Pinewood Derby

Tonight was Conner's last pinewood derby race. He has been racing cars for 3 years. It's always a last minute car. We forget when the derby is or we just have so much other stuff going on, that it gets put off until the last minute. So, again, we knew that the derby was coming up. In fact we've even had the "block" for at least a month! However, it wasn't until Sunday that we decided to OPEN the box! We found a design on the internet that looked pretty easy to cut and Conner liked the design. Going off the pictures on the internet, the boys designed the car. They had picture graphs and lines drawn on the wood block. On Monday night, they went over to a friends shop and made the cuts. Then they spent some more time sanding and working out the final details on the design. Conner started painting it last night too. He wanted to paint it orange and black (shocking, I know). I told him that if he got it all painted that I would paint the Beavers logo on it for him. However, the space was WAY to small to paint it, so we just printed one out and glued it on the car (about 2 hours before the race!). Mike came home from work with the weights for the car. They melted them down and had the car ready to go, oh, only about 45 minutes before it was time to leave! Talk about cutting it close!

I had a meeting for Conner's school tonight, so I wasn't able to make the derby. Mike took the kids and they headed off. I got a call from Conner when he was on the way home saying that he had fun and that one of the other boys had a "Duck's" car and he beat it. He was pretty excited about that.

When I got home from my meeting, there was a note on the front door telling me that I needed to go to Conner's room. I headed up there and the first thing I did was look for his certificate. Every boy gets a certificate with some crazy award. They give places for the first 3 cars and then the rest get goofy awards. Because Conner had an OSU car, I was looking for something having to do with that. When I found the certificate I saw that he had FIRST PLACE!!! Yeah. I guess he won every race but one! I'm so sorry that I missed his big night, but it was so fun to sit with him for a while while he replayed the evening. It was nice to see him so exited about something. Now, you have to understand that he usually doesn't fair very well! So, this being his very last pinewood derby before he leave cub scouts, this was awesome! Way to go Conner!

Mike and Conner working out some kinks.

Conner working on his car.

Goofy pic of Conner at the derby.

And no, Mike took pictures and didn't get any of Conner actually holding the finished car!  The video shows it a little at the end.  I'll try to take a pic of Conner with his car tomorrow.

Pom Cheers

At cheerleading sign ups the other night, they had some small poms from the local Dollar Tree.  As we were tearing down the stuff, I was asked if I wanted to keep them for my little girls.  Knowing that they'd jump on this, I took them home.

Adrie wanted to bring them last night at baseball practice.  She insists that they are called "pom cheers".  Not only did she bring them to practice, but she actively cheered for her brother while we were there.  Now, if this isn't a sign of a cheerleader in training, I don't know what is, but this is the cheer that she made up (all by herself) and used to root her brother on as he was batting:

Come on Conner,

You can do it

We love you

Cause you're the cutest

How stinkin' cute is that?  I suppose with 2 older cheerleading sisters there was no hope for her!

"Trauma", life at the Laders...

Last month St. Luke School held their annual auction. Now, I don't own a business or have any real skills, so I decided that I would donated 1 dessert a month to the highest bidder. It wasn't until AFTER I had committed myself that I found out that the person who had done this for the past few years is an actual trained chef. Great.

The first item needed to be ready to go the night of the auction. I worked for about 3 weeks to come up with a yummy key lime cream torte. I, of course, forgot the cake at home the night of the auction and Mike had to run home and get it after we got there. Such is my life, right?

So, my friend Laura informs me that my item is in the Oral auction. Oh, and it's first on the block. GREAT! It went for $450.00. OUCH. Guess brownies and rice crispy squares are out of the question, huh.

I have spent the past month trying to come up with a new dessert for April that tastes great and looks nice. The first thing I tried DID NOT work well, so I scratched that one. Next I came across the recipe for a fresh apple cake with home made caramel topping. I have made this cake about 7 times in the past month. I LOVED the taste of the cake, but you cook it in a bundt pan and how do you make that look nice? Plus you have to poke holes in the cake for the caramel sauce to soak into the cake. I took one to my friend Lisa's house and she showed me how I could make it look "pretty". I was hooked. This was the one to do!

Fast forward to today. Today's the day I said that I'd make it. Of course, I'm super busy and I'm just going to have to fit it in! I get the cake made and the topping on before I pick up the St. Luke carpool kids. I run home and whip up the cream cheese frosting and quickly frost the cake. It's all set to go. Of course, the base that I used was too big to fit into my cake carrier, so I ask Conner to hold the cake in the car while we pick up the other kids from school and then deliver the cake.

The finished product.  Isn't it pretty?

He had a travel pillow that he wanted to bring with him. OK, whatever. Apparently, as we were driving, it wasn't at the right position, so he pulls on it and the velcro breaks loose and the momentum drives it right into the cake. Yep. The cake that we're on the way to deliver!!!

Smashed cake.

OK, I can deal with this.  I didn't even yell at him.  Nor did I cry (yet).  I had to go get the girls from school, so we couldn't just go home.  As I was driving I was trying to come up with ways to fix the cake.  The first thing I needed to do was put the cake on a smaller tray so it would fit in my cake carrier.  Then I figured I could try to scrape off the frosting and refrost it.  Great idea in theory!  However, the caramel sauce had hardened enough that it was stuck to the original plate and in the process of trying to pry it off the cake broke in half.  Now I was crying!  I had no idea how to fix this.  I called Bob (the guy who bought it, nicest guy in the world, btw!) and I asked if I could bring one on Monday because this one was destroyed.  He insisted that I just bring it the way it was.  That it wasn't a big deal.  So, I loaded it up and took it out to him.  When I got there he asked if I wanted my cake carrier back and I just told him that I couldn't even look at the cake, so he'd better just keep the carrier! 

My hideous cake (I still can't believe that I actually gave this to someone!)

And that's the story of "Trauma, life at the Laders"!

Boys will be Boys

Conner's school is out for Good Friday today, so yesterday he invited a couple of his good friends to spend the night. When Mike got home they decided to wrestle. Now seeing as how I only have 1 boy, I really enjoy these kinds of interactions. I really take for granted all of the "sisterly" things that my girls do, but I thrive for the normal boy stuff. I know it's totally unfair, but that's just life in my world! Here a couple shots of the boys...

She may really be a rock star!

North Marion School District had their annual student talent show last night.  Alia decided that she wanted to sing.  She picked the song and we helped her download a karaoke version and Mike even edited to fit the time frame of 1:45.  She practiced for a month and we even picked up some new clothes for her to wear the night of the performance.

So last night was the big night.  She did amazingly well.  She was the 3rd performance of the night.  She was awesome!  I'm so proud of her!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday.  No joke!

I just want to wish her a wonderful day.  She works so hard for everyone else that I hope she can take a few minutes for herself.  We love you mom.  Thanks for all that you do for me and my family!

Love you!