Zenni Optical

EVERYONE in the world should know about ZenniOptical.com . Our son J lost his EXTREMELY expensive 'ray ban' lenscrafter eyeglasses at school after about five months. A co-worker told me about zenni optical. Since then I have heard good things about it from several people. It is the worlds best kept secret. We just ordered glasses for J's dad from here too. The cheapest glasses are $8.00 plus $4.95 shipping. This includes frames AND lenses AND case AND scratch resistant coating!!!! Why would ANYONE get them from anyplace else???!!!!

update: It took about three weeks for the glasses to arrive but they are great! I can't find a thing to complain about with them. They are every bit as nice as ones I've paid big money for from lenscrafters.

Snow Day!

Today was a snow day! J was very excited about no school today! We do not have the digital camera today and it is killing me. I did take some film pictures with a dying broken camera. I will have to wait to see if any of them turn out.

We got bundled up and took our sno-tube to maw maw's house. There is a short hill there. J must have made 50 runs before he was too cold and wet to continue.

Lego Airplane

J made this right before bedtime!

THE BIG DAY!

Mr. Cool on space derby day!

Sizing up the competition. Here are 8 of the 10 rockets that were raced today. They were all really great and we had so much fun! We learned a lot about tricks to make them go faster. On the internet we had read about lubricating rubber bands and a lot of similar tricks, but I really like the way our pack ran the race. The scout masters provided identical rubber bands to everyone. They put the bands in and used manual winders and gave each rocket the same number of turns before being placed into the starting gate. The lighter the rocket is, the faster it 'flies'. We also got to see some of the weeblos and scout rockets. Some sand them skinny to the inner core. Some leave them fat and ream out the inside of the rocket to a larger diameter.

The actual apparatus for the race was really ingenious! It was two really tall saw horse type stands with wire strung tight between them. I believe the wire had been lubricated. On the starting side the rockets were attached to the hangars with the starting gate up...so they start at exactly the same distance. The pegs on the front of the starting gate hold the propellers. When the starting gate is dropped...off they go!

This is the finish line. It is hard to see in this photo but there is a small frame on the front of the horse that swings up to the wire. The sponges are slid flush with the finish line. Two judges stand on either side of the finish line...then the rockets impact the sponges to slow them down safely. They also draped a sleeping bag over the back to prevent fly a ways, and put one underneath to catch any that fall off. They really thought of everything!

The day was a huge success! We all had so much fun. The scout master's were so organized the event was run without a hitch! J's rocket came in 6 out of 10 overall. Here is a video of one of his wins. It was run as a double elimination so each match was run two times switching the wire (track) that the rockets were on.

We also went to a birthday party today AND had his friend P over while the dad's were working on the car....so definately a BIG day!

New VeggieTales movie

We just got back from the new VeggieTales movie! We all loved it!

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Progress on Space Derby Shuttle

The shuttle after the black paint dried and the painters tape was removed.

Here are some pictures of the shuttle after we added on some lines with a sharpie and some home made paper decals.
The only thing we have left to do is write in his name where the shuttle name belongs. Then add the plastic hanger attachment on top and the rubberband propeller motor. Then we will be ready for the big race on Saturday AM. I don't know who is more excited about this Dad or J? They both really had a ball doing this project together.

Cub Scout Space Derby Shuttle Cont.

Tonight we masked off the white areas of the shuttle with painter's tape.

Here is J painting the black areas. He had a bit of a hard time with the spray can. It took fingers from both hands to get it to spray while dad held the can. He did a really great job.

Dad's trebuchet

The Lego Trebuchet fires lego bricks!

Bedtime Lego Laser Cannon

Well I went to tell J that it is time for bed and he and dad were playing legos. J made a "laser cannon"


And dad is working on a trebuchet!

Space Derby Continued

The Space Shuttle space derby racer is coming along great! This weekend we did lots of painting and sanding. All painting was done safely outside. Dad made this great painting box. It has notches on either side and a wire coat hanger bent straight and covered with fabric tape that prevents the shuttle from slipping. So far it has had two light coats. J loves the spray paint can.

Mom went on the computer and resized some images to print out on paper. We had some old clear address labels but the ink smeared on them. So we will just use paper and glue.

Happy Birthday! Seven Years Old!!!!!!

This is J and his friends opening a race track (from mawmaw) at his birthday party. This year his party was very small just family plus two friends. By request we had hot dogs and cake!

J fell asleep with his motorcycle race toy from his friend W.

New Years Day 2008!

A Pod Racer

Here is today's progresses on the cub scout space derby vehicle. It is really looking great!! They finished sanding the body and they made some wings and a tail fin and glued them onto the sides.