Pinewood Derby, Bouncy Houses, & Spaghetti

Our cub scouts had their very first pinewood derby! We did a good job of putting it together, if I do say so myself :) We had some help from a member of the ward who fixed the ward's track for us and put it together for the big night. Anthony and the other den leader spent about two months working on the cars with the boys during Wednesday nights, since for various reasons we knew that it just wouldn't get done if we left it up to the families. I don't think Anthony minded, for two months he didn't have to plan activities! We had four official cars, one for each of our cub scouts and they all got a chance to race each other. 

After the cub scout races were completed, we had a lot of siblings with cars from their older brothers who wanted to race and, of course, James had his car!

 The winners! Since there were only four of them, I made candy medals for all of them: 1st through 4th place. It is too bad James wasn't included in the tally, his car was pretty fast! He probably would have come in 2nd place. I can definitely see how the parents can get competitive about their kid's cars. It was fun to see him win :)

 All of us together, minus Rett. I think a sister was holding him...I probably should keep better track of my kids :)

 Eating celebratory cupcakes! I was surprised that James actually ate the cake part, usually he just eats all the frosting off and throws away the rest.

One evening Anthony decided to let James "help" him mow the lawn with his toy bubble lawn mower. James was in heaven! He followed Anthony around step by step for the entire front yard, at least for an hour. When they came in, they were both sweaty and grassy. James was so proud of his hard work! We are counting down the days until he is big enough to do this job for us for real. We both hate mowing the lawn in this heat!

The next morning I had James show me how he mows the lawn:

 I got a Groupon for a 60 day trial membership to BJ's that ended up making me $5 in gift cards, so we decided to give it a try. I know a lot of people swear by buying things in bulk, but I'm not sure it is going to work for us right now. Plus, it is hard to muster the energy to drive the 20+ minutes to BJ's for groceries when Publix and Winn-Dixie are right down the road. I guess we will see. My favorite thing about BJ's so far is their grocery carts. There are TWO seats in the front for kids!! What a stinkin' awesome idea!!!

 I've been watching and waiting for this new indoor bouncy house place to open up in South Daytona and it finally did! Thursday was their first official day open to the public so we decided to give it a try. James loved it!! I can't accurately describe the joy this place gave him. He had no fear whatsoever, from the minute we walked in, he was laughing, running, jumping, climbing, and sliding over everything. There were a lot of other kids there to play with and I am starting to notice a pattern when we go places: he tends to attach him self to slightly older girls. I think it is because they are nice to him and tend to "mother" him instead of pushing him out of the way. In any case, he followed around different little girls the entire time we were there. When Anthony asked him later if he was a ladies man, he said, "No!!" :)

Coming down the big slide:

 Another plus about this place: it is only $4 for kids 3 and under to play! Kids 4 and up are $10 to play, so James is the perfect age to get a good deal. He is old enough to enjoy playing on all the big things by himself, but we still get the toddler price :)

Tonight we had spaghetti and meatballs and it was the first time for Rett. That kid can eat!! Lately during meals he seems to be eating more than James! Tonight he had a kids bowl of spaghetti, a baby food jar of green beans, and a slice of a quesadilla. He probably would have had more, but I cut him off :)

It was so fun to watch him eat! He would just stare at us and without missing a beat would grab handfuls of pasta from his tray and push as much as he could in his mouth. We tried to get James to at least try a bite of spaghetti, but he refused. (I have never been able to get him to eat pasta of any kind). At least someone likes my cooking!