Cub Scout Camporee

Our family had a great time yesterday at the Scouting Camporee at the Fairgrounds....celebrating 100 years of Scouting. Originally my Dad and stepmom were coming up for the weekend to celebrate Gracie's birthday, and my Dad, Paco and Cole were going to make it a boys' day at Camporee, while us girls did something "girly". Unfortunately, my Dad had to have eye surgery at the last minute, and they were unable to come...so Gracie and I tagged along. I'm so glad we did! We went with several families from our pack, and communicated throughout the days on our walkie-talkies...very fun! Each boy had a "buddy" to stay with throughout the day, and then we all met up for dinner, a show by Giovanni the magician, and a spectacular fireworks display.

We met our group at 12:30pm and didn't get home until 10pm last night. Long day! Totally worth it though...what a great time we all had. There were so many activities we couldn't even get to them all....archery, bb shooting, rock wall climbing, remote control sailboats, live wolves, paintball, rocketbottles, survival school, jumping castles, SWAT team, remote control airplanes, model trains, zip lining....and on and on. The boys were able to earn 2 new patches....and just got to enjoy seeing so many other scouts. Our pack didn't chose to camp out, but there were more tents than I have ever seen in one place!

                                               Making punched tin necklaces with the Scout emblem.

checking out some military jeeps..

Gracie and Smokey

The boys made cool dog tags..with skulls of course.

There were hundreds of tents! This is a fraction of them...

Cole and Rickey, buddies for the day!

Cole, Rickey, Dylan and Cameron ready to dominate at paintball!

Gracie can keep up with the boys!

I'm so glad to see its still cool to love on your sister...even at a cub scout event!

Cole receiving his camporee patch from Mr. Behm, our cubmaster

showing Daddy how to putt

Awesome scuba gear

checking out the S.W.A.T truck

Cool bi-planes

At the end of the evening there were some presentations (including one by the President of the company Paco and I work for)...and then the magic show by Giovanni. (Ask my kids about his marshmallow trick when you see them!). We got a crazy spring storm during his performance. The really funny part was when the giant banner behind him starting blowing apart...you can see what's left of it in the picture. It was just comical. He didn't know what everyone was laughing about until he turned around.

last but not least, was a fireworks display which rivals any that we have ever seen on the 4th of July! Here is a video of the finale!! In the beginning you will see a fireworks sign, that says "100 years".

It was the perfect end to a wonderful day as a family and as a cub scout pack! Scouting has added so much to our life as a family...we are so grateful for it!

Struggles of this fat girl

Friends, times are tough.

I'm not talking about the dow jones, my 401k or the economy. I'm talking about weight loss. Or rather my lack of it. This is about weight gain, which I have been doing fabulously. I am up 3 lbs from the biggest loser contest weigh-in from 2 weeks ago. I have lost my momentum and am having a heck of a time getting it back. I haven't been to the gym in over a month. Yes, I've been blaming this on Spring soccer, cub scouts, daisy scouts and ballet. I have been eating terribly, especially this past week. I do great while at work but the evenings are killing me. At one point I was actually up 5 lbs, but managed to get rid of a couple of those.

Weight loss stinks. It is incredibly easy to fall back into old patterns. I must confess, the other night, while watching "The biggest loser", I actually ate ice cream. Geez.

It is constant, neverending work. I do believe this is a journey I am supposed to be on but I can't say I enjoy it. Yes, I am proud of what I have accomplished and continue to focus on that.

Today is {another} new day!

Rainstorm

Spring weather in Spokane is C.R.A.Z.Y. Crazy I tell ya! Sunny one minute, storming like crazy the next, then back to sunny skies. The other night I let the kids sit out on my new wicker chairs (oh how I love them!) under the umbrella during the storm. Does allowing them to sit under a metal umbrella during a nasty storm qualifiy me for mother of the year?

Our 14th anniversary

Last Tuesday hubby and I celebrated our 14th anniversary! Well, to be honest there wasn't much celebrating, since we had soccer practice and other odds and ends that took up our evening, but we did get a little quality time. We are going to go out to dinner child-free courtesy of my wonderful mother in law sometime soon. I can't believe it's been 14 years. They have certainly been full of ups and downs. We don't have the perfect marriage...I don't believe that even exists. Every day we try and make it better. Some days we fail miserably. Other days are amazing. Look at what my sweet guy brought home for me....Gerber daisies! Love them!

We have a life filled with happy, healthy, loving children, wonderful family and great friends. We are healthy, have good jobs and a home to live in.

Aren't we lucky?

Getting my groove back and composting (what a pair!?)

Ohhhhh, boy. I have been terrible. T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. After the biggest loser contest I completely went off the deep end for a week and a half! Completely lost my drive. What's up with that? I am motivated by competition so when that ended so did my willpower. I'm feeling back on track today and have some serious ground to make up. (along the lines of 5 lbs!!!!)

Yesterday I completed my compost bin. This is the first time I have had one...and I am SO excited about it. I love the idea of recycling your yard waste, kitchen scraps, etc and turning it into something amazing for your garden! Did you know nearly 1/3 of your kitchen scraps can be used for compost? It's a great way to fertilize organically.

I drilled holes in the sides and bottom for aeration, and will have to find a makeshift lid since I don't have one. I started off by adding dry leaves, twigs, shredded newspaper and cardboard. Then I added a layer of manure, grass clippings,  corn cobs (and the water I boiled them in), vegetable peelings and coffee grounds. I covered that with a layer of topsoil and moistened the pile down. It should be cooking in no time! Now I am on the hunt for red-wiggler worms, which are said to be amazing for compost piles.

Wish me luck!

Library cards

On Friday evening the kids and I went to the library so they could get their own library cards. This was a wildly exciting way to spend a Friday night actually pretty fun. Here they are with their cards sitting in the children's section. (Sorry for the lousy quality, I was using my cell phone camera. I love my Blackberry, but am less than impressed with its camera!).

Gracie picked out a Ramona the Pest book, and a huge book that is way too long for her. She insisted, so I gave in. After all, it's HER library card and HER choices...as she reminded me. Cole chose a couple "Choose your own adventure" books. Remember these? I loved them when I was a kid. He and Paco like to read these together. Here he is at the self-checkout counter stamping his own book. He loved it. He has control issues. I wonder where he got those?

Our garden, 2010

The kids and I planted our garden a few evenings ago. We love doing this together. Last year, Paco built our raised garden.  It did AMAZING!! He has promised to build another smaller one next to it so we can grow even more. I did a few things differently this year. No zucchini or cucumbers. They just took up too much space. However, I will do cucumbers again when I have more room. This year we planted: sweet corn, red and orange peppers, bush beans, snap peas, radishes (Gracie's favorite!), carrots, onions, yellow tomatos, red tomatos, chives, broccoli, basil, oregano, and cilantro.

I had to throw in this picture from last year, when we were filling our new garden with soil. Obviously, gardening is tough work! (FYI, there was a bit of exaggeration going on in this photo!)

We can't wait to watch it grow this summer. Gardening is something I love sharing with my kids and I hope they carry on with it with their families...it's so rewarding!

Mother's Day project

On Mother's Day morning, the kids and I made stepping stones for our garden together, while Paco was making omelets. The kids had fun mixing the plaster, and with a few glitches (A.K.A Mom yelling at her children to bring more water, FAST!! RUN!! NOW!!) we finally managed to get it to the right consistency to set.

Cole's finished stepping stone

Isn't it pretty?

Greenhouse project

Paco bought Cole and I a mini greenhouse project to work on for one of Cole's cub scout achievements. We planted Basil, Oregano, Chives and Cilantro.

So far so good! After 1 week our herbs are sprouting up! Who needs herbs? This is a bit more than we can use!

missing in action

Just a quick update as I am about to head out the door to work. It has been a busy hectic week, and frankly it is all I can do just to keep up. I am looking forward to summer when all the extracurricular stuff stops for awhile.

I was considering applying for a new job earlier this week and was really excited about it. I thought it was just the change I have been looking for....until I found out it would be a $5.00/hr pay cut, and the pay tops out at less than I already make now. By the time I calculate in daycare for the kids after school, it really wasn't such a great deal after all.

Sigh.

On a positive note, I did a bit of planting last night and that always brings my spirits up! I planted some new perennials in my back flowerbeds to add in a bit of color. This weekend I will plant all the annuals and the kids and I will plant the garden! Yay!

I will update later today...it's off to work I go. Hope everyone has a great day!