Saturday, March 29, 2014

Camping On The USS Lexington

In February, Spence's Boy Scout troupe went to Corpus Christi to tour The USS Lexington.  Not only did they tour the ship, but they got to sleep on it! Coleman, who did not want to join Boy Scouts, seems to get to participate in all their fun activities without having to sit through meetings or wear a uniform (the uniform is Spence's least favorite part).  I think Allie and I may join them on this adventure if they go back next year!




The following picture needs a little setting up.  Apparently, telling ghost stories is a big part of the USS Lexington experience.  One of the "ghosts" they heard about was Charlie, so before Brian showed the boys the pictures from the ship he doctored this photo to make it look like Charlie was in the background.  He didn't say anything, and the boys saw it!  It got them for a second, then they thought it was pretty funny.  Brian shared it with the other dads so they could spook their boys too!

 



I'm so glad the guys got to share this special adventure together.  What a fun trip with Daddy and their friends!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sweet, Funny, Funny and Thoughtful

Sweet:
When Spence got home from school he told me that at recess, he and his friends Barrett and Kevin heard a fire truck close to the school.  Spence suggested that they say a prayer, so Barrett said the prayer for the safety of the people.  I asked him what Kevin did, and Spence said, "He asked if we talked to God."  So proud of my sweet boy and his friend!

Funny:
Guess what my sweet, girly, tomboy, ballerina turned football player daughter asked me to do as soon as her brothers got home... "Mommy, take off my necklace so I can fight!"

Funny and Thoughtful:
Monday night I cut my finger pretty badly while chopping an onion.  So when I got ready to chop some black olives this afternoon, I was a little nervous pulling out a knife again.  I didn't even realize Coleman overhead me hoping I didn't cut myself again, but as I began chopping, he went and got a tube of Neosporin and a Band-Aid and laid them on the chopping board, saying, "Better safe than sorry!"

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

A Recap of February

Whew!  I almost missed my first Tuesday post!  That would have been embarrassing.  Today I'm going to share a few pictures from February since I really dropped the bloggy ball that month!

The boys reached the 100th day of school!  I'm not sure if they counted the two "snow days" we got out for or not.  So maybe it was just 98 days on this particular day.  Spence looks at least 98 though, right?  It's not a great picture, but I used white colored hair spray to complete the look. 


I don't have any statistics or anything, but if you ask me this has been the coldest winter we've had since I've lived here!  If I had known how much cold weather we would have, I definitely would have bought the kids some coats!  It's true, my children do not have coats, only zip up hoodies.  And that usually cuts it here, but we had to do some layering this season.  Just check out Allie!


Last year and the year before I had really cute homemade Valentine's to show off.  2014 was a box of Star Wars, Super Heroes, and Disney Princess kind of year. And nobody missed the homemade ones.  Well, maybe I did just a little.  Here's a picture of Spence and his teacher at their Valentine party.


Usually about once a week Allie and I go to Brian's office so I can help out.  I try to take plenty of snacks, and we keep a box of toys in a cabinet there, but this is what she ends up doing for most of the time.  

Except when she's doing this!  This picture isn't from February, but I had to sneak it in here.  One day Brian had me come in to help answer phones.  Allie helped me stuff and label envelopes, then took some time to hone her ninja skills.  I kept thinking, "I'm probably the only receptionist who has a personal ninja!"  But seriously, I've had to start telling Allie, "You can't let everyone know you're a ninja.  It's a secret identity."  She really does have some mad skillz (it just seemed like that phrase needed a "z") and I'm afraid she's going to hurt someone.  At least she traded in the ninja star for a Fruit By the Foot!


We all enjoyed our second annual Eaglethon Fun Run!  Allie ran with the Kindergarten and First graders.  Then she took on the role of cheerleader.  I didn't get any pictures of Coleman since I was working at the water station during his run.




And finally, the wall was rebuilt!  The kids have been in the book of Nehemiah in Children's Church, so the teacher has been collecting boxes and asking for tissue boxes for months now.  Every time something came up where the boys would possibly miss church (camping trip, visiting a friend's church) they were terrified they would miss building the wall.  I actually had to contact the teacher and make sure they wouldn't be building the wall the Sunday that the boys were going on a Boy Scout camping trip.  Thankfully they did not miss it!  And I'm so thankful that they love going to church!


We really do have such a wonderful church.  I'm reading through the Bible chronologically this year, and yesterday morning I was reading about a battle that took place after the Israelites had conquered Jericho.  I'm sure I had read it before, but it really jumped out at me as something Coleman would be interested in because it talked about how they lured the people out of the city and set an ambush for them.  I was telling Coleman about it, and he proceeded to tell me about the battle before that, one that isn't a major kids' Bible story.  If you're familiar with it, this was the battle at Ai, and how the Israelites lost and Achan's sin of taking some of the devoted things from Jericho was discovered and he and his family were stoned.  Coleman couldn't remember the names, but he told me a lot of the details.  I was really impressed!  And so thankful for our amazing Sunday School teachers who really dig into God's Word with our kids.

That was most of February!  I didn't realize how much I'd missed sharing all of this with, well, whoever is out there reading it!


Saturday, March 22, 2014

A New Plan

I'm sad that The Piks blog has been on the back burner.  This is such a great place to keep track of our life and adventures and share them with our family and friends!  I've realized though that at this time, I don't have the time or energy (mostly energy I think) to blog several times a week.  It's become so easy just to post a picture to Facebook, but I don't want to abandon the blog!  I actually really like writing, and I love going back and looking at what was going on with us at different times.

So I'm going to try something new:  one post a week guaranteed (I'm thinking Tuesday) and possibly more if we have some excitement around here!  Even though it's not Tuesday, here's a little something...  Because we had some excitement around here!


Today was the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby.  I had heard about this, but I thought the boys made their cars, then got together and rolled them down a hill.  Really, I don't know where I thought they would find a hill where we live.  Anyway, turns out this is a major, intense, big deal, official weights and measures kind of event!  Yes it was fun and exciting, but also serious business!  I got to help check in the cars, which means I helped make sure they were regulation size, would roll on the track, weighed no more than 5 ounces, and then put the number sticker on the car.  Once a scout or family member checked in their car it was whisked behind the track and they couldn't touch it again until the races were over.  Brian got the job of placing the cars at the top of the track and releasing them for each race.  While all the official business of checking in the cars was going on, kids could build a Lego car to race after the pinewood cars.

This was a new track for our pack this year.  Pretty cool!






Screens to let you know who's racing, what lane they are in, and who's on deck.  Pretty cool!

Voting on their favorite Lego cars


I tried to get some pictures of the screens when the boys or Brian would come in first in their heats.  The lights affected how my pictures look.






 Brian in his official role as track starter!  These two pictures were of the Lego races.



I'm pretty sure Coleman won in the Youth, non-Boy Scout category.  Brian won in the Adult category, and Spence made it to the Grand Finals in the Boy Scout category.  There were four heats, and he was looking good to win 2nd, but in the final heat his car jumped the track!  It was pretty exciting, but left him in 8th place. 

This was really a fun event!  And yes, I was surprised by how much fun it was.  Can't wait for next year!