A Little Randomness...

Just so you know.... Kellen and I will be going to Cub Scout Day Camp all this week, so we'll see how good I am at getting on and posting our stuff at the end of the day, but it might just be a lump sum at the end of the week. The summer has kept us hopping and I just haven't been getting on the computer every day, so I haven't checked anyone else's blogs in quite a while. Sorry about that. But I also don't see that changing real soon since we are getting ready to embark on a road trip. We will finish Day Camp on Friday, go help a nursing home learn how to use the bowling game for their Wii on Saturday, and then leave for Aunt LaNita's house after church on Sunday. Steve will get to play bachelor for two weeks while the kids and I play in Washington and go to the reunion. Three days after we get back, Kellen heads up to Cub Scout Resident Camp with Steve, while Maddi and I hang out at home. Then Steve leaves for Nashville for several days (work related) and Kellen goes to Camp Lutherwood for a week, so Madison and I are (again) hanging out all by ourselves... Anyway, this week begins the busiest part of our summer so, although I am planning on lots of pictures, I probably won't get to post most of them until mid-August :)

So, last week... We had people over again on Thursday (the 3rd) to do finishing touches on the boards that would go on the sides of our 4th of July Float. As you can see below, Madison decided to 'help'. The touch-ups should've only taken about a half hour; instead they took more than two. The far right end of that board was a dark blue with the word "Freedom" painted on it in white. Thanks to Madison, we painted everything over in white, re-covered in the blue to get a solid coat, and then re-painted "Freedom" on it. We were just glad that she didn't get much of it on her clothes! She had so much fun!

This is our float while we were waiting in the staging area before the parade started. Steve was an absolute hero for the day! After our local Fireman's Pancake Breakfast, he took Madison home (about 8am) and stayed with her the entire day so that I could help out with all the parade stuff. After all, I was on the parade committee... I sent him a text message as we were heading out on the parade route so that he and Madison could walk up and watch us go past. Kellen and I didn't get home until about 330pm, so it was a pretty long day. We walked the 2.5 mile parade route and then went back to the fire station (they are our sponsor) to disassemble our float. I know it's hard to see in the pictures, but our theme was 'Colors of Freedom' so we had a post at each of the four corner of the float representing the four branches of the military and their colors. We won 2nd place in the Youth Entry category :)

Later in the evening, we had our cubmaster and his family over for burgers and some fireworks on the driveway. Steve figured that since Dave, Dana, and myself were all going to be up to our eyeballs in parade stuff all day while he was at home, then he would fix dinner for the rest of us. He even made potato salad to go with dinner :)

Kellen and Madison LOVED the fireworks! We didn't go to watch the city show or anything, but they were enthralled with getting to do our own little stuff at home. In that respect, they are totally like Steve. Steve likes watching fireworks, but he's a pyro at heart and would really rather set them off himself!
Then, on Saturday, we rode bikes up to the city park where the university art department had some tables set up for kids to be able to come play with modeling clay. This would be fun all by itself, but it also satisfies a requirement in Kellen's Art Activity for his Webelos Badge. So this is the dish that Kellen made at the park that day :) In order to satisfy everything for the Art Activity, we need to take pictures of all the art stuff he does (pick five items out of nine to complete) so that he can make a scrapbook or a portfolio of it afterwards.
I think that's pretty much it for our weekend... We are definitely in for a busy week this week, though. Madison will be staying at Dave and Dana's house while I go to Day Camp, and Steve will have to be at camp an hour before Kellen and I get there every day. Tomorrow, he will have to leave the house at about 5:30am. Ugh! We'd better get to bed early tonight!