Newsworthy

This has been another newsworthy week for the Van clan.

Dylan was student of the month. We were proud of him, but sad to realize that the prized and much anticipated donuts were replaced by cookies. Cookies for breakfast? Hm? Donuts are a much more nutritious breakfast, don't you think?

And then on Thursday we went to the district science fair. We were 45 minutes late (surprise surprise!) and walked in just in time Derek and Dylan's names to be announced. Great timing, if I do say so myself, at it is a LONG, LONG program. Dylan got first place for his project "Jiffy Lube" where he tested different kinds of lubrication on a pinewood derby car to see what made it go fastest. Derek also got a first place ribbon for his project "Weight For It!" where he used the same pinewood derby car to test where on the car is the best place to put the weights. Their projects were very similar in how they were done, making it much easier for us to do both, yet tested very different things about the car.

I was rather surprised, since we did both projects entirely the night before they were due. We weren't looking to win, frankly - I just wanted to get them done and over with so we could all go to bed. (Alex won a few years ago, then went on to County where we had to redo the entire project and it was a ton of work, so I wasn't really anxious to go through that again. Actually, winning was the LAST thing on my mind at that late hour.) So getting two blue ribbons was a pleasant surprise!

Then all the blue ribbon winners had to stick around to see who would be the sweepstakes trophy winners. We stuck around to humor the boys, and guess what? They both won! Shocker! (We can't seem to lose a science fair even if we try.) This means that they both get to go on to the county science fair in April. So much for just being done with it, huh?

But, I am really proud of them, and I have to admit, their projects were original and fun to do. I know they learned a lot in the process. The science of speed!

In other news... Alex and I were interviewed by a reporter from the Desert Sun last week, and there was an article about him and his Eagle project in Thursday's The La Quinta Sun section of the paper. It was kind of exciting.

Here is a link to the article, in case you missed it.

So, if you are still counting, we can add a certificate, two blue ribbons, and two trophies to the medal count. Newsworthy, indeed.