2014 Pinewood Derby

The first time I made a Pinewood Derby car was in 2011.  I'd gone through the county fair entry book looking for something I was eligible to enter and stumbled upon an adult category for the Pinewood Derby.  I made a watermelon-themed car that was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.  Steve entered a car too.  (At 5, Trevor was too young to enter).  We had a blast.

The following year, all three of us made cars for the county fair, Steve and I in adult divisions and Trevor as an Open Junior.  My car looked like a box of popcorn.  Again, we all had a lot of fun.  Trevor had a great experience entering for the first time.

Last year Trevor started Cub Scouts, which meant he'd be participating in the Pinewood Derby with his Pack and not just at the county fair.  The Derby was in April, two months earlier than the fair we'd been entering in for the past two years.  We built our cars over spring break.  I went with a rabbit-shaped car.  Again, lots of fun.

We switched Cub Scout Packs over the summer.  The new Pack held their Derby last weekend, four months earlier than last year's Pack and six months earlier than the fair.  The earlier date made it too difficult for all three of us to build cars, so Trevor was the only one entering a Derby car this year.  Here's what he made, with cutting help from Grandpa:

In case someone doesn't recognize it, it's Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon series. Those are Trevor's favorite books.  He loves the movie as well.

Here's Trevor, bringing Toothless to be weighed and checked before the race.

There were approximately 60 cars racing, with lots of friends and family cheering on the Scouts and their cars.  

Toothless raced in the first heat of his age group and won.  It's on the far right in this picture, about to cross the finish line.  As it turns out, that was the only heat he won.  Trevor ended up finishing in the middle of the pack.  Nothing wrong with that.    

Toothless won't race again with the Cub Scouts this season, but he'll be entered at the county fair both to race and to be judged on design and workmanship.  Looking forward to seeing how he does!

Golf Camp

For Trevor's seventh birthday, we bought him his own set of golf clubs.  (You can see the layout about that here.)  He'd been interested in golf for a long time, but his interest skyrocked in first grade when he became friends with a boy who plays competitively and is very highly ranked for his age group.  That friend's dad encouraged me to sign Trevor up for a golf camp at our local course.  

One problem: Trevor was a year younger than the minimum age for the camp.  Because it never hurts to ask, Trevor and I went in to speak with the instructor to ask if it was possible for Trevor to enroll.  The instructor sat down with Trevor to get to know him and to explain the behavior expectations and physical requirements.  After the conversation, he gave me the OK to enroll Trevor.  Hurray!

Trevor loved everything about the camp.

Trevor struggled with hitting the ball any distance, but quickly became an excellent putter.  The camp culminated with the kids playing a 'best ball' game in the evening with parents caddying. Trevor's ball never went the farthest (not even close), but once they were on the green, he almost always aced his putts.  (They say it's all in the short game, right?)  Most importantly, Trevor showed huge improvement and had a lot of fun.

Trevor can't wait to do Golf Camp again this summer.

A Card from Sketch 10

A few weeks ago, I shared a layout from Easter 2013 that I made using this sketch:   

As usual, when I was done with my layout I used the scraps from the layout to make a card.   I love doing that.  Everything is already out and color-coordinated and just the right size for cards. Here's my card:

 

See the mistake?  I didn't... not until I'd scanned it, edited it, and was about to submit it for an article.  Here's the improved version:  

If you didn't notice the problem, check the lower right corner.

Anyway, about the card... as you can see, I kept several of the elements from the sketch and used the same color scheme as the layout.  Because of the extra mailing expense, I don't usually make square cards unless I'll be giving the card in person.  Approximately 98% of the cards I make are A2, so it was a fun exercise to make a card that with a different shape.  

More Manufacturer Spotlight Articles

In November, I shared the first three manufacturer spotlight articles I wrote for Scrapbook.com, which included We R Memory Keepers, Bo Bunny and Simple Stories.  Four more of my manufacturer spotlights are now live.  Check them out by clicking on each:
  

   

It's been so fun researching each brand, interviewing company representatives, and learning more about how each manufacturer got started and how their company has changed over time. These four truly could not be more different.  Enjoy!

Tutti Frutti

Trevor and I are obsessed with Tutti Frutti, a self-serve frozen yogurt chain.  Their yogurts are absolutely delicious.  Their topping selection is not as good as some other frozen yogurt stores in town, which is actually a good thing - instead of loading candy bar pieces, sugary cereals, cookies and other (admittedly delicious) junk on our yogurt like we (happily) do at other places, when we go to Tutti Frutti, we pretty much stick with nuts and fresh fruit toppings.  Those, of course, are also delicious.

In my mind, yogurt + fruit + nuts is a balanced meal and totally appropriate to take the place of lunch or dinner.  Steve prefers a 'proper' lunch or dinner, so whenever Steve goes out of town on business, Trevor and I have Tutti Frutti as one of our meals.  Delicious!  

Here's the layout I made about one of our Tutti Frutti dinners.

Most of the items on the layout are from Doodlebug, including the blue striped background paper with a 2002 copyright date on it.  Which means not only have I been holding on to this paper for 12 years, but I actually moved it to this house with me.  I'm glad it's found a place on this layout.

I should also mention the alphabet stickers.  My title has five T's, but with a son named Trevor, I don't often have extra T's lying around.  In fact, I had exactly zero T's on this particular sticker sheet.  Fortunately, it's really easy to substitute other letters for the missing ones.  T's in particular are really easy to make.  I cut apart two X's, two Z's, and an exclamation point to make the five T's.  After inking all the letters (they started out white) and adding Stickles, the T's blended right in seamlessly.