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.

Race For The Cure 2008

Today we participated in the 2008 Northwest Ohio Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Toledo.  This year was surprisingly harder than last year, even though the pain of losing Melinda was so raw back then.  MAybe that was what was different.  I was so energized back then, but afterwards, the depression of living without her really set in.  I stopped exercising regularly until late this Spring, too late to have any hope of entering the Metroparks 5K which usually sets the tone for my final 2-3 months of training.  I did put in some raod miles this year which helped, but I was not as ready as I was last year.  This year for the first time, Becky, Alex, and Aaron decided to walk the entire 5K course instead of the shorter 1 mile course they had done with Aaron in a stroller in the past.  The morning was cool, but sunny.  This was a great day for Becky to wear the pink ribbon sun hat her mom had made her.  You can also see one of the pink ribbon pins they made that I blogged about earlier.

I ran the race almost the entire way.  Near the end my feet were getting painfully numb and I had to stop running for 5 minutes and just walk it.  I picked up the pace when I could feel my feet again, and was running when I crossed the finish line at 45:02.75, much slower than last year's pace. This year the race course looped on itself in such a way that I could go quickly from the finish line to the halfway mark and catch up with my Becky and the kids who were walking the entire course. I was able to finish their leg with them (and carry Aaron on my shoulders for part of it) which was a real treat.

Even the police horse got into the spirit with some pink bunny ears.  There were over 18,000 official participants this year.  While I know I could've done better, I was so proud of my family for going the extra mile (or two) this year.

Sitting in Sam's Lap

There is a bench on the school campus with a statue of Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) relaxing on it. After Scouts today, the boys took the opportunity to pose on it, with Aaron sitting on Sam's lap.

Junior NASA Astronauts 9/23

Grammy Hardage found these cool junior astronaut outfits with real NASA logos for the boys.  They come with helmets whose visors open and close and have astronaut sound effects. They got space boots that fit their feet.  I love how Alex has his serious astronaut face on, while Aaron is as pleased as punch.

They each got NASA backpacks that the outfits fit into when they're not playing with them.  They also got NASA caps that you're seeing the back of there.  Thank you Grammy!

Show-n-sell Bass Pro 9/20

This year we were much more on the ball with fundraising popcorn sales for Alex's Cub Scout pack.  Becky preordered a LOT of popcorn yesterday, most of which is now either in or soon will be down in our basement.  This allows us to fill people's orders within a few days, rather than a few weeks.  It also allowed us to participate in Show-n-Sells.  This is where we hangout at the exit of a store asking everyone that comes out if they'd like to buy some Scout popcorn.  Becky got one of the first spots lined up at the new Bass Pro Shops in nearby Rossford.

For four hours we stood in the sun (OK, we brought a beach umbrella) and tried to cajole people who had already spent money inside the store to buy a little more.

A big highlight was the Corn Hat.  The boys took turns wearing the corn hat which actually got us noticed.  I think a few people even offered to buy the hat (not for sale).

We even got free sample popcorn from the area Scout Council that we made ahead of time and portioned into paper cups for the boys to pass out in front of the store.  This also got us some business.  We did better than we expected we would, but we also took a lot of popcorn home.  We got a lot of participation from the kids and parents.  The store was running a scavenger hunt that day, so we took the boys in shifts to try their hand at winning Bass Pro swag.

Tiger Den

This is Pack 90's Tiger Cub den in their best tiger pose. Laurie is the mom of one of the Tiger Cub scouts and agreed to be the Tiger Cub Den Leader. This makes our Pack 90 member count up to 12 from the 6 we had last year.

Baby Hat

Becky crocheted this cute baby hat for a friend who is having her first daughter. Very cute.

Neighborhood Bandit

Before you scroll down, can you identify this thief sneaking around our neighborhood? You can see his eyes looking at you from around the tree in the center of the picture.

We've seen this raccoon before, but Becky was quick with the camera this morning. We think he lives in another tree at he house next door to this one. Maybe he's scoping out new digs.

Aaron Underwater

We love our waterproof camera, about as much as Aaron loves swimming.

Aaron Flipping Over

Becky took this video during swim lessons today.  We've been trying to get him to flip over for weeks in the pool.  He has a good freestyle stroke, but wouldn't come up for air and keep going.  He would exhaust himself trying to swim as far as he could without taking a breath.  OK for short distances in the pool, but potentially dangerous if trying to swim to safety. His swim teacher, Monica, has been trying to get him to take some forward strokes, flip over into a back float to catch his breath, then flip over to a freestyle stroke again.  She told him to take as long as he needed to catch his breath before flipping back over, which is why you see him staying in that back float for a minute or so, gathering his nerve.  He does even better when he swims back from her to the steps, doing the flip over routine twice.