All Rileyed Up

Allow me to introduce the Master of Ceremonies for this week’s Carnival of Family Life:

Junior, The Fearless Robot.

Hi, I’m Junior the Fearless Robot. I’m a 5.9oz hand-carved (by Husband) boxcar that was painted and decorated by The Boy (see other handcrafted works by children at Magic Marker Monday). Over the weekend, I raced down this track in THE PINEWOOD DERBY:

Allow me to tell you about the magic that is THE PINEWOOD DERBY as we meander through the many categories of this week’s carnival.

Education

The Pinewood Derby is a boxcar race wherein men and their sons put together what they hope is the fastest car. Knowledge of physics, aerodynamics, and gravitational pull help, while the ability to answer the question ‘how do you get the wheels on just so in order to make the car roll in a straight line?’ is imperative.

Other educating posts:

Woman Tribune presents Get Your Kids Interested in the Environment posted at Woman Tribune.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Teaser to Exercise your Memory and Reasoning Skills posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution. Are you familiar with these American and international proverbs?

Family Cooking & Recipes

At the Pinewood Derby, you might be able to snack upon burgers and french fries from the In-n-Out van parked outside. It’s a swell way to comfort sad little boys (and sometimes sadder fathers) when their cars don’t win.

Other cooking posts:

Cyndi Lavin presents Vegetable vindaloo posted at Busy Family Meal Planning. “Vindaloo sauce can be used to flavor meats,” Cyndi writes, “but we like it best as a vegetarian delight!”

Cyndi Lavin presents Top 10 Chocolate Gadgets posted at Cooking Gadgets. Who doesn’t love chocolate?

HowToMe presents How To Make “Cream of Chicken” posted at HowToMe.

Family Crafts and Activities

Preparation for the boxcar derby includes wood-carving, painting, drawing, then realizing the paint wasn’t dry enough, then fretting over smeared graphite, then repainting and waiting several days for the new paint to dry, then accepting that, in the end, dry paint is overrated. Then attending the event where everyone else’s car had no problem getting their paint to dry?

Other crafts and activities:

Riley presents A Faery Hunt at Griffith Park posted at All Rileyed Up.

DeeDee presents Five Recipes For Finger Paint posted at Things Your Grandmother Knew.

Stephanie presents Modeling Compound Magnets posted at Make It From Scratch.

The Smarter Wallet presents Nintendo Wii Review, Video Game System Pros and Cons posted at The Smarter Wallet. Considering purchasing a Nintendo Wii for your family? This review might help you decide.

knittsings presents Knitting Machine Manuals - Brother, Passap, Studio, Knitmaster, Singer, Silver Reed posted at knittsings, saying, “Is there a knitting machine lurking at your home in need of a manual? Here is a list of all the free downloads across the web, organized by machine manufacturer.”

Kevin Fleming presents Dish Network Family Package Review posted at Satellite TV Guru.

Dianne M. Buxton presents Some Highly Effective Tips For Ballet Summer Intensives Auditions - And The Nerves posted at Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes, offering “advice for aspiring ballerinas and young men in ballet to prepare for ballet summer intensive auditions.”

Family Finance

The Pinewood Derby is a realtively inexpensive way to have a good time with your children. To put it in a MasterCard ad:

$20 - supplies to make boxcar
$10 - In-n-Out food at Pinewood Derby
$1 — band-aids applied to children’s bodies after a little too much exertion in the bounce houses
$3 — vending machine waters
Free - comforting hugs to the fathers and sons whose cars didn’t advance on to the finals

A DAY OF FAMILY FUN? Priceless.

Other posts on Finance:

Richard Adams presents Save Money By Not Going Abroad For Your Holiday This Year posted at Reading UK.

David presents Citi PremierPass Elite Review posted at Credit Card Offers IQ. “My family and I recently took a trip to Guatemala and saved thousands using a travel rewards credit card,” David explains. :The Citi PremierPass Elite is one of the best travel cards available for family travel.”

singlemomsrock presents 7 Steps to Economic Empowerment: It Begins Between the Ears posted at Rich Single Momma.

Raymond presents Review Of ING Direct Savings and Electric Orange Checking Accounts posted at Money Blue Book.

Jim presents Best Money Market Account (MMA) Rates posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. “It’s important to keep up to date on the best rates when it comes to your savings,” Jim opines.

Finance Tips 101 presents Identity Theft Prevention Tips posted at Finance Tips 101.

Family Health and Wellness

A healthy family is a happy family and it’s good for the family to do things together, like check out the competition together and analyze how to sabotage them:

I’m definitely worried about that one on the left.

Other posts about family health and wellness–

Matthew presents Home Safety Information for Alzheimer’s Disease posted at Fast Medical Information. “If you are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, you face many challenges everyday life,” Matthew observes. “These tips will help keep your loved one safe and free you from worry.”

Shen-Li Lee presents Infant Food Allergies on the Rise - What’s the Real Cause? posted at Babylicious.

Shamelle presents Ways To Regain The Hours Television Steals From You posted at Enhance Life.

Donald Latumahina presents 8 Essential Life Lessons for True Success posted at Life Optimizer.

Aparna presents Are our eyes ageing faster than our bodies? posted at Beauty and Personality Grooming. “Compared to our ancestors, we enjoy better health,” Aparna tells us, “but we might be outliving our eyeballs say the Australian researchers working at The Vision Centre in Australia.”

Janine presents Parents with Purpose posted at Why Homeschool, sharing what she has learned about brain development in children.

Family Humor

This boxcar didn’t win, but it sure made me smile:

My boxcar has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R!

Other posts to make you laugh:

Nicki presents Things I Say To Kids, But Never Adults posted at Domestic Cents.

Shawnee Rivers presents Of Dust Bunnies, Spiders & Natural Selection posted at Kinsanity - Real Life Family Dysfunction.

Family Pets

I suspect that if the dogs had been allowed to participate in the Pinewood Derby, they would have carved a boxcar of the animal services truck and made sure it went extra s-l-o-w, so that they could laughingly outrun it.

Check out Matt M., who presents Winter Blues for Dogs posted at The Pet Haven.

Family Relationships and Self-Improvement

Y Guides is a great way for Husband and The Boy to spend one-on-one time together sans ladies. They camp, they carve, they sing, they howl (or so I’ve heard). I hope The Boy always has fond memories of spending this time with his Dad.

Kate presents Cherish the Time posted at Advice on Love, Life, and Everything Between, saying, “A look at how to cherish the time with loved ones and create long lasting memories”

Alessia presents 13 Signs You?re In A Toxic Relationship posted at Relationship Underarm Stick.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Family Life In America: Report on Lifestyle, Economic Trends From The Trenches posted at The Digerati Life, a “look at how last year shaped up for one family.”

Isaac Yassar presents How To Realize Happiness posted at Isaac Yassar’s Overture. “People study and work to achieve success. Is happiness achieved by amassing money and massive personal consciousness?”

AEDINSY presents Tips for Finding the Love of Your Life and How to Have a Lasting, Happy Marriage posted at Everything You Need To Know About Getting Married and Staying Married. “Finding the husband or wife of your dreams is possible if you have a good attitude,” this happily married couple writes.

Family Spirituality/Belief/Worship

And since this is Y-Guides and all, the Pinewood Derby began with a man wearing a headdress reading an invocation to the Great Spirit. All the kids go by special Y-Guides names, like Howling and Growling Wolf Who Carved The Winning Boxcar.

Other posts on spirituality, belief, or worship:

Concerning Kids presents Healthy After School Snacks For Kids posted at Concerning Kids.

Jason Isbell presents Interview with D. Barkley Briggs posted at Tired Garden. In this interview, Dean Barkley Briggs talks about his life as a pastor, husband, father and widower and how he has forged a career as a writer.

Family Travel

The Pinewood Derby didn’t take place too far away from my house, but attending it and seeing how happy it made The Boy was otherwordly.

Tom Tessin presents Travel Websites That Save you Money posted at FAC Travel Blog, a list of websites you can access to plan your trip and save money.

Parenting Tips and Advice

In the event should you ever attend your own Pinewood Derby, make sure you are *very* clear that the fact that your car won a heat DOES NOT mean you’re taking home a trophy. Much sadness upon this realization… I cheered The Boy up by reminding him that he would receive a patch to put on his vest.

Other tips and advice:

Kim presents A Little Perspective Never Hurts posted at kimworld.com. “Finally! The baby moved to the crib. Mom thought she’s be throwing a party…” Kim explains.

Super Saver presents Teaching Delayed Gratification Skills posted at My Wealth Builder.

More than just a mother presents Having a dog and barking yourself posted at More than just a mother.

T. Dalia presents Lesson Learned posted at Daily Dalia.

Stephanie presents The One Bite Rule posted at Stop the Ride!

Kevin presents Teaching Children Respect posted at More4kids.

Vee presents Thought for the day posted at Tom Zirpoli’s Blog.

Becca Glouzstein presents 5 Things to Tell Yourself when Angry with the Kids posted at Inspiration for Mothers.

Hope you enjoyed learning about my little Pinewood Derby excursion over the weekend! Thank you for participating in and supporting this edition of the Carnival!

Next week, the Carnival will be making a stopover at The Expanding Life! Susan will be hosting for the first time, so click here to submit the link to and relevant information about your post. Should you have questions, be sure to review the Carnival guidelines before submitting your post.

Would you like the Carnival to pay a visit to your site? Check out the hosting schedule, select a date, and then drop a line advising what week you would like to host.

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