Westphals.net

Declan & Owen’s First Pinewood Derby

Brian — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:32:11 +0000

Today was Declan and Owen’s first Pinewood Derby. It’s their first year as Cub Scouts and the Derby is one of the highlights of the year. They picked out their car designs from a book mom brought home from the library. It wasn’t much of a plan, just a shape. So we improvised the rest.

The cars from all the dens were raced in various heats. When it was all said and done only the scouts from a particular den competed against each other. There are eight other boys in the Tiger Den with Declan and Owen. In the end Owen took first place and Declan took second place! They were both incredibly excited.

Here are the boys and their cars and their winners trophies. They had to take a serious picture first.

After the serious picture it was time to get goofy!

Original Works

Brian — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:55:20 +0000

Life goes by so very fast and leaves no time to blog. However, I wanted to share these pictures that the boys created for the Original Works program that their school is offering again this year.

Owen made a family portrait for his original work. Even the cats are included.

Declan's outer space scene. He's very proud of the alien turtle on the red planet.

Candy Corn’s Birthday Treats

Brian — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:48 +0000

Owen has a stuffed kitty named Candy Corn. He decided one day that it was soon to be Candy Corn’s birthday. When he mentioned that he needed a birthday present Linda suggested they could make some treats.

Out came the playdough! I think the results were very impressive. Owen was thrilled with the results as well as the time with mom.

Candy corn, and fishies for a kitty's treats. Plus a bowl to put them in.

Kieran the Honor Student

Brian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:01:00 +0000

The date was June 6, 2011. We went to the Lincoln Middle School Honors Assembly to watch as Kieran received recognition! Way to go, Kieran!

Kieran with his academic honors.

Visit from a Turtle

Brian — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:23:53 +0000

Linda returned home on July 15th and noticed this turtle walking on our driveway. So the whole family had to check it out. After we all had a look we put him in a box and walked him over to the pond across the street. When we released him there he scurried into the water pretty quickly.

When most of us saw him he was partway under the car in the driveway.

He looks a little disgusted doesn't he?

Burton Tower from the Michigan League

Brian — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:07:13 +0000

Burton Tower from a third floor window in the Michigan League. The Baird Carillon bells were ringing for the first time in more than a year on June 28th. The weather was beautiful and so was the sound.

Sunset – May 31, 2011

Brian — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:32:01 +0000

I looked out the back window and saw this amazing combination of colors and cloud towers. Nature is beautiful.

Scout Campout – May 14-16, 2011

Brian — Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:18 +0000

Linda and I used to live fairly close to Lower Huron Metropark. We had picnics in the park. What I didn’t know was that it has a pretty nice group camping area. It’s specially for youth groups so the Boy Scouts fit right in. On the weekend of May 14-16 Troop 240 headed over there for a tent campout. We used the Troop’s tents. These are the tents from last year’s National Jamboree. We have 10 of them that we bought after Jambo was over.

We got to the campsite by about 6:00 on Friday evening. We got our camp setup and cooked dinner. The three patrols rotated cooking and cleaning duty. Kieran’s patrol had cooking duty for Friday dinner. They did a good job on the soft tacos. The evening was cut short by rain. The guys were ready to stop fighting the weather and retired to their tents early.

Kieran, Kyle, Jason, and Matthew paused for a picture

Saturday we got up at 7:00 am. French toast and scrambled eggs were prepared for breakfast. After the cleanup there was some scout skill sessions that helped our newer guys learn some of what they need to advance to higher ranks.

One of the Scout Skills stations was fire starting

Kieran and Christian are really getting into their fire starting

We had intended to roast hotdogs for our lunchtime chili dogs over the fire. However, it was raining again so we resorted to the camp stoves for lunch. We did get a fire going later and had some really good pork chops grilled over the fire for dinner.

Our tents were all lined up along the tree line. Gear and grub areas down there at the end.

Kieran and Jason are in the background going over anime art techniques while pork chops cook over the fire for dinner.

Here are the Scoutmasters waiting for those chops to be done

This drain was a popular place for this gang to hang out

We had a nice time around the campfire Saturday night. Lots of conversation and the cracker-barrel. Since Friday’s cracker-barrel was rained out we doubled it up on Saturday. We had crackers and a cheeseball plus s’mores.

Unfortunately, the rain came back during the night while we were sleeping. It didn’t let up at all Sunday morning. We prepared breakfast. We had perogi, beef sticks, and fruit cups. The group that was using the pavillion was nice enough to let us cook and eat breakfast under it. That made it much easier with the rain. After breakfast was cleaned up it was time to break camp. We had to put everything away wet. So the tents and other Troop gear went home with the various leaders to get setup and dried out over the next couple of days.

Everybody said they had a good time on this campout. I know Kieran and I did!

Kieran Reads

Brian — Sat, 28 May 2011 00:00:03 +0000

Sometimes there are books that the twins really want Kieran to read to them. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind.

Kieran reads Power Rangers to Declan and Owen

Mom and Her Boys

Brian — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:08 +0000

On Easter while Linda had the boys in a photo taking mood and me with the camera she wanted pictures with each of them.

She almost couldn't convince Kieran to pose

Owen knows how to strike a pose

Declan's always ready for a picture