Wednesday, March 12, 2008

LOTS to catch up on--

So my bloggin' life has taken a pause, but my "real" life has been clippin' along at quite a fast pace! I was put in charge of our Cub Scout's Blue & Gold Banquet this year. The theme was Chinese New Year and I had a LOT of fun working with the committee to make it all happen! The top picture is my sweet little fam at the night's event.
My second son Nathan earned his Wolf award at the Banquet. I spray painted white envelopes red (to go along with the Chinese tradition of giving "good things" in them) for all the boys' awards.
The table settings were fun to put together. It's hard to see in the picture, but each person had an "interactive" Chinese New Year placemat with trivia questions and a word search. I also stamped/embossed Chinese symbols and added them to the napkins. And all my "hard work" of saving up every flippin' empty roll of toilet tissue for the past 4 months paid off with the darling "Chinese Firecracker" decorations that turned out really cool! We also decided to go Asian style and sit on the ground to eat, so we just put the tables on the ground and covered/decorated them there. It was fun!!

And yes, my stampin' sistas--that take-out box is stamped!! Our local craft store has a die cut for the box, so I went over there and cut out about 20 of them (1 for each Scout), stamped them with my Asian stamps, and then filled them with fun Chinese trinkets for the boys. They LOVED 'em! The night was TONS of work but so much fun! Thanks to all you ladies who helped make this night happen--you know who you are!

Next up was a super fun night at the kid's school. Utah State University has an incredible Extension Program that offers all kinds of great resources, one of which is something they call the "Junior Engineering Program." They have a big trailer filled with all kinds of really cool science/engineering hands-on exhibits and they come to the school and set it all up for a full day. The kids then get to learn about things like electricity, the water cycle, how things work, etc. The picture above is my oldest son Alex learning how hydrolics (sp???) works. He was completely fascinated by the whole night--at the ripe old age of ten, he's already set his sights on becoming an Engineer. And the kid has the brains to do it--go big Al!!

And here's the FUN we had today at the Dr.'s office with Nate's arm!! Those lovely "sticks" you see on the x-ray are the pins they put in his arm last Thursday (yep, we had to have surgery after all, darn it!) I'm sparing you all the gory real pics of those pins sticking out of his arm. Ugh--just thinking about it makes me queasy all over! Nasty business, I tell ya.

So Nate got his SECOND green cast put on today. What a little trooper he's been!! He's not looking forward to 8 more weeks of this beauty, but he really is making the best of it. The number one reason he chose a green cast again? To quote him: "This way, NOBODY can pinch me on St. Patrick's Day on Monday! Cool, huh?" What a great kid.
For all of you that made it this far--thanks for listening to my ramblings!! I really will try to post a little each day instead of saving it all up for a mega-post.

Have a great night!




10 comments:

Aimee said...

well I hope his arm heals well now... and everything looks like it was loads of fun...

Nicole said...

I wanted to be an engineer too not a domestic engineer but an actual one. Anyways Utah State has an engineering camp in the summer when you get to high school. It was one of the funnest weeks of my life so keep that in mind if he still likes it. Sorry about the arm. If he had been a girl, he would have definately changed the color. We just can't seem to make our minds up to what we actually want.

Kerry Johnson said...

Oh your poor boy - surgery after all that! Glad to hear you had fun at your scout night - everything looked wonderful!

mrs.d said...

Casted already?! I can't keep up with you Cheney-boppers!! And I'm all about saving and re-using t.p. rolls (let's be honest, I'm a preschool teacher..a little sumpin' we call 'beautiful junk') but dear heavens that Chinese New Year business is more work than I've put into something in a looong time!! Well, I guess I am in the middle of this "little" project called a thesis!..which I'd better get back to..ta ta!!

Erin said...

You did an awesome job for the blue and gold banquet. I can't believe how much work you put into it. I'm glad Matt was gone - you did a much better job than he would have done. You are awesome!

Monica said...

Meliss,
The banquet decor is FABULOUS!! You amaze me. Oh to have your energy . . . I might just be able to keep up with my "Moosie baby" if I did! Glad Nate's doing well. That's the best St. Patty's Day gear I've ever seen!

Sherri said...

Good to have you back in the blogging world. Entertaining as always in the Cheen-Cheen world! Looking forward to seeing you soon. We missed Kenzer at the BD party. So much fun to watch 3&4 year olds together - especially with all of them dressed up as princesses.

Stampin' Meg said...

awwww so sorry to hear that he needed surgery-what a bummer. The banquet looked awesome!

Anonymous said...

Hope your son's feeling better!! I see your boys are in cub scout. Mine are too! Hubby's the cubmaster! We just had a bowling night tuesday night! They love it!

Marilyn said...

What a lot of work you put into the banquet - it looked so awesome - hope that the arm is healing well and that you'll get some stamping time in soon! Happy Easter to you and your family!