CSI- Cub Scout Investigation

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A Knight's Tale

I know I said we don't do birthday parties, and I really do mean it, but somehow I got roped into this one. I guess maybe I felt bad that Dallin has had much of a real party on his behalf and mostly it was due to Lauren's enthusiastic agreement to do all the "hard stuff." But here we go...

Dallin invited a few of the boys his age from our ward to celebrate his 9th birthday. When they arrived they made a coat of arms for their shields and then swords. The swords were paint sticks from home depot with foam insulation over top- super cheap in that the paint sticks are free and the foam was 1.20 for a tube long enough to make 4 swords. After everyone was "armed" we built catapults out of hangers and rubber bands and attacked the castle with marshmallow missiles. (Lauren and Dallin built a cardboard castle for a target) After successfully storming the castle the knights gathered to loot the castle and collect their booty. (Lauren made this incredible castle cake -see post on Lauren's new cake hobby for close-ups)

After cake the troops were called out to destroy the local dragon. Lauren made a dragon pinata and filled it with shiny red streamers and notes to where the dragon's treasure was hidden. The boys were HILARIOUS when doing the pinata. Of course it helped that it was "oozing" blood when they got a good whack. In the end Rusty couldn't contain himself and had to finish it off.Each of the boys got a little bag of "gold" to take home (basically any golden wrapped candy from the dollar store). I love this action shot! These are some serious warriors I wouldn't want to cross! Love It!

Vincent Hernandez, Jonathan Anderson, David Van Slyke, Benjamin Clarke, Dallin Clarke, Jackson Carbone

Overall it was a great party and everyone had a wonderful time! Much of the thanks goes to Lauren because it just wouldn't have happened otherwise. As a tribute to her I've included and before and after shot of her dragon pinata...

Ah, the carnage of battle-- the mother of the dragon mourns the loss of her creation :)

Mother's Day Tea Party

Our local library hosted a Mother's Day Tea Party. It was very fun! The decorations included various corn husk dolls made by a local woman, Judy Arnold. Judy did a presentation for the girls on how she learned to make the dolls and how she gets her ideas.
www.rjarnold.com
Lauren and I went to ask her for more information on how she makes the dolls and she offered to have us over to her home where she would teach us. Needless to say we took her up on that offer and the results of that visit are the contents of another entry. I was really surprised that so few people who signed up attended the tea party. It was very well done.

Hair Cuts!

After traveling and not having access to a hair stylist for several months all of us girls were looking quite shabby. I went to get a hair cut and the girls joined me for a fun girl outing. Here are the results... other than me, I don't know why I didn't take a picture of me :( The next day our babysitter came over and curled the girls hair and dolled them up so we took a couple more photos

Scouting

Dallin loves Scouts! He led his first flag ceremony. He was so nervous, but he did great. A couple of months later he received his wolf badge.

A Piece of Cake

Lauren has decided to take up a new hobby that incorporates her love for cooking and her love for art- Cake Decorating! She checked out a book at the library that got her started, but it was pretty advanced. The train was her first attempt.... Then she got a beginner level book for Easter and made this purse cake for her friend, Zoee.
Her most recent cake was a castle for Dallin's Birthday.

I love her creativity, but I'm not a huge cake eater, so we're trying to incorporate a make and give away policy :) Cake anyone?