Party of Five

Lauren is 13!

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Lauren is 13 ~ it seems like just yesterday she was born.  It is amazing how fast they grow up.  I am lucky as Lauren is a GREAT 13 year old.  She has her typical moody moments but I couldn't ask for a better kid!  She is smart, respectful and has such a big heart.  She is painfully shy but I know her friends wouldn't say that. 

We told Lauren she could pick anywhere to eat out on her birthday and she picked Pizza Hut (I was thrilled as much as I am not a big fan of Pizza Hut, I knew it would be cost effective for the 5 of us).  It is rare for us all to go out to eat so it was a real treat ~ Cameron was the most excited.  While we were there we saw 2 of Lauren's friends.  I took a picture of Lauren and Courtney ~ who is one of her best friends.  Guess Pizza Hut is the place to be on Friday nights LOL. 

After Pizza Hut we went to Wal-Mart ~ Lauren received a gift certificate from Pepere for her to purchase an Ipod with.  She wanted the silver one and they had one left!  I am just glad she doesn't have to use mine anymore and I can erase all her crazy music off of it LOL. 

We came home and invited our neighbors over for cake and we all just hung around.  Lauren was trying to download Itunes 8 which her new ipod required (mine can get away with an older version) and since I didn't have XP on my computer it wouldn't work.  Well my neighbor Wil offered us a copy of XP and the next morning I went over there he upgraded all my software.  This took about 4 hours out of his day which I though was extremely nice.  I think he is Lauren's new hero because now she has itunes 8 and  can use that fabulous ipod :) 

Lauren recived itunes gift cards, Borders gift cards, money, and Guitar Hero III in addition to her ipod.   Guitar Hero is Kaelin and Cam's favorite game too, so they thought that was cool.  Lauren is a nice big sister too and she lets them play.

 

 

Sandwich Fair

Friday night we went to the Sandwich Fair.  Dave's co-worker calls it "screaming kids night".  The first night the fair opens is Midway night -- free admission and $10 ride bracelets that allow you unlimited rides.  You can imagine how many kids are there.

Lauren went with her friend right after soon and we met up with her periodically (as did the parents of the friend she went with).   She had a great time. 

We met up with Kaelin's friends about halfway though since the only ride she could go on with Cam was the bumper cars.   She was too tall for his rides and he was too short for her rides.  Cameron thought he might beat the system though.  He really wanted to go on a ride with Kaelin but he had to be 48' tall (he is a hair under 48').  I told him that if he waited in line there was a good chance they would not let him on the line...he didn't seem to think so and he waited about 15 minutes.  When he got to the gate the ride attendant would not let him in.  I could see his lip quivering all the way down the exit ramp and when he saw me he burst into tears.  I told him next year would be better since he would be plenty tall.  Naturally being 6 he could care less about next year.  I felt bad for him even though I was glad that the attendants were following the rules ~ so Dave took him to get fried dough.   He did enjoy all the rides he could go on and would talk to whomever he was sitting next to or in back of.  When he was on the motorcycles he kept waving up at the people in the ferris wheel ~ it was really cute!

All in all it was a good night ~ cold as usual but the kids had fun.

 

So proud!

My youngest brother Adam is officially a Marine and he is only 17 years old!  He made it through boot camp with flying colors!  I am so incredibly proud of him!  The Marines boot camp is really tough ~ especially the last phase--The Crucible;  54 hours with very little food or sleep. 

Adam gets 10 well earned days off and then he is off to Camp Lejune for about 20 days for combat training.  Then he will go to school down south for training in his specific job ~ which has to do with detonating bombs :(   Hopefully he'll be in school for a long time!

Cub Scouts

I am so behind on my blogging.  I need to catch up because I use my blog for scrapbooking.   I constantly refer to it when I am looking for journaling for my pages.  Speaking of scrapbooking...I have actually done some.  I'll take pictures of my pages soon :)

I have 880 pictures on my memory card right now.  My goal is to take each "event" off one at a time, upload them to my computer, then to my photo printing site and finally blog about them.  So tonight I took the Cub Scout pictures off.

Cameron has been dying to be a Cub Scout since Kindergarten.  He has been to more girl scout events with his sisters then he can count and he has been patiently waiting his turn.  Dave signed him up last month but naturally they didn't have a leader.  So guess who is the Cub Scout leader now???  Yep...Dave :)  He didn't really want to be, but if he didn't step up to the plate there wouldn't have been a Cub scout troop.  Cam would have been devastated.  I knew when the sign ups ... which should have taken a few minutes but took a couple of hours that Dave was probably roped in.

So far it has been going well.  Dave has to plan 2 meetings a month and take the kids on 1 field trip a month...so that takes 3 weeks of the month.  The remaining week is a Pack meeting where all the Cub scout troop levels get together. Thankfully Dave doesn't have to run that one. 

The first "field trip" will be to the Tamworth fire station.  The boys should enjoy that.  I'll be there that night too for a meeting so hopefully I'll get some pictures. 

Dave was a cub scout too so thankfully he had some prior knowledge of the program.  He has to go to training this month.

Here are some pics of Cam with his uniform.  The shirt is giant on him.  They told the boys to get shirts that are 2 sizes too big since you need to wear the same shirt from 1st through 4th or 5th grade.  Well the shirt is too big and I am going to see if I can exchange it for a smaller size since there are no patches on it yet.  They are really expensive.  When I went to the Army Navy store I bought Dave a shirt, Cam a shirt, 2 troop number patches and 2 neckerchief's and it cost $87!!!  I almost had a heart attack.  I had to go back and get the slides for the neckerchiefs and I still have to get council patches and Cam needs a hat.  *Sigh*

I need to get some better pictures of Dave, but here is a quick one of him going over what he is going to do at the meeting :)