Gingerbread time again

The tradition continues. Yesterday's gingerbread festivities...baking, decorating and delivering took all day. See some of the results.

I do enjoy eating gingerbread which is part of the reason I continue every year. I enjoyed doing it with my family growing up. Now I watch my kids and enjoy it for more reasons. Seeing each of the kids personalities come through on the cookies.

My kids get better at decorating each year which actually makes it easier for me to do so many since decorating is the most time consuming part. C 's designs are better than mine. S got really good at doing eye this year making little cones of frosting per eye. A wanted to make special cookies for friends he was thinking of this year. T has fun designing the cookies and wants to do the boys. R just put as much frosting on each cookie as he could squeeze out of the pastry bag. His probably taste the best. Toby had fun with the last ones, making tongues stick out of mouths or writing cute things like "I like pink" on a boy cookie. We just had a lot of fun. Sitting around with my family interacting and laughing and eating is such a fun thing for us all to remember.

It is also heartwarming to have R say....."this was a fun day". The kids get all excited to carry the cookies to the door to give away to their friends. These are the memories I will continue to hold. The ones the people who get the cookies do not see.

Also check out our gingerbread houses from last week. C needed her own big house while the older boys made their graham cracker ones. ( can only bake so many houses!) The twins just wanted to put the candy one....and lots of it! We did it on my birthday and I think it was a great family party time!

Cubs Pushmobile

I am about to have 2 cub scouts in the house. A already feels like he is a scout since he comes with me to all the den meeting since I am a leader. He participates whenever he is allowed. When we signed up for the Shac Jam I signed him up as a scout since in a school troop he would be....just in our pack you come in at your birthday. So unofficially I have 2 scouts already.

When Pushmobile sign ups came up last month I said, can we sign A up. He will be there all day anyways with me and his brother and he will want to participate. He shows that every pack meeting. So we sign him up.

Good thing we did. The Wolves came in 2nd place...losing first by only seconds. He had a lot of fun!

T also ran well. He got to run with the boys from his old den, before the ward split. He always enjoys seeing these friends.

Running around between the races was fun for all the kids as was talking to other parents for me. I also got to hold a new little baby which is nice too!!

A Perfect Camping Weekend

We were all looking forward to this camping weekend. T was missing soccer games "I can't wait to go camping" and C was missing a school field trip but everyone was on countdown to go camping and this trip did not disappoint. We tried a new campground this trip and it offered lots of cool places to explore. Our camp sites were right by a little gully where the kids explored and created stories. This little hut was created before we got there but our kids enjoyed it a lot. We saw lots of armadillos and the paths they left behind beneath the leaves.

We named this the Island tree, cool to climb upon and hang from.

Every year we break out the hammocks and walkie talkies some of the cool toys we take camping.

Something I enjoy camping is cooking over the campfire. I enjoy foil dinners, some chicken and rice, maybe some BBQ. Not my kids. They like hotdogs and eat them almost every night. I do bring spaghettios, some mac and cheese and ramen for a change of pace. But we all enjoy roasted marshmallows and smores.

We had perfect weather cold enough for campfires at night, but warm enough to wear short sleeves during the day. Our kids were not ready to leave and wanted to stay. That is how much fun we were having. Can't wait to go again.

Halloween

I know it is 3 weeks late, but life has been busy. I wanted to share our costumes. Mario is still a big theme with Mario, Luigi, and Toad making appearances. The boys loved getting mustaches. Then we also have Harry Potter's Luna Lovegood and a cute little pumpkin to join the party.

First day of preschool

My youngest two got to start preschool this past week. It is a neat preschool held at a local high school run by high school students. My oldest 2 kids went there and really enjoyed it. And I was happy to get the twins enrolled, even their same age cousin got in as well as a few church friends.

That first day, one twin was ready and has been putting his backpack on quite frequently asking "When do I get to go?" The other says "I do not want to go to prechool!" He wants to stay home and have Mommy be his teacher. This is all really strange to me because at the start of the year when they entered sunbeams Son # 1 was in tears for weeks while #2 walked right in with no problem.

Honestly it went as I expected and both boys loved it. No problems with tears or fears once we walked in the doors. I just knew they were ready.

When I first got there to pick them up they said, Mommy we were playing a game we aren't ready to go home. So here are some Happy Boys on their first day of preschool. They are happy and I am happy to have some Mommy time scheduled a few days a week.

Shac Jam

We had LOTS of cub scout fun at Shac Jam. A 100 year birthday party jamboree held for scouts in our area. The Cub world area had lots of fun activities and crafts for the whole family to enjoy which is great since not only do I have one scout but I have 3 scout wannabees and they all got to enjoy this event. In fact we counted A as a full scout (signing him up as such) getting him his own dog tags since he is only 4 months away from joining, but if we were with a school pack he would already be a wolf.

The only thing the twins who are 4 did not do with the big kids was shoot bows and arrows.....they were allowed but I knew they would not do well with the bows since sling shots were pretty difficult for them. But they had fun shooting pet food from a sling shot at a pie pan.

They made cobra horns, first aid kits, Egg racers (and raced them), paper hats, those little drum things with 2 strings that you twirl...what are the called. We made them using CDs and beads. Along with crafts they had lots of fun games with hula hoops ring toss, big earth balls, these straw flying devices they had to throw thru hoops. This picture was where you catapulted ping pong balls into holes. Jousting with noodles was a big hit as well.

Then while the big kids had their shooting range safety talk the twins and I ran their first Pinewood derby race where everyone racing got their own matchbox car. We also got to see a record setting rocket launch and watch overhead as airplanes flew for our entertainment overhead different formations and smoke trails. Twins loved that during lunch!

The kids were only sad that they could not go check out the boy scout side as well....they saw a rock wall they wanted to tackle. It was a great day of family scout fun!!

What to post??

I see that I have not posted in a month, but as I see that I wonder what should I post?

I like to post with pictures but I have not taken any recently. Life has been consumed with lots of computer work in Sept because I am volunteer coordinator at school and I get sign ups the first 3 weeks of school then it takes time to enter over 100 names in the computer and then send out emails to all the appropriate teachers, commitees etc.

Scouts also keeps me busy with planning weekly meetings. One for me and now T goes to Webelos which is another night. T also is playing soccer with practices and games to go to. I feel like every night of the week I have somewhere to go......

During the day I have all the daily and weekly chores to do and we have story time and playgroup as well as volunteering. Life is just busy.

Looking ahead I have 2 boys getting excited for Preschool to start...2 1/2 weeks!! Then what will I do with my free time??