You win some, you lose some!

3 years ago, for Father's Day, I had a travel coffee mug made for Dan with pictures of the kids on it and the words "We Love You,Daddy!"  And since it was right after Rebecca, I even put the only decent picture we have of her on there. 

Dan has faithfully carried that mug to work for the last three years and a couple of months ago mentioned that the pictures were starting to fade and chip off the mug.

Perfect timing!  Father's Day was right around the corner so I decided we would make him a new mug.  But the kids are now 13 and 14 and honestly, having a mug with their mugs on it seemed strange. I think they are a little too old to have (or even to want to have) their faces on a travel mug.

So, I got creative.  And made this:

The kids and I thought it was perfect!  And to make it even more perfect, the cat (like all cats) looks totally annoyed and like he does not agree that Dan is the best dad ever. 

We were so pleased with ourselves!  And then Dan opened it.

Okay....this photo is staged.  Regardless, this is how he felt about it.  He said that as a grown man, he can't be walking around his office holding a mug with a cat picture on it. 

So, he's carrying it for a week to be nice to us and then he's either going back to the faded mug or to this one:

Oh, well.  Maybe I'll start using the BEST DAD EVER mug.  I can always Sharpie over the Dad part and write in MOM.

Camp. The highlights.

Peter and Dan arrived home from Raven Knob on Saturday morning around 10:30 or so.  I pulled in from the grocery store to they site of them mowing the yard!  It rained a lot while they were gone and it needed it!

After Peter got done mowing he unpacked all of his gear and I got to work on the first of three very smell loads of laundry.

Dan and I did a little bit of gardening and then I helped Sarah pack her bags for her trip with the Girl Scouts.  (It will be so nice when she returns home at the end of this week and I will hopefully have all of my family members home for at least a week.  Dan was gone before the Boy Scout trip so this is week three of revolving family members at home.)

While at camp this year, Peter worked on the following merit badges: Personal Fitness, EmergencyPreparedness, Search and Rescue and Cooking.  That left one period free and Peter decided to do Advanced Woodcarving (which isn't a badge but just for fun) since he earned that badge last summer.

Here are the pictures that Dan and Peter texted me during the week.

 Inside Peter's tent.

This spider had to be removed from Peter's tent!

 View from the top of Raven Knob looking down on part of the camp.

 

Peter working hard during advanced woodworking.

Peter carved this! I think it looks great!

Peter working on his cooking merit badge.

Peter made crepes with bananas and honey one class.

 

 

Peter ran a mile (in hiking boots) in 8 minutes and 30 seconds during his Personal Fitness class.    He said he finished 13th out of 30!  Not bad for someone who hates to run!

 Peter got tapped out for Order of the Arrow!

Peter had a good week at camp but he was happy to be home!  And I was happy to have him home!

He spent some time on the computer this morning but then asked to go to the library so he could check out a book!.  I think spending a week in nature did him some good!  ;)

7 Quick Ones!

Is it Friday already?  This week went by fast!

Dan and Peter left on Sunday morning for Boy Scout camp and Sarah and I have been keeping busy.

1.  Sarah made this delicious coconut cream pie for Sunday dessert.  It was so good!  My dad loves coconut cream pie so since it was Father's Day, Sarah decided to make this for him.

Sarah made homemade  coconut whipped cream and it was good on the top of this pie!

2. Even though it's been a fairly rainy/cloudy week, we were able to get in our swim meet on Tuesday evening!  Sarah did great and our team won!  And I have no pictures.  Whoops!

3. Wednesday night at Boy Scout camp is special for the boys because it's family night!  All the troops are allowed to have their family members come in, bring a potluck meal to share with the boys and then go to the Wednesday night campfire.  Peter was very excited to see me (and even Sarah) and both he and Dan were excited for all the non-mess hall food! 

After dinner we attended the campfire together.  Peter was tapped our for Order of the Arrow. If he chooses to pursue this, he will need to attend an Ordeal in the fall back at Camp Raven Knob to officially become a member of the Order of the Arrow.

4.  We didn't get backhome from Raven Knob until 11:30 on Wednesday night which meant I missed my normal 10:00 PM bedtime by 2 hours.  And I felt it yesterday.  I needed to take a 3rd cup of coffee to 9:30 swim practice just to cope!

5.  It's raining this morning (shock!) and it would have been the perfect morning to sleep in but I accidentally set my alarm for 6:00 instead of 7:00.  What is wrong with me??  

6.  I have a hair appointment which is the only reason I even set an alarm!  After the hair appointment, Sarah and I will be running errands to get her ready for her trip to Florida with her Girl Scout troop.

7.  I ordered this new bible study from Take Up and Read and I am really enjoying it.  The readings and the devotions are short so you have enough time to think about the scripture and reflect on it.  Elizabeth Foss and her team did a great job.  

It's called Consider the Lilies and her is my not so successful attempt and showing it with some lilies I just happened to have in my kitchen on the day I received it.

Enjoy your weekend! Don't forget to visit Kelly for more Quick Takes!

Friday Quick Takes

It may be summer but the weeks still feel like they are flying by.  So, in an attempt to catch up, let's do some Quick Takes.

1.  TWO weeks ago, school ended and we had our annual end-of-school celebratory dinner at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse.  And apparently, I never mentioned it on the blog and certainly didn't post pictures.  And that begs the question, if it didn't get posted on the blog, did it even happen??

My brother joined us!

Both Peter and Dan doing their I'm-posing-for-a-heavy-metal-album-cover face.

Peter and Brad wore matching shirts accidentally.  A guy at the restaurant asked what the meaning was behind the matching shirts.  Ha!  No meaning at all!

2.  We have lots of tomatoes on our bushes!

So very excited about the prospect of a tomato sandwich!

3. One of Peter's latest drawings:

Pretty good, I think!

4. We were supposed to have our first swim meet on Tuesday.  Before I could even snap a picture of the kids in their suits, a clap of thunder came and it was eventually cancelled.  The makeup meet is the week Sarah will be on her Girl Scout trip.  I'm so sad that she will miss two meets this season! :(

5. After our non-swim meet, we went to dinner with Jennfier and her family and I looked up and saw Peter taking a picture of Caity taking a picture of Cheyanne.  This is what Peter captured:

I thought it was neat!

6. So last Saturday we had lime chicken soft tacos for lunch when Cathy arrived.  I took this recipe(which I normally make on the stove top) and doubled everything but the chicken and the topping ingredients and threw it all in the crock pot on Friday.  After 7 hours on low, I shredded the chicken and put it in the fridge.

Then when Cathy arrived, all I had to do was reheat the meat and we had delicious soft tacos.  We added cilantro and some lime creama.  I took regular creama and added lime juice and lime zest and it was so good.  Everyone loved all the lime flavor except Peter.  He said it was too much lime.  You can't please all the people all the time!

7.  Dan's been in Arizona all week and gets home tonight!  Then he and Peter are headed to Boy Scout camp on Sunday for a week.  I already miss them and they haven't even left yet

Have a great weekend everyone!

Peter's First Concert

A couple a months ago, a friend asked if Peter would like to go to the Iron Maiden concert in June.

Would he???

Um, that would be a giant YES!! (And the best part of all?  We wouldn't have to take him!  Is that horrible? Probably but, y'all, Iron Maiden.)

Unfortunately, the plans fell through and as the concert date approached, Peter grew more and more sullen and ratcheted up the begging of us to take him.

The day before the concert, the kids and I were eating lunch and Peter spent the whole time begging me to take him to Charlotte to see the concert.  And I was very insistent that I was not going to take him. He even suggested that if I didn't want to see the concert that I could just drop him off.

To which I replied, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  NO."

But then during lunch my cell phone rang and it was Dan.  He was on his lunch break and heard a commercial for the concert.  He said they must still have tickets if they are advertising it and he wanted me to check out the details online because he felt like he needed to take Peter.

When I told Peter this, his face lit up and he exclaimed, "God must really want me to go to this show!"


Maybe.

So, I hopped online, purchased them lawn seats (the show was at PNC Pavillion) and as soon as Dan got home from work on Friday night, they headed to Charlotte.

Peter sent me a text  of the crowd:

And this is just one side of the lawn seats. 

He sent me these during the show. He said they announced that there were 16,000 people there.  And then he sent me this text...

"It was amazing." 

Then he sent me a text that said it was going to take forever to get out of there.  They got home around 1:30. 

Dan said that even though he didn't know any of the songs, they put on a very good show and he was able to enjoy it.  The lead singer is 58 and he claimed he was the baby of the group! 

He also said getting out of the parking lot was a nightmare.  I asked him if he he took any pictures of him and Peter and these are the only ones he took.

This is Peter making his metal band album cover face.

And then I realized why it took them so long to get out of the parking lot.  It literally looks like they were the last ones to leave! 

Peter had a great time at his first concert.  And I'm so glad that Dan took him.  However, I think we've created a monster because Peter spent all day yesterday telling me that I should take him and Colton to see Slayer. 

It's good to be 13!

We officially celebrated Sarah's birthday this weekend with a family dinner at my parent's house and  Aunt Cathy came down from D.C. to help celebrate!

She arrived on Saturday morning and took the kids kayaking. They had a great time!

After naps and showers, we headed over to my parent's house for a delicious dinner of filet mignon, twice baked potato casserole, cheesy bread, salad, and red velvet cake!

Here are a few pictures of my girl:

Putting candles on her cake.

Trying unsuccessfully to light the candles!

Dad had to step in and save the day!

Blowing them out!

Cookbooks!!

Chacos!

An iPhone!