Braces Off!

Who needs braces? Not me! At least not for now. Phase I is done!

Blue & Gold Banquet

Mom did a lot of prep work for our Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet, so I made this cake to enter in the decorating contest all by myself! I made a little graham cracker tent with a sleeping bag inside, a campfire made of pretzels and candy corn, made an icing fleur de lis (the scout symbol), and tied scouting knots out of licorice whips to decorate the border. And it's marbled blue and yellow inside, cub scout colors!

It didn't win, but it got some votes and we all thought it was pretty cool. Here's Mom handing out Arrow of Light awards, badges, and plaques to everyone in our den. 

They're pretty proud of me...

Here is a leader from my new Scouts troop tying on my new neckerchief.

After the ceremony we had a quick meeting with our new Scoutmaster...

And took a picture with our new Troop 568 leaders and the mayor of Huntington Beach!

Then it was time for tacos and some games...

And a picture of our whole Pack 290 with the mayor. Tommy will have to keep those kids in line now that we've moved on to a new Troop as full-fledged Scouts. Yay, us!

American Revolution Reenactment

We found out there was a Revolutionary War reenactment just down the road from us by the library. Since I am studying colonial life in school, and we heard there would be canons, we went down to check it out. Here we are outside the trading post...

And learning about how to spin wool into thread. See the spinning wheel behind her? 

Tommy was convinced we should buy him a musket. He was wrong. 

But he did have a blast watching the blacksmith work. He is OBSESSED with all things blacksmith (mostly because of the god Hephaestus, who is his favorite), and hopes to have his own forge and armory soon. Look at the delight on his little face:

Here the blacksmith is hammering the steel into the shape of a nail.

This nail!  Pretty cool!

Dad found some clothes at the trading post that make him look like his character from the video game Red Dead Redemption. We told Dad that may be taking it a little far.

After a stop home, Dad settled for wearing the colonial hat he busts out every year at Thanksgiving, and Tommy brought his allowance to buy a wooden "knife". 

We played some colonial games, like keeping a hoop rolling by hitting it with a stick...

And we joined the cause and delivered messages as spies. 

Here's one of the spies giving us our next clue to thwart the British's plans. 

Here are the British, ready to go into battle. 

Let the battle of Lexington and Concord begin!

Check out the canon! It was so loud it made Mom jump!

The Americans won!

And we got a cool picture. The soldier even let Tommy hold his real sword. Victory for all!

Valentine's Day

We had a little Valentine's Brunch in my class.

Sarah Emily, Ava, Tiana, Jano, Kat

I got some love from my two good buddies Emily and Phoebe...

And from Mom. 

January 2019 Art

Tommy's Wyland Tribute

New Year's Party

Abstract Bird

Polar Bears

Picasso Mask

Rainy Day

Hollywood Sign Hike

We had the day off on Monday so we went on a hike with some friends up to the Hollywood sign. 

Sarah, Cole, Frankie, Tommy, Kat, May, Linh

 Here we are at the trailhead...

And in a little cave we found on the way up. 

 Tommy had read in his "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" book that the door to the underworld was behind the Hollywood sign, and thought this little mini-cave looked like the perfect concealed door. He even brought a coin to give the ferryman of the river Styx!

 But no luck. Next time he said he'd bring his trident so they'd know he was a demigod and let him in. That'll work. 

 We got some fun pictures with the Hollywood sign...

Then hiked the rest of the way up to Mt. Lee Summit behind it. 

It was 3 miles up and pretty steep!

 We're tough!

We had a picnic at the top and took in the views.

 Since it had just rained you could see all the way to the ocean...

 And all of downtown, no smog! We could see the snow-capped mountains behind us too. 

 It was beautiful! And worth the trek. 

 Mom took selfies with Tommy...

And Heather...

 And herself...

And Michelle...

 But I got her to pose for just a normal picture with me. 

 The boys goofed around a little too close to the edge for Mom's liking...

 But everyone did great and we had a lot of fun!

 See?

The Moms...

The whole crew...

Back: Tifany, Devlin, Sarah, Heather, Sue
Middle: Cole, Evan, Frankie, Linh, Tommy
Front: Sarah, Kat, May

 And a silly one!

 After we got down we took another short trail over to Bronson Caves. It's a big cavern with multiple outlets, and tall enough to stand in and walk through. It's been used as the set for all kinds of movies, and is probably best known as the entrance to the Batcave in the 60's Batman TV show. 

 These days it's just a cool site to visit, but near the cave are a bunch of weird stacked stones in spiral shapes. This big one seemed to have some sort of alter in the middle.

 With weird, charred stuff in it like baby doll parts and tarot cards.There was also what looked like a rat pelt hanging from a tree. Apparently some people do some sort of weird rituals here...

But we still like to think of it as the Batcave. Holy awesome hikes, Batman!