Crossing Over to Boy Scouts

Saturday Night was Lon's last Blue and Gold.   We had a spaghetti feast at the Methodist Church hall.  

Lon helped with the flag ceremony.

One of his last photos as a Cub Scout.

Their goofy skit. They had a lot of fun doing it

A wider shot of their skit. All the boys got to be involved. LOTS of giggles as they made their way through it

A parent had to come up with the boys for the arrow of light presentation.  Mark got to take pictures.

watching and learning

Lon's Arrow of Light. I made his and one other boys.

Crossing over.
At the end of the bridge he is welcomed into Troop 788.

Getting his new neckerchief.

One last salute to his cub scout leaders

Lon is a Boy Scout

Surprise!  Mark was committee secretary for 2 years, and he was honored with a plaque and a gift card!  He was very surprised. I was not told they were doing this.  This was very nice of them.

The Blue and Gold is over. Lon is showing what it means to be a Boy Scout. He was helping clean up.  Way to go Lon!

We did make time for a photo with our favorite den leader!  Yay for Ms. Crystal!

Celebratory Ice Cream!

Our boy is growing up. Ready or not, it is going to happen!

Colonial Days at Fort Dorchester

Saturday morning,  we picked up Lon from his sleep over and went to Colonial Days. Last year it was not crowded at all, this year we were lucky to get parking! It was packed. I am glad there were more people.  I hope this means they will continue the event for many more years to come

The encampment

This excavation has been going on for 6 years. they are finding lots of wonderful things in this dig site. While we were talking to one of the diggers, he found a colonial nail and let Lon touch it and hold it.  The first time it had been out of the ground in over 200 years. That was really cool.

Lon and Dad went back to the car to get Lon's sweater. It was still a little chilly in the morning.

Lon enlists in the army. The King's army, as the colonist had yet to start the rebellion.

Formation is not exactly the straightest line

The Captain will make them into soldiers!

This gentleman was very funny, it was a pleasure to listen to him

Teaching them to wheel.

Huzzah! Fix bayonets!

Lon had a fun time being in the Army. They were given a wooden coin that was theirs to keep. They not allowed to keep the wooden rifle.

Signing up for the army! Now he gets his pay, and a brochure on summer camps.  I will look into the camps, one might be fun!

The toymakers arrived!  Lon is playing with the chicken man. You squeeze the bottom and he does flips.

The walking man is harder  than it looks. Lon got it to work only a couple times

The buzz saw.

We had a great time at Colonial Days.

Looking forward to next year.

Boosterthon

Friday  was the Boosterthon fun run at Spann.  It was Lon's last fun run at Elementary School!

at the starting tunnel

waiting. waiting. there was a lot of waiting for the fun run to start

The pacer lap is about to start. Everyone has to walk behind the checkered flag

Starting his run!

Getting his laps checked off.

He was doing well.

last lap. Lon did 29 laps.

He had a pretty good time, it was cold, 38 degrees and a good stiff breeze.  

I forgot his lunch, I had just enough time to run and get a couple slices of pizza and bring them to school for him.  Yes, I am trying to be the cool mom.  It might work.

Ranger Update

It has been a over a year since Ranger came to live with us, and it was time for his yearly visit to the vet.

Ranger does not like his carrier. At all. Not having any of it. Lon counted the meows. 600 on the nose from our house to the vet and back.

Ranger was not impressed

This is not the escape route I thought it would be.

Perhaps up here is a way out

or maybe I can hide up here

nope can't see me. I am the same color as the cabinets.

We did get him down.

He is a healthy cat, a little on the plump side at 12.4 pounds.  He was very brave for his shots.

It took him 2 days to forgive me.

New Quilt

Mark's Great Grandmother embroidered a set of coasters in the 1930s. Maybe earlier.  Mark's mother gave them to me.  They are lovely pieces of linen. I did not want to use them as coasters, the embroidery was just too pretty. So they sat in a box.  That did no one any good.  I needed to do something with them.   Finally it came to me what to do.

I need to crop the picture a little and I will as soon as I can!

A detail of the embroidery.  It was amazing to me that all twelve are done so beautifully.

Shopping and Lunch!

We went to Tanger Outlets on Saturday.

Lon needed shoes. Even his feet are narrow!  He got a new pair of Adidas.  I told him how to pronounce Adidas in Portugese.  Ah-de-das.

 We went to lunch at Billy Bob's Burgers.

The boys were having fun with the menu

Lon thought the peanut butter brownie shake sounded really good.

But it was not.  The peanut butter was not very good and there was not as much chocolate as there should have been to make it really yummy

He did enjoy the burger though, and the homemade chips.


I think we will go and try it one more time.   My milkshake was supposed to be pineapple, but it was vanilla. No traces of fruit.  My Chinese  Chopstick Chicken Salad did not have any chicken in it until the waitress brought out a bowl of chicken chunks.  

It was as fun day of shopping as a family!

Building a Shadow Box

Our next to last Cub scout meeting.

They are finishing the woodworking requirements, and this time they are building a shadow box

Daddy helped out with some of the parts, it needed four hands

working hard

it came out wonderful, and as soon as we get it painted  I will add that photo

There are new blogs coming, promise

I just got a new computer. YAY. However, I am needing to install software and figure out how to use it.
This means that in a short time, there will be several new blogs, just not right now.
Thank you for understanding.

Fun at the State Museum!

Saturday we wanted to do something as a family. We drove up to Columbia to the State Museum.

Dad being silly

The special exhibit was Roman Machines.

Hello, Caesar!

There were things you could experiment with.
The battering ram was fun.

The catapult!  Knocking that wall down was so cool!

With both of those, Lon was kind and rebuilt the walls for the next person.

ROME!

Checking out the Tortoise.  Lon thought it was really cool they could do that with their shields. He said it must have been very effective.  Well, they ruled the world for a while.

Just take the picture Mom!

The docent was impressed with Lon, she told him that he should try to build the arch, not many people could do it. This is Lon's first try. By himself.  He did not use all the bricks, so it just went straight across.  BUT it was an arch and it stood up by itself.

Gladiators!

The elevator system from the Coliseum.

Making mosaics.

On to other parts of the museum!

A heat shadow. Lon was having fun making patterns.

Lon ducked into the kaleidoscope and took his infinite picture.

Lon  playing with the different pulleys.

I can not remember what this is called, but it is really fun.  They had white plastic balls you could put in and watch them run.

Like a giant spryograph!

Lon's design.

Looking at the old comic book depictions of ray guns!

Lunch break, even though his face looks different, he did enjoy the quesadilla.  Lunch was not bad.

The mastodon !

Lon pointing all the dinosaurs he knew and their names.   One of the adults looked at me and asked me what school did I teach science at.  Never been mistaken for a science teacher before. History, grade school, but never science.
I told him I did not, and he insisted I must have been a science teacher sometime in  my life.

We moved on from that exhibit to more recent history of South Carolina.

These are big tires!

For easier reading

The Clemson plane

We went to the planetarium show. It was very interesting.
We could not take pictures in the dome.

We went back to see Roman Machines. Lon was having so much tun with them

Mark and Lon rebuilt this one.

I can not remember what this was called.

Lon rebuilt the arch, with all the blocks and it arched this time!

sort of dress up. Lon was not into it this time

Dioramas!  Lon still loves them.

We had a great time at the museum. So much fun going as a family.