Pinewood Derby

We just experienced our first Pinewood Derby.  And I just realized I didn't take any pictures of the building process, but I did get pictures of the big night. 

Logan's car is the blue one with yellow strips.  He chose the colors and pattern himself.  He sanded and sanded and sanded.  He also polished the wheels and axles, "to make it faster!"

  Logan & Taylor, all lined up and waiting for the races to begin.

 

He was so excited all month and it was finally time to race!

  We had no idea how he'd do, but as it turned out, he did well... 

 ...very well.   

His car is the one that's already finished! Each car raced several times.  I thought Logan was doing pretty well.  I thought he might end up getting 4th overall.

Turns out he got 2nd place! Out of everyone in his Pack!  He was very happy.  He loves his ribbon & silver medal!  And even more, he loves that he can actually "play" with his Pinewood Derby now.  We kept telling him, "It's not a toy.  You can't play with it until after the Pinewood Derby."

 The silver medalist's car.  It was a great evening and very rewarding for Logan who worked and worried so much over his car. 

Way to go, Logan!

Happy Butterfly Day

Did you know today is Butterfly Day?

We know because Taylor loves butterflies so much.  This cool butterfly mosaic is on the outer wall of a clinic James works at once a week.  We drive by it everytime we go grocery shopping.  We finally stopped one bright, dry afternoon. 

Camouflage

Can you find the bird in the tree in our backyard?

Saturday Afternoon Walk

Our Saturday afternoon walk in pictures...

 Usually I walk and the kids ride their bikes.  They were pretty excited to do something new, like actually walk run.

 So there was a lot of this... running off ahead of me. 

 

 

 We came across a Women's Lacrosse game.  Pacific University vs. Portland somebody or other.

 We watched for a few minutes. 

 

Then the kids got bored, seeing as we know nothing about Lacrosse.

  So we were off again. 

We came across a baseball game next.  

 The Titans vs. the Bulldogs. 

 We had no idea who they were.  We only watched for a few minutes. 

 

And then the kids were back to doing what they really enjoyed, 

 running and playing in their own little world.  I loved watching it.

 

 

 

Wolf Badge

Logan is a Wolf now!!!  He's worked so hard for the last 6 months to earn his Wolf badge.

Along with his Wolf badge he earned 7 arrow points badges.  An arrow point badge represents 10 different arrow points from his Scout book completed.  So 7 arrow points badges means he did 70 arrow points from his book!!!

For the last 2 months or so his Wolf requirements were all done except for one. little. thing... an outdoor flag ceremony!  We didn't have any means of accomplishing that one on our own.  We were stuck just waiting for it to happen in a Den or Pack meeting. 

So in the meantime we worked on arrow points, but Logan couldn't actually receive those until he had his Wolf badge.  He really likes earning things, anything at all, at Pack meetings, but it could be awhile before he'd get his next badge and arrow points.  

Then we discovered Belt Loops & pins.  These are additional things Cub Scouts can earn.  Extras.  So we started working on those.  Things like the Family Travel Belt Loop & pin (we went out of town for Thanksgiving).  So all told he's earned 13 Belt Loops and 11 pins.  A Belt Loop is the equivalent of about 3 arrow points and it's corresponding pin is like an additional 5-6 arrow points.  

Here's Logan earning 10 Belt Loops!  He also got 9 pins.  

The Belt Loops he's earned so far are:

Family Travel

Mathematics

Weather

Citizenship

Communicating

Reading & Writing

Chess 

Collecting

Marbles

Hiking 

Soccer

Bicycling

Swimming  

Many of these were very easy to incorporate because they were things he'd already been doing, such as Reading & Writing, Mathematics, Chess, Collecting and Weather.  Or things he loves to do, such as Soccer, Bicycling, Hiking and Swimming.  

Some of the Belt Loops we're wanting to work on next are:

Heritage, Art, Astronomy, Geology, Geography & Good Manners.  I like it when he earns Belt Loops because they just slip right on his belt and I don't have to sew them on his shirt.  I've got a fair bit of sewing to do now.  

The greatest thing about earning the Belt Loops is that many of them require Logan to share things with his Den.  He's gotten up in front of his Den several times now and he's getting more and more comfortable speaking in front of a small group of people.  That's one of the biggest achievements of all, if you ask me.  

We're so proud of Logan and how eager he is about Cub Scouts.  He just got his first Pine Wood Derby brick of wood.  He's beyond thrilled!  

Rock Museum

We went to a pretty cool rock museum the other day.  Logan's interested in rocks lately.  After going to the museum and reading books on the subject, Logan has decided to be a Geologist, so he can "mine for rocks."

 

 The museum had this cool map.  When you hit a button, the "quartz" button for example, lights show up on the map where quartz is found.  The kids spent a long time playing with this map.

 

And here's some quartz.  I thought it was intersting how it grew in this wave like pattern.

 Here's quartz with pyrite...

 and pyrite with quartz.

 What opal looks like in nature.  This is Taylor's birthstone.

 Barite (I think).  Isn't it cool how it grows in this square/rectangular pattern?

 Taylor loved the pink rocks.  This is rhodonite. 

Beautiful pink rock with a cool green stone inside. (heulandite-Ca with green apophylite)

 A meteorite that landed in Argentina. 

A cross-section of a meterite. 

 The kids got to touch a meteorite, a rock that had actually been in outer space!

 

 A dinosaur fossil at the museum.

 

What the dinosaur looked like when it lived.

 Fossilized dinosaur egg nest.

 Ammonite fossil.

 Variscite

 Quartz.

Gypsum.

 

 

Microcline.  I don't know what it is, but I think this was my favorite rock in the whole place.  I love it's shape and color.

  Azurite.

 Huge pieces of turquoise.  I'm used to only seeing tiny pieces.

 A 200 pound hunk of pyrite!

 

 The museum also had a gallery of flurescent rocks.  They looked just like all the other rocks until the black light was shown on them, then they lit up like a Christmas tree. 

 The kids were able to feel the inside of one of the thunder-eggs.  The thunder-egg is Oregon's State Rock. 

 The kids had so much fun.  We spent about 2 hours in the museum.  Then each of the kids were allowed to pick out a rock from an outside rock pile.  Who would have guessed rocks could be so fascinating.