Scouts Closing Ceremony and School Field Trip—May 2013

In May, the boys had their final cub scout event of the year.  It was a special ceremony for the Tiger cubs (and all the other cub scout levels respectively) to cross over into the next level of scouting. 

Crossing over the bridge to symbolize crossing over to the next level of scouting

 

The boys with their leader Andrea

 

I was able to attend the kids’ final field trrip of the school year, a trip to Ijams Nature Center for Waterfest.  It was great to spend a day with my kids and meet some of their school friends.  Plus the kids had a lot of fun playing water games and learning about water.

 

We love Ijams Nature Center!

Scouts Go Caving—April 2013

In April the boys’ cub scout troop took an outing to the Cherokee Caverns.  If you’ve never been, it was a great experience.  The caverns aren’t that far away, just on Oak Ridge Highway.  We were really too large a group for the tour.  It was hard to keep up with all the kids, and often you couldn’t get close enough to the tour guide to really hear what he was saying.  Still, it was a lot of fun, and the caverns were beautiful!

Getting instructions before entering the caverns

 

Can you see the face in the picture above?

 

The pictures don’t do the beauty justice!

 

Random moment—Thomas, Reagan, and Jonathan coloring with some friends in the neighborhood-Sloan, Helen, and Zoe

Dominoes, Easter Eggs, Kite-flying, and the Bane of My Existence! March 2013

This is my beautiful daughter Reagan.  Notice the missing teeth.  Soon she would lose another one, and things would get bad, VERY BAD.  Just wait.



Bud and KK came for a visit over Spring Break, and Bud taught the kids to play dominoes.  They had a lot of fun!  Thanks Bud!

We also had an Easter egg hunt while Bud and KK were here. 



After their visit, it was time to get ready for Easter, so we dyed our eggs.



On Easter, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny, enjoyed a moving church service, and hunted more eggs in the afternoon.



Don’t skim by those pictures too quickly!  Can you see it?  The bane of my existence during that time?  Look closer.


DO YOU SEE IT?!?!? When Reagan lost one of her top front teeth, the other one held on for what seemed like eternity, CROOKED, right in the middle of her smile.  It was so gross to look at.  It makes me cringe just to look at it!



A couple of the kids got kites at our church’s Spring Festival.  One afternoon, when the wind was blowing, Jim took the kids out and gave them their first flying lessons!

More Snow, More Scouts—February 2013

Well, it snowed some more in February, a little better than the January snow, and I was able to take some pretty cute shots of the kids.

Thomas, Jonathan, and Reagan

 

 

We even managed to finally lure Zachary back out into the snow!  This may be the first time he’s played in the snow since he was about three!

 

At the Cub Scout banquet that month, the boys acquired their new rank badges, Tiger cub.  Jim attached each boy’s new badge.

Zachary

 

Thomas

 

Jonathan

News, Love, Snow, and a Friend—January 2013

The cub scouts went on an outing to a TV news station.  It was a trip that Jim worked hard to set up, only to be set out-of-town for training, so he didn’t even get to go!  It was pretty cool to tour the studio and watch the filming of an actual news broadcast.  All the kids had to sit very still and very quiet for the whole taping.  They did a FANTASTIC job.  I was impressed (and surprised! The boys’ troop is pretty big and rarely quiet!)



We even got to wave at the camera as the show closed.  Pretty cool!

While Dad was gone, we tried to send him a picture or video each night before going to bed.  Here’s one of them.



It snowed a little that month too.  Everyone EXCEPT ZACHARY went out to play in it.



We also had the pleasure of having our friend (and pediatrician) Miss Molly and her daughter Bella over one night for dinner.



All in all, it was a pretty good way to start the new year!