Pinewood Derby and Blue & Gold Banquet

The Pinewood Derby was combined with the Blue & Gold Banquet this year, because we got snowed out on the original banquet date in February. (Shocking!) That meant that while Dad was helping the boys finish their cars, I was baking cakes for them to decorate. The theme this year was Magic/Puzzles. Our oldest chose to make a magician's hat with a little white bunny inside it. (Remember this post?) His little brother decided to make a maze for his soldiers to traverse. I made dozens of mini cupcakes which he frosted and placed on a large woven tray. Both cakes were pretty darn cool, if you ask me. And, yummmmm.....

When it came time to race, something very unexpected happened. The boys had made some important decisions whilst designing their vehicles. #1 had chosen to work hard at making his bullet car as fast as possible, while #2 had chosen to make his tank look cool and he didn't care if it lost every race. Unfortunately, the #1 bullet car was exceedingly slow, which was a huge disappointment for all of us, but not only was the #2 tank the most popular vehicle there, it also made a pretty good showing in the races. The worst of it was when the tank beat the bullet car, TWICE!! All the parents started joking that there was going to be a war when we got home. But there wasn't. Our oldest seemed pleased that his brother was having so much fun. He tried really hard to just shrug it all off. Even though it really hurt since he had had such high hopes. I was soooo proud of big brother. He was very distraught, we could all tell, but instead of getting angry, he decided to go get the video camera and have fun recording the races. There's a pretty powerful life lesson in there....

After the races Dad, the CubMaster, presented all the boys with the awards that they had earned throughout the year. In addition to everything else, our youngest received a special award for recruiting 2 new Scouts into his den!

Boiling sap & building cars!

Yesterday morning, before the big anniversary party in Portland, we went to see how my brother was turning the Maple tree sap that we collected last weekend into Maple syrup. He has retro-fitted an old wood stove with a collection tray on the top out in his wood shed. He pours the sap through a piece of cheesecloth into the pan, keeps the fire burning hot enough for the sap to boil and waits for the water to evaporate. It's not a terribly exciting process at this point, so the boys weren't particularly interested, but they sure did enjoy it on their pancakes last night! It is super yummy!!

The boys and Dad have been building their cars for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Race this afternoon. Our oldest is determined to win this year, so he is following a plan that he found on a website called 'How to build a winner'. It sure looks fast!


His younger brother is making a tank! Check out that paint job! He was very creative about cutting out the camouflage template.


They are using the drill to spin the wheels while they hold sandpaper on them, in order to sand off any imperfections in the surface and make them as fast as possible....

My aunt & uncle...

Portland Couple Celebrates 70 Years of Marriage

Web Editor: Caroline Cornish, Reporter
Created: 3/29/2008 5:45:14 PM

PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) -- This week a couple in Portland is celebrating a milestone most of us can only hope to achieve: 70 years of marriage.

John and Eleanor Downes eloped on April 2, 1938. Their family threw them a big party Saturday.

The Downes had 4 children, 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, with one more now on the way.

They've made it through some tough financial times over the years, and now they're managing through Eleanor's rhumetoid arthritis.

They said their faith carries them through, and they never go to bed angry.

Watch the video here.

(Thank you to Art Tordoff for the wonderful photo of Aunt Eleanor, Uncle Johnny, Delwyn, Raymond, Marlene & Beth.)

Jake the Drake

I can't believe it, but I'm writing another eulogy for one of our long-time farm inhabitants. Jake the Drake, our male Muscovy duck passed away today. He seemed fine yesterday, so we're not sure why he died. He was injured by a predator a few weeks ago, but we thought that injury had healed properly. Maybe not, or maybe something else killed him. I'm not sure how old they can get, but I bought him, as a duckling, 9 years ago. It was one of my first solo missions when our oldest was a baby. I packed him up in the car and headed for the Windsor Fairgrounds for a poultry show. By the time we left, I had purchased as many birds as we could possibly squeeze into our car. It actually wasn't a very pleasant ride home. Thank goodness it was summer so that I could leave the windows open. ;-) I remember buying Jake and all 15 of his brothers and sisters, 2 geese and many, many chickens. My husband never has let me attend another poultry auction. I wonder why....

Can you pick him out of the flock? Hint: he's head and shoulders above the rest.

Below is a picture of him last summer taking care of some of his babies. He was a good daddy. The only time he didn't get along with Pilgrim was during breeding season when he couldn't tolerate the gander anywhere near his ladies. We bought those ladies especially for Jake. During another particularly cold winter, a few years ago, all of our female Muscovy ducks died. We were just happy to still have Jake, but he was lonelier than we thought. Come spring he started spending hours singing to his reflection in the truck's chrome bumper!! Muscovies are mute, but they can make a whispering sound that is quite pretty. Boy, would he go at it and wiggle his tail like crazy! As soon as we heard about some females for sale, we happily drove 3 hours and bought them for him. Ecstatic doesn't begin to describe his emotions when we opened that cage and 2 girls jumped out. They seemed happy to see him too, or maybe they just liked his pond. ;-)

Our youngest is very sad this evening. He insists that Jake & Pilgrim count as family members since they were around for as long as he could remember. The boys are quite horrified that this time of the year we can't bury him. They will be building them a memorial this spring.

Dentist

The boys had a dentist appointment this afternoon. The little one has cavities, again, but at least his big brother didn't have any this time. However, they've decided that it's time to cut the flap of skin under his upper lip (something that I had done too when I was little girl) and cutting the skin under his tongue so that he won't be tongue-tied. He was so brave lying there in the examining chair while the dentist explained it to me. I could tell how scared he was and his chin was quivering, but he didn't cry! We tried to explain to him that medicine has advanced so much and they use lasers now, so he won't have to deal with the bleeding like I did, but he wasn't convinced. The dentist, a father of boys of similar age, pulled me aside and told me that the best way to deal with this is to ignore it and not discuss it too much with him. He's already nervous enough that we don't want to unintentionally feed his anxieties.

1/2 day of school...

The boys are already home because they only had a 1/2 day of school today. It's a beautiful afternoon and they are headed out to ride their bikes - part of the driveway is actually clear, finally! They are also going to take hoes out and try to help the puddles to drain. Believe it or not, it's really fun making little rivers and clearing them so that they run faster. I'll follow them down with my camera so that you can see what I mean....

Happy Easter!! (a day late!)

We had such an eventful weekend that I didn't have enough energy to type this last night....

On Saturday we headed down to Standish for a quick visit with my parents. My brother was there and he took our youngest (our oldest was at his best friend's birthday party) and his daughter out into the woods to tap some Sugar Maple trees. They had a blast!! And the sap is really running in those trees. They should be able to make quite a bit of syrup. Yummy!!

Look at the smile on our son's face - he was thrilled to be helping!

They indulged in some tree hugging too. It's important to thank the trees! ;-)

Team work...

This is the tape measure that my brother borrowed from my parents....

We also visited my aunt & uncle. Being interested in all things military, our youngest was fascinated by this cannon ball that my great-great-great grandfather brought home from the Civil War. As we were leaving, he successfully ambushed me! I never even saw him!!

Every year the boys look forward to coloring Easter eggs and they get quite creative - no one looks like another, ever!

The Easter Bunny found all sorts of cool military patches for our youngest and a pug stuffty for our oldest - that's his favorite kind of dog - along with some other goodies and a BIG solid chocolate bunny. My sister also sent them Easter baskets filled with goodies, which were camouflage! Our youngest insists that they are helmets!!

After checking out the contents of their Easter baskets, the boys headed outdoors for our annual egg hunt! Daisy was a big help since she could smell the eggs. It was a challenging hunt this year because of all the snow, but they insisted on doing it outside anyway because it is tradition...

Look at all those eggs!!

Our oldest found a bird's nest during the egg hunt and used it to provide a safe refuge for his favorite egg, the one with bunny ears...

After the egg hunt we piled into the car for a drive to Lincoln, New Hampshire to celebrate with Dad's parents. We met them at a really nice hotel for a swim in the pool and then dinner with the cousins. It was a beautiful drive and a great time. Dad & I had fun hiding the plastic, candy-filled eggs throughout the hotel suite and the 6 boys had a grand time hunting for them. They found all except 1, although they did have some help - we were really sneaky with our hiding spots! What fun!!

I've saved the best for last....

I'm not sure why I love this photo so much. Perhaps because it was such a surprise. We were driving along the highway, looking through the trees at Mount Washington and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get a shot because of those trees. But, I could see what looked like a break in the trees up ahead of us. So, I got the window rolled down and the camera poised....as soon as we got to that spot I snapped the shutter, without even looking to see if it was composed...and then the trees closed in again. Whew! I didn't even see the bridge 'til I pulled it up on the computer when we got home!