January going next?

Just some memories of the first month of an exciting new year...watching the lights one last time for the season...kids met me at work for a MooYah shake...Sam started playing basketball (and really gets so much better each week, he has done really well)...Date night at Les Miserables (AMAZING!...ONE MORE DAY...ONE DAY MORE...my favorite song)...dave gets braces...a visit with my buddy Bob...some toys are found (This is the Lone Ranger that's leg broke off, and granddaddy fixed him with a nail, and that nail is still there...rusty nail in my knee...sounds like a good rock song)...and more robotics.  That's it for January, guess we will see what the groundhog will bring.

 

Career Day

So this year went by without any inadvertent curse words from me...so I would call that a win.  Me and Magan have our spiel pretty much down pat by now...had to improvise a bit when I looked into my bag and found my circuits had fallen apart...but that happens every once and awhile right?  I don't know if they remember what we say anyway, but they remember we were there.  Love these little visits.

 

 

 

AHG - Space and Games

Magan asked me if I would be able to teach the tenderhearts (1-3 grade) for a couple of AHG meetings, and that I could teach two badges related to space...YES!  Of course I had to act like this was tough, but I have more fun teaching these things than the kids do.  And for the first meeting, Ruby as a pathfinder got to join us.  We first earned our Space Exploration badge and made the solar system, acted out the Appollo 11 moon mission, and made constellation makers to view in the dark.  Ruby was an excellent mission control back in houston as the tenderhearts all traveled to the moon.

 

For our second badge, we earned our Living in Space badge, where we learned about the space shuttle, made some space pudding, and read a book about one of the first female astronauts, Mae Jemison from Alabama.  Ruby did not get to join us for that meeting, but she was excited to build a space shuttle with me at home.  And while we were working on these badges, anabelle worked on similar explorer requirements and they actually built a space habitat. 

 

And the girls met their fundraiser goal of 125 Krispy Kreme cards...so they got to have a silly string party.  And imagine that, they also had some donuts to eat at the party.  

 

Ruby's 100th day of school

So Ruby, what do you remember about your 100th day of School?  "Davis made the cane for me.  It accidentally broke, I dropped it a million times.  The ground is really hard.  My hair was like itchy the whole time.  The cake was so good, I loved it.  Look at Livy, she is right beside me in the picture.  We had fun."  So now if I could figure out how to get all her hand motions and facial expressions as she shared this with me, it would be great.   

 

Rock Climbing at Moss Rock

It is somewhat of a tradition to find a service project on MLK day, and while it hasn't happened every year, we typically have that goal.  On this year, we had a planned service project at a park that we had not been to...Moss Rock.  And we had all intentions of meeting up with people with the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO), but then when we arrived, we found no other people.  We also found no service project.  We did run into a few others, but they also found that there was no project or crew or leaders for this effort...and did I mention that it was FREEZING on this day.  So, me and the boys decided to check out the park while we were there anyway, and climbed some rocks that we shouldn't have climbed (The one below...Sam and I made it to the top...and near the top was where we realized that we would not be able to make it back down).  Fortunately we survived, and jumping across some drops we made our way to another formation that allowed us back to the ground.  Really cool area, but some drop mats in certain areas would have at least made me feel like we could survive falling next time.  Ended up being a fun day with the boys where we hit the galleria and ate some of that amazing Chinese food, and we couldn't leave without hitting Aunt Annie's pretzels.  

 

Barbie Playroom!

Our mom creates magic for us everyday...sometimes in an amazing dinner, sometimes it is a hug, sometimes she brings home something special from town...but on this day, a project was finished that created a whole magical room for the girls.  I loved hearing them just talk about this room, and then seeing the smiles as the actually moved their Barbie stuff in...well I guess I was...magical.  Clouds on the wall, twinkly lights, and lots of pink. 

 

Magan had wanted to clean out from under the stairs all of our holiday stuff and get it into the garage, where it is easier to access.  And she also wanted to get all the Barbie stuff out of the guest room, so we had a win win situation that created this fun new Barbie room.  The girls often disappear into this other world, with the only noise coming from there is a periodic loud BONK when Ruby forgets she can't stand up completely in certain areas under the stairs.  A big thank you to our mom for this great idea!!