Spring fun in the sun...

Time keeps marching on. In fact it's hard to believe that we are already into spring!

We are keeping busy with school and work and scouts and baseball and (new!) piano lessons, but enough about our "minutia". On to the fun stuff.

A week or two ago we headed south to visit Susanne's mom in SC for spring break/Easter break and it was a blast. For the first time ever, Susanne and I actually snuck away for a few days. While the Danny and Benji went to a cool outdoor Lego garden called Brookgreen Garden and the Pennington Beach State Park with Nana, we went to Asheville ,NC. Of course now we are back into the swing of life back home, but oh the memories!

Firefly, the Lego way.

This Lego peakock was pretty cool too!

Pennington Beach was cold in April, but awesome!

Shining Easter eggs with salami to make them shine is an old German trick.

On April Fools day the boys made a pan of brownies (Brown E's) for Mama and Nana. ;-)

There is a golf course where Nana lives, and this guys is gonna be hard to get off the links before too long.

Time for moms to head to Asheville. Lots of beer, wine and cider tastings. Yay!

We could just feel stress melt away as we leisurely did whatever we wanted for 3 whole days!

Stress? What stress? Let's go to the Biltmore next.

And don't forget the Segway tour.

Overall a nice break for all of us. Until next time!

Proud of our Pinewood Derby Champ!

A few weeks ago Danny's Cub Scout pack held its annual Pinewood Derby. This was his 3rd time racing and in the weeks leading up to the race he and Benji (who is not yet old enough to be a scout but could race in a special race for family and friends) worked on their cars. We added weights this year which we had never done before (but kept it to under 5 oz as is required) and even added some graphite to the wheels (which is allowed.) Getting the wheels on is always the trickiest thing I think any Scout will tell you!

Danny made "Blitzen" which comes from two ideas. One was that "blitz" in German means lightening, and the second was that some of his fiery flames turned into reindeer antlers, and well, the rest is history. The number 88 is because he and his best friend are both 8. It goes nicely with car 77 and 66 that are up on our shelves from past years.

It was an exciting event with 68 scouts entering cars. Each car was raced 4 times (there were many heats) and the cars that won the majority of their races then got to do quarterfinal races, then semifinal races then the finals!

During a break in the action, Benji got to race his car too and it was very exciting that he came in 1st place in both of his heats. We were all a bit disappointed that they just stopped there and did not do a final race.

Then it was back to the Cub Scout finals. Danny's car kept doing well! Suddenly it was down to the final race and Danny was so nervous I had to have him do his belly breathing.

As the cars sped down the track it was clear--Blitzen had won the race!

What a wonderful experience for our Danny. He was a little overwhelmed I think, but so proud.

Here are a few pictures from the day. As I mentioned in a FB post, I am pretty sure that I was just as, or even more, exited than he was! -M

Introducing Blitzen!

Each car raced down a track many times. Car number 6 here is actually Benjamin's car that raced great too!

There was a lot of excitement in the room as the Scouts watched the action.

It's a little blurry, but look at that face. Shock and awe when he won.

Our Cubmaster awarded the best in speed trophy. A great day for Danny and Blitzen!