Bunny Update and Pinewood Derby

Here is a bunny update.  Poor Mama Carmel was so tired yesterday.  I suppose she is used to us being at work and school during the day and we were around the house all day yesterday.  After lunch I made the kids stay out of the kitchen and give her a break.  She slept for quite a while and then looked much better last night. 

 

 

They definitely have the round little Holland Lop head.  So cute!!

 

Look at those little ears!! Mama seems to be doing a really good job taking care of them.  She's definitely protective of them.  Yes, I have gotten bit.

 

There is one light colored one (like the one above) that is very tiny.  I'm a little concerned that he/she isn't getting fed.  I'm watching that one closely and will bottle feed if necessary.  My friend, Beth, is a wealth of knowledge and has given me all kinds of pointers and advice.  Not sure what I'd do without her support on all this.

Jacob is a Cub Scout and was involved with the Pine Wood Derby.  We worked on his car for several days last week.  Jacob carefully sanded it learning to sand with the grain.  Jacob and I put the first coat of paint on together and him and John did the rest of the work together. 

When we got up on Saturday Jacob was very worried about the possibility of us being late.  I have extreme issues getting up some mornings and this last Saturday was no different.  The snooze on my alarm clock gets quite the workout.  :)  Anyways... We made it in plenty of time.  He was registered and his car weighed in.  We ended up taping a few washers to the bottom of his car to add a little bit more weight.  Your car can't be any heavier than 5 oz and his was only 4.25 when we got there.

 

 

There are 4 lanes that race each heat.  Each car participates on each of the 4 lanes.  Jacob had several 2nd and 3rd place finishes.  This is such a good learning experience.  You can tell the cars that might be there for their first year.  Sadly... some didn't make it across the finish lines.  You can bet that next year they will make that car differently!

After they finished the initial races there was a short break with cookies and juice while they tabulated the winners from each den.  "Dens" are the individual groups that meet a couple times during the week.  The "Pack" is the entire New Ulm Area.  It took me forever to remember how this went. 

Amanda did a great job keeping herself occupied between drawing and playing on my cell phone.  She was a trooper!!

Jacob was announced as the first place winner for his Den and he was elated!!  It made his day. He was so excited to get his first trophey.  He was so proud and very excited to go home to show Dad.  Before we left he competed in the finals and raced 4 more times.  He was not in the top 3 overall but he was still very excited.  We had a talk about what it is to be a humble winner and a good sport.  Overall... he was just excited about the trophey.  Hopefully what I said will rest in the back of his head for the time being.

 

 

Oh Sweet Victory!!!

Visit the Armory Shop

Jacob is in his 3rd year of Cub Scouts and enjoys it for the most part.  His leader does a great job getting tours and projects lined up for them.  Recently they had a tour of the Armory Shop in New Ulm.  John had to work the day of this tour so I took off work a little early and took him.  If this had been just a normal meeting we might have skipped it but I thought this tour would really interest him.  I have to admit it held my attention too!

Officer Dahl gave us a great tour of the shop and trucks that had just came in from Hutchinson.  They were inside the shop and were thawing from the latest snowfall.  The boys got to go inside and could see the thick bullet proof glass.  Dahl showed them where their big GPS units would go and the Communication Radio's were going to be installed.

I didn't make notes but I believe he said there were 11 guys that were working in this shop right now.  Usually a few less but because of the current deployment it was a few more than normal.

Jacob checking out the inside of the Hummer!

What a Goof!

Lock and Load!

Check this out!

Jacob and Office Dahl

Awesome Snowmobile!

What are these for?

Tank!

How the Army carries water.

What goes in here?

What is the difference between the Brown and the Green?  Such great questions they had!

Where these in a war?  Nope.  For training purposes only! 

A lot of the equipment we saw is used at Fort Ripley near Little Falls, MN.  It was a very interesting trip.  The boys were pretty good listeners with a few reminders not to climb on the equipment. 

I am looking forward to sitting down and reading some of our Discovery Adventure Series books with Jacob.  I think the Tanks one will be a perfect fit for this topic!!