Pinewood Derby

I think this might be last "catch-up" post!

The Pinewood Derby took place May 4th (almost a month ago).

**Collin took all of these pictures. Obviously. **

The boys did all the work they needed to do to adjust
weights and such, and then they weighed in their cars.


Once the weight was approved, they checked in the cars with Mike.

Michael's cool car is all checked in.

Waiting for the races to begin.




And they're off! These cars belong to the wolf den.


And then Michael's car in the bear den.


Lining up to race again.


And now for the Webelos.




After each den raced, there was time for a little playing around.
One of the dads made this car with an engine. It was cool!


We finished the night with the award ceremony.
Michael won 3rd place in his den, and best paint job.

Way to go, Michael!

The derby was great success. Thanks, Cubmaster Tovey!

Missing Profile

Will someone please tell me why my profile is not showing up. I thought maybe they changed it so that it doesn't show if your profile is not shared, but I changed that setting and it's still not showing up. Weird.

Currently Reading

Now that's a title that's slightly deceiving: Currently Reading

I would like to be currently reading Water for Elephants,
but it is more like Currently Sitting.

I really wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, so I haven't seen the movie yet. I just haven't been reading! There are so many books I would like to be reading, but I never open them up. Maybe I will now that most of my shows are over. I have quite the list of books I would like to get to.

Easter & Matthew's Birthday

We couldn't decide if we should extend our spring break trip into Sunday or not, but then Mike was asked to speak in church. Matthew was sick most of the trip and Lauren was sick the last day, so it turned out to be a good thing that we went home. And we were home for Easter!

The Annual Easter Egg Hunt


Some very cool eggs this year

It was a bit of an unusual Easter for us. Michael was the only kid that went to church with us since the others were sick. Mike did a great job on his talk and the meeting was really nice. And then after church we moved on to Matthew's birthday. Matthew's birthday has NEVER been on Easter before. Easter was so late this year! The plan was to combine Easter dinner with Matthew's birthday dinner, but decided against it since neither Lauren nor Matthew were eating. That was kind of depressing.

Matthew had only one present to open since he didn't ask for anything else. He borrowed money from Mike a month back to get a skateboard, so we forgave that loan as part of his present.

Matthew's card was really funny. So Matthew.


Happy 13th Birthday, Matthew!!! You're a teenager!!!

Chihuly!

We started out the Boston portion of our spring break trip at the Museum of Fine Arts.


It was a bummer that the contemporary art wing was closed.

On our way over to the contemporary art, we noticed these flying boys.


Fun!

The highlight of our visit was the Chihuly exhibit - Through the Looking Glass:

Over the course of his career, Dale Chihuly has revolutionized the art of
blown glass, moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture and
establishing the use of glass—inherently a fragile but also magical
material—as a vehicle for installation and environmental art.
This exhibition of new and archival works represents the breadth
and scope of the artist’s creative vision over the last four decades.

It was AMAZING!
**Collin took all of these pictures**
I included some of the quotes about his artwork.

The next one is my absolute favorite. It is called Ikebana Boat
and is a real life-sized boat filled with blown glass.

This all came about because when we were in Finland the first time in 1995,
I got the idea of throwing some of the glass in the river, and I wanted to see
how easily the glass would break or if it did break. And so I got up on a bridge
and started throwing . . . and the glass—well, maybe one or two broke out of
100. . . but we needed to get the glass back, so I had the Finnish teenagers
that were helping us get in their boats and go get the glass and bring it back,
and then I would get to throw it in the river again. So that's how this piece started.

I want to frame this picture.

I had seen some beautiful Indian baskets at the Washington State Historical
Society, and I was struck by the grace of their slumped, sagging forms.
I wanted to capture this in glass. The breakthrough for me was recognizing
that heat and gravity were the tools to be used to make these forms.

Mille Fiori

People have asked what inspired me to do the Mille Fiori.
It wasn't so much trying to replicate plants as it was a way to work
with all the techniques we've learned over the last thirty-five, forty years.

Persian Ceiling

I just like the name 'Persian.' It sort of conjured up the Near East, Byzantium,
the Far East, Venice—all the trades, smells, senses. I don't know; it was
an exotic name to me, so I just called them Persians.

Funny, right? But beautiful.




Chandeliers

I’d seen a chandelier in a restaurant in Barcelona when I was traveling.
The chandelier was hanging at eye level. It was really beautiful. When
you sat down to eat you looked underneath it, and it acted as a centerpiece
for the table. I loved this idea of hanging a chandelier at eye level. And
it triggered something that said, I now can make a chandelier,
because it doesn’t have to be functional.

Neodymium Reeds on Logs



The entire exhibit was just spectacular.


We quickly walked through a little more of the museum before leaving.
Mike HAD to stop at this display. So funny. He was excited to get this picture.

It was a good day and a fun trip!