Who Was the Wiseacre

that said walking was good for you??!!? After listening to my friend, Corrie, go on about the benefits of walking, I thought it was time that I get back to it again.

About five years ago, I was walking 2km in the morning and then 2 km at night. Then it slowed to 2km in the morning. I loved it. Then it got harder to do cause my hubby was not home to watch the kids, and there was no way I was dragging a horde of hooligans along on my sanity walk! Talk about an insane thought!!

So the walks stopped.

Last week, this influential friend of mine was telling me about *her* daily routine - 4.5km in the morning *and* at night! HELLO?? Is she nuts? No, but she's healthy!! So I figured, if she could do 9km a day in summer and 4.5 km a day in winter, then I could certainly do 2 km a day - period!

Thursday, I cheerfully got ready to go. Boys took their bikes, and I took the 3 year old in the stroller cause I was not looking to drag him half way home. Off we went.

Not too bad. Except, as we are halfway down our road, the five year old tearfully informs me his bike is too small. It is. He must have grown over the winter. You think?

I tell him he can ride his bike and pretend he is a circus clown or he can push it. Not many other options. Tears ensue, as he wobbly tries to ride this bike that no longer fits him.

Okay, okay, this is not working. I call to my ever-so-helpful 11 year old and ask him to hike the bike back home. He willingly does this, and off I go, pushing the stroller and cajolling the miserable 5 year old along. Yes, we now have 1.5 km to walk with him walking and them riding. The unfairness of it! At least in his eyes.

After a few minutes of this quiet wailing, I can tell I will not make it another 1.5 km, unless he and I have a talk. We stop, and I tell him that if he wants a new bike then he will have to cheer up. God will bless him with a new bike, but not unless he is a happy boy. God likes to bless us when we are happy in our loss. With that puppy dog look that he gets when he is sad, he looks at me with absolute belief in everything I say.

We say a quick prayer that God will help him get a new bike and that in the meantime, he can enjoy his walk, as he learns to be the *fastest* runner in the house!

After a hug, off we go happy once again.

We carry on down our road walking slowly, while waiting for the 11 year old to come back with his bike. Austin asks if he can ride back to our house to join his big brother. Sure, I say. Off he goes. Soon enough, they are both back and we proceed on our way.

Until....

As Austin gets up ahead of me, he decides to stop. How does he stop? He drags his feet (new runners) on the ground. STOP that! - I say. I have 6 boys to clothe and shoe, and they will NOT drag their shoes.

He goes on to inform me that he doesn't have brakes, therefore, he has to use his shoe. Excuse me?

I turn to the 11 year old. "Didn't I ask you if the bikes were all road-worthy before we left?"

Yes, I did - he says.

I guess his idea of road worthy and mine are two different things. So now I have a choice. Send a second child's bike home, or allow him to push it down hills and ride it up hills. Hills where he can ride into the snowdrift to stop. That's what I decide to do. And off we go again.

By the time we get home, I am not sure I will make it this way tomorrow!! I am *not* an exercise buff. I am never going to say I *enjoy* walking or running. Nope. I do it cause I have to.

The next day, I am determined that this will become a habit. A healthy habit. The boys are psyched and off we go! They were not too thrilled when they heard they would be going without bikes. Obviously, they need to be fixed before we head out again.

I figure I am going to get this torture over as fast as I can. So I plunk the three year old in the stroller and get hiking. I mean, jogging! Whoa, when Ray found out later I jogged he was *impressed*. He asked if he could watch!! laugh Obviously I don't walk or run much!

I did the loop in the fashion our oldest taught us: run, walk, run, walk. We got through this in good time and order. I figured I could do it again the next day.

The next day we did it again. The boys were not so enthusiastic this time. They wanted to ride bikes. I told them running would be good for their hearts and lungs. Big brother joined us for this run and kindly piggybacked Cooper part of the way. I was still doing fine.

Then I took Sunday off... There must be a religous reason why I shouldn't exercise on Sunday, right?

Then Monday we ran.

Tuesday was a Pajama Day. And for those of you who don't know what those are - you don't have to get dressed. Get up and work hard and don't get dressed. There was no way I was dragging myself out the door, in to the cold, blustery day, while I was cozy in my pjs, with my wood stove cooking. Nope.

Then Wednesday was a town day - no time to run. Oh, I was starting to feel guilty. I knew I had to get back into it, or I might not start again! Also, that morning, I noticed something odd. The area under my left arm was tender. Strange. By the end of Wednesday, it was bothering me enough to relax and not do any scrapbooking.

That night at about 2:30, I woke up. Man, was I sore. That arm was sore, specifically. Probably was on my mind when I went to sleep and the worrying as to what it was woke me up, more than the pain itself. But I couldn't get back to sleep, so I quietly cleaned our room. *smile* Got to use those moments when you have them!!

When I woke up this morning, I felt like a truck had rolled over me. My arm was still sore, and my legs were tight in the thigh area. I figured it must have been my body seizing up from all that *healthy* huh? exercise. I think the arm is sore from steering the stroller away from the road into the side of the road.

You ever seen those marionette dolls? When you play with them their legs sometimes look like they have no joint in the knee. Well, as I walk around this house today, my right leg sort of does that thing. Walk the foot forward, no knee working. It kind of flops forward. It is like my muscles in the upper thigh are dead! You know when your foot is asleep how odd you walk? Poor old things, never been used for so long. You would think walking around my house chasing kids, running (walking) up and downstairs would constitute exercise - but apparently not!

So, here we are today, Thursday. I take the kids out for our 'run'. Yeah, right!! I was so sore today, there was no hightailing it behind that stroller. More like a invalid walking!

I guess I will have to do this for a while to work out all that pain that my poor old body is feeling. Meanwhile, my sweet little five year old running beside me called to the kids way up in front, "Wait up. Mum likes to run. I don't" with a cute little smile and a rosy face.

I looked at him, like, "I do?"

Cookies Can Be Dangerous

When you have small kids!!

I made cookies today. Yummy chocolate chip cookies. As I am seeing my ingredients mix in my blender I hear it begin to THUNK, THUNK, THUNK! What? As I stop the machine and dig around in the mix to see what can be causing my machine to bump so harshly, I find a large, hard lump. What?

I toss it in the dry sink and see that it is PINK? What again?

Seriously!! Do you know what it was? Playdough. Hardened playdough! What else would it be?? laugh!

When our little ones play with playdough they sometimes help themselves to a little flour to dust the table. Apparently, on one of their trips to the flour bin they left a handful of playdough behind. Lovely.

I dug around and removed as much of the little lumps as I could find. I thought I got them all. I guess I didn't. I forgot about this situation and baked up my cookies. Later, I was enjoying a cookie with a glass of milk when I bit into something nasty....

Kids!

Winter Camp Outs and Baby Birds

Our 11 year old came to me yesterday and beseeched me to sleep outside. He told me that since it wasn't 'quite spring, not too much snow, and not yet muddy' could they have a winter campout, so he could earn his Scouting Winter Camping badge.

I agreed that he could do it, BUT.... I had lots of requirements. Of course he was willing to do them all, all the whilst thinking his mother was rather over-protective. *smile* I said they had to have a groundsheet, and then fill the base of the tent with thick foamies, and then three blankets down, a sleeping bag and then three blankets on top. *grin* Seriously. I did not want them cold. My husband said, "Don't you think they will be warm enough?" And my reply was that it is fun to sleep outside if they are warm, but there is nothing like waking up cold!

Later on, I heard one of the boys coughing and it reminded me that a cough can go to the lungs and become pneumonia. I am not a nurse, but I know that two of the three boys who wanted to do this have been nursing chesty coughs for a while. Suddenly the idea of sleeping outside did not sound so smart.

I knew I was going to have to disappoint them. And they were.

The older boys understood but the five year old was rather sad. We had a little cuddle and I tried to think of something 'just as cool' as sleeping outside in a tent in the winter. What could I come up with?

"Hey, how about making a bed in my bathtub and you can pretend you are a baby bird in your nest?" (We have a very large soaker tub)

He looked at me and in his cynical little five year old voice says, "Yeah, right!" *how funny* Every day this little guy gets more grownup!!

So I say, "So where do you want to sleep?" Of course, the answer is "Outside".

Not happening!

Second choice - in our bed. I knew my hubby was coming down with a cold and was going to bed at 8:30 pm and would not appreciate a wiggly, squirmy little excited 5 year old kicking him all night.

Nope!

"Okay, I'll make a nest and be a baby bird."

Now he was excited!! He is much smaller than our tub, so it worked out nicely. One child happy. Two other unhappy boys. Oh well...

He dashed off to get his foamie, blankets and pillow and created himself a nice little bed. He jumped in and got himself all settled for the night. A little later, I heard him saying to his dad, "Are you going to sleep now, Dad?" as my hubby turned out the bedroom light. Our little guy had as close to a sleepout as he could get - the tub is in the corner of a fairly large room with 4'x4' windows on each corner - and the moon was out bright!

Sound Asleep in the Middle of the Night

What was the first thing he said when he woke up this morning? "Can I sleep there again tonight?" Too cute!

Later, at lunch time, the boys all went outside to the still set up tent and crawled inside to visit and play cards. I was doing some testing of Austin and wanted to have the house quiet, so they were thrilled to go outside. When Austin was done, he joined them and they all played. I then served them lunch and boy was it warm in there! I guess the noon day sun, plus four little bodies in a pup tent really creates heat!

Winter Picnic

One Green Day for Briton

Our little guy is taking his time speaking. What is his need? He has five big brothers to speak for him! We help him and try to encourage him to form words with his little mouth. But it is hard. He is so funny!

When Austin was 3 years and 9 months, our doctor thought he should see a speech pathologist because he couldn't speak so well. I don't remember much except I know he spoke way better than Briton does. Mind you, Briton is only 3 years 2 months.

I took Austin to see this speech guy and he immediately was concerned. He ran him through a battery of tests and said he was 'profoundly delayed'. I told the therapist that Austin was a fourth child and wasn't there any possibility that it was simply because he didn't *need* to speak? He didn't think it had anything to do with it.

We set up some appointments - as in - about 5 - and proceeded. We only did five because the guy moved from our small town and we were left with noone. During the course of these few visits I was scrutinized. It was *painful*! This guy kept analyzing how *I* speak. Man, oh, man!! I don't even like public speaking at the best of times. And here I was, sitting on the ground in this guy's office 'speech therapying' (is that a word? LOL) my son, while he was *watching ME*. It was killing me!! Who was there for the therapy?

For all you who don't know me - I talk quickly. I conserve time by saying more in a shorter period of time. *grin* This guy figured I was stunting my child by how I speak. *You* try continuing therapy with that guy!! Well, lucky for me, he left town!

This doctor had wanted us to set up some 'play dates' since poor Austin wasn't in school where he could be properly socialized *grin*. I told the doctor that didn't he think it was *better* that Austin was speaking to children (ages 6, 9, and 11) who could speak clearly? And not just a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds who had speech issues of their own? He didn't think so. :o/

Anyhow, we put up little pictures in the kitchen to work on the sound 'sh' and he learned it easily enough. And then we got back to real life and just continued what we had always done. Living with him. Speaking to him. Playing with him. And having him spend time with all ages - big and little. We didn't focus on his speech - we focused on him.

Six months later, a lady speech therapist came to town. She was only going to be coming into town for one day a month and we could pick up where we left off. Austin was now 4 1/2. Therefore, as a homeschool family, we were at the dropping off point. He could only be seen by the public system for another couple months before he was considered 'school age' and therefore, not covered by the government.

Somehow, as homeschoolers, we fall between the cracks. And there is no private speech therapy in our little town! So what are you to do? I wasn't too worried. I knew he was coming along fine!

When I went to see this lady she wrote him down as a 'miracle'. Why? Because his speech had come so far in 6 months. I told her what I had told the doctor about being around people of all ages and that I felt that being child number 4 he was more likely to take his time. She agreed with me and said he was proof.

So, now today we have Briton. Much the same story.

His speech has been slow to say the least. He has other ways of expressing himself. Since he was tiny he would use his body language to tell you what he wants or feels. It is quite hilarious, actually! My sister couldn't believe what he could show he was feeling simply by his shoulders, hands and facial expression - at 2 1/2.

Next he learned every sound under the sun. They say boys make noises instead of speaking. Well, they are right! I live with the best one of all!! When he doesn't have the word for the item he is trying to tell me about (which is the majority of the time) he will give me the 'sound' that it makes.

Go for a ride in the car - "mmmmrrrrmmrr" accompanied by hands and shoulders going like he is driving around corners

A runny nose - "eeeewwww"

An airplane - "yeow yeow"

A whistle - he wanted to ask where his whistle was: "ooooohhhh oooooohhh"

Another time he is looking at photographs of helicopters beside me right now. There are multiple photographs and he holds them both up and says, "Eight, eight, eight." Then I tell him I am working and to take the photos out of my face and he says, "Me, me, me." And makes a noise like a crashing airplane, cause don't you know, that is what helicopters sound like! "Chhhchcchh"

He continues looking at the picture of the helicopter hovering over the ocean. There is a man on a cable below the helicopter. He points to the man and then at the water. He says, "ai ai ai - wah ee." He is telling me that the helicopter is above the water and the man might fall in the water.

Or, as just happened as I am writing this:

He comes out of the bathroom down the hall holding a toilet roll holder and saying: "Eeeww!!!!" As he waves it in the air. I quickly figure out what he is saying as there is water dripping off the thing. He shows me by waving it over the toilet that he dropped it in the (clean, thankfully!) toilet.

You get really good at figuring out a whole situation by ONE word!

A few examples of his use of the word: Done -

"Done" - meaning, "I am done drawing on the wall. I don't need a consequence."
"Done" - meaning, "I am done my dinner. That is why I got down from the table."
"Done" - meaning, "The paint tub is empty. Can I have some more?"

Briton has shown me how little vocabulary we actually need to get by! This child can get across the majority of what he is trying to say with either a noise or one word!

He does a lot of one word speaking with a lot of stress on that one word - for instance: "Me, me, me," to show he wants to play with something. Or "Done, done, done."

Briton wanted a cupcake. I told him he could have it when he had done dinner. This is his reply:

"Done, done, done, eat, eat, eat, me, me, me." Apparently, he is 'done' dinner and wants to 'eat' the cupcake.

He just came to me with a bag that has some African necklaces in it. He wants one of these necklaces because the boys got them. He holds up the bag and says, "Me, me, me". And then he puts his hands to his mouth and says, "Whooo whooo," because he thinks that the necklaces are whistles because they have pendants on them that look like whistles.

This is how he gets his meanings across.

Some of his new words are:

weevee - tv
pant - paint
wor - four
wox - socks
we ah - right there
wah ee - water

Here is a recent conversation I had with Briton, while trying to get him to count properly. I was showing him toys and as I pointed to one or the other I would say a number.

"One" Me talking

"Wa" Briton replying

"Two" Me pointing at two

"Wor" Briton replying (meaning "Four")

Two " Me trying again to get Briton to say "Two"

"Wor!" Briton trying again.

"Two" Me trying *again*

"EIGHT!" Briton's loud response with a great big smile!

He is so funny. When you try to get him to talk - he will look at you so earnestly, look at your mouth, mimic your mouth with great expression, and out will come another sound/word altogether.

At this point we try again. He will willingly try again. Then he will make a mistake and then like a clown, throw up his hands like, "what a joke!" and then drop his head to his chest and shake it, laughing at himself. He is hard to take serious!

The interesting thing about Briton is he has all these letters and numbers locked up inside him that are just dying to get out. When he is talking about something and it is a quantity of something he will say, "four, free, eight" or some order of those numbers. What he really means is, "There is more than one."

Or when he is talking he will spit out random letters. One day we were watching the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee". This movie is a wonderful family movie about an innercity little girl who beats the odds and goes on to win the National Spelling Bee. While this little girl was onstage spelling out words, Briton was sitting on the couch, knowing full well what she was doing. He was yelling out letters to help her along!! It was a hoot!! He kept calling out, "A, E, S, R, B" and on. This child can't speak but yet he can spell!! Well, not literally, but he has the concept of what letters are!

He draws a bunch of symbols on a piece of paper and babbles to me, 'B, A, R, D."

Obviously we work hard to help him learn to talk. He just doesn't think it that important yet. Throughout the day I will take little moments and a few words and have him look me in the face and practice saying certain sounds and words. He works hard but we don't pressure him. Little by little, he will improve, just like Austin did. He is quite content to have less words right now.

So why was today ONE GREEN DAY?

Because this morning when Briton was at the counter and Cassidy was working on all the green decorations, he picked one up and said, "GEEN" - clear as a bell!! Oh, what praise he received. Hugs and kisses and clapping. First, he recognized it was GREEN and not any other colour, but more importantly because he SAID his new word!!

Later on, while he was painting the picture up above he turned to me and after thinking carefully (you could see the wheels turning) he very solomnly formed his lips and pulled them in together and then pushed them out to create the sound, "WWWUUUNNN" - ONE. Oh, the excitement again!!

(Earlier today I had been working with him on the word ONE. He had painstakingly done it. But he has never voluntarily tried a 'new' word on his own before. Hence the huge praise.)

I asked him to do it again, and with great determination and effort, he pushed that sound out of his mouth. And then when I asked him to do it again? Laugh. He said, "DONE!"

A few moments later, as he was painting his picture and I was chatting with him about it I said, "It's a green day, today." And he turned to me and said, "Geen day".

He is very rarely using two word sentences. Mostly one word repeated two or three times, to get his point across. So today he used two new words and then put two words together to form a sentence!

YEAH FOR BRITON!!! Each small step is a HUGE step!!!

After I wrote this post, Briton came in the backdoor from being in the tent outside. I hear him, "Mum?" I go to the laundry room and there he is waving his muddy little foot in the air. "Feet," he says as he wiggles it around. "What happened?" I ask him. "Me, I." He was telling me that he (me) went outside (I) and walked around the house from the tent and proceeded to get a muddy little foot.

So here was a two word 'sentence'. He is slowly progressing. Bit by bit...

St. Patricks Day Fun

Today was a fun day for the boys!

This afternoon, we will be reading the story of St. Patrick. I remember celebrating St. Patrick's Day for my whole childhood and not knowing the meaning of it. It wasn't until I was an adult and a Christian that I found out the meaning of this man and his holiday. It was not about leprechauns and pots of gold, like I had been raised believing.

Instead, it was about a man named Patrick. When he was a boy, he lived in England, as a Roman Citizen. One day he was captured and taken prisoner and made a slave of the Celts, in Ireland. For six years he was a slave. He began having dreams. Dreams that he would leave Ireland.

One day, this dream came true and he took a boat back to England. He was happy there, but one day he had another dream. The people of Ireland were asking him to return and walk with them always.

He knew if he was to go back to Ireland it was to be a priest and to bring Jesus Christ to the Irish. So he went to school, and one day returned to Ireland as a Bishop. Patrick got to spend time with people and he told them about Jesus. He told the Druids about Jesus, too. These Druids had wanted to kill Patrick. Over time, Patrick preached his God and many people chose to follow Christ.

Patrick showed them the three leaf clover and told them that the clover had three leaves, but is one. This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity - Three in One, One in Three. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. And that is why people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day.

As soon as we got up this morning, we began baking cupcakes for St. Patricks Day! I love spontaneous days! I much prefer to do things on the spur of the moment, rather than planning. When I plan something I always feel this pressure cause it has to get done. I am the type of person who would spontaneously make a trip to California tomorrow! Seriously, I love adventure!

So first thing, I had Cassidy get himself the cake mix - yup, no healthy, made from scratch cake mix here today! A simple recipe that did not need me involved.

Waiting For Their Turns to Help

Austin then the thrill of trying to untangle some decorations from a box that has been sitting stored for so long! He was unsuccessful, so my helpful, creative son, Cassidy, took charge. He took the mobile apart and created three individual hanging decorations.

Untangling the Tangles

Mr. Creative Himself

He then commenced to cutting out some construction paper in the shape of a shamrock and then sewed it with thread to create a stuffed shamrock!

Green Art

After this, Cassidy made the little ones green paint in a variety of shades. They then painted their hands and made designs. Briton had fun and only made one picture before he was done. Cooper had lots of fun painting his hand over and over and over and kept on printing his hand over the previous ones, until there was no evidence of hand prints!

Cassidy is a really great helper when it comes to the little ones and preschool. He is a creative boy and gets his schoolwork done quickly and easily, so he is the obvious one to call on for being my helper. He is going to have lots of fun when the other children come home and we have enough for a small classroom in the 9 and under catagory!

Face Painting

Once the boys were finished their arts and crafts and baking they went digging for green shirts. Cassidy tried to get away with green underwear, but I told him I couldn't see that in the picture! Besides, I don't think he even owns green underwear?! laugh. We then had fun painting up their faces. Cooper wanted a little shamrock on his nose and Austin wanted one on his forehead.

St. Patrick's Day Lunch

Lunch was mint green banana milkshakes, honey sandwiches, and green cupcakes with green icing. Oh, and of course, it was served on green plates.

Cleaning up the Kitchen

After the lunch was over Cassidy was commandeered to clean up the kitchen. He could have had Austin's help, but knew that he could lick the icing bowl if he did the job completely alone! Sometimes the easiest way to get a job done quickly and completely and well is to have a child work alone - and I like to add an incentive sometimes!

Note: Before Cassidy got his icing bowl, the rest of his brothers got a spoonful, of course!

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - Our Kids Production

For the fourth year in a row, our boys did a homeschool play/musical production. This years play was not as musical as it usually is. This time it was more a regular play, but it was very well done. We took on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

The kids all went for the roles they wanted, or if we were lacking people for parts, as many of our homeschoolers had moved away this year, then some kids were roped into roles they might not have normally gone out for! Colt, was even asked to take on a role, even though he was in public school at the time!

The last time he was part of the play, two years ago, he had a small role and kept rather low key. His Cadets has been wonderful for his self confidence and public speaking abilities. He was one of the few people who did not need a microphone for the performance. Not that any of them were allowed mics.

Dane, as per the norm, took on a part that was as small as possible, but ended up having a great time at the performance. He just doesn't like the dressing up - silly costumes as far as he is concerned.

It was rather funny when I went to a ladies store in town and asked if they sold tights. The lady asked me for what size? Hmmm... "Well, my son is 6' foot." She looked at me rather funny. *grin* I then proceeded to tell her I needed two pairs as both my sons would be wearing them ... for a play. *grin*

When I went to the second hand shop to find odds and ends to put their costumes together the bill was a little high, so I asked her if she would give a discount since the clothes would only be worn for a school play. She talked to her manager and then gave me a 'Seniors Discount'. Didn't realize I looked that old! *grin*

Austin wanted a part this year. He usually takes on a tiny part of one or two lines. This year he wanted something equally as small, but as it turned out he was given a line near the end of the play, as well as his original lines. He did very well and enjoyed his role as Fabien, a servant, of Lady Olivia.

Cassidy would probably have liked to have done something simple, but I knew he was capable of hamming it up and having fun. So he went for the role of Malovio - the snotty butler who falls in love with the lady of the house, and later gets locked up as a maniac. Cassidy did not disappoint. He was his typical relaxed self!

They were about to be shipwrecked....

Cooper was an endearing little raindrop.

Briton was going to be a Rain Drop, but decided he would rather stay off the stage and watch the play with our friend, Tammy.



" I've been to Olivia's to pay her a call. I have some news, but it's not so hot. She'll wear a veil to cover her tears, and see noone for seven years," Fabien (Austin) said.

"Olivia is busy. You'll have to go back," Malvolio (Cassidy) spoke.

Malvolio removing his shoes to take a nap.

Don't stay with me. I'm an unlucky guy," Sebastian (Dane) said.

"I can't go with you. There are people here who want my head. They say, years ago I committed a crime. The Duke is eager for me to do time. But here is some money, my good friend; it doesn't matter how much you spend," replied Antonio (Colt)

Sebastian wasn't worried at all. He ripped off his shirt and began to brawl. He fought Sir Andrew, his fists clenched tight.

Sir Toby jumped in to stop the fight. Sebastian turned on him with his sword.

"Stop! You're under arrest!" The guards arrested Antonio.

"I'm not insane! I have good reason to complain," cried Malvolio after he was locked up by the pranksters.

"Who's this fellow I'm about to meet? Am I going mad? You look like the brother I never had!" Sebastian said to his long lost sister, (in disguise as a guy) Viola.

"I helped to bring this man to shame. Sir Toby Belch had the time of his life with Maria who is now his wife," Fabian proudly said. (the three of them were responsible for locking up Malvolio as a maniac)




All the girls got flowers from their parents after the play and Cooper (who'd have thunk!) really wanted some, too. Sweetfully, my friend Tammy asked a friend's little girl for a sprig from her bouquet and Cooper was beyond thrilled. He told anyone who would listen about his flowers.

The cast minus the little Raindrops.

The actors signing programs before the play.

Scout Semis, Cub Cars, Beaver Buggies - Winners!

Three of our boys are in Scouts, Cubs, and Beavers. This is the second year that Cassidy and Austin have entered a car in the races. Before they entered in the Cubs and Scouts races they also did the Awana Grand Prix, in Tennessee, two years ago.

They learned some tricks of decorating and speed while down there. This caused them to be healthy competition to the rest of the kids

Each of the Cubs and Scouts is given a wooden kit. The Semi comes with different fronts. Cassidy chose his and then he and his dad used the bandsaw to cut out extras to put on his semi. He then added things like lights, insignias and license plates. He did a custom job.

Austin designed his block of wood - they don't come precut - and then Ray cut it out in the Austin's chosen shape. The kids then chose their paints and they used acrylic and shelacs. They worked very hard and came out with pretty sharp looking vehicles!

What was really nice about these models is the time they spend with their dad, while they are building these. Ray is a pretty busy guy with his construction company and little model cars are not something that he builds very often (!), so this yearly father and son craft is a neat time. They end up spending a few weekends working on these. That is the best part. The memories of building the cars and trucks together.

These little models will make nice heirloom pieces to show their own kids. Cassidy now has two semis, with the potential to make 2 or 3 more over the next couple years, plus his race cars. Austin has three home made race cars now.

Cooper With His Badge and Buggy

The Beaver Buggies don't race for prizes; they just have a good time. Cooper did well with his little race car. It came in 2nd a number of times. Each of the Beavers were then given a badge to sew on their Beaver camp blanket. Cooper was a little disappointed cause the Beavers didn't get to actually 'race'.

After this race, the cubs raced their Cub Cars. These cars are weighed before they are raced, to be certain that they are within the legal weight limit.

Austin With His Cub Car

Racing - 2nd From Bottom

Accepting His Trophy

Austin came in 2nd Place for Model Car. He was very happy with that placement!

The Scout Semis are not raced for speed; they are judged for their model looks. But before the races took place the kids raced their semis and Cassidy came first in the two races he put it in. He was pretty pleased about that.

Cassidy's Semi Model

Very Impressed With His Win

Cassidy and His Semis From Last Year and This Year

But his big smile came when he heard his name called for 2nd place for Model Truck prize.

2nd Place Model Truck

And the Winners!