Camping

I finally get a glimpse of Ty's campout experience because Shane took the camera with him.

Here they are gearing up to leave.

After driving about an hour, they arrive at the campsite, in a nice wooded area.

Tents set up, time to sleep.

Next morning, the boys make their own breakfast.  Pancakes are the usual, because you can buy a mix that just calls for adding water.

Then they have to wash their own dishes.

Taking the Scout Oath.

 Taking the Pledge of Allegiance.  (Ty is just to the right of the boy with the blue jacket.)

Lining up for activities.  (Ty third on back, on the right.)

Safety talk about the shooting ranges.  This campout was a competition with several different Boy Scout troops attending.

The long walk to the shooting range.

Not Ty here, but he did get to shoot a .22.  Older boys could shoot shotguns.  There was also archery, slingshots, and tomahawk throwing.

Ty on the right, gearing up for slingshots.

Ty, second from left, with a slingshot.

Building a camp fire.

One of the leaders, and his son, preparing a treat for the boys--deep-fried Oreos!

A flag ceremony to retire worn-out flags.

If you look closely, you can see the stars of the flag, in the fire.

Pink moth.  One of many bugs to be seen--others not so pleasant--like mosquitoes, and ticks.  I think I'm glad I stayed home.  Plus, I got to sleep in my comfortable bed, while the boys slept through (or rather lay in their tents and listened to) a thunder storm.  There was no way to get pictures of that.  :)

I hope you enjoyed, as I did, the pictures.  While they are not all of Ty, I included them to show the range of activities he gets to do on a Boy Scout campout.

Fledgling

Lydia was absolutely thrilled yesterday, when she spotted a baby mockingbird in our front yard.  We got to watch the mommy bird come down and feed it several times.  We also watched how fiercely protective the mom and dad were, guarding their baby from a snake.  They saw it coming several feet away, and attacked it. It was about 12" long, and as far as I could tell they killed it, or injured it pretty well.  Now I say, "yeah, for mockingbirds!"

Fun Guy

Our fence is old - I'd say about 16+ years.  It has some little fun guys growing on it now.  I was playing around with the different settings on my camera yesterday, capturing one.  Which one is your favorite?

Our Boy Scout

Ty at the Spring Court of Honor, receiving two merit badges, one for Auto Mechanics and one for Geology.

Ty also received his 2nd Class rank badge, which he achieved a few weeks ago.

Hanging out with buddies.

Afghan

I haven't been able to find bedding I liked to match Lydia's new paint colors, so I decided to make some instead.

To those that are interested, I used a square pattern from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks.  I made 60 of them.  Then I joined four blocks with a sc stitch (in green to contrast with the lavender), as you can see in the photo above.  This resulted in 15  2-by-2 blocks.  I sewed a dc border (again in green) around each of the 15 blocks.  Then joined those together, laid out 3 across, and 5 down.  Once they were joined, I did another dc border around the complete piece, in the green.  Then did 7 rounds of dc (in lavender) around the complete piece, and finally finished with a border (in green) from Edie Eckman's Around the Corner: Crochet Borders.  Any questions, just let me know.

Day at the Park

We love visiting Woodward Park in the spring, when the azaleas, tulips, dogwoods, and more are in bloom.