Pinewood Derby Car

McIver has been looking forward to the Pinewood Derby since he heard his friends talking about it last year.  He and Will had a good time talking about the car and working on it together. 

Step 1:  Design

Steps 2 & 3:  For a few of their Sunday afternoon meetings, the den met at someone's home to take advantage of a workshop full of tools for cutting and sanding.  McIver was able to do some sanding at home, too.

Steps 4 & 5:  Painting and finishing touches

The Pinewood Derby!  McIver's car, Big Dragon, is 2nd from the left.

They had results projected onto the wall in the church gym; it's hard to see, but that's McIver's name at the top for one of the (many!) heats.

Standing over the Pack Leader and waiting on results; he was actually just as concerned with helping to choose the music in between heats.

Olivia and Maggie found a comfy spot to watch the races. (They really could not have been less interested!)

1st place for one of the heats!

Showing off his winning car

Caroliniana Ball

Some friends and I were laughing that going to the Caroliniana Ball is like going to a prom for grown-ups.  It's fun to have an excuse to get all gussied up!  This year's ball was at the Grand Dunes Resort in Myrtle Beach so we took the children with us and stayed with Will's parents.  

All dressed and ready to go!  Olivia took our picture and was glad to be on the other side of the camera for a change.

Ginny and Jimmy

In the ball room

Will and the ladies from our table... good times!

He's just a funny kid!

Going through McIver's school work last week... Instructions were to "Tell how you estimated the difference."  (Reminds me of the writing intensive math classes at Sewanee - ugh!)

His answer:

"I wrote it up and down. Then I estimated.  The anser was ((drumroll!)) 39!!! ((cher!))"

He cracks himself up, too!

Boy Scout Blue & Gold Banquet

McIver's Cub Scout Pack was part of the Blue & Gold Banquet last week at Shandon Methodist Church.  More than 200 people came to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the Scouts and their leaders.

After a Southern buffet dinner, we were treated to a skit from each participating pack.  That's McIver on the far left.

Will was able to say a few words before they introduced the pack, awarded belt loops and badges and painted faces.

Here's Mac having his face painted by Mr. Draffin.

All of the boys were so proud of their hard work (and their new 'war paint').

Yoga with GranDaddy

We came to Myrtle Beach for the Caroliniana Ball. After dinner last night, GranDaddy showed off his best yoga moves.  He has been taking yoga classes when they're down in the Bahamas on the boat and wanted to teach the children what he's learned.

Gamecock Sports Clinic for Cub Scouts

McIver and Will went to the USC Gamecock Sports Clinic this morning for Cub Scouts who participated in the annual popcorn sale.  McIver geared up in his USC t-shirt and was ready to go.

They met in the USC Field House and started with some stretching led by a student-athlete.

According to Will, the boys rotated through several stations set up throughout the field house.  Here's McIver in the starting blocks of the track-and-field station.

There were also several women soccer players there.  Apparently, Mac had just headed the ball in this shot.

After the clinic, those who were interested were treated to a tour of Williams-Brice Stadium.  We definitely have a Gamecock on our hands!

Winter Break 2012

Winter Break started last Thursday at exactly 3:05 PM.  The children were crazy-giddy when they got in the car after school.  Yikes!  I almost pulled my hair out on the ride home.  Olivia ended up spending the night with friends on Thursday and Friday nights.  McIver had a friend spend the night on Friday night.  He was SO excited to have company and they had a ball playing inside-outside-upstairs-downstairs.

We met Olivia at her basketball game on Saturday morning.  Her team played hard, especially considering they were missing several key players, but ended up losing the game.  They had a great season and enjoyed the taste of victory a few times.

Sunday morning, we packed our bags, loaded the car and headed to pick up the Harrisons.  We headed to the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte.  The kids could barely contain their excitement, especially the boys who had not been before.

Getting a picture of all four children was next to impossible... McIver was already off in the wave pool before I could this shot.

No one would stay still for the second flash!

Another one ... at the bottom of the Howling Tornado.  It was hysterical ... they really just didn't even have 45 seconds to stop for me to take a picture.

Silly boys enjoying the Kid Cabin (boy cave) in our room after dinner, but before our second trip to the water park.

I did manage to get a few more pictures with my phone (not of all four of them!), but I'll have to post those later.

Mexican Night

We had a few families over for Mexican food last Saturday night.  The kids had a ball running around with the balloons Aunt Kellie and Uncle Robert gave McIver for Christmas.  And, of course, everyone loved Will's fish tacos.

Tex and his Toys

Olivia and McIver were waiting for carpool in the front room the other morning with Tex.  They came running into the kitchen and were DYING laughing and telling me to bring my camera.  Apparently, they had discovered the black hole behind the sofa where Tex's toys had gone.

5 balls, a bone and an armadillo

"Which one do I choose?  Which one do I choose?"

Monster Truck Jam

Will took McIver and his buddy to the Monster Truck Jam last Friday night.  

Two excited little boys.

Olivia and I were equally excited to stay home and watch a chick flick on our own.

Olivia's Egg Drop Vehicle

Olivia's class has been looking forward to the Egg Drop project for months now.  Each student is asked to create an "Egg Drop Vehicle" that will be dropped from the second floor of a building at school.  Of course, the goal is that the egg inside remain intact.  Olivia stewed over it and brainstormed and finally started her project.  (She knows she's better off working on these projects with her dad!)

She started with an empty container of wet wipes and put a spring in the bottom of it.  She stuffed paper towels around the spring to keep it from wiggling around the bottom of the container.

After putting the egg in the spring, she poured popcorn around the egg to absorb the force of the landing.

McIver contributed a parachute from one of his toys to the project so she attached that to a pencil at the top of the container.

Voila!

Her test run out of McIver's second floor window onto the driveway.  It worked!  The egg was still in one piece without even the slightest crack.

The Egg Drop was today at 9am.  According to Olivia on the ride home from school today, her EDV was a success!

Money Maker

McIver is desperate to earn some money.  We haven't done a very good job of paying the children for their chores around the house because most of what they do (making beds, getting homework done, setting/clearing the table after dinner, getting themselves up and dressed for school) are things that have to be done anyway and that we expect them to do.  So, when I worked in the yard the other day, I left the pile of limbs, vines, etc. in the back with the promise to McIver that he could be paid for moving it all to the front of the house.  He jumped at the chance and didn't even slow down to change out of his school clothes to do it.  It was a BIG pile and he didn't complain once or stop until it was all done.

Zesto Day

The family who owns Zesto's also goes to our school.  They hold a Heathwood Day on the first Thursday of each month.  They give a portion of the proceeds back to Heathwood for each order that mentions our school.  After bribing the boys in our carpool all week long, we were finally able to go earlier this month ... there's nothing like soft serve ice cream in a cone!

Silly boy!

Sweet girl!

Legos

Is Lego a public company?  We need to buy stock in it, that's for sure.  Our latest morning routine has been to sit in the 'lego room' while we wait for carpool in the morning.  McIver plays with the Harry Potter legos while I read the 6th Harry Potter book.  

Some friends of ours just returned from a trip to Orlando.  They went to Disney and Universal.  It made me want to start planning a trip to Harry Potter immediately!

Valentine's Day

Olivia, McIver and I stopped by for a quick Valentine's visit with Mamoo. We took her a pretty potted plant to brighten up her den. She was in good spirits and happy to have seen her niece who was in town from Florida and had stopped by for lunch.

We have never really 'done' Valentines Day, but I decided to have a special Valentine's Dinner in the dining room last night.  It was fun to shake things up from our normal routine and the children enjoyed making the night special.

Vail 2012 - Days 7 & 8

Olivia, McIver and I stopped by Wildwood to buy t-shirts and Starburst on our last day of skiing.  We discovered that popping a Starburst in the kids' mouths as they skied past us to the lift at Nastar helped push back lunch a little bit.  For the most part, they were ready to call it a day after lunch, so the longer we could wait to eat lunch, the longer we could stay on the slopes.  (Note to self:  Bring Starburst from home next year so we don't pay out the wazoo for them on the mountain!)

Another day at Nastar - I left Will and the children to ski on my own a time or three... first time for everything, I guess!  Olivia has the 'pizza' move perfected.

McIver, a hunched down, after his 50th Nastar run.

Will started shedding layers to try to beat his best time of a silver medal.

Olivia ... still rocking her mustache.

On the way home, McIver finished up his homework in the airport.