Blue & Gold

Last night we attended the Cub Scouts' Annual Blue & Gold Ceremony which celebrates the work they've done this year and officially recognizes their new rank. For Jackson, this meant that he received the wolf badge.

We got a little dressed up for the occasion and headed over to the church near our house which has become almost a home away from home for us, since it is where Cody and Luke attend preschool, as well as the home of Jackson's basketball league and Cub Scout Pack 200.

Jacks sure does look handsome and official in his uniform!


Inside, the gym was decorated top to bottom with blue and yellow. Very festive!


We were lucky enough to have Gramma and Grandad join us for the celebration, too!


We enjoyed a spaghetti dinner before moving over to the Sanctuary for the official ceremony.

As each boy's name was called, he got a feather and added it to Akela's (the symbol of wisdom and leadership for Cub Scouts) headdress.


Then they went over to the chart of ranks and moved their clothespin from the bottom to the top, symbolizing their completion of all the requirements of the rank.


Here is Jackson with a sign showing all the ranks. He now has the badges for Bobcat and Wolf, and he will begin working on achievements for the Bear rank once he starts 3rd Grade.


We weren't at all sure how Jackson would like Cub Scouts, but he has really enjoyed it and is already looking forward to next year. We're very proud of him!

Going Green

And when I say green, I don't mean "good for the environment." I'm talking about hair. And some extremely colorful stuff we put in it.

Wednesday was Crazy Hair Day at Jackson's school. Coincidentally, it was also Wacky Wednesday for Cody's class. We debated the merits of colored hairspray vs. hair wax, but considering the boys' hair is pretty short, we went with wax lest they end up with their entire heads and faces dyed green.

So bright and early on Wednesday morning, Jacks and I created this:


Basically, he looked like a porcupine with green spikes. It was actually pretty cool. I ended up with my palms an interesting shade of green, though.

Here's the crew of crazy hair-do'd dudes from his class.


Then, it was Cody's turn. His special day was not just about crazy hair. Wacky Wednesday is a Dr. Seuss book where everything is kind of upside-down and backwards...the sidewalk is a carpet, a man drives his car from the backseat, etc. So the kids (and teachers) were supposed to dress "wacky."

We started with the green hair. And we put his shirt on backwards.


Let me tell you, despite the smiles you see here, he was NOT happy about being wacky. This is my kiddo who lines his shoes up in his closet, only wears socks that have the matching orange logo on the bottom, and insists that a shirt can only be worn with a particular pair of pants. Putting his shirt on backwards did NOT feel right to him.


And then we rolled up his pants legs to show off my his wacky Halloween socks. At least the socks matched each other, and they even had orange on them!


Now, Luke was not going to be left out so I put a couple of tiny green stripes in his hair. But he didn't have an official "crazy hair" day in his class and I didn't want to completely freak out his teachers or peers. But we do have some green wax left over, so we may have to have "Silly Sunday" this weekend. Stay tuned....

He's so Money...

....and he doesn't even know it!

Snow Day!

On February 11, 2010, it snowed in Dallas for the 4th time this winter. Unlike our other snowfalls, however, this time we got almost 10 inches of snow that really stuck!

Here's a view of our street.


The boys ended up with a snow day on the 12th (and we were without power for almost all of it!), so we really got to enjoy it.


We built snowmen.


And snow aliens.


We made snow angels.


Cody really worked hard on his. I think making this face helped.


And of course, we had a snowball fight or 7.


We tried playing snow basketball, but you can see we had a few problems.


And we collected fresh snow in bowls so we could make snow ice cream!


It was amazing to see everything so covered in white. Even with the cold and the power outtage, it was an incredible couple of days and the boys just LOVED it.

Alphabet Bag

Cody's class studies a different letter of the alphabet each week, and one of the kids takes home this bag and fills it with items that begin with that week's letter. This week they are studying the letter "R" and it was Cody's turn with the bag.

Here are the items he chose.


He was very proud of the robot, especially. And the kids were apparently really excited about the cracker box until they realized it was empty! ;)

This is really such a fun project, and the kids always enjoy seeing actual items from their friends' homes that begin with the letter of the week.

Pinewood Derby

Last Saturday was the Cub Scouts' annual Pinewood Derby. This is one of the biggest events of the year, and the boys all really enjoyed it.

Basically, you start with a block of wood that looks like this:


Then you come up with a design and go to town! The sky is the limit and the only restrictions are weight (no more than 5 oz.) and length (not a clue, but I know they were measuring very carefully at check-in!).

Jackson envisioned a super cool race car, and after some fancy work with a jigsaw (they brought in some big ones and experienced dads to help), some awesome red paint and fiery decals, his finished product looked like this:


They run 6 cars at a time down the incredibly high-tech track you can just barely see the boys looking at in the next picture. Each car has its own lane and a computer (somehow) tracks the order in which they pass the finish line. They ended up running 13 heats.


Now, Jackson's car, though it looked super cool, had some design flaws with the wheels (one of them didn't line up quite right) so it was not terribly fast. In fact, it came in last in every heat.

But happily, Jackson still got a medal. Want to guess what it was for?


It was a really fun day, and Jackson is already thinking ahead to his design for next year! :)