Blue and Gold

Sunday, February 26 was Alex's Blue and Gold Ceremony for Cub Scouts. This is a banquet held annually to celebrate the birthday of Scouting. Prior to finding out about relocation, I had agreed to co-chair this event. For our pack, there were about 200 people in attendance at this catered dinner. The theme this year was "Knights of the Round Table," complete with swords, shields, a suit of armor, torches, a hand-painted castle backdrop, etc. We have several incredibly talented, creative Moms and Dads in our pack who really came through with beautiful crafts!

All of the boys receive their rank advancement awards so Alex became a full-blown Tiger as opposed to the Bobcat he was before. They also receive many of the other badges and belt loops that they've earned during the school year. The oldest Cub Scouts cross over into Boy Scouts during this ceremony as well. It runs about 3 hours...yikes! Abby was happy to play with Vanessa during this time and we are thankful that Sherri was able to babysit.

The event turned out beautifully and we are all excited to be going on vacation later this week :)

Ice Skating

Today we took advantage of open skate at the ice rink and introduced Abby to ice skating. Her skates were so little! She was eager to try it out after watcing Alex in skating class every Saturday morning. We took turns bending over to hold her up on the ice and anytime we suggested a little break, she insisted we keep skating. By the end of the hour she could walk in the skates unassisted on the rubbery floor in the waiting area! Alex skated circles around all of us and enjoyed teaching Abby how to skate.

Relocation

Brad has accepted a Planning Analyst role with his company in Fairfax, VA starting in March. We are excited for this new opportunity and all that comes with living in the D.C. area. Last week, Brad and I traveled to Fairfax and ran ragged for two and a half days looking for housing. The first house we offered on brought us to a settlement date stalemate (we are ready to move, they aren't), and luckily we never signed the offer on the second property as we were too uncomfortable with the idea of living just a few town homes away from two convicted child sex offenders. We will carry on with our search from here and luckily have a really awesome agent who is bending over backwards to help us from afar. We are optimistic that something will turn up and have a feeling we will be on the phone/computer more this month than any before! Somehow we always forget how stressful the relocation process is, despite having done it twice previously. All the drama will be a distant memory again soon enough...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Both Alex and Abby enjoyed putting together Valentine's for their classes. Brad and I were traveling on Valentine's Day itself, but celebrated early with the kids before we left. Grandma Kathy was able to volunteer at Alex's party in my place and make it to Abby's school in time for her musical performance that day! They are both really into Alvin and the Chipmunks right now, so the book A Chipmunk Valentine, has been a popular one around here. The photo of the two of them in the chair reading together was not even staged, just a good way for them to share the book!

Is It Sunny In Here?

Scooter

Scooter always has to be where the action is. Whether that means he's sharing a chair with Abby, tubside at bathtime, or sleeping right in front of the kitchen sink after dinner. Kind of hard to load the dishwasher with a huge cat blocking the footpath!

Snowbunnies

On Friday, January 20, we had our only "big" snowfall of the winter. It amounted to 9" and snowed all day long. We shoveled twice and had some teenagers snowblow the driveway once. Traffic was completely snarled by early afternoon forcing Brad to turn around and kill a few extra hours at work before heading out. By a week later it had already warmed back up and we could see our green grass again!

Pinewood Derby

Alex participated in his first Pinewood Derby a few Thursday nights ago. It is amazing how long it takes to run 40ish cars down the track two at a time! We enjoyed checking out all the other designs and watching each den race.

Braids!

Abby got a trim the other day and the stylist braided her hair when she was done. Abby liked this so much that she slept in them. I should've taken an "after" picture once we took the braids out!

A Studious Breakfast

...in mom's reading glasses!