Derby

It was the Pinewood Derby tonight at Pack Meeting.

Derby - A formal race, usually having an open field of contestants.

August 18, 2009

Jack designed, cut, built, and painted his car all by himself. As luck would have it, one of his wheels wouldn't stay on and his car never once crossed the finish line. He was really bummed about it, but I think his car is adorable. I don't think "adorable" is what he was going for, so I probably didn't make him feel any better. I think he did a great job for having done it singlehandedly, bad wheel notwithstanding.

We went out to the jr high open house today. We met most of Taylor's teachers and it looks like a good year. I was most impressed with her teacher for Honors English. He seemed like the sort of teacher you would remember your whole life, and look back on with great fondness. I asked what the kids would be reading, expecting "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Romeo & Juliet." He said in addition to both of those, they would also have "A Midsummer Nights Dream" and "Hamlet." At BYU I took a class on Shakespeare, and that's all we read for a whole semester. I finally learned how to read Shakespeare, and that was one of my all-time favorite college classes. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at classic literature as I did when I read "Comedy of Errors." So I told Taylor I would read her Shakespeare with her. I've read all 3 of those, and although my favorites are "Comedy of Errors" and "MacBeth," these are good too. I'm glad she'll get a chance to be introduced to something besides Harry Potter. She has a real love for reading, so I hope she will learn to appreciate Shakespeare before she's 22.

Tomorrow is the meet & greet at the elementary school. Addie is simply beside herself with excitement. School all day long, eating lunch there . . . it's just all her dreams come true. She has a couple of her little friends in her class. Jack also has some of his friends in his class. I am hoping that now he is a big 5th grader, he will learn to control his talking a little. Who am I kidding? The boy never stops!