Pinewood Derby!

I think this was Sam's last Pinewood Derby. The fellow who leads the whole boys' program described how he had four sons, and participated in seventeen derbies. Also said that only in one of those was one of his sons a winner. Which he used to point out that it's the care and effort we put in is valuable even if we don't win. 

Here are some shots from this year's race:

Held in the Browncroft gym, with quite an audience

Sam's is the stained-glass one, second from the front.

Here's one of Sam's races. I believe his car's on the right. The track was about 50', and the times were roughly 3 seconds. Cars were routinely within a few hundredths of a second of one another.

Sam's is on the left in this race

Sam came in second for speed among the 5th and 6th graders! He was pretty excited. He wasn't in the top six overall, because the younger grades had some very strong offerings--probably because the contribution made by the dads goes inversely with the age of the child. Anyway, Sam acquitted himself well, and had a very good time.

The derby was last week. This week, for the final meeting of the year, they set up a mini golf set and gave the boys ice cream. A pleasant end to a good year. Without a doubt Sam connected better with the kids and got more out of this year than his previous years. I think very highly of the program at RCRC, but being smaller the boys tended to form cliques.

Sam got tired of my photojournalism.

One last Joshie shot: Josh built this week an elaborate "city" out of blocks and cars on a plank of wood suspended between two chairs. What fun!

It's been a month and a half! How did that happen!
Okay, in no particular order, an update on recent events of note:

Josh's birthday

Josh got a lot of great toys and have been having a blast playing with them

Scary dinosaur which worked perfectly with a hotwheels set we got him

This is Heidi Zinkand reading a book to Josh

Josh gets jealous of the electronics everyone else has. In this case he decided to make his own laptop out of cardboard with pieces of paper glued onto the "screen". He then comes over occasional and asks us to reboot it, which means pasting a new piece of paper on it.

Josh at his birthday with his new Thomas the Tank Engine piggy bank

The party--two hours with a large number of screaming children.

Josh enjoying his new bunny slippers

 Sam

During a recent visit to the zoo. What's more interesting to me than the tiger is how tall Sam's getting.

Sam at Stockade, where they were doing a group circular sit.

This was an evening open house at his school where Sam performed on the recorder with part of an ensemble

 The boys

This is a recent Aunt Amy visit, at the science museum

This is the bunny cake Juli Elliot brought over for Easter dinner!

This is a recent shot of the boys painting wooden cars--Sam's pinewood derby car for Stockade, and Josh working on a wooden car he and I built together

...and. here's my experience of parenting on a lazy Saturday afternoon. (Josh here is playing with his new camera.)

Night at the Museum

Sam's Stockade group had its third (and our second) overnight of the year, along with the 4th graders. This was short, busy and fun: an overnight at the Rochester science museum. We arrived at 6, had a show with two large Tesla coils, a pizza dinner, a motion simulator ride, a planetarium show, half an hour of constructing a simple circuit with conducting play dough, batteries and LED lights, an "egg drop" contest, and bedtime. We were up at 6:45 the next morning and out by 8. 

We slept in sleeping bags in the first floor exhibit area. Sam and I were right under a looping video of flowing magma (which happily got shut off at 11). There was a tiny bit of free time to wander the museum. It was bitterly cold outside, and our chaperones were two young women and an occasionally glimpsed security guard. I was amazed at how much they managed to pack in to the evening. They kept us busy almost right up until lights out at 11. Aside from an air-mattress loss of pressure which only affected me, the whole thing was a rollicking success.

The obligatory mastadon photo

In between two large Tesla coils was a Faraday cage in which were packed about 8 boys

Faraday was right! No one was harmed

Hard to get a good shot of a planetarium. They did a general night sky survey along with some more in-depth presentation of the star forming region in Orion. Nicely done. Turns out we have a pretty large planetarium for the size of our city: the ceiling's about 40' high

"Squishy circuits" with a younger boy

The egg drop was done off the mezzanine. The boys, in teams of 2, were given ten tokens they could use to buy materials like cups, bags, packing peanuts, rubber bands, etc., to try to construct something to protect the raw egg from breaking upon landing. Sam and Elijah decided to make a parachute out of a grocery sack and were one of three teams (our of 7 or 8?) to succeed :-)

Here are the boys horsing around at bedtime

All in all a very good time. Fun just getting to sleep out on the exhibit floor. Dad reminded me of COSI overnights when I was a boy. I recall sleeping inside a huge model of an eyeball up on the top floor of old COSI. Memories...

That recent snowstorm

In February we got a snow storm which broke a record, with maybe 14". It was enough that before the plow arrived it was simply impossible to drive the van. One neighbor got stuck and had to park in our driveway awaiting the plow. It was a reasonably warm day, and fine for playing outside. Until mid afternoon the snow just kept coming and coming. I cleared the driveway three times before I was done. The U of R actually sent folks home at 2 PM, which it never does. I was glad to have been trapped at home and not have to deal with the commute.

Below are some photos from that memory day:

Josh playing with his dump truck near while I snow blew

This gives a pretty good feel for how deep it was

The big bush outside become a snow slide for the boys

The stream, partially frozen

This was a few days later. The boys asked to climb on the huge snow pile in the Wegmans parking lot. Easily 20' high. Also a very good time. I am sure there will be snow there until June.

Stockade "Camp"-out

Cadets and Stockade both have a winter "campout." For Cadets it was, last year, a lockin at the church, and was a delightful time. Stockade met with groups from other churches in the area at a summer-campy kind of place called Hickory Hill down in the Finger Lakes region (though not actually on a lake). It was a delightful place with a big main hall used for meals and devotions and worship. We (about ten boys and the same number of dads) stayed in a separate building, in a big room with bunk beds (made from 2x4s) and a bunch of old couches and foosball and ping-pong tables, and a long table for something called "rug ball". Rug ball turned out to be the big hit for Sam. Two players compete, rolling a cue ball down the table trying to knock the opponents' balls off the table. 

We learned another new game a home-spun dexterity-based Canadian table-top game called crokinole. This is a table-top game in which you slide little pucks around with your finger trying to knock opponents' pucks off. 

There was plenty of snow on the ground for sledding, and they also had capture the flag and a contest where you use a three-man slingshot to shoot snow balls at a target 100' feet away. (Actually, I made up that distance, but it seems about right.) Sam went down the sledding slope twice before deciding the indoor activities were more interesting. I think it was 10 deg when we got up Sat morning, with a little breeze and some pretty snow falling during the morning worship and devotions.

The devotions were on fear. The speaker (older than I, and from nearby Hamburg, NY) recounted how when he was in his teens, before he came to the Lord, he used to lie in bed terrified at the prospect of going to hell. Around 16 years old his family moved to a new neighborhood. As he was walking near his home one day a kid he didn't know came up on his bike and asked him in a somewhat confrontational tone if he was new around here. He thought to himself, "here we go--guess this is when I have to fight this guy cause I am new." So he replied with a little attitude that yes, he was new. The boy replied, "Do you know about Jesus, and how to get to heaven?" 

And thus began a life-long friendship. The speaker became a Christian a year later.

Anyway, he had some good things to say, and he provoked some good thought in Sam.

Got there around 7:30 Friday evening, left 3 PM Sat afternoon, so it was blessedly not a long trip. The boys went to sleep before midnight, and didn't stir til 7:30 AM, so the dads really had nothing to complain about. All in all a good trip.

The boys playing crokinole.

Sam playing rug ball. He and I played quite a number of rounds of this.

Worship

The sledding slopes. No idea who this is, but it gives you the idea.

No idea why I was frowning for this selfie.

Inuit Day

First, here are some pics from Sam's 5th-grade class' Inuit presentation on Friday. Other students and parents were invited to walk through the classroom, which was decorated to evoke the snowy world of the Inuit, complete with howling wind, paper igloo, kayak, and small fires (made of fans with colored paper). At several stations were text the students had prepared describing the life and culture of the Inuit. The students, dressed for the occasion, were posted wax-museum style. Turned out to be very interesting, with lots of atmosphere! Susan and Josh and I toured the room.

Connor's fishing down in front.

The kayak. Sophia, sitting in back, is at least as big a Harry Potter fan as Sam, and that's saying something.

Here you can see the paper-and-fan fire.

Sam wore a genuine Russian bear-skin coat borrow from our friend Juli Elliot. It belonged to her great aunt in Atlanta, GA. 

Visit of the Westerville Collinses!

Josh was so happy all weekend with our visitors. Also always trying to find ways to get the attention of those dwelling several feet above his head. In this case he was out on the sun porch holding up piece of artwork for us to view.

The guys went bowling Saturday. Kevin and Stu won the day, but we all had a good time. Even Josh, who opted not to bowl, enjoyed the new surroundings.

Sam and Emily, surprisingly, bonded Saturday evening over... well, I am not sure what. Vidya games? The new rock and roll music? Just fun to see them hanging out and chatting.

Emily made good use of the new Cabela's slanket we got from Tim and Marlene for Christmas.

Stu drafted a group for a game of Uno; fun was had by all.

Other miscellany

Josh, posing with a carrot which looks like something out of a L'eggs ad.

This is from a trip to Mendon Ponds with Josh last weekend. We went there for a birthday party and stayed to hike some trails.