Tomahawks, knives, and fire: a boy scout's dream campout

Nate went with Toby and Isaac to our area council's Scout Jam celebrating 100 years of Boy Scouts. Apparently, it was fabulous. The boys came home happy and tired. (Isaac wanted to go straight to bed - shocking coming from him at 6:30 pm).

We made him shower first.

Then he did go straight to bed.

There was knife and tomahawk throwing. Isaac was in heaven. He has been begging for a tomahawk all summer. And he came home and browsed for throwing knives on Amazon to add to his Christmas wish list (emphasis on the wish part). He also got to make his very own arrow head.

There were also guys with guns from WWII that they shot off for the boys (firing blanks of course), a helicopter,

and someone shooting a flame thrower. That was an especially thrilling part of the event.

I'm glad that Nate is willing to go to so many scouting events with the boys. They get to make lots of fun memories together. Thanks Nate.

Update: Adding video of the flamethrower.

What do I do?

This is Mango, Toby's parakeet. She has been laying eggs all summer. Usually, they get abandoned on the floor of their cage, and we toss them. We tried putting a nesting box in the cage with the birds, but she wouldn't use it and kept laying her eggs on the floor. This time, she has decided to sit on the most recent ones. (There are three.) If you look closely under her wing you can catch a glimpse of one. She sits here on her eggs all day. I guess she is serious this time.

But what am I going to do if they actually hatch? I don't really want three more birds. We'd have to get a much bigger (very expensive) cage. They are rather loud, and somewhat messy. And did you know that parakeets live for 20 years?! I had no clue about their life expectancy when we got them for Toby one Christmas. I guess I could save them for his children. They'd still have a good ten years left in them. Still. As cool as little parakeets would be to watch hatch and grow, I'm kind of hoping that this little experiment doesn't really happen. Or maybe someone wants some baby parakeets? I'll keep you updated.

Stocking my freezer

Fall makes me want to cook. Well, at least October brings on the cooking frenzy. We are still having upper 80 degree weather here. But I am breaking out the crock pots anyway and hoping that eventually the weather cools a bit.

I've spent the last week making soups (split pea, yellow pea, chicken noodle, tortilla), chili, browning ground meats to add to sauces, making meatloaf (very convenient serving size when made in a muffin tin) banana bread, pumpkin bread, spaghetti sauce, and chicken stock.

My chili ended up being way too spicy. I had to triple the recipe to tone down the fire just to get it to manageable levels for my family. So now I think I have enough to last us until 2011. But it is rather tasty so I am looking forward to some cold nights to enjoy it. So now my freezer looks like this:

I've still got some more meals to make to use up the rest of the chicken and ham. I've got Toby helping me too. He is a fabulous cook and so I am employing him to make the chicken makhani, thai red curry and massaman chicken this afternoon while I am working on the soups. (One of the joys of having a homeschooled kid is the built-in helping hands during the day.)

A fully stocked freezer is the best reward for a couple days of cooking and dish doing. Now, when it's 6:00 and I'm looking for something for dinner, I'll just have to warm it up and we're all set.

Priceless.

Aspen Was Inducted

into the National Junior Honor Society yesterday evening. We are so proud of her. She is a wonderful daughter. She is smart and caring, beautiful and creative. And she wrote a great essay on leadership for her application. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it on the other computer. Way to go Aspen!

Fried Food Capital or The Texas State Fair

One of my favorite times of the year is fair season. And the Texas State Fair is fabulous! (At least I think so, my family might have a different opinion. But I dragged them along anyway.) Big Tex welcomed us right in. (He talks! and he gets new clothes and boots each year too!)

The Texas State Fair is called the Fried Food Capital of Texas; and they really embrace this title. Each year there are winners for the best tasting and most creative fried foods. And really, you can find almost anything fried. So Nate tried a bunch of them. (I actually had no appetite the entire day...I get really grossed out by fried anything. Even french fries are pushing my limits these days.) But Nate was game.

So he tried Fried Twinkies,

and Fried Peach Cobbler, and Fried Fritos Pie (this year's Best Tasting winner), Fried Butter (last year's most creative winner), and a couple others that I didn't get pictures of. There was also Fried Beer (this year's Most Creative winner), and Fried Margaritas, fried watermelon, fried green tomatoes, as well as all the other normal Texas fair fried fare: turkey legs, funnel cakes, corn dogs (a Texas original from many years ago), fried Snickers, fried Oreos, fried chicken, fried everything!

In one of the food buildings there was a demonstration for a vita mix blender. The man was making habanero pepper smoothies. Nate tried that as well. Very hot!

This sculpture of football players is made entirely of butter! Crazy! (Refrigerated of course.)

And of course we petted lots of animals,

Saw the Amazing Dobermans,

and the birds of the World presentation.

A visit to the fair wouldn't be complete without a ride on the Texas Star. (The tallest amusment park ride in North America.)

The kids tried out a couple other rides as well. But since everything cost lots of $tickets$ we didn't do them all.

I loved the fair. I missed the livestock barns and the parade and the light show. And there was the car show and the music concerts too. Next time...

Found

I saw this going down the hallway this afternoon. Aspen is taking spanish at school this year. Obviously, she has issues with the boys using "her" bathroom. Upstairs she put a BOYS sign on "their" bathroom. I kind of have to agree with her on this one. Teenage boys aren't known for their bathroom cleanliness skills. And I don't share my bathroom with any children.

Exploding gummy bears

This science experiment has been waiting for months to happen. Nate ordered the materials a loooong time ago. We waited and waited for them to come in the mail. Finally Nate contacted the company after about a month of waiting. Turns out, you need to fill out a HAZMAT form so that the chemicals can be mailed. So then we waited some more. Finally, the package arrived in the mail. So we could try out some exploding gummy bears.

First mix a couple chemicals. Making sure that you are in a well ventilated area of course.

Heat the chemicals in the test tube until they liquify.

Add a couple gummy bears.

And stand back.

The first time, the reaction was so violent, the gummy bears were catapulted back out of the test tube. (Flaming, flying, molten gummy bears=not good.)
But the second try produced the desired reaction: adding them to the liquid chemical turned them into flaming balls of sugar, no fire added.
Next time we won't use so much chemical and we'll do it more than twice.
Our neighbors must think we're a little nuts. Lots of things are blowing up in our back yard.