There's a Lizard in Our House!

The boys were out in the backyard weeding, and Courtney went out to join them. Just as she opened the back door, a lizard was running across the porch, bounced off her cowgirl boot, and into the house. The boys came running in, yelling, "There's a lizard in the house!" Mr. Lizard was hiding behind our couch, so Darren flipped it upside down, and it wasn't there. We decided that he had crawled up inside the couch, so we hurried and pulled the couch outside, to shake him out.

OK, so he wasn't in the couch. He was hiding under the toy box. At this point, Darren had taken every box and piece of furniture in our house and made a blockade/running path to shoo that lizard out the back door. We moved the toy box, and our lizard friend ran under the entertainment center. Darren completely emptied the entertainment center, DVDs, movies, scrapbooks, TV, VCR, you name it, it was out. Then came the shovels and bowls......
About a half hour later, they scared the poor little intruder out, but then Darren trapped him under two couch cushions. After a grueling 10 minutes more, Darren got the guts to grab the lizard's tail and fling him out of the cushions. The lizard (luckily) found the running path and scurried out the back door. WHAT a mess! And all for a little lizard! (Darren will tell you the lizard was enormous!)

Star Wars Party

Xanderman had a wild & crazy 9th birthday party with his friends. He is a bit obsessed with Star Wars, so that's what we did! We made light sabers, played Star Wars Bingo, Lego Star wars projected on the wall, pin the control panel on Vader, & had dinner from Pizza the Hut.

Literally the "hit" of the party was these light sabers the kids made from pool noodles & PVC pipe. Darren had as much fun as the boys, being "the bad guy." The cool thing about these: you can hit as hard as you want and it doesn't hurt! The boys played with these for at least an hour!

This cake was supposed to look like the scene in Star Wars when Ben Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker are dueling it out on the lava. Hmmm... interesting.

Look out Armstrong...

The champion... we are so proud of Darren! He completed the Tour De Phoenix! 75 miles on a bike in one day is quite an achievement. He says it was the hardest thing he's ever done-- at one point he crawled under some old truck on the side of the road and waited to die (or have a rattlesnake bite him)!
The kids made him a sign & cherred like crazy when he came across the finish line!
Post-race handsome-ness! Check out the medal...

World Conservation Award

Tonight Alexander earned his World Conservation (Panda) Award, and a total of 9 arrowheads. Way to go! We are so proud of him! He loves being a Cub Scout.

Pinewood Derby

This year was Alexander's fist Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He took 1st place in his den and then 3rd place in a combined den race (be sure to watch the video below). It complied with the rules but had a little "extra" engineering. When it comes to the Pinewood Derby some secrets will be taken to the grave.

Cutting out the car.

Counting fingers after cutting.

Sanding, sanding and sanding.

Alexander's design. Since Home Depot's #20 car, driven by Tony Stewart (or as Courtney says "Twenty Stort") is his favorite NASCAR, the theme was easy.

4....3...2...1....

Day at the track

Boat Race

Unnamed and Untamed!!

Big Foot!!

Iron Outlaw!!

Nasty Boy!!