It's Almost Fall

It has been a while since we've published and I do apologize for that. It just seemed that the more I tried to do, the less got done. I hope that we've reached a happy medium now and I'll accomplish more as we settle into this year. With that, I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful start to the new school year, just as we are.

New Awesome Website

So there's this new website that Cole told me about. You should check it out and sign up for it. It is: www.fireninjas.com

Check it out and tell me what you think!

Summer Fun

What could be more fun than hanging out at the waterpark for a couple of days? Lazy pools, tubes, slides, jets...tons of fun and we have pictures galore to show for it!

Surprise!

Because Craig was in Dallas for training, I took the kids to my Grandparents' in San Antonio. We went to my Aunt and Uncle's home for a little family party when my mother disappeared for a while. Imagine my surprise when she walked in with my husband! What a wonderful end to a fantastic visit!

Morgan visits the Dalai Lama!

Wow! I was impressed with Morgan's selection to attend the annual Environmental Camp, but being selected to an all expenses paid trip to socialize with the Dalai Lama nearly took my breath away!

She was nominated to Environmental Camp initially because of her grades and abilities at school. Once nominated, Morgan was required to submit an essay focused on the effects of global warming. She went into intricate detail with regard to the diminishing environment of the polar bears and penguins because of the rise of global temperatures. Morgan's essay propelled her into being selected for the three day camp at Deception Pass here on Washington's coast.

As a result of Morgan's excellent performance, leadership, and compassion she was hand-picked by her school district along with nine others to attend the Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle hosted by none other than the Dalai Lama himself.

Morgan listened with rapt attention as the Lama spoke of spiritual oneness, compassion, and peace. He opined how young people such as herself can make a difference and how it is never too late to begin. While impressed with the Dalai's thoughts, Morgan is currently not yearning to travel to Tibet and visit him in his homeland. She will, however, carry his vision with her through young adult-hood.

Morgan did not get the opportunity of a photo op with the Dalai Lama and also did not get the chance to invite him over for a little Withers hospitality. Oh well.

The Derby

Cole's pinewood tank was the talk of the derby. Every kid there (and adults too) wanted to see the tank, hold it, or just plain touch it. The finely cut and carved body with exquisitely sanded and painted surfaces, and the turret with the mobile cannon were too much for the fans to ignore. And after a few minor weight adjustments, The Tank weighed in at a perfect 5.000 ounces with 60/40 front and rear axle weighting.


Cole's tank consistently placed first and second in each of the sixteen heats and qualified in the top eight for the finals. Unfortunately, tanks are not built for speed and after that many runs down the track, the tank's front right axle gave out on the last heat. Fortunately for Cole, he had two extremely seasoned tank crewmen in his pit crew with over 40 years of combined armor goodness. Ed and I went to work like vascular surgeons with the five minutes we had before the finals and with the tools at hand such as a Leatherman, epoxy, graphite, small wood pieces, tape, and a hammer were able to put The Tank back into a fully mission capable condition.

Sadly to say, Cole's tank finished 5th overall. The Tank was no longer beating the other derby cars that it had consistently beat in the previous heats. Ed and I correctly surmised that the horizontal stabilization corridor on the port side digressed from circular perfection thereby enhancing lateral motion which in turned created dynamic drag akin to a dragster popping a parachute to retard speed. What I'm really trying to tell all-you-all is: Cole's tank took an extra 1.17 seconds to complete the track length compared with previous results. All the fixes available could not diminish the fact that Cole needed a new hull.

On the bright side, had there been an award for the fan's (and racer's) favorite pinewood derby vehicle, it would have been Cole's tank.

Honorable Mention at District Science Fair

Cole's science project at school this year was a simple one. He deduced that hose diameter in successive doubled increments would reduce by half the amount of time it took for a measured amount of water to travel through them. He came to this conclusion by way of his experience in watering the lawn, washing cars, and filling up his Super Soakers.


In reality, the cold hard science provided different results as doubling the size of the hose multiplies the speed by four. Cole's "How Hose Diameter Affects Water Speed In A Siphon" earned him the second place award at his school and an invite to the District Science Fair. Kris later accompanied Cole to District as I accompanied his tank to the Pinewood Derby (yeah, they were on the same day).

Kris had to be out of earshot while Cole demonstrated and explained his science project to include his hypothesis and results to the panel of judges. His articulate and thorough knowledge of his project earned him the Honorable Mention award and has now motivated him to win it all next year.

Lucky for Cole, his participation at the science fair concluded early enough to arrive at the Pinewood Derby just prior to the finals.

Not So Simple Plan

As you can see, we returned to Ed's place and Cole got to painting his Tank. Ed is so particular about the colors that he wasn't content with any shade of green or brown or tan. It all had to be the exact color he was looking for, which was not NATO brown.

Ed showed Cole how to paint tiny dots of contrasting colors in different areas to liven up and make it more credible. According to Ed, Cole did a fair job on his Tank re-creation, thanks to the reference model and to the stellar instruction.

Here's Cole concentrating madly on moving the brush "just so".




In case you missed it, that is a turret on the top. Ed dismantled another model tank so Cole's tank car could be somewhat authentic. And here is the happy guy with his completed paint! Talk about super cool!

A Simple Plan

It is that time of the year again when we get those pine blocks out and turn them into some magnificent creation that looks like a car instead of just a rectangle. 2008 marks the second year that Cole has participated in this event with his Scout pack and the first time that Dad got to be involved.

When they first looked at the blank, they planned to do some simple rounding of the ends and paint it and be done. It started out as a simple plan, then Craig called Ed to ask about a coping saw. This, of course, cannot just be answered with a yes or no. This gets Mr. Minature and Model Man going. What on earth could Craig need a coping saw for? The mention of Pinewood Derby turned into a full-on, "I have a Dremel with a saw attachment that would be perfect for your situation. Come on over" from Ed. I didn't see my boys for about 4 hours.

Upon their return, I was told that they would be going back in 2 days to finish paint (like this is some professional vehicle or something) and that it turned into, of all things, a tank. I know, brace yourselves for this one. Who could have thought of that in this group?

Needless to say, the Tank was quite the creation in the making, as evidenced by these photos.

Cole did do some work on the car, too.

It doesn't look like much right now, but the finished product should be pretty cool. Check back later.

UNICYCLE!!!

Check this out! This is Cole on his first solo unicycle trek. Notice the straightness in travel, his mastery of balance, and his ability at defying gravity! Woo hoo! Unfortunately his progression with unicycle one-ness will be delayed for a while as unicycle practice is on the same days as baseball practice, and the slugger (Cole) favors the crack of aluminum, the sting of leather, and the smell of grass!




You may have to click on the title "UNICYCLE!!!", hit enter or your spacebar to get this working. Give it a few seconds to download. You may have to click more than once.

Nikki Earns Read Well Achievement!

Nikki is a reader! Our local Kindergartener is now a reading celebrity. Recently Nikki completed the First Grade reading level and is now reading second and third grade levels with accuracy and comprehension. She leaves her Kindergarten classroom during a specific time on reading days to read with the first and second graders. Because of this prowess, Nikki was awarded with the Read Well Certificate of Achievement at a school assembly which is rare for someone in half-day schooling.

Nikki is now reading chapter books in her liesure time and is planning to start zipping through the American literature classics this summer. She credits her success to occasional ladybug sightings and chocolate milk. Woohoo!

Shhh! It's a Birthday!

So, after not doing a whole lot for Craig's last couple of birthdays (including the "Big 40"), I felt that he deserved a real party. I got in touch with our friends and invited them out for an evening at the local comedy club. I already set up a kid-watcher, so we didn't have to worry about the kiddies, and made arrangements for dinner. The best part of all this is he didn't know he was getting a party. He thought we were just going out all the way until we picked up our friend Brandy and her friend Wanda.

We got to the club where we were going to eat dinner and then people just started showing up. Needless to say, Craig was tickled to death that all these people were there to celebrate with him. We had a total of 10 of us and, for some reason, we got to sit in the front row at the comedy show. It was loads of fun, lots of ribbing from the comedians and our friends even ratted us out on a few occasions. Thanks, Doug and Emily for answering questions so truthfully!

Thank you to everyone who made this night even more enjoyable!

The Magic of 12

I am proud to announce that Cole has officially made it through his multiplication tables through 12 and has received Math recognition in both his class and in the school. He is very proud and, as an extra incentive, his teacher rewarded him with a big Hershey's chocolate candy bar.

Made it through the Holidays!

Wow, for a family that made the determination to be home for the holidays and do very little, we sure had a lot going on! Mom and Dad Q visited for Thanksgiving, we made a trip to Portland, one to Spokane, and several to Yakima. We also were visited nearly every other day with friends, kept up with the Seahawks, hosted Nikki's birthday party, went snow tubing, and a plethora of other stuff.

Here we are in the Suburban decorated with green interior lights on our way to Yakima to pick up Morgan and then on to Spokane. As you can tell, Cole and Nikki could care less about driving over a snowy pass as long as their Nintendos are chock full of power. And speaking of snow, we have only had a trace so far while the Cascades and Eastern Washington have been receiving record amounts of snowfall. We have had a ton of rain, however.

Well, now that we are into the new year, resolutions made, and kids back in school, we are excited about the coming year. Everyone here is in good health, doing exceptionally well in school and activities, and looking forward to doing some traveling!

We certainly hope this new year finds all-y'all in good health and spirits!

Turkey Day

Turkey Day at the Withers house involved lots of activities. We started preparing about 3 days ahead of time, and it was well worth it. Our feast consisted of butternut squash soup, turkey, roasted green beans with onions, wasabi-green onion mashed potatoes, yummy mushroom stuffing, sweet potato meringue pie, homemade fresh cranberry sauce in port wine, and bread rolls. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and a chocolate cream pie (homemade, of course).

Our company consisted of Mom and Dad Q, our neighbor Emily, and our good friend Doug. We had a total of 9 of us, including our immediate family, and feasted until our bellies were FULL, FULL, FULL! I was worried that we wouldn't get to the dessert, but everyone rallied and we all enjoyed a slice of each pie. This was the first turkey dinner Kristine had prepared in 4 years, and it turned out to be a wonderful occasion. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed it with us. We look forward to our next holiday get-together!

School is Cool!

I am so excited to announce that Cole and Nikki are both in school. Not only that, Nikki is so excited about riding the school bus, she LOVES getting up in the morning to go to school.

It is different having both of them gone in the morning to the same location. That is the one thing that was missing for the last two years. Couple that with Nikki not riding the bus and me having to provide transportation, I've put a lot of miles on the car driving the whole 3 miles over and 3 miles back twice a day, 4 days a week for the last 2 school years. Believe me, it adds up!

My baby girl doesn't "need" me anymore, which means I'm going to the school a couple days this week to help out in her Kindergarten class. We'll just see who needs who!