Cousins!

Grace, Emily and Jack came for a quick visit this past week!  It's always a fun time when cousins are around.  

Aunt Chrislynn and Grace had a few appointments in Indy so I got to spoil Jack and Emily for the day while my boys went to school.  

Sam had flag duty at school, he and his cub scout den were responsible for raising and lowering the flag on this particular day.  Jack helped!

A hike in Starkey Park with Ruby and Louise.

Lunch with Nick at school!

Cub Scouts

Cub Scouts is a big part of all of our lives.  All 3 boys are different ranks with different dens.  Nick is a Weblo, Sam a Bear scout and Ben is a Wolf scout.  Eric and I lead Sam's den.  

Here is a few of the things that we've been up to with scouts the past few months.

Boy Scout Sunday.  The boys participated in the mass honoring scouts at our church.

Blue and Gold celebration.

The meeting had a Pokemon' theme this year.  All 3 boys earned their rank badge and had fun playing games, eating yummy food and hanging out with their friends!

Pinewood derby!

The boys with their cars they created with Dad.

Off to the races!

Sam's car won 3rd place for speed in his rank.

Ben's hot dog car won most realistic,

Scouting for food.

The boys were invited to represent the Cub Scouts at a promo for Scouting for Food, a food drive that the Boy, Cub and Girls scouts all participate in.  It was pretty exciting as there were television crews and lots of cameras capturing all of the acton.  And the best part was it was all done during school hours so they missed half a day of school to participate!

All 3 of the boys received their religious award.  Nick and Sam completed the Parvuli Dei, an achievement that required a lot of hours of work to complete and a special interview with our priest!   Ben completed the Light of Christ achievement, also requiring a lot of time and an interview with Father.   They received their awards from our priest at a Wednesday evening mass.  

Here they are with 2 buddies who also received awards.  We are so proud of them!

Happy 8th Birthday to Ben!

Ben is 8 years old!

He began his day with 8 candles in his french toast sticks before heading off to 2nd grade.

Later that night we dined at Ben's favorite Mexican restaurant, El Rodeo where he had a very special dessert and sombrero to enjoy!

Presents with family.

Ben is a big fan of John Cena, the wrestler who happened to be in town the following night for a "wrestling match."  Ben got a t-shirt and tickets to go watch John Cena in action with Eric and a couple of Ben's friends and their dads!  He had so much fun cheering on his hero!

On Saturday night we had a sleep over party at our house for Ben and his friends.

Ben really likes Minecraft, a video game that he plays on his iPod, and requested a cookie cake with the Minecraft character.  

But before the sleepover we took the boys to Dave and Busters for games and then to El Rodeo for dinner.  Then back to our house for cake, Nerf battles, wrestling, movies and a sleep over in the basement!

Ben had the best birthday party, up until 3 in the morning when he got sick.  Poor thing, he had a nasty virus that lasted 24 hours.  Luckily we didn't share the sickness with any of his friends and they were all able to go back to sleep and then go home in the morning as planned.