This was Aidan's first pinewood derby, and I'm not sure who had more fun: Aidan or Eric. Eric has been looking online for ways to "help" the car, from polishing the wheels smooth, to aligning the axles properly. He did let Aidan choose his own design, with some helpful suggestions about what to look for in a design. And he let Aidan paint his car, including a smiley face. Here are some pictures from our big day. Enjoy.
Aidan's car is 2nd from the top, he took 2nd in this heat.
(Yes, this is a bit overdue, but life got really crazy right after this)
Here is a quick rundown and slideshow of our week:
Before I get too far into this post, I take pause to warn you: please don't judge me until you've finished reading. I may not be the best person, and this post certainly doesn't show my loving, gentle nature, but just hear me out. You may be on my side by the end, and if not, please forgive me.
It is spring here in Mesa, many of you know that already. We've got lovely blue skies, and mild temperatures. Perfect for tomato ripening. And, alas, spring also means birds. Lots, and lots of noisy birds. You see, there is a large (15 year old) willow in the backyard behind us, a large ficus next door and across the street, and several large cypress in the other backyard behind us, and birds LOVE these trees. Love them! So spring brings birds, mating birds-on my fence (we told the boys last year when asked that they were playing leap frog or dog pile), loud tomato eating birds, nest building birds. It doesn't help that we're 2 miles due east from a riparian preserve AND along the canal route.
Two weeks ago some birds ate four, yes 4, of my big, ripe beefsteak tomatoes (and I'm still waiting for the next crop to come on, stupid birds). So we had to net the entire garden-they also ate a pumpkin and cantelope seedling. Now it's a big pain to prune my tomatoes.
This past weekend, after watching dumb, mating birds all along our fence for two weeks, we found that we had nesting birds on a ledge at our entry. Oh, no you DON'T. I don't care if you are doves, you're still a cousin to pigeons, and you still poop all over my front porch and pillar. Now, this pair of doves must have been of the hardy stock, for they built (or were trying to build) their nest on a nail strip that a previous owner had installed up there. On Sunday we noticed them. After yelling at them, and tossing a pebble or two up there, Eric got out the hose to make our point known. I had to hose them down two more times Sunday, the second time I got their partial nest too. Now, had I been smarter, and it not Sunday, I would have gathered up the pile of dropped twigs and their "nest" and thrown them away, but I didn't.
On Monday, they were back, again. Out came the hose, it took some serious effort to dislodge them, and made my arm very wet in the process (we don't have a sprayer head, just my thumb). Less than an hour later they were back. Once again, out came the hose, but this time to no avail. So, I am only slightly ashamed to admit this, I had Aidan get me some bouncy balls (I didn't want to hurt them, or my house, by throwing rocks). I didn't hit them, but was close enough to scare them away with the first toss. I had to go back out there two more times, seriously why didn't they get the point (bird brained I guess). Well, after my fourth, or was it fifth time out there, I had more than lost my patience. On my third throw of this set, I tagged that stupid dove, and it finally flew away. I'm not proud of myself for hitting a dove (but I am pretty pleased that I actually hit my target-it was a rather difficult shot with a bouncy ball), but I'm so glad they haven't come back. Yet.
Although, all last night, and again today, I've had this nagging fear. I'm afraid that the birds will seek retribution, and I'll get stuck in a scene reminicent of Hitchcock's The Birds.
Note: In my defense, when we bought our house last year there were two piles of bird poop on our entry that were a good 10 inches deep, seriously.
The Arizona Quilter's Guild Annual show was so much fun. I went with Eric's mom and Heather (thank you so much for your support!), and the convention center was PACKED!
Heather, I was so proud of, didn't complain when we wandered from the quilts to the vendors, twice (I found the perfect quilt pattern for the girls). Although, she did have some interesting comments on the quilters that we saw at the show, and she wasn't too far off either.
We saw lots of amazing quilts, I only got shots of three crazy quilts-one of which won best in show, we forgot to go back to get a pic of an amazing hand appliqued-hand quilted Rose of Sharon. And I overheard a few people saying nice things about my quilt.
I have decided to look at these past two weeks as glass half-full, rather than half-empty. Partly because this week is spring break, and if I didn't, then this would be a REALLY long week with my monkies. As you'll see, nothing was particularly bad, but it wasn't really good either.
When Aidan started getting teeth, he did so at six months and his teeth came in pairs. They came at rate of a set every 3-5 weeks. He even cut his 2nd year molars at 18 months, and then we were done. Davin and Eme each got theirs one tooth at a time. They, again, started at about six months, but their subsequent teeth came a little further apart. And then we have our dear baby girl, Maddie. Begining two weeks ago, at 11 months, she has cut 6, yes 6, teeth. I used to wonder what it would be like to have a child get all of their teeth at once, and now I know. As I said at the begining, glass half-full: at least we've got that over with, and thank goodness I stopped nursing her before the teething.
I've often thought that I'd like to make the girls some dresses, eventually. Well, a few weeks ago JoAnn's had patterns on sale, 5 for $5, so I picked up two identical patterns to try out for the girls. Eric's mom helped me get them all cut out, which is good because I didn't realize that there was a science to it. I got the first bodice done, what was supposed to be Eme's, and tried it on her. It was just a hair too tight in the arm holes. Glass half-full: it looks like I've made Aspen a dress to match Eme's and Maddie's easter dresses. (Although mom or Julie are going to have to finish it because I just don't have the heart to do it)
We've been thinking about getting a chest freezer since we can't get anything else into ours right now, and we've got more things to put in the freezer (ie stuff from our garden). We found one at Costco, and we were going to wait and have Eric's dad help us get it home. I had my AmEx/Costco card out on the desk and Eme lost it, somewhere in our home. I eventually called to cancel it after a three day search. Glass half-full: while waiting, I found a larger, cheeper freezer, with a lock at Sears, and I'm so glad I kept my old membership card so I could go buy more formula.
And finally, the quilt show was wonderful (I'll give it its own post later), but the picking-up of my quilt afterwards, well...at least I got to read for an hour and a half without any children.
There were a few other events of the past two weeks, some good, some not so, but those are best left un-published.
We are in the midst of that wonderful time when things are pleasant and time seems to move in that funny way, both languid and sped up. We haven't been doing anything grand or amazing lately (but when do we really?), just the normal things. So, I thought that I'd share some of the usual happenings that make up our normal daily routine.
Conversations with my children:
(I went to wake Aidan up this morning, we often leave their window cracked open, and this morning the cows were VERY stinky)
Me: Aidan, what have you boys been eating? It really stinks like a bunch of cows in here.
Aidan: Oh, that was daddy, he did that last night at bedtime.
Me: Oh, honey, I was just being silly, it really is the cows outside.
Me: Hi handsome.
Davin: Don't call me handsome, and Don't call me Davin.
Me: What should I call you then?
Davin: I am Mr Stinkey-Head.
Me: Okay, hi Mr. Stinkey-Head.
Eme likes to pretend call Gramma Seguine on her toy cell phone, she calls her several time a day in fact-I know, it doesn't bode well for our future teenager. This is her typical goodbye:
Eme: Okay, I love you too Gramma Seguine, bye. Mommy, Gramma Seguine says she loves you.
(After I talk to mom on the phone, I always let Eme and the others know that Gramma Seguine loves them)
Last Saturday we had the Elders over for dinner. Our conversations were continually interrupted by Eme's sweet little voice saying: "So, bishops..." And she wasn't given their full attention, she would repeat herself until she had it.
I am so annoyed with the birds outside. They ate four of our tomatoes! The injustice! I guess that we'll have to start picking them before they full ripen, it's the only way to save them. We tied strips of foil all over them to help, we'll see how that goes.
And last weekend, we replanted our garden. This time around we've got: 2 tomatoes (still going strong), a sweet bell pepper (transplant), snap peas, green beans and wax beans, carrots, 2 kinds of lettuce, spinach, pumpkins, zucchini, and cantelope. Not full doubled like we had wanted, but it is increased by about 33%. We'll work on that other 66% over the summer.
