Treasurer - Maybe

Today, Elizabeth came home from school very excited.

She ran in the school elections for the position of Student Council Treasurer and today she found out that she was voted into the final round.  

All candidates presented a speech to grade 3,4 & 5 students.   The students then had to vote for the person they felt would be best for the position.    I read her speech, and I have to admit that I was impressed.   She spoke about how she loved math and she was good at math, and that a good treasurer needs to be good at math.   She told them that she ran a lemonade stand during the summer vacation and made more than her goal, and she told them that she earned pocket money and then divided her money into spending, saving and giving.

Now she is madly making posters, encouraging students to vote for her in the election.   She's also made bookmarks which encourage students to vote for her, and they are in a little pocket on the poster.

Final voting happens again on November 5th.    I'm cheering for her - but alas parents can't vote :)

Stay tuned.   We may have a treasurer in our house :)

Junior Varsity

For the past two months, Isaac has participated in his school cross country team.   With cross country, there are no requirements to join.   You simply pay the fee, turn up and train hard. 

 

I was so surprised at the beginning of the school year when Isaac announced that he wanted to do cross country.   He has never shown any interest in sports.   I have to admit that I was slightly worried, because he's not athletically inclined and I was worried about how he would go.   I didn't want him to become discouraged about his abilities.  

 

It turns out though, that by being worried it was really me that was discouraging him.    He has shown such a great spirit and got a lot of enjoyment out of running.   He would come home from an interschool meet, and be excited because he didn't come in last.   He was fully aware that he was the slowest in his school but it didn't dampened his spirits.  

 

Today was the Junior Varsity Cross Country finals.   

 

I must admit that I had to look up the definition of Varsity.   It means "a sports team representing a school or college".    It's not a word we ever used in Australia and middle school is the first time I've come across it as they don't do any interschool sports in elementary grades.  

 

So Isaac was representing his school at the cross country finals today.   And I am so proud of him.   I'm proud that this is my boy who has struggled physically.   My boy whom I was told at 2 that he would never be an athlete due to his physical delays.   My boy who could not jump at 5 years old.   My boy who was always the slower runner at soccer.   My boy who we needed to do physical therapy with to help with muscle tone.   I'm so proud of him because he doesn't care that he's slower than the other boys but he still went ahead and joined the cross country team.   My boy whom I have seen improve over the past 2 months.   My boy who hasn't been discouraged.

 

I have to admit as I saw him run across the finish line today, my heart swelled and I cheered not just for him but for what he has achieved. 

 





All Thumbs

Elizabeth saw the orthopedic surgeon today, as we were told that her fracture was on the growth plate and that it was important to have it looked at further because it could affect future growth of her thumb.

The good news is that it is only a small fracture and her thumb is going to grow just dandily. 

Even though they call it a fracture - it is more like a bone displacement.   This is her thumb x-ray.   If you look at her thumb, the small bone at each joint is the growth plate.  The top one is perfectly in line but the second one has been pushed to the left and is slightly out of alignment.   That misalignment is the "fracture".    

She needs to keep her splint on for four more weeks, and we have another appointment on the 21st November to make sure the bone has gone back into place.

The doctor today said that she'll probably hurt for another 2 more weeks and then not understand why she needs to keep the splint on for the next 2 weeks but that it was critical to keep it on for the full four weeks to ensure complete healing.

She can swim and play piano in two weeks time but has to keep the splint on during those activities.

All in all - a fairly minor break - but one that's giving her considerable pain especially when she accidentally tries to use her thumb.

She Won

Unfortunately, Elizabeth won first place for Child with a Broken Bone in Our House.

She has fractured the growth plate on her thumb.    She'll be getting a custom made splint for her finger soon, which hopefully will be more comfortable than the stock one her doctor had  to keep it still.

Poor baby.   No wonder it hurt so much.

Broken Bones

Elizabeth is currently competing for first broken bone for our children.   We will find out if she is a winner tomorrow (apparently a trauma came into the radiology department just after we left) and our doctor's office closes at 6.30pm.

She fell off a climbing rock and has a nice swollen finger.   Her doctor has put it in a splint until we know the results, for as he said, if it's broken she'll need the splint and if it's sprained or a torn ligament it's good to have it splinted until the swelling goes down.

Glacier National Park

Tonight I have been reading over some old blog posts and I noticed one from about 3 years ago where Isaac mentioned that he wanted to visit Glacier National Park.

It just so happens that we did visit Glacier this summer.    It was a spectacular part of America, with the most amazing road to drive on (although Ben did all the driving).

Here are a few highlights of our trip...

This first photo is a view of the Going to The Sun Road - if you look very closely you can see the cars on the road, in the distance.

This was a fairly tame section of the road - in some places the road was very narrow, with rock overhanging on the left and a drop off on the right.   Ben thoroughly enjoyed the drive, and says this road made the trip.

 

The kids all earned their junior ranger badges for completing work books about the National Park.   Kai jumped up and down with excitement as he was awarded his badge, even though he was my most reluctant participant.

 

I'm just throwing this photo in because I love my boys...what a handsome lot!

 

 

We all went swimming in the freezing cold Lake McDonald.   Ben and the kids swam every day.   I only did it once :)

Proof that we really were there!   Although Ben rolled his eyes at me, I insisted that we had a photo at the entry of the park.   Luckily for us, we went animal spotting one evening and found a little used entrance so we didn't have to compete with the crowds trying to get their photos.

 

And yes - we camped at Glacier National Park.   No 5 star hotels for us!   And yes - it was freezing cold in the mornings despite that fact that it was in the middle of summer.

And the holy grail of National Park vacations....the bear!    We saw this Black Bear (yes - it's a black bear despite being brown) on our last day.   I was told by a park ranger that we might see a bear at Many Glaciers, so I directed Ben back over the Going to the Sun Road, on our way home through Canada.

 

Little did I realize that, by going this way, we had to go through Alberta and that it was going to make our 5 hour drive to our first stop a 9 hour drive.    Let's just say we saw more of the country than we expected too.    I must admit that Ben held up remarkably well as the designated driver.

A Family of Readers

Conversation around the dinner table tonight came back to my 40th birthday.   Ben had mentioned that we should do something big for my birthday.   As I don't really like parties, I asked the kids if there was anything "big" they could think of that I would like but the family would enjoy too.

Isaac came up with the idea of a day of reading, where we would all sit around the house reading books.   I love that he recognizes that I love reading, and that all our kids have followed in our footsteps.

Before that sounds too braggy - I will mention that his first idea was a day where we all play computer games together.

Freak Out

We were driving in the car the other day, when Ben bought up the topic that I was going to be 40 next year.   (Great way to make me feel good, dear, especially when I'm still 38!)   Ben was joking that I could have a midlife crisis at 40 and buy a sports car and get a tattoo.  

Elizabeth asked what a mid-life crisis was.   Ben started explaining, when suddenly Kai yelled out "Guys - you're freaking me out right now.   It's just so crazy about cars and tattoos!"    

That kid cracks me up!  

Rain

It is now Autumn here in the US.   For us, this means it's the beginning of the rainy season.   The sky's will be mostly gray from now until May, and I often find that a depressing thought.

However, Kai has a different outlook on life.   Yesterday he announced, "I love the rain because I can jump in puddles".

Oh to have the outlook of a four year old.

Welcome Charcoal

We have recently added a new family member of the feline variety to our household.

Charcoal joined our house about two weeks ago.    My friend's cat had kittens back in April, and I said outright that we would not be getting a new kitten.   Cleo is a senior cat these days, as she is 8 years old and I didn't want her to have to cope with a baby in the house.

However, after watching these kittens grow from birth, I fell in love.   Finally I ended up taking Ben to Kristina's house and Charcoal worked his charm on Ben too.   We came home with a new kitten.

We kept the two cats separated for a while, although there were the occasional escapes and encounters.   But they were brief and we quickly separated the cats.   They soon started sitting at the door and batting paws.

Two days ago, we started having supervised visits between the two.   It has gone very well.   They spend most of their time play fighting.   The movements are slow, and lots of bouncing is occurring especially by Charcoal.   Cleo is jumping and leaping and playing too - she's getting more exercise with Charcoal than she has in a long time.   Our vet said that she's the equivalent to a 300 pound, 56 year old woman - so a bit of exercise with the young might do her good!  The downside, is that I saw her limping slightly tonight.  I think she might have worked the muscles a bit too much today.  

Charcoal is a bit of a twit, and doesn't know when to stop though.   You can see that Cleo is exhausted from his antics, but he keeps on stalking her and pouncing on her.   She'll finally hiss and he gets the message.   He then walks around her making a pitiful meowing sound.    Five minutes later, he'll try again though.

So far, they've had about 4 "together" times, with the longest being about 2 hours.

I think it's going to work out.   At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

A Super Mario Party

It was Kai's 4th birthday yesterday, so of course you want to see a photo of the birthday boy.

 

Kai chose to have a Super Mario party.  One thing I love doing, is doing some creative cooking for the kid's birthdays.   This one was no different.   After some brainstorming and researching we ended up making the following items....

 

Doughnuts - because there is a level on Mario called "Donut Land".   Lizzy made these gluten free doughnuts, and iced them.   She was a great helper.

Marshmallow pops - to look like the Mario mushrooms.   These were quick and easy to make.  I just stuck a lolly stick into the marshmallow, and then dipped them in melted red chocolate.   By the time I finished the last one, the first was dry enough to put some little white chocolate dots on them.

 

Star shaped cheese quesadillas - to represent Mario Star Catchers. 

 

And some cheese stars too.   These were all done with cookie cutters.

 

And finally - the spread...   As you can see, we also had some watermelon because it is Kai's favorite fruit and some chocolate dipped strawberries because Liz wanted to dip strawberries!

 

 After our party - we had present time.   He got a sword and shield from Grandma & Grandad (plus another sword, so that he could play with someone else).    It's been a hit, although we've had to have some conversations about not hitting too hard.

 

And the big present was a trampoline from Mum & Dad and Grandma Jan & Grandad Joe.   It's currently set up in the garage, but we will be moving it outside in the next few days.   It's been used extensively by all children in the past two days.  

He also got an orange car from Isaac and a Robot arm (or a grabber as he calls it) from Elizabeth.

All in all - it was a fun birthday!

Bike Riding

Kai loves to ride his bike, but he also likes to have the security of someone holding onto his handle bars when he's not on flat ground (read...our garage).   However, we took his bike away camping this weekend and he was able to get lots of riding time in.

We started one bike ride still wanting Dad to hold on....  

 

 But he quickly became a much more confident bike rider and was going all by himself.   By the end, he told Ben that he didn't need help getting up the steep hill.   He accepted the help only when Ben pointed out that even Isaac and Elizabeth couldn't ride up the hill by themselves.

Yes - he is on Elizabeth's old bike but soon he'll graduate to a bigger Spiderman bike.   But he likes his pink bike for now.

Tulip Festival

We went camping at Deception Pass last weekend.   My main reason for choosing this location was that we were close to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.    It's normal for the fields to be muddy at this time of year and we knew to wear our mud boots.   This was a highlight for Kai, who spent most of his time either jumping between the rows of tulips or splashing in the mud puddles.   

Here are some of my favorite photos - I just love the colors!

England

This time last week I was in England.   My wonderful husband looked after our kids for a week, so that I could travel with my friend Kristina.

We spent two days in London, where we visited the British Museum and Windsor Castle.    After that, we drove to the other side of England (which was only about 90 minutes!) and visited Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was born.   We spent two more days there, then spent a day driving through Gloucestershire visiting some of the places were my Mum's family came from.   Our last day was spent in Bath, which is a place that features in many historical books that I read, as it was a "place to be seen" in the 1800's.

This photo is a special photo, as I am standing outside a house named "Potter's Court".   In 1803, my 4th Great Grandfather, Samuel Hickling, married Lydia Potter.    From records I have, I know that Samuel and Lydia were living in Potter Court in 1841 and 1850 - I don't have any earlier records so it's possible that they lived here all their married life.    It's possible, that given the name of the house, it used to be Lydia's father's as I was told that the houses and alley's were named after residents.   It was pretty cool to see somewhere that my family lived 200 years ago.

My Apologies

My apologies to my family!   I needed somewhere to publish the last 3 posts, so the information on how to make the Cub Scout Arrow of Light was somewhere.   This was the only spot that I have, so you all get to read it!

I'll get back to my usual family stuff now :)

Making the Arrows - Putting it All Together

Once you have all your materials together, and have collected all the data on the boys who are crossing over, it's time to make your plaques.

Arrows

Before you make the arrows, you need to know:
1.   What rank they joined scouts (eg Tiger, Bear, Wolf or Weblos)
2.   Whether they earned any gold or silver points as a Bear or Wolf
3.   How many activity badges have they completed as a Weblos

Once you have collected this data on each boy, you can paint the arrows.

You need the arrows, masking tape in various sizes, paint, paintbrushes, a sharpie pen, a plate to put the paints on and some water for washing brushes.

To paint the arrows:
1.   Tape some masking tape around the nock of the arrow and write the boys' name on the tape

 

 

 

2.  Using the data on each boy, start taping the arrow.   The green tape is used between each rank, and the 1/8th" tape is used between gold/silver points and between activity badges.   In the example below the scout earned their Tiger, Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Weblos, 8 Weblos Activity Badges, and their Arrow of Light.



 

This picture shows the three stages of painting - the bottom example is a taped arrow, the middle is a completed arrow and the top arrow has been painted but still has the tape on the arrow.

 

Each rank is 3/4 inches long, and each gold/silver point and activity badge is 1/4 inch long.

 

 

The only except is the Arrow of Light, which can be up to 3 inches long.  

 

 

Each arrow will look different according to what each boy achieved.

 

Tip:   You may find it easier to draw the arrow out on paper first.  If possible have someone check that you have taped the arrow correctly.  

 

 

3.   Paint the arrows.   If time permits, do a second coat.   I found that yellow and orange were critical for a second coat and looked even better with a 3rd coat.    Do not paint the yellow Arrow of Light until as late as possible as the boys could complete an Activity Badge after you have painted.    If this happens, use fine grit sandpaper to remove the paint and add the extra gray Activity Badges.

 

 

The Plaques

 

1.   Using a fine grit sandpaper, sand the plaques until they are smooth to touch.   You can do this before or after the Arrow of Light has been engraved on the plaques.

 

2.   Once the plaque is smooth to touch and the Arrow of Light has been engraved, you may stain the plaque.   We elected not to stain our plaques, giving the wood a natural look. 

 

3.   Paint the wood using the Polyurethane.   It needs 3 coats of Polyurethane, with a drying time of 2 hours between coats.   The instructions say that you do not need to sand in between coats unless the drying time had been over 24 hours, but I found the wood didn't feel as smooth after the first coat, so I used an Ultra-fine grit sandpaper between coats.

 

4.   Once the paint is dry, you may attach the brass plates.   These come with a self-adhesive backing and just stick on the plaque.

 

5.   Next the brass hooks need to be prepared.   They are too narrow to hold the arrow, and need to be widened using needle nosed pliers.  

 

6.   Center the arrow on the plaque to determine where the brass hook will be placed.   Mark this position on all plaques.

7.   Drill a hole in the plaque, and then screw the brass hook into the plaque.   We found that the hook would snap if a hole was not drilled.

8.   Place the arrow into the brass hook, and then use the needle nosed pliers to tighten the hook and hold the arrows in place.