Pack meeting

Jack's cub scout pack met tonight to issue awards and badges. He got to wear his full uniform, including Dave's cub scout pants circa 1982!! They were a perfect fit on Jack and matched his shirt perfectly. Our scouts all earned something tonight and they were all so cute in their uniforms.

Thanksgiving baskets

I'm on the Missions committee at church and we fill up Thanksgiving food baskets for about 60 families each year. It's a pretty big effort, collecting food from the congregation, storing it in a POD, counting it, moving it out to the gym and then divvying it out to the families. Two ladies from Missions head up the Thanksgiving and Christmas projects and do a phenomenal job each year!

I took the boys up to church this afternoon to help out. We've been doing this since Jack was a baby! The youth group also came and did all of the heavy lifting and transferring. Theo moved chips to their rightful home and Jack was in charge of cereal. They counted up jello and then put oil in each box. Tomorrow is the big job of picking up the perishable food and moving all of the items to the individual boxes. I love that the boys got to help out today. I had them walk through the room with 60 empty boxes and had them take note of how many there were. I explained how these families were going to bed each night with hungry bellies and how they needed to take a moment to be thankful for the food in our pantry.

Renaissance Fest

Dave and I were thrilled to carve out time to go to Renaissance Fest yesterday. November tends to be a hectic month and sometimes time gets away from us and the month-long fest is over!

We met up with our friends John and Tara and their kids and just had so much fun! We ate a turkey leg, saw juggling and stilt walkers, jousting, glass blowing, candle making, period costumes, ax throwing, amongst other things! The people watching was divine :) Jack finally got a boomerang after months and months of talking about one. Theo got his own sword and shield after his little voice said "Jack never shares his sword and shield with me. I need my own". He got his own and it complimented his Knight costume well. We brought those back from Old Sarum and knew they'd be PERFECT for Renaissance Fest! Theo even wore his crown ;) We were all worn out from tons of walking and playing, but what fun it was!

Musings

Jack has been bitten by the writing bug and spends any chance he gets in class writing his musings down. He wrote a paragraph all about Elliott (our cat) and this is his second essay. His writing Cracks. Me. Up!! He writes exactly like he speaks and I'm going to keep these essays FOREVER. Click on the picture so you can read it :)

Theo is still reading away in his reading group and has a page or two each night to read. Both kids managed to absolutely wreck their white shirts today. Theo literally rolled in dirt outside and Jack spilled chili all down his shirt at dinner. Guess I need to have them take off shirts and shoes at the door now...... *sigh*

Go-See

Our Tiger Den had it's first Go-See this afternoon at the Trailhead. We had to visit a historical site so Dave led the boys around to read the history of the Trailhead. The boys all signed and decorated a card to send to soldiers in honor of Veteran's Day on Friday. Send your troops some love! Everyone donated money that I'm going to use to buy items to be sent overseas to our military.

Theo's teacher sent me this picture from Halloween. She dressed up like a clown! Jack's teacher was parading around as a witch, from what he told me. How fun!

India 4 me

My friend, Tara, had a few people over last night to her place for Indian cuisine. I jokingly say that Indian food for is 4 U and not 4 me (there is an Indian restaurant here called India 4 U, hence my little phrase), that is until last night! I ate the most delicious chicken and lamb dishes ever and washed it all down with gin and tonics (my favorite!!). I never put two and two together to realize I had India to thank for gin (the name Bombay did not clue me in!!). Tara is Irish and has lived all over the world. Her time in London made her a connoisseur of Indian food.

Now I'm going to have to try my hand at cooking Indian food for my family :)

Here is a bonus recipe for delicious mushroom caps that I brought as the appetizer last night:

A dozen or so mushrooms
block of cream cheese
1 T minced garlic
1 t black pepper
1 T oil
1 t paprika
1 t onion powder

Clean and dry the mushrooms. Snap off the stems and cut off the rough tips. Chop the stems up finely. Set aside the clean mushrooms. Heat the oil in a skillet and add garlic and chopped stems, mixing until all moisture is gone. Set aside and cool the mixture. Add the stems and garlic to softened cream cheese, adding in spices. Put the cream cheese mix into a ziploc bag and cut only a small corner piece off. Fill the mushroom caps with a generous amount of cream cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 and serve immediately! They are amazing :)

Juliet is 4

Juliet celebrated her 4th birthday at a local park this morning. The weather was picture perfect- clear and cool! My kind of weather :) Juliet scored tons of sweet presents. It was funny to see the girl versions of some of the toys we have, like Princess Yahtzee. Happy birthday Juliet!