So I survived rollerblading last weekend. 3 hours is a long time. At least Allison's new rollerblades fit well-no blisters. And I took the girls out to dinner afterwards for italian food. Plus Allison and I slept in on Monday. I decided to switch my day off and go into work on Friday instead so we could spend some time together.
Allison had the day off since they just wrapped up midterms. We were very happy to see her do so well. She even did much better this time around on the county assessments. So to celebrate we both went to see the new Avatar movie. Yes it is about 3hours long. But surprisingly it didn't seem like a long movie. Although the theme was a bit cliche, Allison and I really enjoyed the story. We didn't see it in 3D however since Allison gets motion sickness and we heard stories of people getting sick, even passing out at the 3D IMAX film! Allison wasn't taking any chances. It was nice going during the weekday too since we had no trouble getting in-friends of ours said they went on the weekend, and the movie is still selling out. We also had time to go to the GS office to drop off our final report for the girls' Silver Award. I am happy to report that I just received the girls approval letters, so each one of them will obtain their Silver Awards. The timing was good since last week we all attended an orientation for the Gold Award-this is equivalent to a Boy Scout's Eagle Award. Most girls start working on the prerequisites in high school and then complete their project during their Junior year in High School. Finishing your Silver Award counts towards the prerequisites for the Gold Award, so we are almost there! Or at least we have a good start anyway.
And on Friday night, Allison and I attended a Girl Scout meeting for our Up All Night Junior Girl Scout Event coming up in March where the older girl scouts run stations for the younger girls. This year we are running a Sports Badge. Allison plans on introducing the girls to Field Hockey. We are also hoping to have a sports equipment collection if the council approves of our idea. We also collect food that night for the local shelters so it may be a bit overwhelming. That program is in March, and we stay up all night running the event at our local mall. I am always amazed that I can stay up all night!
And Tom was home this past week which made life a lot easier. He was able to help out with all the carpooling-running Allison to piano, field hockey and Scott to gymnastics. Not to mention studying with Scott for all his tests this past week. He even braved a snowstorm to accompany Scott to his Cub Scout Klondike Derby event on Saturday morning. We started the week off with 60 degree weather, and by Saturday we had a snowstorm with 5 inches of snow! This was the leftover storm that barreled through California and all across the southern portions of the country. Our weathermen only expected a light flurry, maybe 1-2 inches on Saturday, so the Cub Scout Klondike Derby was still on. The boys met at a local state park and worked on scouting skills like fire starting, shelter building, use of an axe, knot tying and most fun of all, they use a sled/rolling cart to get from station to station. They managed to get through several stations before the state park closed due to the snowstorm. Which was a shame, since this was their opportunity to fulfill some of their scouting requirements to advance to their next level. Right now Scott is a Webelo I and at the end of the month, he will advance to WEbelo II-he has already transitioned into his khaki scout shirt from the blue cub scout colors. Now I just need to buy a whole new batch of patches to sew on! Hopefully the Den will be able to reschedule some of the activities. I am also helping to organize some cub scout programs, including a sleepover at our Science museum. I took the girl scouts to a science sleepover, and they had a blast. I am sure the boys will love it too! And as if we didn't have enough scouting activities this weekend, we attended Scout mass on Sunday morning. It was an especially nice service since Scott's den was awarded with the Webelo I Religious medal. We stood up during mass at the altar with our new Monsignor and the boys were awarded with their medals. We have been completing a workbook since the fall, and the boys had to meet one on one with Fr Dietzenbacher for approval. One nice thing about having a new german monsignor, he was able to pronounce our last name when he called Scott up and when he mentioned my name as leader of my girl scout troop!
We all celebrated with an all you can eat pizza buffet at CiCi's pizza. We also stopped into the pet store to pick out a baby gate to keep the dog off the stairs and on the main floor. She keeps eating all the kids books and papers that I place on the steps to go up to their rooms. Or she sneaks upstairs and eats the cat's food(not to mention socks and toys). I also signed her up for the next level of dog training. We need to work on things like how to keep your dog from running down the street to play with the little neighbor girls in the snowstorm! Fortunately, she was easy to find since I was able to follow her trail in the snow!
Besides chasing after the dog on Saturday, I also managed to shovel the first batch of snow and get in an aerobics class and grocery shopping before the roads got too bad. Tom had to clear the driveway a second time before church Sunday morning with the snow blower. The kids are a bit disappointed since this probably means they won't miss any school seeing how the storm hit on a Saturday. We got up to a whopping 34 degrees Sunday so we had a bit of a meltdown. The kids are still hoping for at least a one or two hour delay on Monday.
At least the snow storms didn't interfere with Tom's trip to Alabama Sunday night. He will be there all week, so I am on my own with the kids again. And naturally I have another jam packed schedule. I'll let you know how it goes! Kathleen and family