Fun Times With Friends!

On Friday, we were invited to one of our friend's Birthday Party at a play place. The facility included three air blown obstacle courses with slides and a huge middle climbing structure big enough for even the parents to venture through.

The slide here was about 10 feet high!

This is a picture from the really fast slide. There were safety notices to remind parents and children on the speed on this slide at both the top and bottom of the structure. Basically when the children did not create some sort of resistance to slow them down, they shoot off the end.

Anton was having just too much fun!

When it was time fore pizza and cake,

the children were very hungry and sweaty from all the fun!

I am getting better!

As I had stated before, Karl and I began a quest to bake our own bread. Our attempts have been very good, but I am striving for Great Harvest quality! I came across a recipe for a combination wheat and white flour cinnamon swirl bread. This one is much better than the other cinnamon swirl bread and more filling with the wheat.

Next time when I make this bread, I will increase the wheat and reduce the white flour to become more wholesome. But this will have to wait as I promised Isabella some special gluten free bread for her. She can have some wheat, but she has to be careful as too much hurts her system. We discovered her sensitivity a couple of years ago when she went to see the allergist in CT. I just try to watch how much wheat she takes in and swap out the wheat products for rice or potatoes to keep her intake lower. We are thankful that she really likes rice but lately it has been really difficult for her as I am working on making wonderful breads. So I searched for a gluten free recipe with some body to it. Recipezaar had one with great reviews I intend to try soon. It uses flax meal to give it a more whole grain taste. In case you were curious, gluten-free bread costs upwards of $8-10 per loaf in the store and does not seem to excite Isabella all that much. And being the Mommy I am, I am on a quest to help my little girl!

Anton Declares January the Month to Expect Snow!

Having listened to the children lament over the lack of snow, they awoke with cheers of excitement when our three inch covering began. Before they could venture out, we had to complete two quarterly finals. This created some urgency and they completed them faster than ever. It also gave the snow a chance to build up as an half inch is not great sledding.

With their finals completed,

they had only to enjoy nature's playground for the rest of the day.

Isabella quickly pulled out the sled and they were off!

Katie realizing this must be some kind of human fun,

wanted to be in the middle of the action, literally!

Then it was back up for more trips down!

Now if they can teach the dogs to pull them up and not try to eat the rope it would be perfect.

They played in the snow for about 5 hours! This last picture was taken when it was getting dark, notice the refection of her safety stripe! Isabella was trying to persuade me to believe it was not really getting close to dinner time!

During dinner, Anton became very concerned with his being so very tired. He began to hypothesize about a sugar problem (we have a friend who was recently diagnosed with diabetes). I laughed saying it might have nothing to do with five full hours of romping in the snow! He smirked and agreed before going up to take a nice warm shower!

Puppies First Snow!

Our puppies were true to their characters in their first snow. Katie was ready to run and play while Blossom needed to sniff things out first. However, they were both ready to have fun in a matter of minutes!

Their favorite game of chase had begun! At one point, Katie did a roll as she tripped over her own paws and went sliding down the hill on her rear. She had this astonished look upon her face then shook it off to chase Blossom again who had taken a break to eat the snow balls created in the rift.

Later Katie would race Anton and Isabella down the slope. The children did have the advantage of the sled but Katie was a very close second. When they all came in, they were exhausted from the fun! Just as it should be!

Some wishes get answered!

I don't ask much from nature in winter, just one good snow fall!

My request was granted.

We received a 3 inch layer of beautiful snow!

For the children's sake, I wish there had been more,

but beggars can't be choosers!

It was so lovely as it quietly and gracefully fell upon the ground. I am glad I did not have any important reasons to leave so we could just enjoy the moment.

Pine Wood Derby

The annual scramble to get the car done in time for the race off finally arrived early one Saturday morning. I certainly felt this year's race was much earlier than I remember at our previous den but with each pack there are differences. After the event, I suggested to Karl that maybe we could buy a kit earlier and work on it at a more leisurely pace next time. He had that look on his face of never thinking of this before but sounded like a good idea.

Anton's car design this year was a chicken bone. His creativity has increased each year and it seems no one in this pack has ever thought of doing something outside of the box so to speak. One child did construct his car to look like a wii remote but Anton's seemed a crowd favorite as they cheered it on down the track.

Another difference from this pack was the technological equipment. Having left a pack full of sons of Engineers, we were a little disappointed to find them lacking the timing and winner notification equipment. Karl stepped up to get the notification equipment but money was not allocated for the computerized timing system. This was a shame because it would have cleared up any questions on who's car was indeed fastest. We had to rely on the ranking of races method and some cars did not run against others in it's group. Another change was the control of the Boy Scouts over the event. Before we were lucky to have a resident Boy Scout Pack which ran the weighing in and racing of cars. Karl suggested asking some from a nearby pack to join us. We had about 5 Boy Scouts, mostly the older brothers of the Cub Scouts, who were very excited to be helping. Karl, again due to his experience and willingness to take charge, encouraged them to do their jobs. I think some of the adults were a little uneasy to the change, but it also gave the Cubbies a chance to interact with Boy Scouts.

After the Cub Scouts finished their races, they let the siblings have a go on the track. Isabella not wanting to go empty handed but also not having had the time to work on her own car, brought hers from last year.

In the end, Anton got third in his den. His car won two of three races and came in a very close second on the other. We were a little disappointed they did not give out the awards. This pack likes to wait till the Blue and Gold dinner to award the boys. Karl had some pretty strong feelings to their methods but I reminded him we were new and he could not change everything all at once. He is such a dedicated Den Leader and really wants to do the best for these boys, but as I told him later, we need to pace ourselves. We are both spread too thin already to take on more at this time. However, were their in a will, there is a way. I suspect Karl is already thinking of ways to give more to these boys.