Bobcats

The Cub Scouts do so much, so fast, that I hardly have any time to blog about it before the next event occurs!

On Sunday afternoon, they went on a "go see it" hike at St. Edward's Park. Its part of the Balcones Canyonlands nature preserve, and is relatively close to our neighborhood. Carl and I decided that it wasn't the best idea to take a recovering Ryan out on the hike (he'd been sick for several days), so I stayed home with him. Turns out all the other moms stayed home, too, so I'm really glad I didn't go. The Scouts emphasize that everything is a "family" activity, so generally, the whole family goes and does everything together. It cracks me up, though, that all eight moms decided that hiking need not be a family activity.

Alex is wearing the Superman backpack. I note that the other Scouts are mostly wearing non-character themed backpacks, so I guess we'll need to buy him an official, hiking one, too. Something tells me this won't be the last time he needs a backpack.


Last night (Tuesday) was the Pack meeting. The Pack is comprised of about 15 dens at our elementary school, and part of the reason I feel we were misled into being told the Scouts had 'minimal' meetings is because I didn't use the correct terminology when inquiring. Yes, the Pack only meets once a month, and the Pack only does one activity a month. But the Den meets 1-2 times a month, plus a "Go See It" plus an Activity for the Den. And then there are all the Belt Loops, pins, and patches he is supposed to earn on his own (ie, MORE work for Mom and Dad). A warning for future Scout parents, so you'll know what you are getting yourself into.

This Pack Meeting was special, though, because it included the Bobcat Ceremony. Alex (and about 30 other Spicewood first grade boys) are now officially Bobcats.

As part of their initiation, they were all called up to the stage with a parent, and they proceeded to mark them as bobcats.

Then, the parent was given the Bobcat pin to affix to the Scout's uniform. (something else I have to remember to remove for washing, and then find again to put back on the uniform. Grrreat.)

Finally, since this is a "family" activity, the new Bobcat also marks their parent as a Bobcat. So glad I sent Carl up on the stage, and not me.

It was a fun time, and the boys enjoyed themselves. And now we have a den of eight bobcats! Here they all are after the ceremony.

We've got our monthly Den meeting this Sunday, and then we get a two week break from Scouts. Although I use the term "break" loosely. Carl's got a long list of things for Alex (all of us) to do over the Thanksgiving break so he can earn some more Scout bling.

A Month of Tournaments

Last Saturday and Sunday we had a soccer tournament for the boys.

This Saturday, they had a TaeKwonDo tournament.

First up was Ryan, who is currently a Tiger Cub Red Belt. He did a great job, and came in 3rd place in his division. Considering that he was mainly competing against Tiger Black Belts (as there weren't that many red belts) I was super proud of him for achieving 3rd place.

Then we had a nice, two hour break before Alex competed. We were down in South Austin, so we went for an early lunch at Freddie's.

All in all, Alex did well. He was given a 4th place trophy, but its more of a participation award. Anyone that didn't place in the top 3 for either sparring or their forms received 4th place. So if he doesn't look that happy here, that's why. It was a tough competition for him. He's still a Level 1 First Degree Black Belt, and he was competing against all 1st degree black belts under age 9. So mank kids were older and bigger than he was. And he was the only Level 1 there - everyone else was either a Level 2 or 3.

Carl intentionally didn't participate because he had only just received his Black Belt, and was nowhere near being ready to compete against the other more advanced folks. But we thought Alex would do okay, and that in his age bracket, there would be plenty of people at his experience level. Turns out that was not the case, so next time a TKD tournament comes around, if the kids are just starting out a new belt level, we'll save ourselves the $75 registration fee.

Next up: the 3x3 Live soccer tournament for Alex on Saturday.

I wasn't kidding when I said November was going to be a month of tournaments.

My little angel

We got the holiday photos from Ryan's school. As predicted, the backgrounds sucked, so I cut him out and gave him a more heavenly background. He's my little angel.

Soccer Photos

The boys' soccer photos are finally in. They aren't the worst, but they could be better.

Why, oh why, can't my children smile on demand? They have such lovely, natural smiles when we can capture them fast enough. But have a photographer say, "Cheese!" and they must mishear them and think they are saying, "Freeze!" because they just have the goofiest smiles.

My Favorite New Holiday Decoration

I walked into a Hallmark store the other day to buy some cards, and couldn't help but take a stroll around the ornament section. And look what I found:

Not the best likeness, but no way was I walking out of the store without this baby in my hand.

What's this?

I just found out we can do MORE SOCCER this season... another TOURNAMENT! Ahhhhhhhh!

Making up for Lost Blogging

The month of October was one, huge frenzy for Team Danger, culminating in what had to have been the busiest weekend of our lives.

EVER.

And once it ended on a fun-filled Halloween night, I went into shut down, and haven't blogged since. I even had a sick day in there - no surprise, really.

So in addition to the fun on Halloween itself, here is what Team Danger was up to on Halloween weekend.

1. Ryan's Halloween Parade at his school, Friday 9:00 a.m.

2. Alex and the First Grade went on a Field Trip to the Austin Nature and Science Center, Friday 9:15 a.m. - 1:15 pm. They picked up trash, learned about nature, and picnicked at Zilker Park.

3. Safety Mommy goes in to work for the afternoon, 1:15 pm - 5:00 pm.

4. Alex builds and paints a tank.*  3 pm - 5pm.
     (*Alex's teacher was going to stop by our house after school to drop off the cooler I had brought for the class' lunches, since I had to go to work. Carl had VERY STRICT instructions that under no circumstances could Mrs. Stading stop by and find Alex playing video games. Carl considered having Alex do math with chalk outside, but ended up with the two of them doing woodwork in the garage.)

5. Alex and the Scouts had a "Go See It" activity to a Westwood High School football game. We met up for a tailgate party first, and then went and watched some real live Friday Night Lights, on what has to have been the coldest night of the football season,  6:00 pm 9:00 pm

6. Ryan's regular soccer season ended with their last game, Saturday morning, 8:30 am.

7. And a party to celebrate afterwards. 10 am - 12pm

Where they: Painted pumpkins

Bobbed for Apples:

 Made toilet paper mummies.

 And received their trophies.

8. Alex's regular soccer season ended with their last game, 1:30 pm.

9. And a party to celebrate afterwards, at Waterloo Ice House. 3 pm - 6 pm.
 

10. Team Danger watches "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for the first time, 6:30pm.

 

11. The youngest member of Team Danger falls asleep, 6:45 pm.

12. The eldest member of Team Danger (that would be me) falls asleep, 8:00 pm.

13. Halloween morning. Team Danger wakes up rather early. Ryan, a bit peeved he doesn't also have a tank, goes to work designing and making his own tank.  Sunday, 7:00 am.

14. Searching for pumpkin patches, 12:00 pm.

15. Alex creates a rainbow on his Leapster for cousin Laurel, while we drive aimlessly to discover one empty pumpkin patch after another, 12:30pm.

16. Pumpkin Patch, 1:00 pm.

 17. Carving, 3:00 pm.

18. Family arrives, 5:00 pm.

19. Trick or treating, 6:30 pm.

20. zzzzzzzzzzz, 8:30 pm.



So one might think, that after a crazy weekend like this, we'd have some time to relax the next weekend.

But nooooo...

For the weekend of November 6-7 was ... Soccer Tournament Weekend!

And Ryan's Indian Pow-Wow, a completely un-PC event that he and all the other kids completely loved.

We've never participated in a soccer tournament before, so *perhaps* signing  both boys up for the tournament wasn't the wisest decision to have made.

"Two games a day" doesn't sound too horrible. Except when you realize that each boy has two games a day. As in, four games per day. As in, thank GOD Ryan's team only ended up with two games, because, really, six soccer games in one weekend was just a bit too much. I can't imagine if we'd had all eight of them.

Still ... the boys loved it, and both Alex and Ryan played their absolute best they've ever played. Alex's team even held their own against a team of 8 year old boys. We're very proud of both of them, and they have such joy on their faces when they are playing. So it was worth it. We'll just have to bring our tent to the fields next time.  ;)

A Bounty(hunter)ful Halloween

This year, Alex and Ryan dressed up as Jango Fett and his son, Boba Fett, bounty hunters in the Star Wars movies.

Due to the craziness of being a two-kids-in-sports family (not to mention the newest time sucker of our lives, Scouts), we did not have a single free weekend day to actually visit a pumpkin patch until Sunday, October 31.

At which point most of the patches were closed down. :(

So we made do with the stragglers at the church across the street from the boys school, where at least some pumpkins were still to be found.

 

Then it was home for carving, and waiting for cousin Connor to arrive to go trick or treating with Team Danger.

I dressed up as Christine O'Donnell, although I failed to get any photos of my costume. I simply wore a suit, and my witch's hat. Sadly, only two people 'got' my costume while we were out trick or treating. I think most of my neighbors just thought I was some idiot walking around dressed up for work with a witch's hat. Ah, well.