Twilight Camp

Patrick had such a good time. Scratch that - GREAT time! While it was miserable heat wise - we did have a breeze all week so 99 degrees wasn't as bad as we all knew it could be. :)

Five days of 3:30 9pm of complete boy scout fun with 230 campers! There were two adult leaders with each den...(scout rule - must always be 2-deep for safety purposes) then there were at least 2 leaders per activity plus 2 junior volunteers per activity - so.. like 300+ total.

The boys received numerous patches, belt loops and parts of larger achievements this week.

They worked in art, nature, woodworking, leather working, woodworking..again, archery, bb shooting (favorite of course) and games.

The schedule was fairly simple; arrive sit with your den through flag ceremony then on to first activity, second activity, dinner, third activity, fourth activity, announcements, taking down of the flag and then home.. and every night Patrick was asleep before his heat hit the pillow!

It was all so interesting - we learned (in Nature) how to make a compass Polar North vsTrue North. How to take readings with the compass - something I had never learned before...Goes back to that learning something new every day thing! :) Art Belt Loop - with cub scouts they typically have to do 3-4 items/activities to get a belt loop - with Webelos it's more like 5-8 items/activities to accomplish before you have achieved the belt loop.. this week - we did 7 of the 8 items for them to achieve the Art belt loop! Patrick just has to do one thing at home!

Leather working......I don't really want to think about it - b/c if I do - I can still hear the pounding and pounding that 21 boys can do all at the same time.

With 230 boys - we typically had 3 dens at each activity unless it was games then we most of the time had six dens coming together so it was a bit more fun to have soaked down sponge balls full of water being thrown at you! My fellow den leader was a mom I knew from school and she's a hoot - we had so much fun all week and are looking forward to next year! We will be working on our swaps too!

The boys had to have 'swaps' to exchange with each other. Now I had no idea what a swap is - this is my first Scouting Camp and we left town to head to KY right after school so time was out the window but we made the cutest thing... First of all - the boys need to wear a hat -b/c it's sweltering and well -it's TEXAS and Summer! so they had this cute idea of the boys swapping something they can pin on their hats! There was everything from Giant cockroaches to fishing lures, a number of people put felt and cotton balls together to make it look like a smores - (so cute) we ( I say we...it was me this year b/c we got home Sunday night and camp started Monday afternoon ) made a marshmallow on a stick - I took a white bead and put hot glue on a small stick and stuck the stick through the white bead to make it look like a marshmallow on a stick! - THEN hot gluing it to a pin so you can pin it on your hat.. well - needless to say - we will do something else next year and Patrick will be helping! :) It was fun and the boys were swapping from the time they got there till it was time to take the flag down.

Rachel and Peter came out one night during our dinner time and that was fun - Poor Rachel - she wanted to come out, wanted to be there - but as soon as she got there my little girl was totally miserable with the heat, the bugs and what?! You have to sit on a five gallon bucket for dinner? Yes - we carried those 5 gallon buckets everywhere -they were not on our seat for each station but we carried our water, our projects and anything else - Belinda had everything in her bucket.

We were supposed to sleep over on Friday but by the time Friday rolled around we were all pretty miserable so we declined - there was to be no breeze Friday night - and it's only getting down to the 80's at night so we came home and cleaned up and had ice cream to celebrate!

It was an impressive operation and I think there was only serious mishap the whole week. I think the ladies who put the whole thing together were very impressive and did a super job. We look forward to next year! The scouts are only Webelos two years then they move up to SCOUT ranking so.... the mommas get to enjoy it as much as we can now -b/c it becomes less parental involvement the next big move up.

Patrick is so cute - he told a man one day, "Do you know what my goal is? My goal is to be an Eagle Scout like my dad".... ah... tug on the heart strings why don'tcha....my sweet boy.

Camp Grammy

Well -I've not updated the blog in ages mainly because the blog is a 'happy place' for me and since the middle of April I've not been real happy - but I was thinking about it - even though our world is in much upheaval and big changes are in our future I still want to share all that is going on with me and the kids and not all that is going on is sad. AND I KNOW you want to see pictures of all the fun things we've been doing!

So enough about all that.. so today is the week we went to visit my mom and next blog will be Patrick's Webelos Twilight Camp.

When it comes to getting ready and driving to where ever we are going I like to be prepared. On the years when I have been prepared the trips it's just easy traveling. On the trips where I'm not as prepared - of course we are always out the door later than I want and am just throwing things in the car as we pull out of the driveway.... that was this trip! :) But that's another story - we were just so busy the whole 3 days before leaving for the trip ; kids Field Day at school, last day OF school, Scouts Night at the Frisco Rough Riders baseball game and then get up bright and early and head to Grammy's... it was just tough after those 3 days. This is our second year to take Goldie with us - she loves Grammy's dog Sage and Sage - being 12 years old puts up with (maybe even likes Goldie) (laugh)

It took 11 hours exactly to reach Grammy's house and the children love their rooms she has made up for them. Rachel's looks and feels so girly in pale yellow and accented with pink and dolls everywhere. ( I don't care for dolls - never really have except Mrs. Beasley) Rachel always wants to bring home all of them at the end of the week. :)

We immediately left and went to Camp Jellystone and began our time of camping. The children love it - and they love cooking with Grammy and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. We went fishing (as you can see in the picture - they are missing a lot of rain - the pond was WAY down but the fish were there and biting) , played putt putt and watched movies when it rained. You have to love RV camping - it's made it so easy - #1 you drive into your camp site, hook up the water and set out the chairs - it's wonderful. #2 - time to leave, unhook the water, put up the chairs and pull away... :) Not like tent camping at all. Did I say it rained? My goodness it came a gully washer on the last night - thank goodness we were in a 10,000lb camper! The winds were 50-60mph and rain, lightning and thunder - I don't think the children even stirred - I kept waiting for them to come and get in bed with me b/c of the thunder and lightning but they just slept on. I am glad we were not in a tent.

We did get to pick blue berries - and I alone picked 5 pounds of blueberries at one bush! Rachel was complaining a bit when we got there and then after one minute she was fine - b/c she was eating blueberries left and right. :)

No real cooking this trip - just wasn't time. We did get to visit Aunt Betsy and Uncle Stephen and Baby Daniel - he's adorable and was infatuated with his big cousin Rachel... :) He didn't care for Patrick but he just kept watching Rachel -intently -following her from room to room and whenever she stopped long enough he was climbing on her. :) It was so cute. Daniel looks just like Betsy did at that age. Precious - and amazing blue eyes. - made me realize - no more babies...but I'll watch him any time. :)

Patrick and Rachel's cousin; 15 year old Calvin was visiting Grammy before we arrived so he stayed and drove home with us. Patrick and Rachel loved having him there. As a teenager he was no bother - except when you wanted him to wake up... ( lol) He's 6'1 1/2" and looked like a giant next to my kiddos!

Hmmm - I think that's about it - we are looking forward to Grammy coming to Texas and visiting with us next month before our big trip to West Virginia. We are going to try to get out to Palo Duro Canyon but I'll keep ya'll posted on that one. My friends Jennifer & Meg want to go to with her children so we are going to try to do it together. :)

Until tomorrow........ I'll be uploading Twilight Camp pictures!

Thanks for the well wishes and prayers.