Halloween 09

Here is a short, grainy video that I made before the kids went out to trick-or-treat.

A ninja and a duck

I Heart Boy Scouts

Our family officially started dating Boy Scout troops yesterday. Alex is a Webelo 1. Half way through next year, he (and us) will have to decide what troop he would like to join as a Boy Scout. In order to make a decision it is recommended that you do something with the troops so you can get a feel for the group(camping-out I think is the preferred choice). So yesterday we attended the fall camporee at a nearby boy scout camp. We had a great time!!! The event as a whole was kind of disorganized, but we got a good idea of what the troop is all about. The boys were very well behaved and kind of policed each other. (Some of the other groups we saw were just ridiculous) The adults with the troop were super nice and welcoming. You could tell that the relationships between the boys and adults were good. The food was wonderful!! Here are a few highlights:

• I learned that you can be comfortably warm on a 30 degree night if you have the right sleeping bag and clothes on. I could have used a more level site for my tent and a better air mattress, but at least I was warm.
• Alex is a pretty dang cool kid. He jumped right in even though there was only one other kid that he knew in attendance. He asked good questions. He avoided peer pressure to be obnoxious, even though he hung out with the rowdy crowd. He even told the rowdies to tone it down a couple of times and they listened even though he was new to them and younger. I heard him helping other boys in his tent last night when they were cold or not feeling well. He ended up in my tent by morning, but made it in the other tent until 2 am.
• You can cook pretty much everything in a dutch oven as long as it will fit inside. We had hardtack biscuits and brownies out of them yesterday.
• I successfully made it to the latrine at 1 a.m. by myself even though I am scared of the dark and bears. I walked pretty fast though.

Sneak Peek

Annika's Halloween costume came in the mail today. We had to try it on immediately. She liked it for about 10 minutes, was even quacking. Then she was done with it and wanted it off ASAP

Birthday bash

Alex turns 9 on Monday so he is having a sleep over with 5 of his friends to celebrate. Everyone arrived at around 5:30 and immediately proceeded to start a "war" with the various guns (Nerf and other wise) that we have around the house. After opening gift, everyone was very excited to share the gift from Grandma and Grandpa, a Nerf machine gun that holds 35 darts at a time.

The boys have been great about including Annika. While they played Star Wars: The Clone Wars she was christened Asoka (from what i am being told that makes her Anikan's patawan, whatever that means). Here she is helping the boys play a new game that Alex from one of his friends.

Our Weekend

It seems like we have done a lot this weekend although looking back on it now, most stuff happened yesterday. We had soccer and dance and then went to Kittery to do a little shopping. Today has been the grocery store and football.

Here are a few things I have learned this weekend

• it is really not a good idea to take 2 year old shopping when she is not contained in a stroller. Well, our two year old anyway. She is a "shopper", this means that she likes to unfold things, throw them on the floor until she finds the one she likes and then following with it until you take it away from her and pretend that you will buy it (although you really just fold it, and all the others, and put it back on the shelf).
• Toddlers should not wear white, EVER. David bought Annika some really cute stuff at the outlets while he was on a business trip last week. One is a white sweatsuit with bugs and flowers all over it and the then there is a pair of adorable white capri tight that have a ruffle on the hem. Annika started out in the sweatsuit, got in the shower, sat on a wet wash cloth. I changed her into the white capris and a brown sweatshirt, very cute. I think the pants may be ruined (see next bullet)
• Never give a two year old a bag of m&ms in her car seat when she is wearing white pants. When we got home last night, Annika's pants looked like they had been tie-dyed because she had dropped them into her lap and they fell under her bottom during the ride home. I have been able to get out everything except for a couple of spots of red.
• Fat free french vanilla yogurt and homemade chunky applesauce make a pretty amazing fruit smoothie.
• There is a pretty amazing Jamacian resturant in Cape Neddick, Maine. We were driving along passing lobster pound after lobster pound when all of the sudden there was a big sign that said Jamaican Food on it. We had to keep going and turn around because we passed it. It had a few jerk meats and curry (including goat). I was a little concerned about eating it since I have been having some reflux issues but went for it anyway. They made it "New England" spicy in my opinion (this means not even a little bit hot) but it was still pretty good.

Some Observations

We have started to watch more children's shows around here lately. The current faves are Dora, Kai Lan, and The Fresh Beats. Alex and I are starting to notice a few things.

• Boots is the master of the obvious. Usually during every episode there is at least one instance where an identity is repeated 5 or 6 or 20 times, someone asks Boots who the person/animal/tree/shrub is, and he always says "I think it is ... (insert name here)".


• Twist on The Fresh Beats is a goober. For instance, right now he is tap dancing with his hands, complete with socks.


• The animals on Kai Lan all have extreme personality traits. Alex says Tollee has anger management issues, I personally think he's just a bit overly sensitive and somewhat of a pouter. Rintoo has to be ADHD. Still trying to nail down HooHoo.

Happy Birthday

Annika turned 2 on Friday. It doesn't even seem possible that she could be two. Here are some pictures from the festivities.