Happy Birthday Ben!

Two Saturdays ago, we celebrated my stepson's birthday.  We don't have him on his birthdays for most years, so we do a celebrate on the Saturday closest to his birthday.  

We were suppose to go hiking for his birthday, but due to a miscommunication, we went to Howard's Knob Park for his birthday.  As you can see in the picture below, Howard's Knob is the highest park in the town of Boone.

My kids are rock climbers, so they enjoyed climbing all the rocks that were in the park.  They even scared some of the adults that were with us being on ledges so far up, but I have learned to just not watch them.

Mark really liked playing on the rocks.

It happen to be peak weekend up here, so the colors were unbelievable.

Afterwards, we went out to eat and then have cake at home.  Ben wanted a lemon cake with lemon icing and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It was sour!   He thought it was good though.

After that, Ben wanted to go to Tweetsie Railroad for their Ghost Train.  It was a cool night, so the kids had to modify their costumes.

He had a good birthday!

Wordless Wednesday

I will tell the story of this tomorrow:

Reflections on a Girl Scout Camping Event

Last weekend, my troop participated in the annual Service Unit Camporee.  It's when several Girl Scout Troops get together to camp and there is a common theme.  It's suppose to be a great way for the girls in the different troops to get together and get to know each other.  As a leader of a younger troop, it is a great way to introduce my girls to camping for a weekend and have all the events covered.

For several of my moms, this was their first girl scout camping experience.  I knew some of the leaders are very gossipy (doesn't that make me sound like a contradiction, but it is what it is) and I don't chose to participate in that kind of activity.  In a way, I hate when people gossip in a situation like this, as I am concerned that they are talking about me.  But, I am there for the girls in my troop to make sure they can have the best event possible and I think it is the same for the other moms that came with me.  So, I didn't allow it to bother me too much.

One of my moms was really bothered by it.  She noticed the behavior of the other adults and came to me very concerned about their behavior.  I didn't have any solutions for this, but I reassured her that I did not want to participate in the behavior and I too was bothered by it.  As the conversation went on, she wondered what kind of troop leader they were if this was their behavior was in front of the girls (and she admitted too that this was a sort of contradiction on her behalf as well).  She even spoke to one of the organizers of the event as well.

What was I suppose to do?  The last line of the Girl Scout Law is to be a sister to every Girl Scout.  I want my girls to have the best possible experience in Girl Scouts and I am worried about them seeing the behavior of the other leaders.

My 100th post!

Remember when you were in Kindergarten and there was big celebration on the 100th day of school?  You had to bring in 100 things and you came home with a 100 hat?  You counted all sorts of things and had a blast.  My kids always wanted to bring in 100 grains of rice.  That was not fun to count.

Well, I am here with my 100th post.  It kinda snuck up on me.  So, I think I should celebrate my 101st post.  How do you think I should do it?