Halloween 2008

Becky helped with Aaron's class Halloween party and was able to get this shot of the kids in their costumes on the steps of the Wolfe Gallery.  Needless to say they enjoyed the party more than the posing.  Aaron is in the Mario costume on the far right with an enormous cheesy grin (mozzarella, of course).

I didn't dress up for work today, but when  we went out for trick or treating with the kids, Becky put on her fortune teller outfit she wore at the school party and I felt left out, so I pulled out my Jedi Costume from last year.  Makes for a great Christmas letter picture.

The boys were more polite than ever and scored lots of candy.  Many of the grownups we saw loved the boys' costumes.  Houses that also had puppies were a bonus for Aaron.

 

All in all a fun day (and night).  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Racing

Becky thought of cool thing for the Bear Scouts to do today.  They each decorated a small pumpkin and then went out onto the big sledding hill behind the school and raced them by rolling them down the hill.  It sounds like a sure recipe for pumpkin gut explosions, but none of their pumpkins busted.  The scouts all loved it.  I expect this may become a yearly tradition.

Miakonda Halloween 2008

We brought the Mario Bros to Miakonda again for a Trick-or Treat experience run by the area Boy Scouts.  They went from cabin to cabin and played a game or survived a haunted house to get their candy.  They always end up with more loot from here than they get on Halloween in our neighborhood, which is part of the reason that they like to come.  The other reason is that it is a lot of fun.

During a snack break in the Council Lodge, Becky tried on Aaron's hat - prettty cute!

We ended the afternoon with a haunted hayride through the forest surrounding the camp.  Lots of scary guys jumping out at us, but we weren't afraid.  We had the Mario Brothers to thow fireballs at them if it got too hairy.

Mario Bros Drumming in the Cemetery

Aaron and Alex debuted this year's Halloween costumes at a cemetery bash set up by my medical assistant, BJ.  She sets up a spooky cemetery in her front yard every year to enhance her neighborhood and this year she had a fun party to kick off the season.  It was a cold night, but the boys were reasonably warm in their chosen costumes.  As you can see, they are still very much into the Super Mario Brothers - Luigi and Mario.  This year Aaron got to be Mario and Alex chose Luigi because he's taller.  They worked out this pose almost organically whenever we asked them to pose for a combo shot.  BJ made the little sign between them that reads "SUPER MARIO BROS IN PERSON".  We also got to enjoy snacks and cider and a small fire inside a cauldron on their driveway, which helped with the cold.

Her daughter came over and played the drums while she sang the witches' song from "Hocus Pocus".  The boys each took a turn at the drums.

To anyone passing by, it had to be a little surreal - The Mario Bros rocking out on drums in a cemetery.

Making Deals at CEC

We had a family night at the kids favorite "restaurant" - Chuck E. Cheese's.  Aaron and Becky are seen here enjoying a new ride that has you recline in the seat, then a video screen shows you blasting your jet pack through multiple environments in a first person point of view.  The seat vibrates and bounces with the action on the screen - actually quite fun.

He then helped me with the Deal or No Deal ticket game.  We got 40 tickets - very respectable.

Becky however made a bad deal and ended up with only 2.  It's OK honey, only 1 token will buy you another chance. [fist bump]

Pumpkin Decorating Frenzy

Tonight we all gathered at the school for an hour of furious pumpkin decorating.  The feedback from previous parties was that they had been too long.  I'm sure no one complained about that tonight.  They was no time to really carve several pumpkins, though becky did do a little of that. She hollowed hers out, then cut out several flourished football shapes.  She stuck cat's-eye marbles into the center of the cutouts to look like numerous eyes looking out from the pumpkin - very cool.

The rest of us painted and decorated our pumpkins with stickers.  This is Aaron's and it is a bit of a mish-mash.  The striking feature is all of the flowers scattered around the edges, but that is snow on top and blood in the bottom center.  Creepy on many levels.

Alex went for a tiger-stripe pattern all the way around. I believe that he did paint the non-black stripes orange.  Don't ask why.  We don't know. :)

I painted a scary vampire on one side of mine, but balanced it out with this cheerful stencil on the other side.  Happy Halloween!

Western Movement Sendoff

Today the entire Lower Intermediate (3rd & 4th graders) started their Western Movement unit.  This will teach them about the journey that settlers took as they traveled from Missouri to Oregon.  Each of them took on the role of a settler to experience the journey from their perspective - like writing journal entries about the trip from the point of view of their character.

Alex is a middle aged farmer with a wife and 2 kids.  Today they were encouraged to dress the part and they had a big pancake breakfast in the gym as a sendoff for their "journey".  The mayor of the town they started from (Lower School Head Mr. Baker) gave a speech to encourage them on their way.  Several of the moms, including Becky, came in to help with the breakfast and to wish them well on their journey.

They took the opportunity to get a group photo while they were all in costume.  Alex is front and center.  Happy Trails!

Scouting For Food

Pack 90 asked the other students and families at school to bring in food donations for local food pantries.  The response was great, exceeding their expectations.  People even kept donating more food after the deadline.  This may become a yearly tradition.

Building Firetrucks Near A Firetruck

Today's Home Depot Kids' Workshop was held outdoors as they had a fun fair set up in the parking lot to make people aware of fire safety.  The boys got to build firetrucks, right next to...

...large Toledo City firetrucks.  They had a trailer set up to simulate a 2 story home and taught the kids how to get out of a burning house, complete with fake smoke.

Grammy had come into town for Grandparent's Day at school yesterday with the boys at school.  She took the picture up top of the four of us crafting at Home Depot, and paused for a snuggle photo here.

Popcorn In The Basement

This is the view of one corner of our basement to give you a taste of what it looks like to store multiple cases of Scout popcorn for our pack.  The kids are already looking forward to getting their playspace back.

Family Miakonda Campout

Today the whole family came out to Camp Miakonda for an overnight campout.  Two other Bear scouts from Alex's den came with their families also.  They had multiple stations set up to showcase speed - real race cars on the parade ground to check out, bottle rockets made by hooking 2-liter bottles to air compressors, archery and of course...

...the obstacle course.  Aaron was so tickled to be able to come along.  He really loved the "big kids" obstacle course, tackling it 4 times while we were here, and doing quite well. 

Another neat thing we did was learn how to make fire with twine, steel wool and a 9v battery.  We made a nest by unraveling the twine, then loosened up a ball of steel wool into the center of it.  Then when you touch the battery terminals to the steel wool, it heats up hot enough to ignite the twine nest.

That night it dipped down below 40 degrees.  We toughed it out in our small instatents, two to a tent, layered up in warm clothes.  While we're proud of ourselves for making it through the cold night, we're not looking forward to doing that again any time soon.