Something to be Proud Of

A couple of weeks ago was the Pinewood Derby. I guess it could be the last one we participate in, depending on what we decide to do with scouts for our boys when the Church separates from it. In the meantime, we made sure to make the most of it. We had an extra kit, so Erik made one with Jason too. He's been pretty busy at work, so there was probably even less time put into the cars than last year, even though Austin took first place last year, unexpectedly. Well, he wasn't quite as lucky this year, though he still did well. He came in 4th, just off the podium. Erik got to race at the end in the sibling races. The best part of the night was that Austin was awarded his Bear, which I hadn't expected yet because he won't be 10 for another month, but he had accomplished everything, so he moved up with his good friend, Owen. He's now a Webelo!

He was awarded Best Wedge Car. His car was Speedster 12.

Erik's wedge car, The Arrow.

Recently, I posted about STRIDE at Miller. They're also doing a mileage club during lunch recess. The kids who want to, can run around the field and earn "toe tokens" for every 5 miles they run. 4 times around the field is a mile, so basically, if they do a mile each day, they can earn a toe token by Friday, when they're usually handed out. I'm still at work during this time, so I don't get to see it in action, but apparently, Erik was a running machine! They started about 3 weeks ago. When I went to the office after school one day to pick up the water bottles for the STRIDE boys, the principal told me Erik was running so much that they couldn't keep up with him in giving him his tokens! He was the very first to earn the 13.1 token, declaring he had run a half marathon, with all of his running added up! Only two others have done so now in the past two weeks since Erik earned his, though in every one's defense, they couldn't hold it at all last week because the field was too wet from all the rain. In Austin's personal defense, he has Safety Duty during lunch a few times a week, so he can't run every time. The thing that make me laugh was that last summer, Erik couldn't even run around the block! He barley made the one block, gave up, and said he was done with our mile run. Just goes to show when someone wants something, they'll do it, but if not, you can't make them. That's very true for Erik!

The toe tokens are shaped like feet and the 13.1 is the number.

Austin made Puff Ball Shooters for the 4th grade Mini Society last week. I'm not sure of other states, but in our district here, this is in the 4th grade curriculum. They pass out "money" and the students provide goods and services that they had spent a few weeks working on at home. They created advertisements and had to figure out the most effective way to produce goods in an efficient, inexpensive way, that others would want to buy. I got to go to the parent shopping activity last week. It was great to see the work that had gone into these kids' goods.