Tommy is His Own Far Side Cartoon

Tommy was still wearing his nightshirt the other morning, and Mom found him like this in the kitchen putting away the silverware. 

It reminded her of this Far Side cartoon:

New Scouts, New Shirts

Two more of my friends have joined Scouts, so now there are 11 of us in our den! We're gearing up for a big Scouts' camping competition called "Camperall" in two weeks, and we had to develop our own emblem and cheer to show off there. We designed these shirts for our patrol, and are very excited to unleash the Pink Fluffy Dragicorns (that's our name) at Camperall!

L to R: Ava, Tiana, Emily, Kat, Olivia, Kade

Tommy's New Soccer Team

Tommy may have found the perfect soccer team for him. Here they are at their last scrimmage. 

It's a close race to see who the biggest goofball is on that team. Stay tuned...

5th Grade Plaster Masks

The whole 5th grade got to make plaster masks of our faces. First my partner Phoebe and I had to get greased up with Vaseline so the plaster wouldn't stick to our faces or eyebrows.

Then we had to wet and lay the plaster strips on each other. 

Phoebe was a pretty good artist with my mask.

 Mom kept cracking herself up telling us to "Smile!" knowing that our masks were hardening so all we could do was grunt and roll our eyes at her. 

Don't Emily and I look thrilled?

My mask turned out pretty cool! Now to decorate...

First Day of School, 2nd and 5th

First day of school after a long, fun summer!

5th grade for me...

And 2nd for Tommy.

Tommy has Mrs. Robertson, and a bunch of his friends are in his class, including his good buddy since preschool, Kailee.

I have Mrs. Whitcroft and have a bunch of my buddies in my class too. 

L to R: Me, Ava, Elaiza, Phoebe, Kade, Tiana, Addi, Maggie, Gabby, Ally

But my good buddy May is in a different class, so after school we went to celebrate our first day and catch up at Duck Donuts. 

Bring on the school year!

Roger's Gardens

They were already gearing up for Halloween at a local garden store, and put on a whole Harry Potter exhibit! Here we are in front of Hogwart's Castle...

Look out for the basilisk coming through the ceiling, Tommy!

Aragog above us...

And Mandrakes in the Herbology classroon. We had fun, and picked up a few creepy new decorations for Halloween. 

Last Day of Summer

We went down the new playground on the beach for the last day of school. We had fun traversing the equipment and pretending we were on our favorite show, "Ultimate Beastmaster".

We had fun playing in the waves and soaking in the sun for one more day until classes start. 

Before bed we made some fortune tellers so we'd be ready to goof off with our friends at school. Bring on the school year!

John's Incredible Pizza

We got to go John's Incredible Pizza for finishing our summer charts. We had fun riding the rides...

And playing the games.  

But we all agreed the pizza was more mediocre than incredible. Still a fun time!

End of Summer Neighborhood Party

Our end of summer neighborhood party was super fun! A piñata, pizza, treats, and lots of pool time!

Back Row L to R: Nate, Tommy, Natalie, Kat, Alli, Avery, Olivia
Front Row: Luke, Pippi, Alliviah, Izzy, Addison, Violeta, Riley

And silliness. 

Ukulele

I got a ukulele for my birthday. I learned to play last year from my 4th grade teacher, and was inspired by our trip to Hawaii. Here I am doing the traditional Hawaiian song "Island Style":

Outrigger Canoe Trip

We had scheduled an ocean trip on a traditional Outrigger Canoe, but it was cancelled due to the hurricane. We didn't want to miss it, so we squeezed it in the morning of our flight. 

Bring on the ocean!

Here we are in action:

I like this one of the guide in the back. He was cracking us up. He said he bet Tommy was a rascal, and called him "kolohe" in Hawaiian, and Tommy gave him a sly little grin. I think he liked that. 

We saw a few sea turtles. Here's one poking it's head up...

And one swimming beside the boat in the super clear water. 

Our guides took us canoe surfing on a few waves, and we did pretty well with our paddling when I wasn't "accidentally" splashing Tommy with my paddle. Who's the kolohe now? :)  Here we are with our hotel in the background. Aloha, Hawaii! We had fun (most of the time). 

Luau

Thankfully the weather cleared up and we were able to attend the luau at our hotel. We all got dressed up, and Savannah got to dress up and come along too. 

We wore the leis we made...

And got some flowers for our hair.

Tommy got to bring crabby...

And we took some pictures with the beautiful sunset. 

They had booths with Hawaiian crafts and souvenirs. Tommy got this cool shark tooth necklace...

And I got this little turtle figurine that I named "Moana". 

At the beginning of the luau, they called the kids (and some grown ups!) up to learn the hula to the Hukilau. Tommy opted out, but I was up there front and center!

The show was really cool. It included lots of traditional dances and costumes from Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and other Polynesian Islands. 

But our favorites were the fire knife dancers. They lit the whole hillside on fire, and one guy even climbed a palm tree with a flaming knife in his mouth!

So glad we got to see the luau!

Aloha!