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?

Silent Sunday: School Pictures

Girl Scout Camp for adults!

Has it been seriously 2 weeks since I last posted?  Well, as you can see my life has been busy.  Our new routine has pretty much stuck.

This weekend was different.  I had to go to Girl Scout Camp without my daughter or my troop for training.  This was the first time since I had been married that I was not staying in the same place with either my husband or my kids.  I could not believe that when I realized that.

So, one of my fellow troop leaders and I took off to the training Friday night.  The training did not start until Saturday morning, but since it was a 2.5 hour drive, we figured we would go Friday.  We got to the training site.  We got to meet some other leaders and learn some new songs.

Saturday started training.  The first class was a three hour class in fire building.  This class covered a whole lot more then fire building.  Knife safety and fire starters were also talked about as well.

The next class was outdoor cooking.  My family is into cooking, so I knew how much you could do outside.  The climax of the class was each group being assigned a part of the meal to cook.  Well, my class gets dump cobbler.  It's one of my husbands favorite things to make and I could do it with my eyes closed.  I can send you the recipe if you ask me!  I taught everyone how to make it.  We also did foil packets, soup and french bread.  Pretty much anything you can make in a kitchen, you can make outside.

The last class was the overnight experience.  It was talking about how your girls should plan the camping trip.  The other leaders were very afraid of this.  I am all for it.  I think the more control you give the girls, the more fun they have.  I can't wait to for our first camping trip where they can plan the meals and such.  We have an overnight in November where I will let them plan the meals.  As one of the facilitators said, make sure to pack your own meals.

I had an awesome time and learned a lot by listening to the other leaders.  I am hoping our first trip will be the end of March.  We'll see how it goess.

A new routine

This was my first full week of school.  Things are going good so far.  We have developed a new routine around the house and the kids have taken to it great. 

Mornings are very similar to how they were last year.  The kids are up at 6am (well, this morning 5:30 as someone changed their alarm clock.) They have until 6:30 to eat and then they go upstairs to get dressed and they have to be ready at 6:45.  Then we all go to the bus stop (lately the kids have been ready at 6:40 so they run down to the bus stop.)

Then, Matt and I go to the Student Rec Center.  Him and all the kids have their own student ID's.  5 days a week, Matt swims.  I join him three days a week and lift weights the other two days.  I have seen a big difference with this.  My pants that were tight now fit comfortably.  Matt has lost a good deal of weight for only being two weeks into this routine.  It is amazing how swimming every day has changed him. 

Matt is getting on me for using the kickboard all the time.  He is trying to push me to get rid of it.  So, next week, I will start every other lap without a kickboard.  It is fun to see how he is pushing me just as I am pushing him. 

The kids have handled the afternoon very well.  3 days a week, they get off the bus without me, but we meet at home about the same time as I come from the other end of the neighborhood. 

This weekend is going to be nice as we have NOTHING planned.  We are going to go hiking ( I will post about that) and actually make it to the farmer's market.  We will savor this weekend as soccer games probably start next weekend and scouts will pick up soon. 

Have a good weekend!