Cub Scout Update

 The boys have been enjoying Cub Scouts and they even earned their first badge this past week - the Bobcat badge (or rank?) - which really just meant they learned the oath, salute, etc.  Ryan was really excited about it.  Part of the ceremony was a Lord of the Flies type thing where the parents painted their kids faces.  Each color meant something, but I don't really remember what.  I do remember that the green was really hard to get off and there were several 1st grade boys with green stains on their faces at school the next day.

They also had the Rain Gutter Regatta last month.  The boys and I spent 2 Sundays working on their boats at a friend's house.  We had thought it would take a couple of hours, but there ended up being a lot of sanding, painting, gluing, etc., that took a lot longer than expected.  We got the Pine Wood Derby cars this past week that have to be ready by January - we will get started on that one earlier.

The Regatta was a lot of fun.  Ryan, however, got really frustrated when he thought other people (including Luke) were cheating by pushing their boats along - but he still won a couple of races.

Late Halloween Post

 We had a great Halloween last week.  Luke chose to be Abraham Lincoln and Ryan chose to be Iron Man.  Earlier in the summer, Ryan was going to be George Washington - so I was excited about another year of coordinating costumes.  But then Ryan wanted to be something else and we settled on a Lego Man.  I was going to make the costume, but suddenly it was the middle of October and we were going out of town, and I was out of time.  I felt horrible for not making Ryan's costume, but Ryan was so excited about picking out Iron Man.  It does make for an interesting costume combo.

 The boys' school has a costume parade on Halloween with all of the classes marching around the school in their Halloween costumes.  Experiences like this is why we chose to send our kids to a neighborhood elementary school.  We are fortunate that our neighborhood school is truly one of the best in the state - and I think many people have great memories of school experiences like this.  There were some really great costumes, and some not so great.  I was shocked to see that there was a kid in Luke's class dressed up like the Scream guy - who lets their 1st grader dress up like a R-rated horror movie character?

 Greg continued his annual tradition of carving pumpkins with the boys.

 This year they turned out pretty funny.  Greg let them draw whatever picture they wanted on the front and he carved it.  Ryan's is cute - I don't have any idea what Luke was hoping his would look like.

Precious little boys - they love Halloween.  We had gorgeous weather and the boys had a blast walking around several blocks in our neighborhood.  One of the best parts is that we now have our new year's supply of candy.

And a look back to our past Halloween days:

 2011 - 5 years old

 2010 - 4 years old

 2009 - 3 years old

 2008 - 2 years old

 2007 - 1 year old

2006 - 5 months old