Pinewood Derby

This is our second Pinewood Derby this year, but Jaxon's first derby in our new ward and as a Weblo. We knew the competition was going to be fierce this year. Our ward takes the Pinewood Derby pretty seriously. There was a page full or rules and regulations. We even had to drop off our car the night before so the scout leaders could transport the cars to the church. There were several heats and Jaxon's car did well. In the first heat he took first place twice and second place once. He didn't make it past the second round, but he had a great time and was very complimentary to his fellow competitors. I was proud of him.

This year, because of the season, Jaxon made a candy corn car. His car is the first car from the left. None of the boys were allowed to place their cars on the track or handle their cars until after the race. Then they could race their cars as many times as they would like.

Jaxon won the "Best Candy Cornster" award. It was a successful night!

Cornbelly's

I love going to pumpkin patches and corn mazes with my boys. This year is no exception. I presented the idea to Jeremy, who was not thrilled. He recognizes that the boys love going each fall, but it is not his cup of tea to get lost in a corn maze. So since it was fall break this last weekend, the boys and I went with a couple of friends while Dad was at work and had a great time. But boy was it exhausting!

We totally broke the Cornbelly Rules. Half way through the maze we decided we were done. The further you go into the maze the further away you get from the entrance/exit because the maze was patterned after the solar system. We cut our way back through the maze and took a few "shortcuts" and made it out in no time. Here are the boys showing our shame by cheating our way out. Josh and Kayden are all equipped with their maps ready to have some fun!

Making our way through the corn maze with good friends.

They had a huge corn kernel box (kind of like a sand box). They kids had a great time in there.

They buried themselves and each other.....

.....and then they all shoved corn kernels down Jaxon's shirt. He had a serious beer belly by the time they were done. It was quite funny!

Of course, Kayden found more head cutouts for him to pose in.

The boys had a great time jumping on the giant pillows. McKay jumping away.

Josh having a good time.

Jaxon catching air.

Kayden lovin' it. He loved everything about Cornbelly's.

We had a great time on the hayride. Even though it was VERY bumpy.

Kayden making a funny face while we enjoyed the hayride.

Josh and Jaxon joined in on making funny faces.

We tried our hand at building a cabin with giant Lincoln Logs, but everyone kept stealing our pieces, so we did what we could and had fun doing that. After that we were exhausted and headed home. We had a great time enjoying the fall festivities and the fall weather.

Kayden's First Field Trip

Kayden had his first field trip with his preschool class (well it was the morning and afternoon classes combined). We headed to the Vineyard pumpkin patch and had a great time.

Here is Kayden--smack in the middle--with all the preschool kids. He was not happy about having to wear his preschool shirt that day. The only way I could get him to wear it was by having him wear a football shirt underneath it. He took off his preschool shirt as soon as we got home--he could not get it off fast enough!

Kayden loved posing for shots in all the Halloween head cutouts. He stuck his head in everyone he could find. If I didn't take his picture, then his teacher did. He insisted!

Pumpkin boy.

Not sure who his bride is here, but he looks pleased.

We had a great time together and I was glad that I got to go. I guess that is one of the perks of being the youngest.....not only do you get to hang out with mom at home, but she gets to hang out with you at school too! (That is a perk, right?)

A Sudsy Waterfall

Josh loves the waterfall. Perhaps a little too much. The other day, he got a little curious. He decided to see what happened when he put soap in the waterfall. The bottle below was nearly full before he started:

The waterfall had a nice "warm vanilla sugar" smell, yet it had suds all over:

Suds were coming out in between all the rocks.

And the holding pond looked like a giant bubble bath.

Jeremy had to change out the water. Josh got busted and no longer has any waterfall privileges. I must admit that I was pretty mad at first, but it was pretty funny. We have our own little Curious Josh at our house.

Sticker Shock

I was sitting in Sunday School yesterday enjoying a wonderfully prepared lesson on the apostle Paul and his ministry when there was a LOUD knock at the door. This is one of those moments when you secretly whisper to yourself, "Please don't let it be my kid." Someone in the back said aloud to the teacher, "Are you expecting someone?" We all giggled. I joined in on the giggling until it was my kid that was let into our classroom. I stood up and said, "Well, that wasn't embarrassing, was it?" I escorted Josh out into the hallway to see what the matter was. He declared, "Jack (his friend) put a sticker in my ear!" No big deal, right? I took a look and low and behold, there was a sticker in his ear shoved so far back that I knew this was going to take a professional to remove it. I had a panic moment. I was at church alone with my kids this week because Jeremy was out of town with some of his buddies. What was I going to do with my kids? I certainly didn't want to take them with me to a doctor's office. I decided to ask help from a friend that I had to be sitting by in Sunday school. My friend happened to be Jack's mom. I pulled her out into the hall and told her of my dilemma. Being the good woman she is, she agreed that if I wasn't back to church in time, she would take my kids--after all, it was her kid that put the sticker in Josh's ear. I ran home and called my pediatrician's office and was connected to the on-call doctor. An appointment was made for later in the afternoon, but with these words: "Try and get the sticker out yourself." Hum. I told them how far back the sticker was wedged but they told me to try anyway. So we tried and failed. So Josh and I went back to church. Josh came to Relief Society with me. During one of the comments a woman let it be known that she was a nurse. I had a light bulb moment: "She can get the sticker out!" I talked with her after church and she introduced me to another person in our ward that is a physician's assistant. I asked him if he had spent any time fishing things out of people's ears. He smiled and said, sure come on over right after church. However, even with his expertise, he didn't have all the right equipment to get the sticker out. So off to the doctor we went. Jeremy was home by this time and said he could get it out using his surgical suction at work. Enough is enough. I knew we had better take Josh to the doctor. After an hour of trying to flush it out with a syringes full of water and a couple of different types of tweezers, the sticker finally emerged! Take a look at the pesky thing:

The doctor said it had been pushed back all the way to Josh's eardrum. It was quite tender for Josh. He wasn't happy during the extraction of the sticker. All that trouble. The sticker had been folded several times to make it so small. Once it was in his ear, the sticker unfolded thus making it so tricky to get out. At this time I would like to thank the primary person that was so kind in handing out Halloween stickers in primary yesterday and to Jack for putting it in Josh's ear. Not to mention Josh who probably helped push it so far back into his ear. Who knew that by doing that they would provide an afternoon of stress and adventure not to mention the fact that I got to meet a couple of more people in the ward!