Pine Wood Derby

Brayden and Matt started work on the derby car soon after he got it (about a month and a half before the March 25th race).  The work was temporarily put on hold to get Kylee's Eiffel tower done.  Matt used the project as the excuse to get the Dremel he had been wanting.  Brayden designed the car and helped cut, sand and paint it.   He anxiously awaited the competition and excitedly discussed it with his teacher and class.  He wanted to take it to school to show everyone, but we told him he needed to wait until he after he raced it at the Pine Wood Derby. 

Here is the finished product.  Matt drilled a hole in the bottom and stacked washers inside to weight the car.

This is the track set up.  It went from the stage down to the gym floor.   

All of the cars ready to race. 

Brayden was among the last 3 cars that were left.  

This was the last race between Brayden and John, the final two.  

After a couple of races Brayden was declared the winner.  He was so excited that he came in 1st place at his first pine wood derby.   

When we got in the car he buckled the car and trophy in the seat belt next to him.  He also started giving advice on how to make a car.  He was already concerned about having to defend his title next year.  

A couple of days later when he went to church he saw some boys from his cub scout group.  They were all talking trash about who would win the next year.

We found out later that night from grandma Mindy that Brayden's cousin Zack also got 1st place in his pinewood derby the same night in Idaho.  

Bluebonnets 2011

I went with Carlos to try and take Bluebonnet pictures of the kids as a surprise for Matt's birthday.  Blake was not cooperating and would not take a picture by himself.  I had to hold his hand for him to stay there for the picture with the kids.  Finally as we were ready to leave he let me take a picture of him.

Is it really him?

Is it really him?  I had a feeling that we probably weren't going to be finding Randy.  I was just curious and searched the Internet to see if I could find a replacement.  I easily found one even though Julia got Randy 5 years ago as a gift from her Aunt Katrina when she was born.  Since it was only $11 total with shipping we decided to get it as a back up.  After receiving it in the mail I looked at him and noticed that the tail was shorter than the one Julia had.   I started to feel guilty because it was like I was cheating on Randy.  I was going to replace him and Julia loved him so much.
After a few days with the replacement hidden in a closet Matt just wanted to give it to her because she was so sad she hadn't found Randy.  Matt put it in her pajama drawer.  When she opened her drawer she was so excited to find Randy in one of her pajama tops.  She let out a little squeal.  As soon as she felt him she knew he was different.  She said he was so soft and turned him over and also noticed the tail was shorter.  Matt explained it away by saying that while he was gone vacationing he went to the spa and got washed and had a tail trim.  She was satisfied.  She was so excited to show Randy to kitty because that is her boyfriend.  She has been so happy since she got her buddy.  I am feeling better about it because she is so happy.  I am worried we are going to find Randy and then there are 2.  How do we explain that?

Spring Break continues in Dallas

For the 2nd half of Spring Break we went up to the Kenitzer Resort in Dallas. Carlos and I drove up on Thursday while Matt stayed in San Antonio to work.   The Gaspar de Alba's had driven from El Paso to Dallas to visit for the week, so we were able to see them for a few days before they headed back.  The evenings were filled with dance competitions on the Xbox with the older cousins.  Sadly we have no pictures of these entertaining evenings.
On Friday we were all lazy about heading out for the day.  We did a little bit of sight seeing by driving around and then we ate at Cousins BBQ.  We thought the name fit the table full of cousins that were there.

When we did finally get to the Fort Worth Zoo it was packed with people.  We tried to see as many animals as we could since there were only a few hours left before the zoo closed.  Blake really enjoyed seeing the white tigers.

 

Katrina and her family left to head back on Saturday, while we went to the Mom and Popcorn Company candy store in McKinney and then to the Dallas Arboretum. The Arboretum had beautiful tulips throughout the park and an exhibit with 7 castles inspired by fairy tales to explore.

Camping in Paradise

Over the past ten years camping has become a favorite Caldwell family pastime.  As the San Antonio weather began to warm, we decided we wanted to get outside again and sleep on the ground.  From Monday to Wednesday of spring break we made camp at Paradise Canyon just outside of San Antonio.   While we have been camping many times with extended family, friends, and church groups, we realized this was our first family camping trip to go it alone.   

     

We had learned previously that the kids aren't huge fans of the Hobo dinner, so we tried a sausage variation that went over pretty well. 

The kept us entertained with a campfire song and dance performance.  It started with Julia wearing her sunglasses at night while sitting around the campfire to keep the smoke out of her eyes, Matt started singing "I wear my sunglasses at night" but he couldn't remember all the words so the kids made up words to the song and created their own band.  Kylee sang, Brayden snapped his fingers, Julia "played" the guitar, and Blake "played" the drums.

We slept for the first time in the new REI family tent that Matt has been very excited to use.  We forgot to bring milk for Blake, without which he was unable to go to sleep for several hours.  He eventually did fall asleep, but woke up in the middle of the night whining for his fix.  I pulled him into my mummy sleeping bag, and then transferred him back when he finally did fall asleep again. 

Mostly it was a nice lazy camping trip.  We spent plenty of time just sitting around and leisurely tending the campfire.  The kids climbed a big fallen tree next to our site and enjoyed digging in the dirt.  The river was cold, so the kids just dipped their feet in.  We rented a canoe, and everyone took a turns.  In true lazy car camper fashion, we did pizza for dinner the second night which Matt picked up when he ran into town to pick up a few items from the grocery store.

Here are some picture highlights for each child.

Kylee

Brayden

Julia

Blake

Field Day

Right before Spring Break the older kids all got to participate in Bob Lewis annual field day at school.  Each year the school sells fun shirts inspired by a popular logo.  This year it was the converse shoe logo.  Last year it was the Hard Rock Cafe logo with the words Hard Work instead of Hard Rock.  In years past they have used the Gatorade and Survivor logos.  Each teacher choses a different color for their class to wear.

This year was the first time I got to go and watch the kids participate for a few hours.  Brayden's 2nd grade class competed on Thursday.  I saw him race in the tire roll relay where they got 1st and the scooter relay where they got 2nd.

Kylee was the next day, Friday.  I saw her race the scooter relay where they got 2nd.

Julia is in Pre-K so they did it all by themselves in the afternoon on Friday.  It was more fun than competition.  They got to try some different stations.  They did a scooter race, soccer ball kick, obstacle corse, basketball throw, and a tug of war.

The most important event, and the most controversial, is in the tug of war competition held for each grade level in the afternoon.  For the whole field day, the one thing that really matters is if your class wins the tug of war.  Unfortunately, Kylee's class lost in the first round.  Brayden got in the car and declared, "we lost, but the other class cheated".  Julia's class went up against the PPCD class (daycare for teachers' kids) and won.

Eiffel Tower

This year in GT Kylee has been studying buildings and their construction.  Each student had to choose a building to study and then write a report, create a model, and do an oral presentation.  Kylee chose the Eiffel Tower.  

Kylee wanted to make it out of toothpicks and Matt helped figure out how to make that work.  They printed out enlarged images of the Eiffel tower and then created flat panels by gluing sticks together on top of the pictures.  When the panels dried they glued them together.  There was a lot of glueing and waiting for the glue to dry, but it came together nicely.  They finished it off with a few coats of spray paint.  

Kylee's eiffel tower with a few of the other students projects in the background.  

Treasure Hunt on Toltec

Since the day Mom moved into her house at 7749 Toltec in 1994 there has been a long list of things that needed to be updated.  Over the years a number of different projects have been accomplished like painting the interior and exterior (a couple of times), a new roof, new carpet, master and guest bathroom remodels, garage shelving, and some landscaping.  However, the big job to tackle has been the kitchen.  After years of discussion and looking into options, Mom decided to go for it.  The job would involve moving a wall a little further into the garage, which was the impetus to finally go through the numerous childhood time capsules and other relics buried in the depths of the garage.

The only way to make the final disposition of treasure or trash for all these artifacts was to gather all the interested parties.  On Saturday, March 5th, 2011, Ryan, Nathan, Ben, and I flew to El Paso for a whirlwind weekend of treasure hunting (Megan had cleaned out her junk years before).

We found all kinds of great stuff.

Clothes that didn't fit anymore (soccer jerseys, leather pants and shoes, a German coat, and lederhosen)

 Remnants of a childhood scalping ("Ryan's (3) hair pulled out in a fight with Matt (4)")

Our now antique childhood Commodore 128 computer with Battle Chess.

Childhood projects (Nathan's model of our house at 7716 Iroquois, Ryan's personal symbol routed into wood, Ryan's Micromachine car dealership, and a model car)

A bunch of my high school artwork.

Rastafarian headgear complete with dreads (Erin joined us for the festivities).

A banner from Ryan's brief boxing career which culminated with his national championship fight televised on ESPN2.

Remnants of Ryan's beloved first car, a cherry red 1966 Mustang, which he rebuilt in that same garage.

 Evidence of Ryan's in house auto body work including painting his customized Corvette.

Some signs from Ryan's first business startup, Breakthrough Computers.

Old pictures of Mom (so pretty) and Dad too.

It was a weekend well spent on memory lane, and I was sad to see it end.