Trading off the shakos and gauntlets for Class A's and hiking boots.

I have enjoyed marching band season, watching my 2 Marching Vikings, and am well aware I may have seen my last half time marching band show. However it was extremely gratifying dropping off my boys tonight at BSA Troop 450 Monday night meeting and watching them greet friends they had not seen in almost a month. Trading off the shakos and gauntlets for Class A's and hiking boots.

WEBELO's II Camping at Stone Mnt.

The LAST Cub Camp for ME!

Last Friday and Saturday the boys and I have been at cub camp. Twins as campers and Ben and I as volunteers. This was my 5th and last year as a volunteer. Ben attended one year by hisself. That is the year that I witnessed a kid throwing himself up against a wall, no one was watching no one stopped him. Later I saw 2 boys fighting, punching each other rolling on the floor. Their leader just looked at them and didn't say a word. That is when I knew my kids were not going to be there by themselves. All three of my boys really do enjoy it. And it is really good to get a heads up on rank advancement for the up coming year. It just seems to always be a bit dis organized, and short on volunteers. I have always been very lucky, in that my group has always been very well behaved. Of course, our pack always has more kids than any other pack. And our pack is a really good group of kids.

This last photo was the closing ceremony on Friday night, which included a flag retirement ceremony. I have heard Kenny and the boys talk about these at CRK, but never seen one myself. It was quit impressive. The older boys were all really respectful of the flags.

Have a great Monday! Stay cool! ~:>

PS: I forgot to add: Both boys qualified for the NRA Junior Shooting Team in Bee Bee's. Neither had their glasses on at the time. They must be really good aims! ~ : >

Bridge Over Week End in the Rain

This past weekend was the Bridge over weekend for the boys cub scout pack. It was MUDDY! But they had fun playing with friends even in the rain. In fact J had so much fun that he didn't want to stop long enough to run his car in the Pinewood Derby. He finished 4 for the district, not bad. They also got to shoot black power guns and do leather working.

I have no clue what the big one did all weekend, because that is what Boy Scouts do. What ever they want and not let the parents know.

Now it is Tuesday. I almost have all the muddy clothes washed.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Last night was the Blue and Gold Banquet. My little twins received their Webelos patch. They are now officially in their last year of cub scouts! Kenny and I have been going to cub scout meetings for EIGHT years!

Jake also received his trophy for pinewood derby.

Jake's Pinewood Derby Victory!

After 4 years of hardly winning a heat race Jake finally placed third in the pack Pinewood Derby. Graham has won two years. Ben won every year but one. He won the district his last year. So it is only fitting that J finally places well enough to go to the district. How ever, this means that I am going to miss out on a weekend scraping trip, which is usually what I do when the boys go to crossover weekend/district pinewood derby.

I need to get a photo of the car, I believe it is the worst paint job ever! It is black metelic with yellow and green overspray! But my snake man is happy!

Sorry about the bad picture, I have been taking photos in that fellowship hall for 6 years now, they all look the same and they never come out good.

Klondike Derby

Here are some photos that Kenny took this weekend of B's Klondike Derby.
They were somewhere on the Dan River in Stokes county. B says that he slept warm. His one man tent was inside of the big white dinning tent.

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My 2 Pages from this Summer...yes only two pages!

Wow, I was SO productive this summer! Can you believe only two pages?

I will say the camping page was so much fun to do. It does have sticker sneeze, but the stickers are so cute! My mom and I were shopping one day and found them at AC Moore, I purchased several sets and so far this is the only set I have used. They are embossed, they look all puffy on the page even though you can not tell it from the photo. I also enjoyed the journaling on this page it was way less stressful to just add the little ditty's, here and there, I guess a less formal type of writing than I usually do. [no smart remarks about my writing skills!]

B is Home

Just wanted to let everyone know that B is home. He is really tired, has layed around most of the day, watched TV or played computer games. He is a little sunburned, but not too bad.
He won Honor Camper for this week. It is given to campers who show that they are living by the scout law at camp during the week.
Well off to make pizza for supper!

Wednesday Night at Scout Camp

Went to see the B man last night at Scout Camp. He is happy, but really tired. He is taking Life Saving, Small Boat Sailing, Bird Watching and Physical Fitness. The Life Saving and Small Boat Sailing (of course) require a lot of time in the water, which helps with the heat. If you remember last year we were so happy when he passed his swimming and got the merit badge for that, the reason was because he wanted to take the small boat sailing, which has the requirement of the swimming merit badge.
So I cooked him mac and cheese and fried chicken. He was so tired he hardly ate anything. We got him a Dr Pepper and he perked up a little.
It was a lot easier leaving last night than it normally is, K stayed with him. So I came down the mountain with out tears in my eyes, for the first time! This is his third year, so you would think I would be used to it by now.

Cub Day Camp

Just a few photos from last week at Cub Day Camp. It was hot! On the first day between the stress and the heat I got sort of messed up, but was able to finish out the day. My sweetie had already said that he would bring pizza for supper Friday night, so I was able to come home and crash on the couch for the evening! We were there for 10 hours on Friday, Saturday was not as long so it was a much better day. I can't believe that next year will be the twins last Day Camp. They asked if B could drive them and they come an volunteer to help like B has been doing for the last 3 years. B driving is scary enough for me much less my babies being all alone in this mass of unorganized mess! Mom is going to have to think about that one.

Hopefully in a few days I will have photos of B at scout camp. We have not heard from him since he left Sunday. I feel tonight we will get a call with his order of all the stuff i need to bring him!

One More Photo---

I finally got a picture of G's stitches. He goes Friday to get them out. I think he likes them because they are BLUE!

He and his big brother were whittling on the same piece of wood. Do you think a blood circle was broken here?!? A carving tool slipped and cut G's hand. I took one look at it and knew that it had to have stitches. So off to the doctor's office we go. When we walked in they were talking about derma bond. When the doctor came in he told us "the word on the street is that this is not a derma bond case".

I also decided that even though this is the one child of mine that looks like me, he must not be mine. He watched every thing the doctor did. He watched them irrigate the wound, he watched them put the numbing in it, he watched them use the needle putting in the stitches and his favorite part was the knots (cub scout at heart!).

I on the other side (literally) was crouched down so that G's chest was blocking the view of all of this!

He has taken very good care of it, no infections, still some bruising, which Dr. Bell says is only natural. And if we ever find his whittling chip (read #3 on card at bottom of page), I will have 3 corners off of it!

Wednesday Night

Well, we went to see B last night. He was very happy. He has had a great week. Finally passed his swimming test. He can swim fine, but the problem for him is to be able to float on your back for 30 seconds. I guess he has just not got enough fat on him to make him float. So now he can take some of the boating courses. K went to the trading post and purchased B a new hat that has the camp name and swimming on it. As a little reward.
The photograph is made from the top of the new OA areana during the Wahissa Lodge Tap out Ceremony. B took the camera from me and made lots of photos but that means I don't have one of him!
On a Mom note, I was so proud of him. His side of the tent was very neat. He had his sheets on his bed. Had the bed made up. Now if I could just get him to do that at HOME!

Lonely Monday Morning...

B is at scout camp...so it is just the twins and myself around the Knoll this morning. We have had a lazy summer morning. I did do this photo shoot to have a photo to send to B at camp.

Cub Day Camp 2007

J, G, B, and I have just finished Cub Day Camp for 2007. It was a blast! I worked with the twins group the Bears, of course. They were such a good group. B got stuck with the Webelo's. They were varments. The lady that was supposed to do this left, because they were so bad. LOL! There were lots of fun Pirate activities and lots of wet water fun.