Up to God and Back: Jaden's update

We came back from an AMAZING week in Japan and I was immediately humbled by my kids. We do so many things to expose them to things and create experiences for them that they will remember. We literally just took them on this fantastic adventure in Japan and then on our first full day home we had a lazy morning, had friends over, went to a friends house, came home for dinner and when I promised family game night, they got so excited Jaden wanted to set the table with my fine china to celebrate this "epic" day. They always blow me away with their appreciation for the littlest things in life. Apparently play dates and game night rank higher than a trip to Japan. Love my kids!!

Formal china for our chicken and mashed potatoes dinner after an "epic" day with friends and board games

So this past week, Jaden had his Cub Scouts Graduation. It was his first year to be involved with scouts and I'm not sure we were very good scout parents. We missed a lot of the pack events, but Jaden still enjoyed his den meetings and earning the various patches/pins/belt loops/etc. Here are a few pictures from cub scouts throughout the year:

Beginning of the year when Jaden gets his scarf (do they have official names?) ... yes he had a broken finger

Den meeting at our house ... made skeletons out of paper plates (right before Halloween)

Hanging with friends waiting for Rainwater Regatta to begin

Ready to race ... Jaden had a Minecraft Creeper boat design

Finish line

Short video of one of Jaden's races ... close until the end

Blue and Gold Banquet ... award ceremony

Jaden's favorite den meeting ... game about road safety

Ken found the pinewood derby race to be quite challenging to prepare for here in Doha. We don't have any tools and the supplies are impossible to find in country. So Jaden's car was a simple triangle (think cheese wedge) painted with orange flames. Then Ken wanted to add some extra weight to help make it go faster so he stuffed weights into a kazoo, carved out a spot on top of the car and stuck a lego guy's head and helmet on top to look like a driver. I thought it was all pretty clever considering what we had to work with. This project also taught us it's more of dad's derby than the cub scout's derby. Jaden wasn't able to help saw (too hard with a hand saw) or carve out the kazoo spot, so he basically just painted it and Ken did the rest. Based on other entries, Jaden did as much or more than anyone else.

The Golden Car (no clue why he named it the golden car ... I wanted to call it The Crazy Kazoo)

Race course is ready

Photo finish with Jaden's car in the farther lane from the crowd...

Nicholas' crazy hair ... watching the races after a brief soccer match outside in the heat (he cools himself off by combing his hair up off his scalp)