Happy Birthday Palmer!

Palmer is now 8 years old! Where does the time go?

For his birthday we decided to go with some friends and check out a place called Science City.

It is in Kansas City, and it is our new favorite place.

At Science City you can......

dig for dinosaur bones

play "science golf" where balls fly through the air

check out the space shuttle potty!

learn how to fly the space shuttle

wrestle a gator

check out some critters

practice your high-wire act!

(if you're tall enough)

Preston is strapped to the bike, but the bike is NOT hooked

to the wire! You can read how the science works below.

fly a helicopter

and so many more things we didn't get pictures of.

We had so much fun we bought a yearly pass so we can go back for more!

Palmer said it was the best birthday!

And then there was the cake.

Palmer drew a design of what he wanted this year's Star Wars cake to look like....

.... just right!

Happy birthday buddy!

We love you!!

Little Mr. Robot

Some kids do funny things; this kid IS funny, he has a sense of humor WAY beyond his 5 years! This was his birthday song to Palmer. Not sure who, where, when or how he learned this, but it cracked us all up!

On the Road Again

April 20th was a BIG night for the Kempers. It was our first concert!

We told the kiddos on Easter that we had tickets to see Willie Nelson and the count down began. Nick was the most excited. He asked me if he could make a poster that said "Willie Rocks!" As funny as I thought that would be I had to say no, the concert was not at the right venue for signs.

Kevin has always been a Willie fan, I also enjoy his music. I can give a lot of credit to Lyle and Ashleigh for our little Willie fans. They gave us Guitar Hero World Tour which has "On the Road Again" on it. We all know the words to that song by heart because of Guitar Hero, and because they liked to hear that song when we were in the car we've listened to a lot of Willie ever since.

The kids were SO excited when he finally came out. I forgot about the warm up bands that play at concerts, and Nick was really irritated that he had to wait an extra hour. If I had planned better I would have arrived later so we would have missed the waits at the door, and then the wait in our seats. But, the wait was worth it to see the kids' faces when Willie came out on stage.

Preston and I played photogs. These pictures were of us taking pictures of each other at the same time.

This is Nick's tired/mad/sad face during the warm up band. The saddest thing for me about the whole night was that after Nick had been SO excited for so long, he fell asleep after Willie had only been playing like 10 or 15 minutes. He slept on my lap until we got up to leave.

Kaydie was not tired, and had a great time. She's the night owl who can stay up for anything.

He started out he concert wearing a ball cap. After a few songs he threw it into the crowd. Then he put on the signature bandana. He had 6 or 7 of them, he would wear one for a bit then throw it to a fan. He didn't talk a lot in between songs, but he played for 1 1/2 hours.

The boys had fun. It was a late night and after a while Palmer had had enough and wnated to go home because he was tired. At 10:15 we could tell the show was wrapping up, and Palmer was claiming to have a stomach ache so we ended up leaving a little early.

See the bandana.

At the end he was out of bandanas.

There were a lot of people who looked at us with funny expressions on their faces when they saw a young family at a Willie Nelson concert. There were not many kids. A lot of people have thought it was funny that we are even fans at all. It's all good. I'm glad we were able to take our kids to see a music legend. I know Willie Nelson is an old pot head, but he is an awesome musician. He is amazing on that guitar. We had a fun time despite the fact the kids were tired and got a little bored towards the end. It will be great memory for them.

I always laugh that my first concert was New Kids On the Block. Lame-o! I think it will be awesome that our kids can say their first concert was to see a legend who was around for decades, even if it was the pot that kept him going for so long!!

The shirt off his back.....

This is our Palmer B.

He did something friday morning that made our hearts happy.

The kids' school color is purple. Every friday is Purple Pride Day, and it is a big deal. The classes all compete to have the most students in purple. We've made bracelets, colored purple stars on hands, bought ribbons for ponytails, and dug out all of Kaydie's purple jewelry so the kids can go as purple as possible. Back in the fall we also ordered school t-shirts to help. Preston and Nick chose grey shirts with purple writing, Palmer went with purple tie-dye, and Kaydie went with solid purple. They all also have a "back-up" shirt for just in case.

Well friday morning the kids were sitting around the table eating breakfast and all of a sudden I hear Kaydie gasp. I looked over and saw that she had spilled her bowl of cereal down the front of her. She was soaked; shirt, pants, the whole bit. She was so sad, worrried that she would be in trouble, then worried about what she could wear; she has outgrown her "back-up" shirt. Without hestitating Palmer told her she could wear his tie-dye shirt that he already had on, and he would wear his other one. After a quick change-a-roo we were all set for school and everyone still had smiles on their faces.

It made mom and dad so happy to see Palmer's generosity, and to see him accept a thank you hug from Kaydie.

I had warm fuzzies friday morning. It was so good to see a little act of kindness from one of the people who can drive me CRAZY and leave me wondering sometimes. I now have something to look back on and give me hope that Kev and I are doing something right the next time those same people do something that makes me want to pull my hair out!

Pinewood Derby!

It's our first Pinewood Derby!! Let the madness ensue. Preston didn't turn 8 in time to go to the derby his first year in scouts, then last year our ward had a space derby, after we moved. So we were newbies (at least I was, Kevin was a cub scout) to this derby thing, and the first thing we did was buy an extra car so Palmer could race in the "open" race for siblings, because he turns 8 in May and I didn't want him to miss out. The scout store has everything under the sun for all things derby, so we decided to buy the book with tips for a faster car, and a couple other things; this derby thing gets pricey....FAST!

First, I guess I should have taken pictures of the block of wood that we started with. Oops, oh well, it's a rectangle; you get the idea. So the first task to tackle in our little project was to bake the blocks. It's a little tip to help get extra water weight out so you can add more weight where you want it.

After the baking came the shaping. We don't have a garage to tackle these types of projects, so the basement had to do. We also don't have any handy power tools to make the job easier, so Kev went old school. This is something else I should have taken a picture of because he managed to change rectangles into triangle wedges with a coping saw and chisels!

On to the sanding......

Preston was ready to help every step of the way. Palmer helped with his car for a bit, but he was happy to watch his brother take care of the sanding when it got boring. Preston took his time and got the cars super smooth.

When the sanding job got the final OK from Dad it was on to the detailing. Spray paint is so much more fascinating than sanding!

When the painting was finished it was time for the speed details.....

The book had tips for using sandpaper to smooth down the wheels to help them go faster, and other tips about axels, yadda, yadda, yadda. Kevin held the wheels, Preston ran the drill. It was fun to watch Preston and Kevin working together, if nothing else the derby gave the boys some quality time.

The finished products!

Palmer's is the AT-AP, in tribute to Star Wars. Preston's is the PK Ripper, his nickname. Some extra Guitar Hero stickers came in really handy!

The big race.

After we checked in and weighed the car we took it to the judging table. All the kids would have their car judged in different categories like "Most Colorful", "Most Realistic"...

Looks good, huh!





Then it was race time! This guy ran the race. In order to keep the chaos to a minimum, and keep the track intact, he would place the cars in the lanes while the spectators looked on from the sidelines. Preston's car is in the far right lane.

On your mark.... get set..... GO!

Preston's car came in a consistant 4th in his heat. His times were pretty fast, and he was running in a fast heat. Each car ran once in each lane, so we watched his car race 6 or 7 times. 4th place almost every time!

He had a great time. He was a little disappointed that his car did not make it into the final heat, but it was fun to watch. His car did pretty good for having crooked, loose axels and being weighted wrong for the type of track they were racing on.

This is PK receiving his award for "Fastest Looking". He probably would have been more excited about it if his car actually had been the fastest! I can see the look on his face, and he's thinking "Huh?"

Palmer was excited to be able to race. He was a trooper and waited through 30 or so races to get to the open race.

On your mark... get set..... GO!

(It was easier to get a good picture of his car at the start because by this time pretty much everyone was interested in something else, and it wasn't a big deal if I got close to the track.)

He came in 2nd!

Palmer kind of got a raw deal, they only let these kids race once. But he was thrilled with 2nd so he wasn't too upset about it.

Pinewood Derby lessons learned:

1.Pinewood Derby is SERIOUS!

2.Hobby Lobby has pre-cut cars.

(would have been nice to know BEFORE we started!)
3. Walmart's spray paint cans are 97 cents.

4. Fishing sinkers work just as well as "Pinewood Derby Weights".

(again, 3&4 would have been nice to know earlier in the process!)
5. It's helpful if the wheels stay on the car, the whole way down the track.

6. Buying the $12 book of tips for fast cars, and following those tips

does NOT guarantee a fast car!

7. You should give yourself more than 4 days to make your car.

I am proud to say that Kevin and I did NOT turn into Little League parents at any time during the derby events. Preston and Palmer were allowed to give as much help as was safe during the process of making the cars. Hopefully we made some good memories.

I was hoping for PK's car to do a little better, it was fun to watch his reactions to the races. It would have been fun to watch him watch his car try to win.

Over all we had a great time, we worked hard and fast in order to have the cars ready on time. The most important lesson I learned is after all the prep, work, and strategy, it all ends up a crap-shoot anyway; so have fun and don't take it too seriously.

So we'll take our lessons learned, and our experiences from the race, and kick butt next year!