Happy 11th Birthday, Sean!!

 

Here he is!  My big guy at 11 years old!  It's hard to believe.  Every time I look at him he looks more and more grown-up.  And I'd say we definitely entered the pre-teen/tween phase where our conversations have shifted to what makes a friend a good friend, who his latest crush is and how to get her to notice him, and daily reminders about deodorant and personal hygiene.  Yikes!

For his 11th birthday this year, he bugged us incessantly about skipping school.  His birthday fell on a Friday, after a week of NWEA testing and having a sub all week.  We caved and let him take a half day since Nana and Pops were able to check him out just before lunch started.  He started his morning with pancakes and he got to open his Unspeakable shirt gift.  Once he was excused from school they grabbed McDonald's and went to play glow golf and arcade games at Zap Zone.  When Scott and I got home from work it was present time!

His birthday dinner of choice was Los Tres Amigos on the patio outside so that Luna could join us.  He got his usual 3 tacos and even talked Evan into ordering tacos too instead of chicken fingers.  They sang "Happy Birthday" to him in Spanish and put the sombrero on him.  He even got a free dessert - bonus!

To end with a bang, he had several friends and neighbors come over for a bonfire/movie night outside!  He chose an older Jurassic Park movie called The Lost World.  I'd say they all had a great time with cupcakes, popcorn, and Gatorade.  

We celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday of his birthday weekend.  Since Grandma, Sean and I all have birthdays within 5 days of each other, it's always a group birthday celebration.  We had Buddy's pizza carry-out and salad for dinner, opened gifts, and enjoyed some birthday cake.

We also celebrated with Scott's side of the family this past weekend.  Sean likes to now say that his birthday is officially over after spreading it out over two weeks.  Scott's family came over to our house for carry-out dinner, ice cream cake, a bonfire, and fall/Halloween pajamas!  

Sean is in Mr. Hammond's 5th grade class this year and has hit the ground running learning lots of math facts about decimals, social studies facts about Native Americans, and parts of speech.  They're about to read Wonder together.  He seems to be enjoying a more "normal" school year.  He's been keeping busy outside of school with both soccer and flag football this fall.  This is his first season of flag football and he's improving each week.  I hope that football is something he sticks with as it would be fun to play football in high school.

He's also keeping busy with his final year of Cub Scouts.  They went camping this fall already and there's more fun events planned on the calendar to make up for lost time/activities during COVID.  He's also playing the drums and taking lessons weekly where Evan takes guitar lessons.  They plan to play "Crazy Train" together at their concert in March.  

He's into gaming more this year.  Mostly Minecraft, Roblox, and games on the Switch or Xbox.  He could easily spend all day playing videogames if we let him.  He likes to follow youtubers that give gaming tips like Unspeakable and Preston.  I figured the day would come when toys were less exciting and videogames took their place.  Although, I will say that he still enjoys playing with Legos and Jurassic World toys.  In fact, he's been asking for some knock-off Lego sets that are WWII sets/tanks.  

He's in a size 10-12 and moving into a boys Large in shirts and pants.  He's now in a size 5 shoes!  I can't believe it.  He's over 80 lbs. and 57" tall.  He's looking forward to hitting the 100 lb mark so he can ride in the passenger seat.  I told him to keep eating his protein!  He's not too picky of an eater as he'll eat burgers, meatballs, chicken, pasta, tacos, etc.  His favorite meals are always tacos and meatballs.  

Happy birthday, buddy!  We love you so much!

Cub Scouts: Brownsea Island Camporee

 The other den leader, Sarah, and I planned a Senior Webelo/Arrow of Light camping trip this fall.  Since Sean joined scouts late in 3rd grade when COVID hit, he hasn't gotten to camp outside with the scouts.  It was a major priority for our den this year.  We had some Junior Webelos join us and booked Brownsea Island Camporee hosted at Kensington Metropark group camp area by BSA.  It was very stressful leading up to the trip since more information came out that 800 campers would be there, there would be no electric hook-ups, no fire pits at each site, no picnic tables, and pit toilets.  That's a bit too rustic for me, but we were committed.

We arrived Friday evening around 6:45pm to set up in the almost dark.  Sarah and I carpooled together in her pick-up truck and opted to camp together in her 10 person tent.  It took 4 adults and some scouts helping to pitch the darn thing since we were missing a pole, but it all came together.  We walked around the camp ground and checked out all the spots with some of the boys and called it a night.  It was a beautiful, clear night!

I didn't sleep well (I don't usually the first night camping) and it started to rain at 3am so I was up on and off worried that the tent would leak.  Luckily we stayed dry, although it was cold and damp!  I got up around 7, after the bugle sounded to get us up, and helped a few other parents start breakfast under some canopies we brought.  We made eggs, pancakes, and sausage.  It was a tasty breakfast!  

We went to opening ceremonies and then got to start the activities.  They had stations set up that you could rotate through.  Sean got to do archery, sling shots, and tomahawk throwing.  Each scout received a walking stick so other stations included branding, hammering on medallions, leather stamping tags to put on the walking stick, and yard games like gaga ball and corn hole.  We got a bag lunch mid-day of a hot dog, chips, applesauce pouch, and drink.  I ended up making my own lunch of PB&J since the hot dogs didn't look too appealing to me.  We took a break and thankfully the sun had come out so we could start drying out.

After lunch and a break, we hit up other activities like life-saving skills, rope tying, and fire building.  It ended at 4pm and we went back to the campsite to prep for dinner.  We found a huge fire pit and luckily I had brought a huge bin of wood.  We were able to grill burgers for dinner with baked beans, chips and salad.  It was tasty and finally felt like camping since we could have a fire!  

The kids ran around playing tag, hide and go seek, racing wagons, and gaga ball until it got dark.  Everyone was exhausted so most of the scouts skipped the big camporee bonfire and show (scouts singing or performing skits - no thanks).  Sarah, her son, Sean, and I enjoyed just laying in the tent and talking.  The boys played Roblox together on their tablets.  It was an early bedtime.  Sunday morning we were up early again with the bugle, but caught the most beautiful sunrise.  We ate dry cereal, donut holes, and apples.  We packed up the site rather quickly and hit the road.  We were home by 9:30am!  

It was so much work and planning, but to see the boys have an absolute blast made it all worth it.  We'll do another camping trip in the spring and a winter camp-in somewhere too.  We are trying to do all the scout things while we can this year!