Last Minute Movie

We started discussing the movie selection for our weekly movie night, Archer talked about checking to see if The Leg@ Movie was out yet. "It came out in the theater awhile ago, so its probably out now." I knew he was wrong, it only came out a couple of weeks ago and there's no way it would be available to rent yet. David started browsing something on his phone, then handed it to me. 9:30 was highlighted in red. It was the theater website with show times listed. We proceeded to have a discussion all in secret code, right in front of the kids, without them ever catching on to what we were talking about. Finally the answer was yes, we would go, it was 7:45, we'd be out pretty late but it didn't matter, what are weekends for, if not for staying out late?

Kids were told to get ready, shocked responses followed by a scramble to get ready, find shoes and out the door! A quick stop on the way for some candy, then a stop at the concession stand once we were in for popcorn and drinks. Archer and Shelly wanted to sit in the very front row. We overruled them and picked seats in the middle. The compromise was that the kids sat in the row in front of us, so we could pass candy to them and they'd be within arm's reach. Elijah decided to sit with the kids and then it started, we enjoyed the movie, everything was awesome, and that's a wrap!



It was a fun movie, not nearly as corny as I'd expected, there were funny even for the grown ups. Definitely worth the late night spur of the moment trip across town.

Family Crest

Shelly and her class were studying traditions, cultures, and exploring their own families' histories. She made a family crest which shows our tradition (soup for Christmas with the Fortiers), we come from European descent (flag of Germany), and we have our own culture (reading the Bible and other books together).

Hugs?

Shelly's monster or monkey or whatever it is looks like it wants a hug, no?

How Scouting Teaches Real Life Lessons

Its incredible to me what Archer leans in scouts. Beyond the Scout Law and Scout Promise and Scout Handshake and Scout Sign and where to put all the different patches on his Scout Shirt...

There's the part about getting along with other people, learning to help and sometimes learning to just get out of the way when you can't help. Tonight, there was Changing a Tire. A lull in the activity elsewhere spurred one of the leaders to offer his own car as the guinea pig and stand back while the boys tried their hands and changing a flat tire. (There wasn't really a flat. They took the wheel off and put it right back on again.) The most impressive part of this was that while the adults stood back and gave directions, the adults didn't actually touch anything.

The boys worked the jack to raise up the car, took the wheel off, put it back on and lowered the car back down to earth. There was no fighting for a turn (everyone got one, even Shelly and E), there were no hurt feelings or fingers or anything else, I thought it a great success. (Also keep in mind that these boys are no older than 10, seriously, great success for such a young crowd!)

So the only question remaining is... How many Cub Scouts does it take to change a flat tire?

Answer: Six Scouts, two younger siblings, three dads and a mom (well, not really the mom, I didn't help at ALL)

Family Field Trip

To the dentist! The kids (thankfully) have not learned to fear the dentist like I have. Let's hope that lasts for a long long time. Perhaps it has something to do with missing half a day of school? Or maybe the cartoons on tv. Anyway, isn't it nice of Shelly and Archer to support their brother on his first dentist visit ever? Or, maybe that was the best place to see the cartoons...

Christmas Vacation

Its a little overdue, but here's Shelly's report on her time off from school. When she was writing it, she actually came up with a list of about twenty things we'd done. It was a hard job to narrow it down to just this.


Sorry, I really tried to get this to go the right direction but it just wouldn't cooperate. You'll have to hurt your neck to read it. Enjoy!

 

Random Poses

Here are a few random cute pics, no story, just a few I've collected over the last few months.

Its no wonder David often wakes up feeling completely unrested, how well would you do with a knee in your ear for several early morning hours?

 

 

This picture was spurred by my instructions to "Go stand by your brother and sister. Go over there. No, go stand over there by them. Stop walking in circles and go over there! Go! Stop, go, listen to me!!!" Every time I opened my mouth he laughed and shuffled around his circle track a little faster.

 

We finally did get the picture I wanted, and don't they all look so happy? :)

 

In case you missed it, that's a princess wand in his hand. He's been going around lately turning us all into various animals and proclaiming that he's Super Woman. Despite Shelly's best efforts to correct him, he continues on his quest to prove that he's Super Woman, and yes he CAN turn her into a bunny or horsey or anything he wants! 

 

That's all for now folks!

 

 

Brotherly Love

Elijah Graham is such a treasure, his smile is like nothing I've ever seen before, Archer and Shelly have beautiful smiles, but E's is different, its like his smile is bigger than his face, his eyes light up as if he knows, he knows exactly how cute he is. And he knows that he is about to get away with almost anything.

 

Shelly and Elijah at Shelly's birthday lunch, we picked her up from school for a McDonald's lunch. What a pair!



Archer's always asking E for hugs, Elijah occasionally complies but usually delights in torturing his big brother by doing exactly the opposite of whatever Archer wants. Can't you see it in his eyes? He KNOWS he's got us all wrapped around his tiny little fingers! 

There's More...

There's more fun... We had the big yearly banquet for Scouts, this time around I'm an official leader, it only took me three years to get sucked into it, but its a great organization and I'm happy to help where I can. Anyway, that's why I've got the scout shirt on (which really, the shirt, its one of the reasons it took me so long to become an official member, I just really DID NOT want to wear it, pride or something).

This year's banquet marked a milestone of only one year left before Archer graduates to Boy Scouts. That means that this is a year of lasts for him, and us - last Pinewood Derby, last year at Family Camp with this group of people, last last last. I really shouldn't get ahead of myself, but its hard not to consider that all of this that we've grown to love (the fun events, the people, the memories we're making as a family) is coming to an end.

On to the fun part, here are some pictures from the banquet.

Sassy Shelly? Just smile for the camera, pretty please??

Also, I just want to put this in writing, so we don't forget all our hard work years from now, we have been having SO MUCH FUN at our weekly meetings. David has helped the other leader and I come up with some great projects for the kids to make. Most of them Shelly gets to make too.

There's the pencil box with the secret compartment in the bottom. (Shhh don't tell anyone that I told you about the secret compartment!)

There's the marshmallow shooters, even E got to make one of those. Except he took his apart and just started throwing the PVC pipes at me one day.

There's the Belt Loop Displays, a nice way to display all those belt loops that they won't be wearing much longer, since they won't be wearing their Cub Scout belts when they graduate.

We made vibrobots with toothbrushes, we're going to make checkerboards this week, I can't even remember the other stuff, its already too long ago to keep track of. We'll just summarize by saying we're keeping the boys busy making tons of fun boy projects - I hope they remember Scouting as something that was fun, and maybe one day they'll even think, "Oh, I remember when I used that tool, learned about that saw, built something myself at scouts!"

Derby Time!

David's been helping the kids build a new batch of pinewood derby cars, the big races are coming up. This weekend Shelly's participating in the Awana races, and the boys are going to do the Scout races next week. Since David also helped some cousins put together cars, this year's total car build came to five. Total career car count is twelve, and he's just getting started. He's practically a professional, he's got all the associated tools and gadgets...

Archer's cars have kept a few signature lines through the years, but also evolved into a more carefully streamlined design as he's gotten older and perfected his stylings.

From top to bottom...
Archer's first car as a Wolf (second grade)
Bear car (third grade)
Webelos car (fourth grade)

Starting at the top and going clockwise...
Amberlyn, Archer, Shelly, Elijah and Austin

 

Some of these have big gaping holes in the bottom where they've been drilled out to bring the weight down. Others turned out just right, no adjustments necessary. All of them had their axels and wheels polished, axels straightened and then carefully bent to a secret angle to allow the wheels to ride on their edges... Most of them have extra weights added in the back, all of them have been meticulously sanded, painted, sanded and painted some  more. There is absolutely no excuse for slow cars this year, the Fortiers are going to dominate all of the regional races - Caledonia, Union Grove, BRING IT ON!!!