Cub Scout Day Camp!

This week Christopher and Shaun had the opportunity to go to Cub Scout Day Camp! They have been having fun at Camp Workcoeman, which is located in the northwest hills of Connecticut in New Hartford. What a great father/son summer activity! They have been having a blast, but they are super tired! Especially this morning!!

Here are a few pictures Shaun took with his cell phone throughout the week.

He mostly talks about shooting the BB Guns and Archery! He's actually pretty good at it too--for his age! Yesterday he came home all excited with a 'Bear Claw'! (Not many kids got them, I was told.) I'm not sure exactly why he got it, but I heard he hit the target a number of times, which most of the kids can't do! Way to go Christopher!!

Well, Anneli and I are heading off to meet them at Camp Workcoeman for a Campfire and dinner! I'm sure we'll have more pictures to post later!

Family, Falls, Fishing, and Fun in New York!

Since we are getting ready to take off for the weekend again, I thought I should post what we did last weekend! Last Friday, after Fun Day, we packed up the car and headed off to Canajoharie, NY to visit family. The almost 3 hour ride wasn't that bad, a little long, but not too bad. (FYI--Even though it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, Canajoharie is the headquarters of Beech Nut's baby food operations!)

The kids were excited to get to Aunt Donna & Uncle Jim's Log Cabin---or should I say 'tree house'. (I don't have an updated picture--sorry!) We had a nice cookout on their new patio with Soup Mem and Ray. I love their new patio!! All the need now is a pool and hot tub... ;)

After dinner and visiting a bit, the kids were exhausted from their long day. They were excited to sleep in Aunt Donna & Uncle Jim's bunk beds. That first night, Christopher slept on the bottom bunk, and Anneli (& Dad) slept on the top bunk. (I was a little nervous having Anneli sleep alone on top. It's a long way down!)

In the morning, Uncle Jim made us a super yummy breakfast. He made us fried dough! It brought back memories of our sleepovers and breakfasts when Jess, Val and I were kids with Uncle Jim & Aunt Donna. Everytime we slept over their house growing up he always made us yummy breakfasts like blueberry pancakes! YUMMMM!!!

We then quickly got dressed and headed for a picnic to Wintergreen Park in Canajoharie. The kids splashed their feet in the water and we tried to catch Crayfish. We weren't able to catch any--they were super fast little creatures!! Then we took a little hike, in the wicked heat, to see the Wintergreen Falls. Some stupid, drunk kids were jumping off the falls into the water. It was crazy!


After our hike to the falls, we were all wicked hot! We stopped off in the middle of all the farm lands to have ice cream at a yummy place called 'Cool Cat'. Anneli was impressed with the name of the store, and I was impressed with the ice cream. I had peanut butter carmel cookie dough ice cream----YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm....

One of the highlights of the trip was watching cows cross the street to be milked. It's amazing how they follow each other right to the barn or field. The kids thought them pooping in the road was pretty cool. They called it the 'pooping parade'.

Then it was off to Soup Mem & Ray's house for a cookout with them and Uncle David, Aunt Mary Ellen and my cousin Matt. After we ate, we all went fishing! The kids were pretty excited riding over to the fishing hole with Uncle David on his four wheeler. Christopher caught a HUGE catfish (Check out my Wordless Wednesday Pictures.) Anneli caught a little shiner. (I think that's what it was called!) In total, we caught 3 big catfish, and a bunch of little shiners. It was a lot of fun!

While we were sitting outside after fishing, all we could hear were Soup Mem and Ray's birds singing happily!


After catching the three catfish my family decided to eat them. The kids were traumatized and I don't think that Anneli will ever eat fish again... I swore I'd never try it, but I tried a little bite and it wasn't that bad. The kids didn't try a bite, can you blame them...
EWWWwwww!! Check out the tiki lights, Christopher thought it looked like Survivor. The kids were so tired, that Christopher looked like he was going to fall asleep...

But Anneli did fall asleep! The next day we went shopping, ate pizza and then started on our long trek home! We all had a great weekend! It was great seeing everyone again! We hope to see you all again soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun Day!!

Last Friday (August 14th) was 'Fun Day' at our local park. The kids look forward to Fun Day every year! 'Fun Day' is a day that is sponsored by our Recreation Department with super fun crafts, face painting, rub-on tatoos, cheap snacks, balloons, raffles, a magic show and pony rides! It's a simple little fair, but a lot of fun for the kids. They like the fact that the crafts are run by the camp counselors and life guards in town. Since they go to day camp and take swimming lessons through the recreation department, they pretty much know almost everyone there! This year was super fun because Shaun was able to join us!

A Day of Science Exploration

Last Wednesday (August 12th) the weather was a little cloudy so we headed off to explore the new Connecticut Science Center in Hartford. Christopher and Anneli have been waiting patiently for it to open. They have been begging to go since it opened in June, but we've been a little busy! They were very excited that we were finally going to go check it out.

In the Science Center overlooking the highways through/around Hartford.

Christopher & Anneli making helifliers. (I think that's what it was!)
Demonstrating the heat wall.

Recording a radio sound bite.

Christopher and Anneli preparing for the weather report.

Their weather report!

Christopher & Anneli learning about the Connecticut River.

Anneli learning how to take someones blood pressure.

Christopher learning how to take a blood pressure.

Anneli drawing a new invention.

Christopher creating a new type of car!

Christopher & Anneli touching a 2 million year old Mars Meteorite.

Christopher and a new friend building with LEGOS. "Don't let that water escape!"

Figuring out a maze like contraption.
Building a hideout with some cool building tools.

We had a great day and enjoyed the new Science Center very much! They were a little disappointed that Dad was working, but we will take him there soon! We can't wait to go back again!!