Camping, Scouts, Halloween Decorations, Sites

Hey All,

It's been busy busy busy around here. Taking care of this cat that found it's way to our home. Two different scout camping trips and earning the Bobcat badge. Making muffins two weeks in a row for a class tasting tests. Bread making and wow did I ever find a totally awesome recipe. Putting up Halloween decorations and cleaning out the storage room. Making Halloween decorations. And lets not forget running the teens from place to place. I have also came across a couple sites to share. And PICTURES!! I found my batteries and for those in this house that I heard I haven't seen them well lets just say they have had dish duty. One set was in one teens camera and the other set was in the other teens CD player.


These were at the Bob Harding Camp that was for the new boy scouts to attend. Colin had a blast but of course the first night was raining and we was told don't bring a tent they are supplied. Ok, I got a phone call from hubby that night saying our tent leaks and he spent most of the night moving Colin to dry or semi dry spots. But the next day it did clear up and they had a lot of fun with all the days activities. Colin was worried when it came to the BB gun because he told his dad I'm not allowed to play with guns mommy will get mad. He finally convinced him it was ok as long as he had permission. Then it was off to the bow and arrows and now he wants a set of those for Christmas. He said... mommmy did you know that archery is bow and arrows?



Here is Dale teaching his little brother how to hold and swing a golf club. Colin has tried many times but just can't get the hang of it. Looks more like he is swinging a bat instead of a club. Colin is not a sporty kid! There are few things in the way of outdoor activities that holds his interest but he does want to learn how to play golf and he has decided that he would like to learn how to play frisbee. Are you laughing I told you he is not a sporty kid. He would rather find bugs or play power rangers.



But he is getting the hang of it, sort of. Oh on this last camping trip watching the other kids his age throw around a football he asked if he could play and they were kind enough to let him join in. They would throw the ball to him and he would miss it or he would throw it and not even come close to the other child. The boys were very nice and started throwing to him at a shorter distance so he could catch it and that made him feel so good.


Here is his den singing a song they had learned at a pack meeting... If Your A Tiger And You Know It. And Colin so proud that he had earned his Bobcat Badge. He is excited about the next meeting because he has earned his BB gun, archery, art, and music beltloops and he can't wait to get them.

This is our newest addition to the family that has adopted us. He found his way to our home so skinny that you could run your hand down his sides and feel every bone. After much tender loving care and lots of goats milk he is now a happy cat. His name is Pumpkin. I said this cat could not come in but as you see by the one picture I didn't stick by my own rule. lol He is an outside cat and not litter box trained so he doesn't get to stay in for long but he does take advantage of his brief inside visits. OH MY GOSH he is so cuddily he can curl up in your lap and stay there for an hour. Not like our other cat, Blue, who thinks he is king and can snub his nose at you if he doesn't want to give you any attention.



I made these apple cheese muffins for the apple taste test at school. They were so good. I found the recipe on the Jiffy Mix site. The teacher and kids loved them and Colin has asked for them several times. So easy to make!

I have also been attempting once again to make bread in this darn bread machine. I finally decided to give up on it and found a recipe to try and oh oh oh it was awesome. Most of the loaf was gone in one night. The kids have asked for this instead of store bought bread from now on. I found it here on Ezine Articles. Which led me to this wonderful blog full of old recipes you know like grandma used to make. Go check out Grandma's Vintage Recipes I'm sure you will find something that you will just have to try out.

With the rising cost of everything I have been trying to cut back on a lot of things. I have changed several things that we have grown accustom to. Like making muffins, buying frozen juice, hanging out clothes, dehydrating my onions and garlic, and making big batches of pancakes or waffles and freezing some for the week. Little by little in the year or so we have been changing the way we do things. Of course I have heard many grumbles about many things but times are tight and if they want to do other things this is the way it has to be. All these little things adds up and I'm always looking for more ways to save.


Here is the ghost family we made. I know they are not all that cute but I had found a container of Air-Dry Clay that was never used and decided to work with that instead of making my own. I found these cute little ghost on Family Corner. We are going to make some more this time using the salt dough recipe. The Air-Dry Clay was very hard to work with.

Oh you have to check out this blog that a friend sent to me. Crafty Crow is full of craft ideas for kids or even adults. I found a googily eye frame that I want to make for Halloween pictures. It's so cute! This site led me to another great site Kids Who Think. It has different challenges for kids to think outside of the box. I have marked a few of them to do on family nights.

Speaking of challenges you will also have to check out Hillbilly Housewife she has done a lot with her site. You could spend hours looking through all her pages. She has a Frugal Challenge site and I'm going to start doing them. I went through all of them and right now there is not a lot of them because she just started this recently but a couple of them will be a real challenge for me. I just went there to get the link to put on here and I've already got this week's challenge done and didn't even know it. HOORAY!

This past weekend we went to Chester State Park for Gold Rush. It's a scouting event that is held once a year and it's for the whole county. There were over 2300 campers for the event!!! It looked like tent city! Here is Colin helping take stuff to our camp site.


All the scouts right before Gold Rush began. An area was blocked off and inside it was gold (stones painted gold) and the kids could go get 3 pieces of gold so they could play games.

This was Colin's favorite game the tire race and he came in last everytime he did it. lol
This is the sherriff of Gold Rush his job was to make sure there wasn't any Claim Jumper (kids with more than 3 pieces of gold) and there were no Scallywags (kids pushing, shoving, running, or cutting in line). If caught you was put in jail. The kids had a BLAST!!

Even with so many people in one place you was still able to find some quiet time in a beautiful place. It was a cold weekend but that didn't even bother us with all there was to do and see.

Hiking

At the playground

And the boys organized a team of Freedom Fighters. lol Something from something on TV.

Okay all I have to get busy before the day is over. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Take Care :)