Early this month I mentioned that Natalie has done some video taping of commercials and other spots, with her friend, for their school morning announcements.
I got permission from the producer to post them on the blog.
This is a commercial they did for "desk companions."

It went over so well that students would asked where they could get them. The producer had to go on the announcements to say it was just a silly commercial and that there really weren't any desk companions at the school to buy!

Starting the Garden

The weather is beautiful and I'm finding some time to get out and work in the yard.
I've been substitute teaching for the last few months, and I've found it hard to plan my days when I could get called in for a sub job most any morning at 6am.
About a week ago I found myself with a day with nothing planned and no call to sub. I decided to drive by the park with free mulch and see if they had anything worth taking.
They did - and three hours of digging later the mulching around our tree was done!It was a project that had been on my list for quite a while. A month or so ago, Robert had to brought me enough rocks to finish the full circle (it had been 1/2 finished since the fall). I had finally finished digging in the ring of rocks (I had to sink them so the lawnmower could go over them.)

I found myself with another free day the next week and decided to transplant my strawberries. Over the last couple of years I had just let them grow at will and they were all clumped up and small. I lost a bunch of them to the heat last summer. The strawberries have also been hard to work around (including weeding) because they have been so bunched I couldn't do much digging around them. So, part of my transplanting project was digging in compost after taking them out and before arranging them all pretty.
They look really nice now - hopefully it will help them out this season.

You see in my strawberries, my rosemary bush - pruned, this year, to about half it's size. I love my rosemary bush. It makes weeding my garden smell wonderful.
The rosemary started flowering last fall, for the first time, and has continued. I love the small light purple flowers.

I made a quick push to get some cooler weather veggies in so we can get harvesting before it gets to hot. My peas are up.

My lettuce is seeded and is starting to come up.

And we've started our tomatoes and squash (in little containers to be transplanted later).

Fall is my favorite season, but I love spring - starting my garden and seeing things grow and flower.
I heard on a gardening show that it takes up to 5 years to really get blueberries going. This was very encouraging to me - our blueberries started as sticks three years ago and they haven't really produced yet. I'm excited by the way they flowered this year and need to get my deer netting up before they really start developing and become too tempting for the wildlife in our woods.

I hope to find more days of working in my garden and yard soon!

Practice Runs

Next Wednesday is the long awaited for Pinewood Derby.

Turning 8, for Jake, meant scouts and the pinewood derby! It is here at last.
Logan didn't want to be left out of the fun and made a car as well - not to regulation weight, but he doesn't need to be.(Logan's is the red one and Jake's the black.)
This past week at den meeting we had a weigh in and some practice runs.
These were the runs for Logan to put his car in (since he won't race next week).They boys had so much fun and wanted to keep racing their cars, as the dads kept trying to keep the boys from over-racing their cars.
Next week will be the official races! We can't wait!

Our Own TV Personality

Throughout this past school year, Natalie and her friend Lauren have done little video clips used during school announcements. Some have been "HallSmart," an information video and some have been "commercials" (in " " because they are usually just for fun).
They have done such a good job that they were asked to do the new school video - the one the incoming 6th graders watch, the one they show visiting guest or people moving into the area, and it is also the one they put on the school website! (look down the right hand side for "OCMS Video") or Click here to watch it!
(It loads a little odd, but it works.)
Our own budding TV personality!
I'll try and link to or load some of the other videos on the blog.

High School Sports

With Alyssa in high school, she's now in high school sports - a whole new world.

In the fall she lettered in cross-country.
She ordered her jacket later and finally got it back!This spring she's on the JV soccer team.
She is improving her skills and plays the whole game.She has 6 more games before the end of the season. I wish we didn't have to pay to watch her play - we'd go to every game. Instead we just enjoyed the two we went to and cheered for her loud enough for all the games!

Oh . . . kindergarteners!

Logan was excited to write his teacher a note that he knew all his sight words. He called out from the kitchen to ask how to spell his teacher's name.
I found the following note for her in his backpack:

Once I figured it out, I chuckled and showed Natalie. Once she figured it out she chuckled. He wondered why we thought it was funny - he said he had written all the word. I guess he forgot you start on the left.
Our thinking it was funny made Logan self-conscious and he said he would just tell his teacher and not give her the note.

I did email the teacher and typed in what he had written - she loved it too.
This cute kindergarten stuff is great!

Blue&Gold

The Cub Scouts' Blue & Gold banquet was coming up and I had a spurt of creativity. Our den was in charge of desserts and I remembered a decorating technique called "frozen buttercream transfer." I thought it would be a great way to decorate some sugar cookies to bring to the Blue & Gold.

I was quickly reminded that I should test out a new technique before wanting it to look good for a party or event. I had done this before for Jake's birthday cake last year, scroll down to the cake - but will probably still forget next time.
With a few trials and errors (all needing to be included in what I brought), the cookies turned out pretty good. And when something tastes really good, you can get away with some mess-ups (I kept the really bad ones at home!).
I got all the awards/badges ready for the cub scouts in my den. They have all earned their Wolf badge!
I'm so excited for all of them.We had a great time with pizza for dinner,
skits,
and singing.
Here are the Wolf and Bear dens in our pack with myself and the Bear den leader.We have great scouts and I can't wait to continue having fun with them.