You guessed it! The log cake won first place (big pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). Second place (bag of M&Ms) was the miniature camp ground cake. Third place (Butterfinger candy bar) was the giant “100″ made up of brownies and blue & yellow icing. It didn’t matter who won because all of the boys were very proud of what they created. I talked to a few brothers who were more than willing to throw their little brothers under the bus with exclamations of, “He just measured the water, but I made the cake!”

I suggested making Banana Pudding since Josh has been craving it lately. He even got a recipe emailed from his dad which he forwarded to me, begging and pleading for it to be made. I’m all about killing two birds with one stone these days. I read the recipe and felt it was simple enough for the boys to do together. In the interest of full disclosure… They did spill the milk all over the counter while mixing the pudding. The cutting board did flip over off the table and on to the chair. A banana did jump from the peel and on to the floor. (They asked to eat that one — gross, huh?) It was very hard to take myself out of the picture so that they could do their thing. I helped them decide what to put on the finished dessert. I drew the fleur de lis on to thin cardboard, but while Zack was cutting it up, he confused the positive and negative spaces so when it came time for the sprinkles, the design was not as tight as it could have been, but I felt he did a great job. He used both yellow and blue sprinkles. (It’s the sixth picture from the bottom.)

These are the only pictures I took and I did with my iPhone, so they’re not spectacular. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the sign I did (with plenty of last minute help). I’m hoping that someone did and will email it to me. If I am so lucky, I’ll post it later.

For Grandpa Randy, Josh reports that the recipe is a very good one. Here it is below for those who are curious. The only thing we did differently is we had double the pudding and we were unable to let it set overnight. Sprinkles are not necessary either. In fact, they kind of just dissolved into a blurry mess, so I don’t recommend it.

BANANA PUDDING

1 box Nilla vanilla wafers
4 to 5 bananas
1 lg. Jello vanilla instant pudding
3 c. milk
8 oz. Cool Whip
8 oz. sour cream

Line bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan with vanilla wafers. Cover with slices of banana. Mix pudding mix with milk. Add Cool Whip and sour cream and mix. Pour wafers and bananas. Repeat layers. Set overnight.

Wow, it’s really dusty here. Glad I just picked up some Pledge to take care of the mess that has accumulated in my absence. (No really, this stuff works great and smells really good, too.) I just took care of 71 spam comments. People find me whenever I post something to Friendfeed or Facebook and then my poor blog is attacked. I still haven’t figured out how to disable comments on some of the pictures I have saved as their own entry. I don’t know how I did that. I don’t know why I did that. I just write here from time to time. Hopefully, now that things are straightened out a little, I’ll get back into more regular posting.

When I started homeschooling this school year, my blog turned into a weekly update for how things have been going. Our education goals have dropped off a little. You know how life happens… first it was the visit from Nana Koko that wreaked havoc on the daily grind and we played a lot and did a lot of field trips, then it was Thanksgiving when we fried a turkey, and then Christmas break came and I only let the kids take one week off while we were at Grandma’s house. Since the new year began, we have gotten back to the daily grind. And it’s fun! I still take a few days to get my work done during deadline week, but for the most part, things have been back on track.

The most exciting change that has happened in homeschooling is that the HEART homeschooling group and Juergen’s Gymnastics have finally cut a deal and the boys will be doing gymnastics once-a-month. I know the sessions are few and far between, but I’m hoping to keep the boys doing their stretches daily so to keep them progressing forward between sessions as much as possible. And they have the Wii Fit. And they play outside on their bikes/razor scooters/ripstick on nice days, like today.

So… other than homeschooling, I’ve been reading books. Even though I have less time now, there is always time for reading. Like when the football game is on, I sit next to my husband in the living room and read. While he is bouncing up and down and yelling about Brett Favre throwing an interception, I’m in another world altogether. These are moments that I truly enjoy. Especially when the laundry’s done and the kitchen sink is clean and everyone is fed and watered or put to bed.

Other things have happened, like Seth turned eight in December and got baptized in January. It was such a peaceful and smooth-going baptism. Everything and everyone was nice. During “intermission” we asked everyone to write a note to him and it was great to read what people wrote. Many of them referenced Grandpa Randy’s talk on baptism (Randy and Niki were both able to attend which was an incredible blessing and miracle considering their unique circumstances). Seth has a nice collection of encouraging words from those who attended. I like that it is also a record of all who attended because I know from experience that when you’re the reason for an event it’s nice to go back and see who was there cheering you on. Seth is currently awaiting his very own set of scriptures which we forgot to order until about a week ago. His set is going to be green. He’s excited to be getting his own pocket hymn book, too, which will also be green. We somehow forgot to get one for Zack, so he’s getting a black one to match his scriptures. These are traditional gifts that we give to them when our children turn eight and are baptized.

As is the custom in our church, Seth also became a new Cub Scout. He could hardly wait to get his uniform. He wears it so proudly. And the Wolf Handbook was devoured in the first hour of it reaching his hands. He had the Bobcat Badge taken care of in his first week of scouts. He has slowed down a little since, but he is still very excited to be a Cub Scout. His enthusiasm has brushed off on his older brother who is a Webelos. Zack has quite a bit to do in the next five months in order to get his badge and Arrow of Light award. It is part of our homeschooling goals to give more time to these scout goals. I have given them a project of learning about the Food Pyramid and presenting it to the family while also taking inventory of our own eating habits from a week of recording everything we ate. I haven’t seen any more action on this, so I’m making a mental note to get out my whip. What? Indiana Jones has one. It’s for cracking, not whipping.

Speaking of whipping… I made another yummy dessert topped with homemade whipped cream tonight. Ever since Zoe’s 2nd birthday (just about two weeks ago), I’ve been craving another yellow cake topped with vanilla pudding, whipped cream, and blueberries. It is so good and so light. You could eat the whole pan in one sitting and not hurt a thing. I’m guessing. I didn’t really do that, but I have a feeling that I could. Everyone just had one piece for dessert/refreshments for Family Home Evening. We played Uno tonight. The first game lasted about 30 minutes. It was so long that we only played two games. The second one was quick. And we were able to dig into our desserts at a decent hour.

Come to think of it, we had dinner at a decent hour, too. All thanks to Josh – he reminded me to put it in the oven around 2pm and also gave me the idea on how to cook the pork I defrosted. I rubbed a pork tenderloin with minced garlic, poultry seasoning, and celery salt, threw it in a foil bag, and roasted it in the oven for about three hours. It was falling apart when I took it out. It was the easiest thing ever. I threw some potatoes on the rack to complement the pork. I got the loin half price, so dinner tonight was about 10 bucks for our family of six. Zoe held her own, too, she ate everything. I kept looking at the floor to see if she was throwing it down there, but no… the times, they are a-changing when the toddler gets more food in her mouth than everywhere else. She even ate the rosemary-salted carrots. The rosemary was grown by Randy and Niki’s neighbor down in Port A. The neighbor mixes it with sea salt and puts the mix in little jars to give as Christmas gifts to the neighbors. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time and scored our own little jar since Randy and Niki still haven’t used up the one they got last year.

Health-wise, we are taking turns with the sore throat and headache cold. I believe it was Zoe who started it. Then I got it last week and now Sarah is really starting to feel it. So at church yesterday we barely got through singing Aloha ‘Oe to a dear friend who is moving to Indonesia. While sitting in church the week before, I felt inspired to sing to her despite my lack of singing voice. I recruited Sarah to sing it with me in the Young Women room after their opening exercises. Since the YW President served her mission in Hawaii, she knows all about this custom of singing “Farewell to Thee” to members who move out of the ward. We sing and then bring lei to give and show our love. Everyone cries. You tell yourself that you’re not going to, but the beauty of the music (even when I’m singing it) creates a portal to your heart and allows all that feeling to come up and out. While practicing the song, I even told the girls not to cry, but everyone was crying by the time we were done with our singing. Arwen, our friend and former YW President, was crying before we began. Instead of flower lei, we gave cookie and candy leis. It was a very nice day at church yesterday. We came home very uplifted.

Aloha `Oe by Lili`uokalani

Ha`aheo e ka ua i nâ pali

Ke nihi a`ela i ka nahele

E uhai ana paha i ka liko

Pua `âhihi lehua o uka

Hui:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe

E ke onaona noho i ka lipo

One fond embrace, A ho`i a`e au

Until we meet again

Translation:

Proudly sweeps the rain cloud by the cliffs

As onward it glides through the trees

It seems to be following the liko

The `ahihi lehua of the vale.

Chorus:

Farewell to thee, farewell to thee

Thou charming one who dwells among the bowers

One fond embrace, before I now depart

Until we meet again.

I wanted to write after witnessing my first Eagle Scout Court of Honor and record my feelings before they flit away. My heart was full listening to the scout leaders, Congressman Poe, and the five young men receiving their Eagle Scout Award. A lot was said about the young men becoming the future leaders of our church, our city, our state, our nation… Words to describe them reflected the Scout Law—like courage and honor. Congressman Poe, who was a judge for many years, stated that in all 25,000 of the criminal cases he oversaw not one of the offenders was an Eagle Scout. He believed it to be a testament to the good of the Boy Scouts of America program. The boys are just too busy doing other things to get into any trouble. When he was done speaking, he presented each Eagle Scout with an American flag that had been flown over the White House along with a certificate of authenticity.

As each of the young men stepped up to the podium to say a few words—all of them were grateful to their parents, scout and church leaders, coaches or some particular person who pushed them to earn this award—I looked at my oldest son wearing his Webelos uniform and imagined him achieving Eagle Rank. I thought every boy in the room is dreaming about becoming an Eagle Scout and every mother in the room wants her son to live up to the Eagle Scout ideals. I couldn’t see my husband sitting in an “Eagle’s Nest” on the stand, but I thought of him and what it must have felt like for him when he got his Eagle. Both of his brothers are Eagle Scouts and his dad was their Scoutmaster for many years. The fathers of the five boys each had a chance to speak and a few got choked up while expressing their love for their sons. There were jokes about being tired, being literally pushed, and reference was made to Philmont Camp when someone lost the food on the last day. So much work went into getting those boys to set goals and then achieve them.

So much work went into the Court of Honor. One of the moms expressed to me how much like a wedding it felt in the way of preparing for it. The building was exquisitely decorated with pictures of the scouts, pictures of eagles, statues of eagles, banners reflecting the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared”, American flags, little evergreen trees and other patriotic memorabilia. Afterwards, they served food catered by Chick-Fil-A. They added to the brownies and cheesecake with Blue Bell ice cream and cake. I got to help serve the cake. I was instructed to give one piece per person unless it was one of the five new Eagle Scouts. They could have seconds if they wanted. A lot of work went into setting up the event and lots of work went into cleaning up after the celebration. I took the kids home while Josh helped take stuff down and set up the building for church tomorrow. When he got home, Josh reported that it was awesome being a part of the clean up crew, too, because everyone helped. Scouts know and do their duty.

I know it’s going to be a lot of work getting my boys ready to go out into the world and lead successful lives. I’m glad that we have the Scout program to help them learn to set goals and then get that awesome feeling when they have achieved them. I’m glad that we were able to attend the Eagle Court of Honor so that my boys could catch the spirit of scouting and my Webelos could continue to work hard to get his awards. Seth will get his uniform next month and he is very excited to be a new Cub Scout—even more so now that he has attended an Eagle Scout Court of Honor.