My little Tiger Scout

This year Max joined Cub Scouts. He has been waiting patiently to earn badges since his sister has been in Girl Scouts for 4 years now. Well it is finally his turn! Last night we attended his first Cub Scout award ceremony. It was a room full of boys trying SO hard to sit still and applaud one another for a job well done.

Usually I'm the one handing out the awards at these ceremonies because I am Kendall's troop leader. Last night was special for me because I got to watch and take pictures and really just have fun! Not that I don't love being a leader (it is something special that Kendall and I have) but it's not quite the same!

Max earned his Bobcat badge (that one is a biggie), his compass and music belt loop. Also, he started earning his beads (not quite sure how those work yet). We were happy for him last night. Max is really coming out of his shell and trying new things. He enjoys being with the boys in his pack and LOVES that his Dad gets to help him out at meetings. I look forward to him trying new things and making friends. Scouts really is a great thing to give your kids! It teaches them they are an important and unique part of our world and they can do BIG things!

Here are some pictures of my little TIGER (it's ironic that the first year of Cub Scouts is Tigers because right now Max loves tigers and animals in the cat family)!

Receiving his Awards

 

 

His Beads

Here are the boys looking on as the top selling popcorn boy shaves his Dad's head!
They LOVED it!

Here is the Dad - what a trooper!

 

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Finally! We get to tour HP world, this is what Kendall and I have been waiting for and it was pretty amazing! We had lunch a feast at Three Broomsticks, tasted frozen butterbeer, and shopped at diagon alley. After begging Kendall for 2 days to go on the Forbidden Journey with me, she finally agreed. That ride was the highlight of the whole trip for her (and me)! The only disappointing thing at HP world was the LONG line to get into Olivanders wand shop. We missed the wand show, but oh well there is always next time...



HOGWARTS


 

HOGSMEAD




Kendall was a BIG fan of the Butter beer!
Max not so much...


The Hog really moved - it was quite freaky

 This was our feast - enough to feed 2 families!
Good but not really worth the price in my opinion!

 

Thank God they had this little wand cart outside of the castle!

Kendall really deciphered over which wand to get!

Here she is looking over Luna Lovegood's wand - an excellent choice!

 

Max and his Harry Potter wand

 Stand back this kid has power!

 

Luminos!!!

 

 

 

 

Seussville

At Universal Studios we took the kids to Seussville in Islands of Adventure. So much fun! My kids were at a perfect age for this land plus the longest we had to wait in line was 10 minutes. Bonus! Highlight was meeting all the characters from the Dr. Seuss books. Thing one and Thing two were so cute with my two and really made them feel special!

 

"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues"- Dr. Seuss

 

                              Simple rides bring lots of fun!

 

 

 

Looks are deceiving
 she really is like thing 1

 




                  We love you Dr. Seuss!




 

Florida: in pictures

I can't believe it has taken me almost a month to blog about our Disney trip. Life just got CRAZY busy over here when we returned. It was like - BAM! Time to bring out my Super Mom cape! Well, things are slowing down a little so I thought I would post some pic's and recapture some of our trip. We really had an amazing time and couldn't of asked for better weather! Sunny every single day we were there! Enjoy the snapshots...

The airplane ride was much better than I expected! Highlight was Max holding my hand so hard during take off and landing. The look on his sweet little face made me want to hold him and protect him. He was so brave!

Yeah - We made it and no one threw up or had a melt down!

This is what we flew into - Beautiful blue skies and palm trees galore! 

Election Day

Today is election day! The kids came with to watch me vote. It was so neat to see them actually interested in what was happening! They asked tons of questions and both had opinions as to who should be our next president.

Kendall, my fourth grader, said she voted for Obama in school. When I asked her why she wanted President Obama to win, she stated a bunch of facts about him and his campaign. I was quite impressed she had picked up so much from school and the ads on TV. I can see her as more of a Democrat (she is a lot like her mama)!

Now Max, the first grader, just made me smile with his response! He said he voted for Mitt Romney because he has "strength" and oh yeah, Ben (his best buddy) voted for him too! Future Republican? Who knows, either way I am glad my children will have the right to vote when the times come! I want them to be an advocate for what they believe in. Instilling in them how important days like today are will hopefully help them on that path! The outcome may not be what they wanted but either way their voice will be heard and that in itself is an important lesson to learn!

Disney...Here we come!

It's here, it's here! We are finally leaving for Florida tomorrow, where the weather is 84 degrees! Wisconsin is a little cold right now (that darn wind). The kids are SO EXCITED! Mom and Dad are too, we could really use a vacation! I feel so blessed to be able to take my kids to Disney again! We went once before when Max was little, he doesn't remember it, but this time he will! I hope my kids appreciate all they will see, I think they do!

Kendall is excited to see the princesses and go to Harry Potter World and Max is excited for just about everything! I can't wait to take the kids to the ocean, my favorite place to be! The simple joy of laying in the sun and digging for seashells will be just as fun as meeting Mickey!

See you in a week or so...hoping I come back with a tan and a few bucks in my pocket :/

spirit week

This past week was Homecoming week in Rhinelander and the schools participate in this through showing their school spirit all week. Each day the kids get to dress up or wear something they normally wouldn't. My kids just love this!

Tuesday was pajama day for Kendall and Mixed up day for Max
Wednesday was career day for Kendall and Hat day for Max
Thursday was Glitter/Glamorous day for Kendall and Blue (which is 1st grades color) for Max
Friday was wear your Hodag colors (Green and White)

Today was an extra special day because both the kids got to represent their school and walk in the Homecoming parade. Brrrr!!! It was a cold one, but they still had a really nice turnout and the kids loved walking with all their school buddies.

Kendall's school had a fun afternoon today! They played tug of war with some of the central teachers and got to have their own parade around the school! Along with that, each classroom made their own banner to walk with in the parade. It's great to see so much school spirit! I love it just as much of the kids.

I know our lives are busy, but just to take some time of your day to do these things with your children means so much to them. They will not remember how clean the house was but they will remember all the times their mom and dad took them to homecoming parade!

We decided not to go to the game tonight because of the frigid temperatures! I saw snow flurries when we were walking in the parade and honestly I think the kids were pretty beat from all the festivities. We still say... GO HODAGS!!!