Fishing at Scout Camp

In my opinion, you can't call yourself a Cub Scout without going camping. So, this past weekend it was off to camp for my hubby and C who is now a Webelos (which stands for We'll Be Loyal Scouts). This was C's first official scout camp event. They went to Fire Mountain, which is about an hours' drive north, and spent one night there.

My hubby J wrote the following:

Our campsite consisted of tiny but sturdy "Adirondack cabins" rather than tents, that sleep 4 adults, bunk bed-style. That first evening we enjoyed songs and stories around the campfire before going to bed. Since the camp is located far from the city, we were able to see lots of stars in the night sky.

The night was a little cool and not all of us were warm enough. The first thing we learned was that you should never trust the temperature rating on a sleeping bag. It turns out a "30 degree" bag will only keep you warm when it's 45 degrees if you are wearing a couple of layers of warm clothing as well!

On Saturday morning the boys headed to the docks to do some trout fishing.

They got some great help from "Mr. Randy", one of the leaders of a Boy Scout Troop which was   there to help our Cub Scout Pack in various ways. He had several rods with him, and showed them his preferred way to rig and bait for trout. And boy did his system work! C caught his first fish ever.

He landed 7 fish before the day was over. Our friend T hooked a beautiful 18 inch "beast" during this haul. At one point they were pulling them out two at a time. By the end of the day, our Pack had caught 27 fish.

After catching their limit for the morning, Mr. Randy took them over to the fish cleaning station and showed them how to gut and clean the fish, a first for most of them.

After lunch we kicked things off officially with a flag raising ceremony, led by our Boy Scout friends. One of their senior scouts, Andreas, played the bugle and led the ceremony. It was very well done. Then we split into two groups, one doing a small guided hike up to a waterfall, and the other an orienteering exercise . When those were complete, the boys returned to fishing for a bit, and then switched roles. C was actually too tired to do the orienteering by that point so we stayed back at camp and "guarded" the Dutch Oven lasagna that the other troop had helped us prepare for dinner. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed home.

making monkey bread

Eating monkey bread and catching all those fish were the highlights of the weekend for C. As you can tell from the photos, it was a beautiful sunny day.


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Back to School Mantle

I've wanted to do a "back to school" mantle for a year or so. I find it hard to go straight from my beach themed mantle to a fall one. Hence, a back to school one.

The periodic table poster is wrapping paper made by Cavallini which I bought at Paper Source.

The school house is vintage Fisher Price.

I found the globe at Ross.

I made the banner with flash cards from the dollar section at Target. I simply punched holes at the top of each card and strung it on some brown cord I already had around the house.

I spelled out Back to School with Scrabble letters.

My boys weren't happy when I was creating this mantle. This was before school had started and they weren't too anxious to get back to school!


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The big one-one

So, he's eleven now. Mr. Middle Schooler. How did that happen?

We celebrated his birthday today. The party started out at Elevated Sportz with 90 minutes of trampoline time including dodge ball and jumping into a foam pit.

Then we went to our house for burgers and an ice cream sundae bar.

We had a beautiful cake for the birthday boy (made by Sherri Feldman) but no one had much of an appetite for it after all that food! We'll enjoy the cake tomorrow, I'm sure.

He had seven friends join us. Three are school friends, one is a friend who A has known since grade one who no longer attends his school, one is a friend from church and two friends are neighbours.

A's main gift from us is a laptop. He's going to learn to program on it and use it for school.

I think the party was a big success. I'm still getting used to the fact that he is eleven and that I've been a mother for eleven years.




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First Day of School 2014

This year is a year of transition. My oldest son is now in middle school. I can't believe that I just typed that. I still think of him as a little boy. :) He is and was a bundle of nerves about this new year.

He now has a lock for his locker. He changes classrooms after each period. He has many different teachers during the day. He doesn't have recess anymore. He has a slightly different uniform. His day is a bit longer. There is a middle school retreat coming up in November at a Christian camp. They have detention in middle school but I don't think that will be a problem, unless he gets too many tardys, which he'll blame on me. :) I'm thankful that he is on the same campus as his brother and many things are the same.

My youngest son is in 4th grade. He has the same teacher that his brother had for 4th. I like that. I know what to expect. She is a good natured teacher and easy to communicate with. I was able to take a photo of him in his classroom.

He wasn't as nervous on his first day. One of his very good friends (who was a friend in Kindergarten) is in his class so that is fun.


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