Abracadabra!

Last night, during the treat for Family Home Evening, Annikah wanted another cookie. I asked her, "What's the magic word?" She thought for a minute and then said, "Abracadabra!" We laughed and laughed.

Snoqualmie Falls

Saturday was such a beautiful day -- highs in the low 70's and sunny!!! Warm and sunny haven't been in our neck of the woods for a long time. We drove to Snoqualmie and hiked to the falls. It's a very easy hike -- about a mile in total and the path is more like a road. All of the kids did very well and we had a fun time sitting by the water and eating snacks. It was a great day.

The falls

The kids on the hike

Jacob and I

Very Disappointing

Tuesday night was the weigh in for the Pinewood Derby. Jacob and Ashton and I had spent several hours the night before dutifully filing the axles of his car so as to spin faster. Ashton and Jacob also went to Ace Hardware to buy the graphite to put in the wheels to make them turn faster. Jacob and I painted the car a lovely black and we were satisfied that this year, this year would be different.



Last year, we came in dead last -- 11th out of 11. We chalked it up to being novices -- to not knowing anything about building a pinewood derby car. Ashton remembers having a neighbor make his as his parents said there was no way they'd help him make one. I remember my brother Kirk making one with my parents, but as to tips or tricks that would help our family, I had none.



So Tuesday night came, and we all piled into the car to take Jacob's car to the church to be weighed in. Joshua and Annikah and I went to the gym aka cultural hall to play and run around while Ashton and Jacob went to weigh the car. It weighed 2.6 ounces. It was supposed to weight 5.0 ounces. That was when everything started going south.



Ashton brought some coins from home and some scotch tape, just in case the car didn't weigh enough. After taping two dollars in coins to the car, it still didn't weigh enough. Ashton was getting really frustrated and I wasn't helping at all. I told him that he couldn't tape the coins to the top of the car because it looked ridiculous. Oh, for a supportive, quiet wife.



Annikah has taken up coaching me when I get upset. She went into this supportive, coaching mode, as we drove home from the church. "Mom," she said from the backseat, "take a deep breath." "Calm down." "That's better." It does work, I do calm down. Thank goodness for special ed teachers who are teaching my child to be calm, and in turn, her mother.



We ended up coming home to look for heavier coins and more tape. It was late, and the little kids were getting cranky, so while Ashton and Jacob tried to put more weight on the car, I showered the little kids and put them to bed.



The next idea for increasing the car's weight was to build a big lego seat for the driver. I thought this was a good idea and it looked really cool. Then we all remembered losing so pitifully last year, and wondered if it had to do with last year's car being the opposite of aerodynamic. So we scrapped the lego idea and I went to Ace Hardware to see if they had an weights we could use for the car.



Once there, I spoke with a lovely young man who offered me fishing lead. I bought it. Six dollars later, I came home. I gave Ashton and Jacob the lead, a pair of pliers to cut it, and the hot glue gun and sent them off to the church to re-weigh.



The boys came home a half an hour later. Jacob said that the car didn't look very good, but that it weighed enough. I was encouraged that maybe, just maybe, this would be our year.



Nope. We came in last, again. But this year, we were combined with another ward, so we were 18th out of 18. To add insult to injury, all three other boys his age from our ward came in in the top five. Ouch.



They gave Jacob an award that said, "Best Gas Mileage." Are you kidding me? Even my nine year old was smart enough to know that that was a nice way of saying, "You're last kid." Oh my.



We stopped by Jack in the Box for some chocolate shakes and came home to drown our sorrows.



I wonder why we're so bad at things so often. Isn't it bad enough that Jacob has two handicapped siblings that make life very difficult? Couldn't he have just a little success? I'm wondering what the Lord is trying to teach us. I told Jacob that we are supposed to learn that winning isn't everything. I also told him I was proud that he wasn't a sore loser.



He still asked if he could throw his car away. I said sure.

Jacob's New Glasses

Jacob got new glasses about a month ago. Isn't he cute? He can see the board so much better now and is doing much better reading. He got bifocals -- he had trouble seeing far and close, so they gave him both. They gave him the lenses with the line, but the lenses are small, so the line isn't very noticeable. He's very careful with them, and loves to make sure that they are clean and lint free.

Spring Break at the Zoo

This past week was Spring Break. Crazy me, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was a sunny day, so everyone was there with us. We had to wait in line for 20 minutes, just to show our card to get in. Josh was very unhappy about the wait, and I'm sure the people in line were thinking how crazy I am -- I kept saying, "Don't bite Mom" and "Nice hands" and "Don't get too close to him, he'll hit you!" After getting in, and after 2 small bags of chips for Josh, things went much smoother. The little kids even went potty in the toilet and Jacob wasn't stolen while we went into the women's restroom without him. The day wasn't without hitches, but all in all, a lot of fun. Jacob was a huge help.

The kids hanging out with a big ol' ape.

They had a lot of fun climbing in these caves.

This ape was just sitting, looking at all of the people looking at him.

Grandma Smith came to visit

Ashton's mom, Jane came to visit this past weekend. We had a great visit. Saturday, we took her to the Children's Museum in Seattle.

Ashton and Jane watching the kids play at the museum

All three kids loved sitting in this sailboat-- especially Josh though