February Scouting

Last weekend we had Scout-o-rama. I took the littlest two to Gigi's Playhouse and Kent took the oldest two to go and explore. Our den had a booth with puddle stompers made from large can with a maze of sorts to walk through.

After helping with set up they explored other booths. I must admit I was pretty proud that Keila tried ou the zip line. Kent went too and took pictures on the way down.

There was a booth where paper rockets could be made and shot off.

Isaac enjoyed looking through scouting item throughout the years.

They came home tired and happy from the day.

A few days after was the Blue and Gold Banquet themed after Star Wars. Kent is now the Cub Master and so had a big part in prepping for the event as well. In addition to working with Isaac on an R2D2 cake they also made a Death Star piñata.

The décor was awesome and everyone enjoyed the food and especially the cakes.

it was lots of fun for everyone and I'm grateful that Isaac and Kent got to share this experience together.

Random February Fun

We are not a family of natural atheletes. I've only begun running these last few years because it's a great release from the stresses of motherhood. Kent, though built more for it, leaned towards academics and music and as a result, our children are similar. Neither of the older two care to move much unless it's chasing friends. Ironically, Bubby who has the lowest tone of all is the one who loves the basketball and jumping on the trampoline. He'll be the sports lover in our family.

The elementary school's second biggest fundraiser this year was a fun run but unlike the past, the school organized it all on their own and 100% of the proceeds went back to Mountain Shadows. I was excited about it because the one they held two years ago had Isaac motivated to run a good amount. I had all these lovely plans of having them jog a little each night leading up to the run, but life got busy and I was lucky to have everyone at their activities and fed. On the day of the event I showed up to cheer them on and was amazed at their determination.

Isaac had 30s to finish the last lap and he sprinted with me alongside to complete it all! Apparently he was one of only 3 kids in second grade to finish all 25 laps!

Keila and I ran together the whole time and consequently I was able to help pace her a little such that she didn't stop moving once during the whole 25 mins. She jogged about 80% of it and walked briskly for the rest. With a minute left she pushed herself to finish a lap and completed a total of 17! She was definatly one of the highest of all the girls in kindergarten and her persistence paid off.

I'm super proud of these two, it's not something they enjoy terribly and they had a set a goal and honestly did their very best. What's more, they're proud of themselves. The laps they completed were marked off the back of their shirts, a trophy of the work they completed and as soon as Keila realized this she wouldn't take off her shirt. I'm glad the school hosted this activity this year and hopefully it might inspire these kids to be more active and healthy.

Other random pictures of the year, Keila and I attend the school's girl's night and had fun making crafts and eating treats.

The kids earned some free tokens for Peter Piper Pizza so we went to play some games together.

Mounds of lemons and grapefruits to keep little hands busy. The youngest two were proud to load the picked fruit into boxes and the older two had fun carrying them door to door for our neighbors or friends.

Library fun and picnic lunch at the park.

Glendale's Chocolate Festival was a first for us. It was fun to see all the vendors and Isaac and Keila donated some money to veteran cause and got giant chocolate covered marshmellows and we all splurged and shared a chocolate covered cheesecake. Bubby really dug his face into that one!

Silliness while shopping with a Pumpkin!

While I'm too busy nowadays to document all we do, I'm glad we have our memories and fun moments in the busyness of life.

Making Opportunities

I've missed the second wife a great deal. Since Pumpkin came along it's much too hard to handle two little runners and while hauling a 5 lb camera and attempting to capture the moments of life. The phone does the trick in a pinch but the pictures aren't as beautiful and I have much less incentive to blog when there is't something fun to look at.

So the other day I decided to make bubbles and try and capture the kiddo's reactions. Bubbles are magical and so new for Pumpkin that it was fun, but I'd have to say some of these shots really show off the oldest two!

I love the ones where the camera captures it mid bubble pop!

The smiles are AWESOME!

I usually think of using the camera on an interesting outing but making photo opportunity might be the trick with the side benefit of making memories!