Singing in the Car

On the way home from gymnastics today, T sang me the song that he learned in school. It's an old standard, but he was very proud of knowing the words (at least he thought he did.)

The song is "Silent Night." Now, before reading his lyrics, picture this beautiful boy, with beautiful eyes, a bright smile, and a beautiful, clear, almost-soprano voice:

Holy night, silent night
All is calm all is bright.
Around the vertigo, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and wild.
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Isn't that great? I think it's priceless. He asked me to sing with him and corrected the order of the first line, but held on to the "around the vertigo" and the "wild." I sure love that boy!

Fall to Winter

Our weather has been getting colder these days....definitely a sign of the winter to come. According to Farmers Almanac, this will be the coldest winter here than we've had in ten years. It's been in the low 30's when I leave for work in the morning and in the mid-to-high 30's when I head home into the evenings. Hold onto your hats!

Two weeks ago, however, it was a balmy 52 degrees and the boys did some raking to get the backyard ready for winter. Pay no attention to the big shadow of myself (or that "big fuzzy thing" as T called it). I like this picture 'cause it shows how excited R is for hiding his bro in the leaves.

T had a lot of fun too, as you can see by his smile. By the way, do you see those red adirondack chairs in the background? Boy, I love those chairs!


This picture is for AJ, who always wants to see pictures of Macky. Here she is trying to dig T out of the pile.

Finally, a picture of proud R, looking oh-so-serious and tough. I guess that his rake is his weapon or something...

Dinner Conversation Tonight

T said to me: Mom, Antonia has a crush on me.

Me: Oh, you think she has a crush on you?

T: I KNOW she does. She told me.

Me: What did she say to you?

T: T, I have a crush on you.

Me: I guess she does. What did you say to her?

T: I said, Okay. Just okay. That's okay, right?

Me: Yeah, that was okay to say.

R (the older, wiser brother): Yeah, you don't want her to think you have a crush on her and you don't want to hurt her feelings, so 'okay' is good. She should be fine with that.

T: Good. 'Cause she's a nice girl

Pack Meeting at the Park

M is Den Master for the boys' pack, which means that he's in charge of the pack meetings. The pack consists of all of the dens from 1st through 5th grades -- about 25 boys or so. M took a lot of time in planning this meeting. Here is is with a den leader, going over the last minute details for a successful meeting.

After the flag ceremony, awards and songs (led by me), the boys were divided into two teams. Each team had to come up with a team name and make a flag. R's team was the "Multitaskers" and T's team was the "Porcipines." Here is T's team making their flag. Evidently T couldn't see, so he jumped on the table.

After the flags were designed and constructed, the teams were off to four different posts in this park. Two of the posts were over half a mile away, so they had to follow a map. (I only have pictures of the nearby tasks, I didn't hike two miles that day chasing after the kids.)

One of the posts had the tasks of finding big puzzle pieces and putting the puzzle together. As you can see, it has the boy scout motto on it, "Do your best."


Another task that they had to do was tie themselves into a "human knot" and then get out of it, all holding hands facing each other. The teams had a hard time with this and get frustrated. When this happened, M would get all of the adults there to get into a knot and lead us out of the knot. That was enough for the boys to get a second wind and figure it out.
When each task was complete, the team could get a bandana and put it on their flag. It was quite a badge of pride to see those different colored bandanas flying high. R is admiring the bandanas that represent his hard work while he takes a water break.

It was a great meeting and M got compliments from all the parents, even the been-there-done-that parent that is never happy!

This is my artsy-fartsy picture of the snack for the day, Boy Scout Trail Mix.