More of Kaden's mind...

Tonight he tells me we can't go anywhere the first 2 weeks after school gets out because he wants to be here to harvest the strawberries. We went to Florida last year right after school got out and we missed the harvest. The animals were happy I am sure! Even though we only get a small amount he still loves watching them grow and searching for ones that are ready to eat. He also wants to plant cucumbers this year so we can feed them to Frappy.

The mind is a terrible thing to waste?

I would really really love to get into Kaden's mind! First off I know it never stops thinking. His brain is ALWAYS going with some idea or invention or thought or a way to solve things or or or. And the things he comes up with juist blow Keith and my mind away.

The other day we had filled up the trunk with a ton of rocks and on the way home he told me to pull into dads parking spot so it would be easier to unload the rocks right where we wanted them. Not a world shattering idea, but one I had not thought of yet as we were just leaving the rock house. Can't say I'd have thought of it until we got home either. But yet there was his brain working full time! He can seem a million miles away when you are talking to him, and yes sometimes I think he is, but yet you can ask him about what you just said and he's got the answer...not always exactly right, but close enough for how distant he seemed. He goes into his own little world all the time. I don't know if that's his happy place or what. But again his mind is going and going and going! I'm just utterly amazed at what he says or comes up with. Oh when he makes his own Lego designs, he doesn't throw pieces together, he thinks about what he's building and makes sure each Lego is there for a purpose. His way of doing things isn't always the easiest or necessiarly the "correct" way, but you can see his point in why he said what he did, or did what he did, and if not, he'll explain it.

Salem's brain doesn't work that way, while he is very very smart it's obvious his brain does not work the same. Not bashing Salem at all, he has his own quirks and such. Heck Kaden's brain doesn't work the way any of ours does, he is definately one of a kind! Salem likes it when Kaden comes up with the ideas and then he can benefit from them! (That's pretty smart I think) Such as bike courses. Kaden will make them and Salem will ride them.

Right now Kaden has been working on making a bike course in our yard. The 1st one of the season. He's been outside for over 2 hours now plotting out the course in his head, staking it out, putting up caution tape and making it real! That is his thing. He puts his heart and soul into making it. Somedays he's not even all about riding the course more than a few times. It's the building of it that he enjoys the most!

I have no clue what he's going to grow up and be, but I do know whatever he does it will be some place where he can use his mind to the fullest...or I hope it is!!

If you ever have a few days to sit and watch him play, or give him a problem and see what solution he can come up with...it'll just blow your mind!

Pinewood Derby...the final frontier

Such sweet sorrow, tis our last Pinewood Derby in scouts :( Kaden and Keith had a good time building the car. Kaden didn't seem to want to have much hands on helping out as in previous years. He had plenty imput though as to how it should be done! As always it was a cool design and had a lego guy! Gotta have the lego guy!!

Not sure where Kaden finished, he didn't get a trophy this year. The computer program and the track electronics were screwed up, so while we had the program to tel us who was racing in what lane, it was just a big mess! We should have raced it by dens without computer and it would have been much easier. Anyway, it's all said and done. He had a good time, was happy with how his car raced, except said afterwards we should have raced it forward. We raced it backwards because it had big wobble and backwards had a bit less. Kaden had the final say on which was it raced!

Here are the pics of his car. It originally had a lego guy driving it, but after the race it fell off...or was knocked off, not sure.

Lego Olympics

The boys took the Olympics to heart this year. Watched them as often as they could and recreated many of the events at home with their Legos and Playmobile. I did not get any pics of the Playmobil Olympics but those were the summer events. The took the plane and carried all the guys and their stuff up our stairs and we had the summer events on our stairway and upstairs hallway. Quite inventive they were! I've gotten use to finding playmobile, legos and hot wheels ALL over the house!! I have to laugh sometimes when I find them in my makeup drawer in the bathroom, parked in between our bikes in the dining room and lined up in our kitchen.

Back to the Snoop Olympics...the boys went winter Olympics with Legos. They especially loved the bobsled and luge. Kaden has been fond of bobsledding for a long time and loves watching it. His 1st derby car was a bobsled even. Here are some of their creations!

Splitting up

Last weekend we were quite busy! Kaden had a cub scout campout from friday evening till sunday morning. Salem had a merit badge class from 9-3 on Saturday and then he had a campout until sunday morning. Kaden's event required a parent the whole time, Salem's merit badge required a parent so Keith and I split up. Keith took Salem for the weekend and I took Kaden. Having only 1 car Keith became out taxi driver! He dropped Kaden and myself off at camp and left :( The next day Keith and Salem headed down to Iowa City for the merit badge class. After that Keith dropped Salem off at his campout and enjoyed a quiet evening alone. Sunday he picked up us and then we all picked up Salem. The timing was perfect the whole weekend! Hectic but all went well and I'm glad we were able to do it all!

Kaden's campout went very well, I was quite concerned. It was the 1st campout for these boys and the people scheduling it. There was another mom with me so that was nice. The weather was tolerable. Chilly and icy/snowy (already on the ground) but Saturday when all the outside stuff was planned was sunny!! We slept in a lodge with 2 fireplaces/furnaces that kept us very warm!! The lodge was winterized so no running water, had to use the latrine or porta potty (depending on how far you wanted to walk) and boil water on the stove to clean dishes and wash hands. So while we were inside, it was more roughing it than what I thought. I loved it though!!

The boys completed some pins for Webelos and had lots of free time. I think they enjoyed themselves! They had a full cord of wood dropped off that they had to carry down a big hill and refill the stockpile. The kids (and adults) were required to do chores each day. Also the last night we had a campfire and Kaden taught everyone a song, he also organized a couple kids to do a skit with him! There were no major injuries, 1 bloody nose for Kaden about 20 minutes after we arrived. And I burned my finger cooking breakfast that required some cream and a bandaid. Otherwise I think everyone else was just fine!

Salem's merit badge was boring says Keith and Salem. He chose Space Exploration to earn. Keith and Salem agreed going to Kennedy Space Center last summer taught them more than the class did. They launched 2 rockets for the whole class of 30 kids, so they didn't even build their own. Most of the class was large group talking and some small group talks. Not hands on anything :( I guess we could have done that one at home, oops. But for all the other kids it was a new stuff I'm sure. Not everyone has the bonus of being able to go to NASA. Well, now he has officially earned the badge though, so that is a plus.

So overall a great weekend! Busy, but better than sitting around bored!