Angry Birds Raingutter Regatta Boat

Tomorrow is my son's Raingutter Regatta for Cub Scouts.  Cub decided that he wanted an Angry Birds theme for his boat and that the bird that orange bird that inflates itself is his favorite.  He painted the boat with my help and he picked out the birds to be drawn on the sail.  He's only 6 years old, so I drew and colored them.

The sail is made of a really waxy paper.  Surprisingly, the cheap crayons that we probably bought from the dollar store showed up better than the Crayola crayons.  That's why some of the colors are more bold.  I was pretty happy with the color of the boat.  All we had on hand were some water-based finger paints.  Next year, I will try to buy some acrylic or another type of paint.  It is the end of the month, so money's a little tight.  I really do enjoy projects where I'm forced to make do with what is on-hand, though, and it teaches the kids to come up with creative solutions.

I hope his race goes well tomorrow!  I'm sure Cub will be happy with his boat, regardless, since he designed it.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Weeding is Done!

My garden is finally weed free!  Tumbling Girl helped me weed the garden today (well, at least she tried), and we got the garden all weeded!

The next step will be to put up the new fence.  My hubby has been searching Craigslist for our fencing materials (for free!), and we should have enough.  He nailed wood planks together to make the fence.  For the last 2 years, we have had chicken wire attached to wood posts.  The chicken wire has bent due to kids and dogs leaning on it, so we decided to build a wooden fence around the garden, instead.

After the fence is around the garden, I have to rake all the rocks to where I want them and buy more soil to mix in the dirt.  Unfortunately, the dirt here is mostly rocks, so I have to buy soil for the garden each year after I'm done weeding.

I can't wait to start planting!

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Girl Scouts Leader's Buffet training

Yesterday, I attended 2 trainings for becoming a Girl Scout leader.  I attended:  Jumpstart to Journeys and Songs, Games, and Ceremonies.

The Journey series are completely different from when I was a Girl Scout.  They now pursue a "path" to take and can customize the set of patches that they work toward.  When I was a kid, I simply worked on whichever patches that the leader chose.  There is also much more of a focus on it being led by the girls.  My mom led my troop when I was a kid, and I definitely felt like we were guests of her troop.

In the second class, I realized how informal my troop had been as a kid.  The only song that I knew was Make New Friends.  I learned many songs there, including:  Girl Scouts Together, Fred the Moose, The Water Cycle Song, and Hello.

I was also not familiar with any of the ceremonies, except for the ones that are also practiced by Cub Scouts.  I learned a lot, but I was also kinda disappointed with how little I learned as a Girl Scout.  I am very glad that I am continuing my "education" to provide the best scouting experience possible to my daughter and her troop when we get it started this fall.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Tiger Cub Scout Electives 18 and 15

Today at my son's Tiger Cub Scout meeting, they did electives 15 and 18.  The picture above is the finished product of elective 18.  He sewed 2 buttons onto a scrap of fabric, a round one with 4 holes and a pentagon shaped one with 2 holes.

My kids had done elective 15 already, but the leader's idea was pretty original and less of a mess to clean up than the paint I had used with my 2.  She had the boys use food coloring mixed in water to mix the primary colors.  All of the boys took turns mixing colors in 6 clear bowls.  I wish I would have brought my camera with me to the meeting.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Blueberry-Lemon Zest-Walnut Muffins and Blueberry Ice Cubes

I'm really on a kick right now with making double batches of food and freezing the extra portion.  Today, I used a bag of thawed blueberries to make blueberry-lemon zest-walnut muffins.  I'm sure my hubby will steal one of the platefuls to bring to work and share with his co-workers.

I saved the juice and am freezing into ice cubes to add to iced tea later this summer.  I love adding flavor to water and tea, but don't like sweet drinks much.  The blueberry flavor will be great in iced tea later!

This was a really fun family activity (well, minus my son, Cub Scout, as he was at school).  I had planned on making it with just my daughter, Tumbling Girl, but my hubby wanted to join in on the fun.  He grated the lemon zest for us.  I had never done this.  It was a good thing that he did.  I would have used a regular cheese grater.

As always, I see room for improvement in my baking.  Next time, I will probably squeeze some of the lemon juice in the muffins.  Overall, we were all happy with the muffins.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Pre-portioning Snacks

My kids are on FORKids program through their schools.  It is a wonderful program that I will blog about later.  They receive food to help supplement through the weekend.  Lately, there hasn't been as much snack food in their bags.  So, I decided to pre-portion some snacks ahead of time for them.

I normally keep snack food on hand, but it can be pretty hard to judge how much a serving should be, or to just mindlessly munch on food.  When I did my last shopping trip, I bought:  mixed nuts, vanilla wafers, fish crackers, banana chips, and dried apples for snack food for the kids.

I tried to buy fun, but healthy snack choices.  My son, Cub Scout, eats lunch at about 10:30 in the morning at his school.  By the time he gets home at 3:00, he is very hungry.  I typically allow him to have 2 snacks after school.  He was happy when he came home today and had a new variety of snacks in the box that they've designated the Snack Box.  He chose wafers and dried apples for his snack this afternoon.

I really do like the idea of bagging up portion-sized snacks for the kids and this saves money versus buying pre-bagged snacks.  Plus, I was happy with the variety of the snacks.  Next time, though, I will definitely buy smaller bags.  I purchased sandwich bags, and there was a lot of room left over.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Inventor's Night

My son had Inventor's Night last night for their pack meeting.  We bought a globe from Craigslist last month for $5.  That has really piqued his interest in learning geography and directions.

We decided to make a homemade compass for his recyclables invention.  The only criteria was that it had to fit into one of three categories and be made of recycled materials.  They were pretty impressed with his invention.  In my opinion, his was the best in his category (it was the only one that was actually a working invention), but my favorite part was that he was able to explain and demonstrate how it worked.

He magnetized a needle by rubbing a magnet across a needle lengthwise (not back and forth).  We put it on a bottle cap with notches that I made with a knife.  We put it in a Cool Whip container that both of the kids decorated and filled it with a little water.  The floating needle positioned itself in the water and pointed North.   It would have worked a little better with a material more like a cork, as it would have pierced the material and had less resistance, but I did want it to fit the criteria, and we don't drink wine.

This was also the first awards ceremony for the Tiger Cub Scouts in a while, so each boy received quite a few awards.  As a den, they earned some awards, and my son earned his first belt loops and pins on his own.  He was pretty proud of himself!

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa

Another Victim of Bullying

Please forgive me if I ramble or even say too little.  I'm a little in shock.  I just found out that a former neighbor boy killed himself.

He was a great kid who put up with the younger kids (like my kids) and included them in games.  He loved animals, especially our guinea pig, Coco.

It is so tragic that such a great kid could be bullied to the point of taking his own life.  I talked to my kids a little about it.  They are so young that they didn't know him well and don't understand death.

May he rest in peace and blessings to his family..

 - Vanessa

Cleaning out the Medicine/Misc Kitchen Cupboard

My mother-in-law picked up the kids for a few hours today, so I took advantage of the peace and quiet and cleaned out my miscellaneous kitchen cupboard.  It housed mostly medicines, expired tea, and expired baking goods.

Here are the "before" pics

Here are the "after" pics

I combined all of the teas that I had that were still good and put them in a plastic bag.  I also combined all of the instant oatmeal packets that were floating around another bigger cupboard and moved them here, so I don't forget about them before they expire.  

Going through the expired medicines was a surprisingly good experience.  It was like taking an odd trip down memory lane.  There was Baby Orajel from when my kids were babies and teething.  There was a prescription strength ointment from when I accidentally stuck myself with a knife when I was doing dishes and had to get stitches.  There were many assortments of antacids from before my hubby found out that he was diabetic and couldn't figure out why his stomach always hurt and always had indigestion.  I'm particularly glad that he doesn't need these any more.

I'm glad that my house is a little more organized.

Thanks for reading!

 - Vanessa