Ice Cream night

Tonight was 31 cent ice cream night at Baskin-Robbins.  Yummy.  We tried to do this last year, but found the store closed just before 8pm (even though the sign said they were open til 8).  Deja-vu this year, only this time we were there by 7:30.  Hmmmph.  So, we trekked up towards town and found a different BR hopping with people.  We each had 2 scoops.  You would think that the kids would be happy at getting 2 scoops, not just one, but NO, they also wanted a donut.  Nope.  We're doing ice cream tonight, not donuts - not even one to take home for tomorrow.  However, we did find out that one of D's coworkers also works in her family bakery and they have donuts (and specifically eclairs) - we'll have to go there sometime this summer.  It's even on the way to the library in the next county.

Hard to get back after a break

I took a bit of a break from posting (obviously), though not necessarily intentionally.  But, once I hadn't posted in more than a couple of days, it seemed like I was out of the habit and felt like I needed to "catch up".  After 2 plus weeks, not much chance of a blow-by-blow catch up.  We've been busy with this and that.  D has been out of town the last 2 weekends, both for school stuff.  M finally had his birthday party - only almost a month after his birthday.  March/April is a tough time to schedule a party, what with soccer, baseball and spring break.  This was the first weekend since his birthday when his best friend could make it - and even at that, he didn't end up making i to the party until after 8 pm.  The other guest didn't come until 10pm.  Made for an interesting evening.

The school year seems to be racing towards a close - the kids remind me how many days left in the year (23 at this point, I think).  Even M says that this year has been flying by.

Challenge Quilt DONE

My challenge quilt is finally done and back. I actually finished it up last week, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Now I just need to get it hung on the wall before spring is over.

The challenge was to depict your birth day, so 27 letters for the my birthday and spring to indicate March, when spring starts. I know Easter isn't always in March, but it is sometimes and has been on my birthday before.

recent creations

M came home with some of his artwork recently.  A cool African inspired mask:

and a very life-like gecko!

I didn't get a good picture of it, but when we put the gecko down near the cats, they had to go check it out to make sure it wasn't alive.  M's art teacher was quite impressed with the gecko and offered him a slot in her advanced art class next year.  He is happy about that - art all year long!

Here's A with his recent Magnetix creations:

The Magnetix were a big hit when he first got them and for about a year thereafter, then went into hiatus for about a year.  A claimed he didn't want them anymore, but we held on to them anyway.  Lately they've had a big resurgence in interest.  He's built bridges and towers and cool geometric designs - all very interesting.

Arrow of Light

Saturday night was our Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts.  We do this every year, but this was a special one.  A received his Arrow of Light - as a Webelos I (most Scouts don't earn this until they are Webelos II).  Here they are lighting the candles for Scouting values.  It was a very nice ceremony (especially considering that last year they didn't have any real ceremony to it).

Here are A and 2 of his buddies who also earned the Arrow of Light as 1st year Webelos, showing off their certificates and "arrows".

A is very proud of himself and so are we!  Now he says his goal is to earn all 21 pins as a Webelos.  10 down and 11 to go....  several of the Webelos II earned them all this year.