Raiders of the Lost Ark Escape Room

We escaped! This room was really fun, lots of Egyptian artifacts and cool puzzles. Glad we got to play with Uncle Stuart, Auntie Niki, and Cousin Kyle too!

 

Kat's Haircut

Kat is officially way cooler than all of us. She talked Mom and Dad into using a non-peroxide bleach on part of her hair, and getting bangs. 

Right now she likes it blonde, but this way she can put other temporary colors in it and they'll actually show up!

Gizmo says it makes her look older. But that she's still very cute. 

Thanksgiving 2021

Happy Turkey Day! We cooked, drank a little Martinelli's (Mom's might be champagne)

And decided to take a stroll to the beach while the bird was in the oven. 

That dog LOVES the beach!

We don't think it's too shabby either. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Friendsgiving Weekend

We had lots of fun seeing friends over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Kat hung out with some fellow Scouts when we donated to her Troop's canned food drive.

Then she and some friends helped package meals and care packages for teens at a local charity called Robyne's Nest. 

Afterward they got boba. 

Boba was a common theme for the weekend. They got it when they met up with Kara and Avery too. 

It was a short but sweet visit visit at the mall perusing K-Pop stores.

We can't wait to play with them longer over Xmas break!

Tommy and Cole hung out at the park by our house, swinging, spinning, chasing the dog, and throwing sticks at things. 

Kat and Sarah stayed back and made chocolate Thanksgiving turkeys (strawberries dipped in chocolate, with pretzels and marshmallows for the  drumsticks). 

Scouts and Science

Tommy's Scouts Den visited Ms. Hellman's Chemistry Lab at OCC to work on their science elective. They made elephant toothpaste, and dissolved metal in HCl and captured the gas released, then combusted it to make a loud noise. 

 Then they did a flame test to identify different metals. 

But everyone's favorite part was making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Science RULES!

SPL!

 Kat went to her Scout meeting this week intending to run for Patrol Leader - the leader of just the 9 girls in her patrol. Instead, she was encouraged to run for Senior Patrol Leader, and she won! That means she runs Troop meetings for ALL the girls, runs the leadership planning meetings, and is the go-to for Scouts to ask questions to. It's a big role, and we're all super proud of her!

Here she is giving her SPL election speech. 

Camperall 2021

Tommy's Scouts den was super excited for Camperall, the Cub Scout event where they compete against other Packs showing off their scout skills. They form a patrol, and then come up with a name, flag, and chant. They were the SUSquatches, a combination of sasquatch and "sus" (suspicious) from the game "Among Us".

Here they are showing off their spirit and their chant, and getting ready to play Ultimate Frisbee.

They won their first game, but got beat in the semi-finals. 

Here are their prize mini-frisbees.

That's some serious scout spirit!

They competed in fire building...

Tent building, knot relays, first aid, flag ceremony, obstacle course, and trivia. 

But they mostly liked chucking things in the swamp. 

They camped out at Central Park for the night...

Lilly, Liam, Tommy, Luke H, Ryan, Owen, Remy

They made sandwiches for lunch, then cooked their own hot dogs and s'mores cones for dinner. 

That night they performed the "Invisible Bench" skit at the campfire, and took home 3rd place ribbons in knot tying, first aid, and the obstacle course. They also got first place for their flag! We were so proud of them! 

They really work well together, encourage each other, and have a ton of fun together. What a great group!

L to R: Maddie, Remy, Luke F, Mom, Tommy, Lilly, Ryan, Amy, Owen

 

Halloween 2021

We weren't quite sure what we were going to be for Halloween this year. Plague doctor seemed appropriate...

But we were all excited to get into the Halloween spirit, even Gizmo!

We baked some pumpkin-shaped pumpkin muffins...

And Kat did some spidery spooky eye makeup for school.

We carved our pumpkins...

And then showed off our costumes. This is Ted Lasso, complete with authentic mustache.

Tommy is Sabito from the anime "Demon Slayer"

"Under His Eye" - A handmaid from "The Handmaid's Tale"

And a Holy Cow. See the halo? 

We met up with the neighbors for the annual Halloween potluck...

And then both kids went their separate ways. Tommy went trick-or-treating with Remy, who was Louise from "Bob's Bugers".

Kat and her friends all decided to be angels and devils. Kat decided that was boring, and revamped her angel to become a Holy Cow. 

So Mom and Dad had to have a few drinks! Mom said undermining the patriarchy made her thirsty...

Happy Halloween!