"When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Little Boy." -- Joseph Heller

lSo after the Swim Meet Saturday morning, Alex had his first official Cub Scouts activity, a Belt Loop Bonanza. Apparently, in addition to the badges he can earn that I am supposed to magically sew on to his uniform, he has to try and earn "belt loops."

He missed the beginning of the Bonanza because of the swim meet, but was still able to earn three loops: for soccer, marbles and hiking. 

We learned lots of interesting things.

For instance, I don't think I even knew that "marbles" was a game you could play - we've only ever used them to fill up a jar.

And here is what Alex says he learned about hiking in the near triple digit heat late Saturday morning:

1. Never put your hand into a hole in the ground.
2. Never hike in the summer.

Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home, exhausted. They couldn't nap for long, though, because it was almost World Cup time!

We had a little World Cup party to watch the US play Ghana.

It was just a shame the US didn't play better. The kids lost interest even before half time, and kept pestering us to go out in the pool. Dave finally took pity on them, and went outside to supervise. Thanks, Dave!

At least we had fun visiting and swimming with everyone.

After everyone left, the cars had not even left our driveway before Ryan was asking to go to "Toy Rust" (aka Toys R Us) to pick out his promised new LEGO toy. So Alex, Ryan and I hopped in the Mommy Van and went Lego shopping.

Netflix had sent us "The Adventures of Clutch Powers" two weeks back, a 1.5 hour long LEGO commercial  masquerading as a movie.





Alex and Ryan *LOVE* Clutch Powers, so much that we've kept it out a long time. They have been concerned that their LEGO knights collection was inadequate, and discussed, at length, the best way to get more knights. (I have pointed out that they could borrow from the Playmobil Knights, but I was told that is not allowed. No... the knights must have little yellow heads, and must be LEGOs.)

I had given them each a cap of $15 per toy, or told them they could combine their money and get one $30 toy to be shared. Happily, after a five minute argument that the $109.99 castle was over the $30 budget, they both picked out the same $9.99 value set, complete with three knights each, a cart, and, oddly, a unicorn. Do knights hang out with unicorns? Seems odd to me.

Sunday morning, Carl took the boys out to "I-Bop" for breakfast, and I slept late. Glorious. Carl had to work in the afternoon, and I was in a particularly good mood after the long sleep, so I told the boys they could pick what we did for lunch.

Yes, I'm a sucker.

We then went to Amy's for some ice cream.

Which was lovely, until ...

Ryan dropped his ice cream.

Alex offered Ryan some of his, but Ryan didn't want the "dead" Junior Mints crushed into Alex's ice cream. So we went to buy him a new ice cream, but the line was then out the door. And we had to meet Carl at the theater, where we were seeing Woody, Buzz, Jessie and friends.

So I owe Ryan one chocolate ice cream with sprinkles.

Toy Story 3 was great. I cried - A LOT. I especially loved Spanish Buzz, and the Barbie-Ken storyline. She actually had some brains in her little plastic head, and I'm still laughing at how she manipulated Ken. And the fact that Ken kept calling it "his" dream house, when surely all mommys seeing this know it is Barbie's dream house. Oh, how I loved my Dream House.

But my favorite part of Toy Story 3?

The popcorn.