A great game

We've got science "in the bag"

As part of Jeffrey and Josiah's Classical Conversations science memory work this week, they were to learn six parts of an animal cell. Julie sent me a cool website that showed how to make an animal cell using these ingredients....

We improvised a little and used a date instead of a plum and gummy worms instead of ribbon candy because...well...we had those things and I didn't want to go to the store!

So here is our animal cell with the six parts the boys had to memorize:
1. nucleus (the date)
2. cytoplasm (jello)
3. vacuole (jaw breakers)
4. mitochondria (raisins)
5. cell membrane (baggie)
6. golgi bodies (gummyworms)

The directions say you can eat it when you're done....but YUCK why would you???!!! But hey, it was fun!

Scout it out!

Jonathan, Jeremy and Jeffrey have decided that Boy Scouts is a "go" for this year. In fact, Jonathan is serious about becoming an Eagle Scout and is planning and plotting his way toward making it by his 18th birthday (the requirement). He's been studying the Scout Manual and practicing tying knots. And he's getting good at it! Jeremy would like to do it as well, but the whole broken ankle thing has thrown a damper on his enthusiasm toward it all. I have a feeling that it will all pick up again since his leg is now "free"!

Last weekend Michael took the boys on another camp out with the troop. (Let me just pause to say how awesome my husband is....I mean, it was rainy all week before so at the very least there is a 100% chance of MUD even if there's no additional rain and there was a 70% chance of rain. So intead of eating cheese dip and watching college football, he took his boys to a camp out in the mud and rain, just because his boys want to do scouts. Awesome!) They went back to Camp Fawcett. This campout was a "Bear Creek Challenge" so each patrol competed against each other in seven different challenges. Turns out, Jonathan and Jeffrey's patrol (Cougar patrol) won the entire competition!! Way to go guys! Jeremy was very bummed about not making it. But he's said many times since then, "I'm going on the next one!!!"

Here's the patrol running on a task. Here they had to climb over a gate, tie a timber hitch around a log, run the log down a taped path, touch a tree (the one in the background) and then run back with the log, untie the timber hitch climb back over the gate and head to the next station. Jonathan is the second from the left (the tall one) and Jeffrey is behind Jonathan. He's in a dark green shirt that's not so easy to see.

Here's the Cougar Patrol pioneering. They had to tie a round lashing, tie three taught lines, tie a sheepshank knot (the bonus knot that Jonathan knows how to tie VERY well now....he's been practicing!!), fall in and "dress left" with the patrol leaders, "dress right dress" (to space evenly) and do the scout sign, say the Pledge, the scout oath and the scout pledge.

Here's the patrol getting their award for winning.

On the way home, Michael stopped in Hondo so the boys could get their picture taken with the Cadalliac chicken at Church's Chicken. It's Church's chicken's version of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

Here's the campers! Don't they look great!

The cast is the past!

Today Jeremy went back to the orthopedic dr. for another x-ray and check up. He was VERY hopeful today that this would be the last time we saw this.....

Isn't that a hopeful face??!! Looks more like pleading, but we were there too!

And GOOD NEWS!!

A plaster-less leg! He's got a ped egg (love those!) in his hand because he was trying to get that baby smooth skin back! :-) He still has to wear a boot that looks like a storm trooper boot. He's supposed to wear it anytime that he would wear a shoe, which is why he's not wearing one now. We NEVER wear shoes at home. I'm not sure if the dr. knew that or not, but he'll find out soon! Jeremy's so excited to be free and "feel wind on his leg" (his words). He said he spent about 5 minutes just scratching his leg after he got his cast off. AND he got the "OK" to climb the ladder to his bed, so tonight (much to the dismay of Jeffrey!) Jeremy gets to spend the night in his own bed!!! He's so very excited about that! I'm sure he'll wake up in the middle of the night, roll over in his bed, scratch his leg in his sleep and smile!

Baking Day....it's MY turn now!

Remember back in March when I was at Julie's and we had a baking day? Well, this time when she came to my house, it was time to stock MY freezer. Actually, it was sort of a last minute thing, but thankfully, I had just about everything I needed to pull it off without going to the store. So, now here's what's waiting in my freezer to be eaten (on a day when things are so rushed I won't have time to bake-or when I just don't feel like cooking! :-) )





Banana bombs (bananas rolled in flaxseed-that will then be drizzled w/ melted dark chocolate-yummy!!) We usually eat these for dessert, but they may just show up as a lunch addition or breakfast entree'.

40 chocolate chip banana muffins. These actually aren't from scratch, their from Fiber One banana nut muffins that I got a great deal on at Target this week. I just added chocolate chips.

Wet burrito casserole.

I got a great deal on this produce at mom's Kroger. So we had stir fry for dinner, and....

put another batch in the freezer for another day.

Got a great deal on avacados so we sliced up the ripe ones and froze them for guacamole.

Four jars of juiced greens and 2 jars of fruit smooties for the freezer.

1 pan of Johnny Bazzai (a family favorite). I'll add cheese to the top when it's ready to cook.

About 50 meatballs ...

8 pepperoni rolls-the boys LOVE these. These go fast!! I'll have to serve these w/ a big salad, or make more 'cuz 2 a piece won't go very far.

Farmhouse chicken-actually a variation of a recipe that I'd seen on a blog. Looks good. Hopefully it'll taste good.

It was sooooo much fun having Julie here to help with all of these yummies. And while we were baking, all the cousins (except Jeremy who's still in a cast :-( ) were out playing in the rain (!!!!) and getting muddy. Yep, it's been raining for almost 3 days straight. Love it!! Everybody had such a fun morning!

Free food...no labor involved!

Lovin' Chick-Fil-A! On Monday (Labor Day) CFA was offering a free chicken sandwich if you wore your favorite team's logo. Well, of course, we HAD to do it. And what made it better was that we were in Bryan where almost everyone was wearing Aggie logos! And what made is soooo much better was that cousins were in town! (Notice Katie's PINK Aggie shirt!)

It was a fun lunch! And mostly free....awesome!

Another funny Tim Hawkins video

Just for a laugh today, here's a politically INcorrect video from Tim Hawkins....enjoy



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0