A whirlwind Saturday...

Ever since Bud turned 8 there has been a Saturday in December that I see on the calendar and in the back of my mind dread! It's a Saturday VERY full of Cub Scout stuff!

We began our morning at the annual Christmas Parade. We dropped Bud off behind Home Depot with the other Cub Scouts and then found our spot on the road to watch. I always forget how long it takes for the parade to make it's way around to the near end. But we had Shar and Justin sitting with us so it was nice to visit:

We got to come home for about 45 minutes before we were off to pack meeting. Bud got his first activity badge for Webelos- the Outdoors man.

Then we were off to the push cart races. Luckily they hold them right in the church parking lot so we didn't have far to go!! Also Emma & Mo got to participate which was fun for them as well!

They also did a hammer throw (I know 8-10 year old boys throwing hammers for fun!! Seriously!)

Do you think she was pleased with their race?!

 

Mo has been asking to go bowling for a long time and I told he we could go for his birthday. This was the only day that seemed to work so we were off to go bowling!!

 

 

Henry helped me with most of my turns :) At least that's my excuse for my score!!

 

We ended the day with an annual date nights at a friends home. Great food, a fun game and loads of laughs!!

I tried this recipe (and one with cheese and onions, but I didn't really care for it!). This is super yummy!

Source: plainchicken.com via Rachel on Pinterest

The Tree Lighting...

It's December!! Which by N8's rules means we can finally decorate for Christmas! On Saturday we got the tree down and assembled and the yesterday morning we decorated it!

This year I made a pompom garland to go around the tree. I like how it turned out, but I wish it "popped" more.

My little crafting helper...

Mo is in PreK which is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. So we still have a lot of time together (with Henry too!). This past week he helped me on a little Christmas craft!! We made a star to go on our house this Christmas. It's not as big as the star we had on our house growing up, but it's still awesome!

He helped me nail it together:

Then spray paint it brown:

Then a light cream coat on to of that to make it more rustic:

All wrapped in lights!

Now it's up on the house with the rest of our lights!!

Before & After

This past week Bud got his braces off, here's a before any braces:

 

 Here he is just before getting them off:

And here's the after!!

He has a lingual bar (a metal bar on the tongue side of the teeth that holds them in place) until he's ready for the next phase of braces! Yay!

Thanksgiving 2012

We started our Thanksgiving break on Sunday night. We left right after church and drove down to Anaheim, checked into our hotel and got a good nights sleep! Monday morning we got up bright and early, headed to the hotels continental breakfast and then in line to be at Disneyland right at opening!!

It is my brother in law's (Ray!) 50th birthday next week and we got to celebrate with him at Disneyland! Woohoo! It had been 3 years since our last visit, so the Bud and Emma barely remembered, Mo didn't remember and Henry had never been!

We were able to quickly get onto Space Mountain, Nemo Submarine and Autopia. We did all of these with little to no wait. Next was Matterhorn with a little wait (Henry and I did Tea Cups while we waited)! Then we swapped and I got to go on Matterhorn while the rest went on the Tea Cups.

After this the parked started to get busy. We were still able to get in quite a few ride including Buzz, Star Tours, Snow White, Billy Hill Billy, Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Pooh & Pirates. We also watched the parade and fireworks. Me and the kids as well as my sister and niece left after the fireworks and shopped Main Street on our way home. N8, Casey & Taylor (my niece and nephew) stayed and went on Splash Mountain 5 more times and were totally soaked! The park was busy, but fun!

The next day we got going just as early, but we were moving a little slower after our full day. We headed straight for Toy Story Mania at California Adventure while Ray ran and got us Fast Passes for World of Color. We did Toy Story Mania and Screamin' then a few of the rides on the boardwalk, Ariel, Grizzly Bear Rapids and Soarin' (only part of the group did Grizzle and Soarin') and then had lunch. Then we made our way into Cars Land! Most of us got in the single rider line for the big Cars ride. Mo was too young for the single rider and the regular line had a wait time of 2 1/2 hours. So Ray and his dad took Henry and Mo to Tow Mater.

Then we headed back over to Disney and did Pirates, Pooh, dinner and a long wait for the Haunted Mansion. The long wait was caused by Mitt Romney!! He happened to be at the park and they cleared the ride for his family making our wait time even longer! Then we went back to California Adventure and found our spots for World of Color. It was awesome, but holding kids on shoulders is tough!! We shopped our way out of the park while N8, Casey and Taylor went on Grizzly Bear Rapids 10 times!! They were dripping!

Wednesday we came home (after a stop at Costco!) and did some Thanksgiving prep and went to dinner. Thursday morning we got going and headed over to the Collage for the Turkey Trot. N8, Bud, Emma, Casey and Taylor ran while the rest of us cheered! N8 was determined to beat Taylor and Taylor was determined to beat N8! Well, N8 lost by about 20 feet or so!! This was Bud and Emma's first 5k. Bud did awesome and came in at just about 30 minutes. Emma had a great time, but a harder time with the run.

After cleaning up we started Thanksgiving prep and N8 took the kids out geocaching!

 

 

 

 

 

Then home for Thanksgiving dinner,

 

 a walk to the park, looking the ads, a trip to the madhouse of Walmart and our 2nd night of Shanghai Rummy!  Friday was a little more shopping, a movie (Wreck it Ralph), an adult dinner, Ticket to Ride and more cards!

All in all an awesome Thanksgiving week!

Pow Wow!!

Yesterday I spent my morning frying up some Indian Fry Bread at the 5th grade Pow Wow! The night before I made 5 or 6 batches (I lost count!) of dough. I messed up 2 batches, oops! The kids all really enjoyed coming in and smashing and stretching their dough and watching it be fried up into yumminess!

Lots of kids asked if we bought it or how it was made and were very surprised when I said that I had made part of the dough. I explained that it was much like making homemade bread or pizza dough. Most kids had never had homemade bread or pizza before! Crazy I know.

This is me and Bud's teachers husband. We were the official fryers for the day!

Bud and his Best Bud enjoyed eating the fry bread, playing games, making dream catchers, headbands, and sand art!

Hopefully I'll be out of Fry Bread duty for a few years  until Emma is in 5th grade. It was fun, but very tiring!

"Strengthening the Family"

A few weeks ago N8 was in charge of or FHE activity. So, what did he plan? Well, nothing...that seems to be or problem. We don't really plan ahead for FHE and do it all on the fly. So, when it was time for activity he declared that the activity would be arm wrestling!! The kids didn't know what it was, but once N8 showed them they thought it was hilarious! Since then we've done arm wresting one more time for the activity. It might become a regular right there with the animal game and playing the Wii!