Boy Fun

Zach got a BB gun for his Birthday, but because of the hectic weekends before Christmas, plus cold weather, he had not been able to shoot it yet.
He also got a marshmallow crossbow as a prize from selling popcorn for Boy Scouts.
Again, we had not been able to do anything with this either.
So, on Saturday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather & headed over to my parent's house to shoot both.
The boys started with the marshmallow shooters.
You place a marshmallow in the chamber and pull back on the strings.
Then you can launch a marshmallow in the air (or at your little sister, or your Granddad...whatever you choose.)

The boys had a lot of fun with these.

Here they are trying to shoot pop cans with them.

The marshmallows are hard to see, but they are next to the arrows.

Finally Lily got to have a chance.

She wasn't as enthralled as the boys were.

I think she only shot it a few times before going back to sit with Granddad.

Then Zach got to shoot his BB gun.

Riley got to shoot it too.

Zach started out shooting pop cans, but then he ended up shooting the marshmallows from the crossbow.

He shot this marshmallow from 35 feet away!!

What a great shot Zach!


The boys (including Jeff) had a lot of fun with their "boy toys".

Pinewood Derby

This was our second year for Pinewood Derby.

This year, Riley was able to make a car too.

They have the Scout's Races and then they have the Outlaw Races.

The Outlaw Races are everyone else who wants to make a car or scouts who want to make two cars.

The Outlaw cars can weigh more than the scout cars, so some scouts like to do more than one.

Jeff & the boys had been working on their cars on and off for weeks.

They cut the wood, smoothed the axles, drilled holes for the weights, painted the cars, and added graphite to the wheels to make them faster.

They even got cool stickers to add to their cars!

I think they did a great job!

Last night, we headed to the boys' school for the competition.

Here are some of the other cars after weigh in:

There were 22 scout cars total.

The boys sat patiently in a line waiting for their turn to race.

When it was Zach's turn, he got his car into place and went down to the other end of the track to wait for his car.

The first time his car beat another car, he was excited:

The second time his car beat another car he was elated:

Last year he was out right away.

This year, Zach got 5th place overall in the scout races.

That's pretty good for just his second year in the races!

When it was time for the Outlaw Races, Riley got excited.

He had waited patiently for so long.

Luckily he was in the first race.
The track was taller than him!

I think that he was excited just to be there, he really didn't pay attention to whether he won or not.

Here he is winning his first race:

I'm not sure he actually knew he won.

He was happy either way though. =)


Here he is winning his second race:

I think he figured it out by this time. ;-)

Riley won second place in the Outlaw class.

Yeah Riley!!!

(And yes, we did have a small melt-down when Zach realized his little brother was second he was fifth, but he got over it.)

After the races, it was time for Pie In The Face.

If a scout sold $700.00 or more in popcorn, they got to throw a pie in the face of one of the leaders.

Zach got to throw one pie.

He was super excited about it.

Poor Stacey!

Zach and the other scouts who got to do it loved it though!

The boys are already excited about Pinewood Derby next year!

Ballerina Lily

After having her dance class canceled because of weather last week,
Lily was super excited to be going again this week.
She got her leotard with a skirt, tights, and ballet slippers on.
I even got her hair up in a little bun.

Then she showed me some of her "moves" as she calls them.

Then is was time to go to class!

Seriously, this is SO cute to watch!!

(I might be biased though....)

The last 10 minutes of class is designated to tap dancing.

All of the girls were excited to get their tap shoes on.

This was the first time they got to do it!

Lily loved making her shoes click. =)

She can't wait to go back next week!

Zach the Scientist

One of the things Zach got for Christmas was a Magic School Bus science kit.
Zach loves science.
He does not get this from me..... ;-)

Yesterday, Zach decided to do an experiment where he learned that the pressure of air going out of a balloon will cause it to move forward.

First he had to make two chairs 10 feet apart.

He got out the tape measure and got to work.

The kit came with most of the supplies, including goggles.

He thought he needed to wear them for this experiment.

He had to tape a string to each chair.

Then he taped a balloon that I had blown up but not tied, to a straw that was on the string.

He counted down and let go of the balloon:

It flew across the string and down to the other chair!

We had to do this several times.....

until I said that I could not possibly blow that balloon up one more time.

I know, I know. I'm such a party pooper.

We did leave the experiment out until Jeff got home so he could show him.

One of the things I like about this kit is that it comes with a manual that explains in kid terms how to do the experiment and why they get the result they get. He could do this one basically on his own. I just helped a little with set up, but he read the directions and told me what needed to be done and why.

Even though it is not something that I get excited about,
I am glad Zach likes all of this science stuff.

I hope he stays that way.

How The Boys Play With Their Sister

This is Poneyville:


See how nicely Lily is playing in Poneyville?

This is Zach's air rocket:

See Lily's two ornery brothers with the rocket?

I was in the other room and I heard:

"Missile into Poneyville! It's a hit!"

Yes, they were launching rockets into Lily's Poneyville:

Luckily, Lily didn't really seem to care that Poneyville had been attacked.

I guess she's used to it.

Lily's Snowman

On Friday, Lily & I went to my mom & dad's house.
Lily loved running all over the yard in the snow.

We decided that the snow had melted enough so it would be good snowman building snow.

While Grammy went inside to look for things to make the snowman's face, Lily took a snow angel break. =)

Back to work!

Lily did a great job on her snowman!

And it's just her size!

I like how she is holding the snowman's "hand" in this picture. =)

Snow Day!

The kids didn't actually have a snow day yesterday when it was snowing.
We woke up to this yesterday morning:

And by the time the time the boys got home from school, we had about 5 inches of snow:

Lily waited all day long to play with the boys.

She was mad when she found out the boys were at school when she woke up.

(The boys were SURE they were getting a snow day when it started snowing on Sunday night.)

I asked if she wanted to go out with me and then go out again with the boys.

Apparently I am not as fun as "The Brothers".

She did not want to go out with me.

She was super excited when they finally got home though.

We got on our snow stuff & headed out.

The boys went to sleep last night without a thought of have having a snow day today.

The snow had stopped.

But with arctic air coming into Kansas, school was called off.

This morning at 8:00, it was 6 degrees with a wind chill of -10 degrees.

When Zach got up he was pleasantly surprisd that there was no school.

The only problem?

It is way too COLD to go outside and play in the snow!!

I told the kids it wasn't going anywhere.

They can play in it tomorrow or the next day. ;-)