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!