Cub Scouts!

The month of February/March has been pretty busy for Cub Scouts!  I still cannot tell you how much I love that Jack and Andy do this together.  It makes my heart so happy to see them working on badges together and making memories.

At the end of February, Jack got to compete in his very first Pinewood Derby!  I was in Girl Scouts so I had no clue what this meant - we sold cookies and made smores but there was no derby per se.  Apparently you buy a block of wood, four wheels and design a car to race.  Jack decided he wanted his car to be a shark car.  So I helped with the design and he and Andy cut, sanded, and painted the sucker.  Andy's patience was quite impressive.  I can only hope I am this focused when Lucy starts Daisy Scouts.

His finished product!  He was so proud and this might be the most adorable picture ever.

The competition.  The only modification Jack had to make was trimming his fin since it was a little high to fit under the finish line.  What I learned later was that you could take your block of wood to the Scout store and have them cut it in whatever shape you wanted b/c apparently some people don't own tools.  So all a kid has to do is paint it...........  I'm gonna call lame on this and think they should make an "old school" category for people who do all the work at home.  But oh well.  His shark is still the cutest :)  And we found out that his cousin Connor also made a shark for his Pinewood Derby that year too!  Great mind think alike!

It's hard to read here but Jack won his first heat!  He kept telling everyone that his car was "built for awesome, not speed" and wasn't expecting to win any races.  But low and behold he did it!  It was really exciting to see him win his round :)

Love that little red head :)

The test drive at home

Jack's win :)


Unfortunately, Jack didn't get to win a trophy (although he came within two votes of getting "Best Design.")  It was a hard pill for him to swallow and he was upset but it was also a nice little reminder about participation trophies.  The expectation of always getting a trophy doesn't help anyone and while we wanted Jack to win, we also want him to enjoy the experience part as well.  It was a parenting lesson for us as well.  Perhaps the biggest lesson we learned is next time have the people at the Scout store design your car so it smokes the real competition ;)

Cub Scouts continued in its fun times with a camp out at the aquarium two weeks later!  Jack signed up with Andy to do Sleeping with the Sharks!  I was a little jealous because it does sound so fun but it was a great Father/Son experience and they had the best time together :)

Plus after Charlie went to bed, Widdi and Rachel came over for a GIRLS NIGHT!  We ate pudding and watched Trolls.  It was so much fun being with my Brimersey girls :)

Andy did an excellent job of keeping me updated during the night with what they were doing.  Here is Jack petting a horseshoe crab.

And a stingray!

Meanwhile, Lucy decided that she needed to keep me company and slept on Andy's side of the bed that night :)  After Widdi and Rachel left, we watched Tangled in my bed and drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, back at Ripley's, Jack painted a fish shirt.

Touching baby sharks.  Cub Scouts and sharks took up a lot of our month apparently.

Penguins!  The event ended at 9 am but Andy and Jack stuck around til 11 to tour the aquarium even more.  They had such a good time and although I am a little sad I couldn't get any sleeping bag pics (since there were no phones allowed in the shark tunnel) I can bet that this will go down in the books as a pretty awesome Father/Son night. :)