John's Wedding

Another month, another wedding.  And sometimes you write a blog and it very well written then it does not save properly and it is all lost, then you attempt to recreate what was written well the first time....aggghhhhh. Very frustrated right now.  K, I will try again, but not really up to it this time.

John and Sha got married, and she was labeled as the most calm bride ever, but I saw her up front during the ceremony, and she was definitely making some weird nervous faces.

Magan did an excellent job with the canopy at the reception, and with a minor coat hanger modification by granddaddy, it stayed up and did not fall into the cakes.

John did lose his keys for a bit during the reception which allowed for some decorating to commence.  Me, Sam, Colby, and Mark did a pretty good job I think.  The kicker being a masking taped wallet and purse.  In the end, their car was very safe and should not be having any babies soon.

And finally....Mark's revenge.  The plan was simple...get Shee' in the car then cover John with birdseed, and with a large bag of seed, Mark unloaded on John.  It was a fun day, and good day for them to begin their life together.

Scout Graduation

Sam made it through his first year of scouting.  I am a little late with this post because Magan captured these on her camera which I rarely have access to the pictures.  Anyway, the graduation was in May and it was gladiator themed.  We all had a great time.  Both the leaders and the scouts had to be gladiators pulling chariots full of scouts.  And guess who won the spirit stick?  Mr. Sam Junkin.  We got to keep it in our garage all summer.  It has an item from each scout that has been awarded the spirit stick...Sam decided to put a stormtrooper lego man on it as his contribution.

Sam and his good buddy Nathan are above.  Me and Mr. Chris were the tiger den leaders.  But now the boys have moved on and are now Wolves.

Do you think Sam was pretty happy at this moment?  I think Davis was pretty excited as well.

Kids Say the Cutest Things

I have a few kid stories I have to share and don't want to ever forget :)
We went to McWane Center with Marcia the other day and she took the boys and Ade to show them a different floor while mom and I watched the baby girls upstairs.  She took the kids over to see a stuffed hawk.  She showed them his talons and told them how he would catch his food and eat it with those sharp talons because he liked to eat meat.  Davis looked straight at her and said "AM I made of meat?!?!"

Sam was telling me about a contest at school.  There were two teams and there were rewards set for the winner.  Team one would get to hear a Justin Beiber song and Team two a Star Wars song.  He was so excited and I told him, I bet I know which team you are on.  He said "Yeah, I am on the Justin Beaver team"  I said "WHY!!!!"  He said "MOM, it's a singing Beaver named Justin, that is the coolest!"

Belle is pottying SO well, I feel like I need to pinch myself to believe it!  I  really have to point that out :)  I do also want to say that she LOVES sitting on the potty and sings Jesus loves me most of the time while she is sitting there.  The first time the boys heard her, Davis saw her first.  He ran and got Sam, they both had to go and see her and both busted out laughing :)  Belle did not like this much and quickly changed her tune to a squealing "NO, Sam and Davis" which ran them out, both still laughing.

I took the kids to a field of flowers to get some spring shots of them together and to get Sam's snaggle teeth (which are just ADORABLE, by the way!)
We shot those shots and then I took the kids to the little old store building on the corner to shoot the boys in some ties.  As we were finishing up they asked me where we were going next and before I could answer Davis chimed in "We don't have to go back to the valley of the evil flowers, do we?!?!"  Not sure he liked getting his picture made in flowers too much, lol

Scout Campout (FDR Park)

Would you believe that we were the first ones at the campsite early on a Friday Afternoon?  We were, I checked Sam out of school early around lunch, and we began our journey to the FDR state park, just past Callaway Gardens.  Cub Scout Pack 353 was planning to camp here for two nights, and everything was organized really well.  The picture below of our tent was actually the second time we set up.  There were 4 campsites and we were told to camp at number 1 and 2.  After setting up the tent, I received another call (yes, cell service at the campsite, pretty cool) that we would be at number 3 and 4.  So we packed up and moved our home for the next two nights.  

The first night was getting everybody into their tent, roasting some marshmellows, a scavenger hunt, and glow stick prizes.  I think Sam was the only one to get Marshmellow all over his face.  He was also the only scout running to help unload the fire wood. Sam and Davis love the campfires.

The next day (after a great night of sleep...ohhhhh my back) began with some UNO and monster trucks.  Then the kids starting playing guns with sticks, and Sam and Davis got a little carried away and started beating each other with them.  So one of the pictures below is them sitting in the timeout bench.  We then went to the nearby state park to build birdhouses.  Sam and Davis both built their own birdhouse, and once completed, our pack divided up to 1.  hang the birdhouses and 2. clean up the park.  Sam and Davis had a blast picking up trash and using the rakes to clean up.  Before we left the park, I couldn't find Davis, then looked off at the swingset to find him hanging upside down.

During the middle of the day, we traveled to the Columbus Science Center.  This happened to be free comic book day and I guess a miniComicCon day.  Davis rode the flight simulator twice, but Sam was more interested in the robots.  We went into a planetarium and watched a movie on the stars, and a funny cartoon about how astronauts train.

Back at the campsite, the boys divided into three groups for some stations.  The boys were able to cut the stripes from an old flag that we were retiring that night.  The next station taught them how to tie knots, where Mr. Rod found out how to tie up Max.  The the last station was making our hobo pouches to cook our supper in (meat patty, onions, potatoes).

That night was an excellent campfire.  We began by retiring the flag by burning each of the colors as the symbolic meaning of each was read to us by one of the grandfathers of a scout.  He was a Iraqi war veteran and really helped share the meaning of this tradition.  After that the boys told jokes around the campfire.  Davis immediately jumped in line to "read" his joke, but I called him over to explain to him that he did not know how to read.  So after we practised it a few times, and he had it memorized, he did well.  He got in front of everyone and asked "What did the baby light bulb say to his mother"  When no one answered, he asked "anybody?"  Then finally threw out the punchline "I love you watts and watts".  Sam was also a very brave guy and read a joke to everyone.  "What's faster - Hot or Cold?"  Hot, because you can catch a cold.
We then did some skits, and even though Sam and Davis would not help me with the Tiger Scout skit we did, the boys that did help me had fun, and everyone liked our skit.

The next morning, we woke up EARLY (5:00 AM) to watch the sunrise over the mountain.  We went up to a knoll where FDR often came during his time in Georgia to also watch the sunrise.  It was beautiful watching the sunrise on one side and the moon set on the other.  We had a speaker read some passages from Isaiah, and sang "This is the day that the Lord has made".  I think everyone had a great time, and we are looking forward to next years scouting experiences.