Memorial Weekend 2014

Glorious!  I don't think I need to say anymore about this Memorial Weekend.  The weather has been just amazing and after what felt like 47 months of winter this is exactly what all Minnesotan's needed!  The boys and I headed to North Country immediately after school/work on Friday to spend the weekend with Grandma Yvonne.  We arrived at the lake around 7pm, ate a quick dinner and then headed outside to see our friends and of course enjoy some smores around the fire!  The rest of the weekend was pretty much the same kind of relaxing fun.  We enjoyed many bike rides (Mason and I just got a need bike/trailer combo and we were excited to test it out), we played at the park, enjoyed several dinners over the campfire and ate more smores than anyone will admit, went into town for pizza and the best ice cream ever and even enjoyed an afternoon on the beach!  This was the best way to kick off the summer and now I am praying for many more weekends just like this in the future!

 

One thing we love about this campground is the friends we have made.  Just two sites down is a family with two boys... one Colton's age and one Mason's age! It is prefect and the boys have so much fun playing together!  Actually tonight as I am relaxing on the couch with Mason I can see Colton and his friend sitting by the campfire playing games on their Kindle/Nooks and just telling stories to each other.  It reminds me that Colton is no longer my little baby but is starting to find his own way in life and explore and learn things with his friends instead of just his mom.  It makes me proud to see him be socially confident, adventurous and able to make new friends so easily.  

Cub Scout Lock-In

Colton and I went to our first Cub Scout Lock in a few weeks back and I wanted to share the excitement of our fun night. We arrived at the church at 9pm with our tent, pillow, blankets, camera, two giant Lego bins and a crock pot of Nacho cheese (and chips of course)!  We got our sleeping quarters set up next to some of the other boys in our den and then it was time to eat!  We enjoyed sloppy joes, chips, fruit, salads and of course candy!  After our late dinner the boys had some free time to do whatever they wanted. Some played video games (as there were 6 TV's and the boys were allowed to bring their own systems/games), some played dodgeball, others went to legos and some played board games such as Risk.  Now I will say that the video game thing kinda drives me crazy but I know that is part of this generation however I do not support boys playing games such as Call of Duty (hello, 7 year olds don't need to play murder games, they are rated M for a reason)!  Colton didn't get to bring his video games... I felt he should play with his friends instead of electronics.  He asked me once to play as another boy said he could use his system, but Colton knew he had to ask due to the game (Call of Duty or some other killing game), I said "No" due to the game and he didn't argue at all because he knows our family rules.  One of the other dads heard me say no due to the game and he said "I completely agree with you, way to stick to it".  It felt like that was a small parenting victory.  Sometimes I feel we might be a little too old fashioned but come on there is no reason a 7 year is playing those games if you ask me.  Anyways, back to the lock in.  At about midnight we started some of the games.  The boys earned a ticket for playing and another if their team won!  There were several games played between midnight and 2am.   We also went outside around 1am to play with bubbles.   At 2:30 the drawing happened for prizes, Colton won a Lego set as if he doesn't already have enough.  Colton had no intentions of going to sleep but this mama was quickly losing steam as I had been up since 5am Friday morning. At 3am we had birthday cake as it was officially one of the scouts birthday now - seriously cake for boys at 3am is not a good idea!!  After cake Colton found an age appropriate video game and him and his friend sat down to play for a while while I crawled in our tent and passed out almost instantly.  I woke up at 6am to start cleaning up with the rest of the group... Colton was still awake (he was the only boy from my den who lasted all night - he was hanging out with the older boy scouts)!  We cleaned up the church basement, packed up our tents and cleaned up the Legos, loaded the van and were on our way home just after 7am.  Now the church is only about 8 blocks from our house but that was a long enough ride for Colton as he was out cold by the time pulled into the garage.   I woke him up and he stumbled his way into the house and crawled into his bed and slept until after lunch.  I was able to get another hour of sleep and then Mason was up so that was it for me... time to start my Saturday!  Here are few pictures from our first cub scout lock in!  This being a Cub Scout Mom is actually a lot of fun!