Pinewood Derby

With the first year in Cub Scouts came the first Pinewood Derby race.   The guys had fun building and painting the car, and then racing it against his pack mates.  The 1st graders (Tigers) had much faster cars than the 2nd or 3rd graders.  I'm assuming that's because the dads helped A LOT with the Tiger cars.   William had a fast car but didn't get a top three trophy.  He was probably 4th or 5th out of the 9 Tigers, but his car was probably top 15 for the den!  Again, thanks dads!  We were very proud of him, though.  There were a lot of kids crying after the awards ceremony, and he was not one of them.   He was proud of his car and how it did.

At weigh in his car was within the specs and needed no alterations.  Our friend Jay was on the pinewood derby committee and had to help at weigh in to drill holes and add/subtract weight.   He also loaded the cars on the track for racing on race night.

 

It would sure be nice if this were a fall or spring event.   Power tools and a spray paint booth in my kitchen is not ideal!  But it was another fun father/son event (that mom was invited to watch).  It's also fun to see him with his friends.

Open House

One really fun part of 1st grade has been seeing William's writing skills develop.   Here are a few of the pieces we saw during Open House.  The first one is what he wrote on the back of his "daily sheet" in class.  Obviously daddy's Christmas present was his favorite.

 

Over winter break, my dad go me a new Disney Infinity PlayStation Star Wars. 

It is so fun.  I played it 4 nights in a row.

His holiday would be "Everything Day" where you get to do whatever you want.  It would be on May 28.    The reason for the timing is that May 29 is his birthday, so this way he has two days in a row where he gets to be in charge!   

His New Year's resolution is to eating healthier food and get better at reading.  Me, too, buddy.  Me, too.

The class had guest visitors for their polar bear unit.  The couple had been on a polar bear expedition in the Arctic.  They talked about how the polar bears would stand up and press their noses against the windows of their vehicles!

First Tooth Lost

Six years after those teeth starting coming in, the first one came out!  It had been a little loose going back to November and was pretty wiggly during our Disney World vacation (enough so that mom was wondering that the tooth fairy did when kids were on vacation!).   But it held off until lunch time on January 8.    He brought it home in a Ziploc back.  I asked John for a status update on the 7th during the day to make sure the tooth fairy would have cash ready, but forgot to ask on the 8th.  And when I got home from work at 9 p.m. on a Friday night, William was so excited to show me his big surprise!  And I was on a quick hunt through the neighborhood for gold dollar coins! :-)   Within 30 minutes I had traded a $5 bill for 5 gold coins from a friend, and the tooth fairy was ready for her debut!

Two nights prior he was wiggling it almost horizontal.  Gross!  I also got one last smile with all his teeth!

 

He only put the tooth a tiny bit under his pillow so that "the tooth fairy wouldn't get stuck under there and not get out."   No fancy tooth fairy pillow or holder for us.  We had been told by a neighbor that the easiest "switch" is to use Ziploc bags so you can just take the tooth and replace with a second Ziploc bag with your dollar in it (or five dollars as was the rate for The First Tooth).   Smart move.

The first few days after the tooth came out, he sounded different as he got used to talking without the tooth.  I'm expecting the second tooth to follow shortly. . . .just how they came in.

New Year's Eve

William sent out 2015 with a bang:  a double play date day!   First we went to the SciTech Museum with the Clarks to celebrate Noon Year's Eve.  It was a totally adorable little celebration complete with sparkling cider, Chex Mix, a balloon and snowflake drop, noisemakers and party hats!  All of this was just topping off our 90 minutes exploring and playing at the museum.

After resting up and lunch at home, we met up with his best friend from daycare, Liam, to play games at Brunswick Zone.  We were all using up the vouchers we got from William's birthday party back in May!  We had family dinner out at a new Mexican restaurant but they turned our table so fast that we were home by 9.  Even after playing Left, Center, Right and Yahtzee, we only managed to stay up until 11:45! 

Christmas

We got home from Disney World on Christmas Eve afternoon - just in time to unpack and welcome Uncle Ryan and Ernie Cat, Grandpa Roger and Grandma Joni for the holiday!   We had Chicago style pizza for dinner and played some games and headed to bed to await Christmas morning.   I woke up in the middle of the night and quizzed John about whether Santa had arrived yet.  Good thing I checked because Santa did not follow the traditional protocol!   The way that a child (in my family) knows that a gift is from Santa is that it's the one unwrapped gift under the tree.   There was an extra gift wrapped and left in the basement of all places that I had to unwrap and leave out as Santa's helper.  Catastrophe was averted and the kiddo woke me up at 7:30 holding his new Star Wars X-Wing board game in my face saying that's what Santa had left him.   Luckily we had pre-established before going to bed the night before that present opening would not occur until 9:30, so I rested a bit more until the rest of the house woke up!

We added our leis from the Polynesian hotel welcome to William's tree when we got home.  I also got an updated picture of the family tree with our new ornaments (mini Starbucks cups and more mouse ears) and the presents under it. 

 

 

 

We were all spoiled by the thoughtful gifts from our family.  William got a Mickey Waffle maker and remote control drone from my parents!  Ryan restocked all of William's art supplies so we have been coloring for the past 3 days.  And John got William (on our behalf :-)) a new Star Wars video game and two giant Nerf guns so he could battle with Grandpa!  He was so excited by all of those gifts that he didn't even notice the Star Wars walkie talkies I put under the tree for him until the evening of the 26th!

Of course, the big event for the 25th wasn't just the present opening in the morning; it was the Star Wars movie in the afternoon!   All six of us enjoyed dinner and drinks and recliner seats to watch the Force Awakens.   Such a great movie!

Expedition Everest Progression

Four rides.  Watch the confidence grow!

 

 

Animal Kingdom

On Wednesday, I had to work so I stayed back in the hotel room while they went to Animal Kingdom.  They rode Expedition Everest four times in the first hour and then did the safari and Dinosaur before their Tusker House character brunch.  I have never been to Tusker House or on the Kali River Rapids ride they did, so I told William he'd have to take me back for those!