My New Webelos Scout

Colton just earned his Webelos badge!  Here are some pictures of him as he received his award.

Here he is pinning on the "mother's pin"...

I love the things cub scouts teaches my boys.  It helps them transition from amazing little boys into amazing young men!  Colton is loving cub scouts!


As a side note, you might notice Colton is missing his glasses.  He finally got contacts!  He was so excited.

Our GOLDEN SCHOLARS

At the end of the year, our school district honors those kids, 4th grade through 12th grade, who were able to get all A's (they are allowed one B) throughout the year.  Bryan, Morgan, and Colton all qualified!  We are so proud of them for working hard all year.  Considering that Morgan and Colton are both in the gifted program at their school, and Bryan's core classes are all Honors classes, that was no small feat.  They really had to work their tails off to get those grades.  Way to go guys!

The different schools each have their own way of honoring these "Golden Scholars".  For Morgan and Colton it was a Golden Scholar Night.  They had each person walk up and receive a special certificate.  They also showed pictures and video of all the kids.  I'm so proud of the both of them!

For Bryan it was an assembly during the school day to which parents were also invited.  They also honored each student by name and the principal talked to the group.

I didn't have my camera at the elementary school one, but here are some pictures I got at Bryan's.

As I was leaving the auditorium of Bryan's school it was pretty crowded.  I couldn't see Bryan, so I assumed he had gone back to class.  I had to cross through the middle of the very large campus to get to where I had parked.  It was between classes, so there were tons of kids milling about.  As I got to the edge of campus I heard, "Mom!  Where are you going!"  I turned to see Bryan with a big grin.  In front of all of his friends he came over and gave me a big hug and a kiss on my cheek.  I think a lot of fifteen year old boys would be kind of embarrassed to do that.  I felt so privileged that Bryan was excited to have me there.  He really makes me feel special.  I sure love being a mom.

I handed my camera over to one of Bryan's friends so he could snap a picture of us.

Ducks in our pool!

I glanced outside today just as two ducks flew into our pool and started paddling around.  I grabbed Colton and Kyle and we went outside to see them.  Kyle grabbed a bag of bread and they started feeding the ducks.

Later I decided feeding them was probably not the best idea.  They came back the next day, and the next, and the next - leaving presents for us both in the pool and on the edge of the pool.


One night my neighbor called telling me they were back.  I went outside, but it was pitch black and I couldn't really see anything.  I didn't hear anything either so I figured they were gone.  Just as I was getting ready to leave and go back out the gate to the pool, I realized our golden retriever, Abbey, had followed me in (she never does that because she knows she's not allowed in the pool).  She didn't bark, but ran as hard as she could to the side of the pool and then did a great big leap into the deep end.  I couldn't see her, but I heard a giant flutter of wings and a whole lot of loud quacking as I then saw the ducks fly straight over my head in their hurry to get away.  Ha!  They came back one more time during the day.  I just opened the gate and told Abbey to go.  She did.  They haven't been back since.


I think we'll save our bread for the ducks at the local pond.

Easter

My sister, Kacie, surprised our family with a surprise visit over Easter weekend.  She decided to come 55 minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave.  She drove down to the airport (15 minutes away), bought a ticket, hopped on the plane, then showed up at Colton's baseball game a couple hours later!  Crazy!  My mom and I saw her walking over with my dad and said, "Who's that walking with dad?  It looks kind of like Kacie, but it couldn't be."  But it was!


Here are some fun pictures of the Easter egg hunt we did the evening before Easter Sunday...


Kacie...

with my kiddos...

Morgan does NOT like to look silly.

The kids were each allowed to find 13 eggs.  We went one by one from youngest to oldest, so the older ones had to hunt for the hardest ones!  All the eggs had candy.  Some of them had some coins in them.  A few had dollar bills.  One had a five dollar bill.

Sarah came over with Jace to do the hunt too.  He was thinking he would rather have a nap.

When we were getting ready to go out and do the hunt I asked Bryan, "Are you doing the hunt?" (thinking he might think he was too old for such things).  "For sure!" was his reply.  He wasn't missing out on candy and free money!

Sarah and Kacie looked around the yard to find some of the final well hid eggs so they could hint to the kids who were looking.

My mom.

Bryan hadn't got any of the eggs with dollar bills last year, but he was such a good sport about it and was so happy for Colton and Kyle who had gotten them.  This year he ended up with the only five dollar bill and two one dollar bills!  That's karma baby!

Jace was very proud of his two quarters.

Happy Easter!!