Pinewood Derby 2013

Ethan's new den highly recommended a Derby Car Workshop where you took your block of pine to this guy's house and three hours later you would have a finished car. Mark and Ethan were able to cut, sand, prime and paint his car at the workshop, but then let it sit around for almost a month before Mark put the wheels and stickers on the night before weigh-in. Which made it all the more special when Ethan's car broke the 3-second barrier multiple times, won the Wolf Division and almost became Derby Champion! The event was held in a garage on the grounds of the Texas Motor Speedway, which was extra fun for the kids - especially when there were drivers racing around the track!

Grandma Nault Comes to Visit

We were fortunate to have Mark's mother, Barbara, spend almost two weeks with us at the end of January. She got to spend lots of time with the kids and witness lots their activities, such as Ethan's Pinewood Derby and PTA performance; the Irving Arts Center for Jacob's art merit badge; making pasties with Mark; and exploring The Flower Mound from which our town got its name.

Happy New Year

We celebrated the New Year with NAPA friends (4 kids; 2 kids) and a friend of Jacob's from SA (our 4+1), carbo-loading on pizza, an amazing onion dip, and cupcakes. There may have been some veggies and hummus, but I'm pretty sure not one kid touched them. Since we're all parents of young kids and royally outnumbered, the night ended a little before 10:00 p.m. - just perfect to get home, put the kids to bed, and watch the ball drop in NYC. 

A new year brought us a new van. The old one served us well for eight years and in order to ensure continued minimization of door dings, we went with another van...the same model, just newer. Ethan wanted to name it Ninja. Lucas suggested The Nault Van.

The conversation about what to name it on Facebook was hilarious. Suggestions included: Black Stallion, Fabio, BlackJack, Osiris (Egyptian god of the underworld), Hades, Rollin' Thunder. KITT,  and the one that made me laugh the hardest: Darth Van! We haven't really settled on anything yet although I can't bring myself to call it Darth. It's not evil. It has swagger! 

My resolutions of swimming more and volunteering less cosmically reversed themselves and I didn't make it to the pool in all of January. But I did volunteer to be Cookie Mom for Sarah's Girl Scout troop (for which SHE earned a badge...what's up with that?), and to create a video for Ethan's Cub Scout den. 

Jacob headed to Corpus Christi with his Boy Scout troop to camp at a church one night and spend the other on board the USS Lexington. He had already been to the Lexington with us before, but to spend the night in the crew's cramped quarters was something entirely different!