop has been active from the start. One of the scout leaders hosted a get to know you picnic and bonfire at their residence in September. Since then, the girls have visited a corn maze and have gone on a hayride. Sweet Pea earned her first patch for the corn maze.

Last week, her troop went to a local farm for a hayride. Sweet Pea loves horses, so this was very exciting for her. Lady Di was the fortunate one to get to go with her. So they bundled up in heavy coats and stylish hats. Well, Sweet Pea had a stylish hat. They arrived at the farm around 6:30pm. Our little cowgirl ran to join her troop members who were already there. Eventually, all twelve girls arrived and were peeping back and forth like a dozen fuzzy chicks. As they all piled on the wagon, the owner warned them not to pet the horses. Which was disappointing to Sweet Pea, but I guess they didn't want a runaway wagon with twelve ponytails flying into the woods.

The hayride lasted an hour and forty five minutes. Which got to be a little long for some of the girls. The farmer had a roaring bonfire ready for them at the end of the ride. The girls were so tired they all half heartedly ate one smore, and were ready to leave. If you know Sweet Pea, you know that she usually starts with a half dozen smores before we have to start hiding the marshmallows and graham crackers.

The girls made it home late with bonfire smoke in their hair, but they had a lot of fun. It looks like Sweet Pea is in a pretty good girl scout troop. They definitely are active. She has also found yet another place to make friends. I hope she sticks with scouting and I hope I can go with her on a few of her outings in the future.