Pack Meeting

Well, once a month the Boy Scout Pack has a meeting, so all the dens and other groups get together for the big meeting. Our meeting was today (Saturday). It was a bit disorganized but very a cool experience. Aaron earned his bobcat badge so he got awarded that today.
Here is Daddy pinning on his badge:


The lady behind them is the den mother for Aaron's den:


Apparently, when the scout earns a badge the mom gets a pin of the badge, so the mom can show off her baby's, I mean, Grown Up Boy's award. So Aaron was pinning me. (he was afraid to hurt me so we pinned the bottom of my shirt)


Other kids also received awards and then Aaron's den (which has about 8 members) had a presentation to the pack about scouting life and good deeds being similar to seeds growing. Aaron reading his part.

Aaron helping out:

Then the Boy Scouts taught the youngin's a new song. It was called the little green frog. Aaron was trying out the hand motions.

It was very cute and I was extremely proud of Aaron. Very very neat!

The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

Well, after weeks and weeks, on Thursday morning before school we finally got that tooth out. Aaron was very excited. We had really been wiggling that tooth all week and Thursday morning, I just yanked it out. Kara didn't understand what all the fuss was about.




But as you can see, the permanent tooth has already grown in behind where he lost the tooth. So hopefully next time it won't take so long to get out.





The tooth fairy visited that night and he got five dollars. (he told us, "Yeah, it's not much.") I guess after all that trouble he was expecting more. Hmm...the economy is even getting to the tooth fairy this year.

Landmark Park

On Tuesday Andy and Aaron had the day off (it actually is a rarity), so we went to Landmark Park in Dothan. It is supposed to depict life in the 1890's, there is a general store, church and other various buildings in addition to a barn with animals and a playground. So we trekked off there Tuesday morning. We drove up to the park ranger station and paid our entrance fee. She asked if we would like a map and we said sure, and then she directed us to the parking lot. As Andy was driving off, I was looking through the papers she handed us and there was only one map. With directions on how to get to Landmark park. Now if we made it to the ranger station certainly we wouldn't need a map to get there. Hm..we were thinking it was a map of the park. Oh well. We got out and noticed the store didn't open for another 30 minutes so we wandered around. The first building was an one room school house. We were able to look from the door but didn't get to do much there. I noticed a large placard outside and thought perhaps it would have information about the school house but it just stated when and who donated it to the park. O.k. Then we went into the church. Very nice little building and we could walk around in it. Aaron noticed the pulpit and had to try it out.

First a happy sermon:

Then a serious one:

Kara also wanted her picture taken behind the pulpit, but we just couldn't see her at all. It was neat that they both wanted to try it out though. Perhaps there is a bit of Great-Grandpa Hartmann in them.

After that Aaron led us to the boardwalk. He was leading us since he had been there last year with his Kindergarten class. Along the way there were little huts that had some of the wildlife depicted. There was actually information on the placards in the huts but Aaron did not let us stop long enough to read them. Kara did like the fish that were swimming in the "pool" (which was actually a pond but she didn't believe us). And we saw a few huge spiders. Yuck.

Here is daddy and the kids on the board walk.

Next there was the park office and it had tons of displays about a cowboy from Dothan, Johnny Mac Brown. He was apparently very big in the silent movies. Interesting. There was also a tiny display about why the wiregrass was called the wiregrass. That may have been neat too but the kids decided it was time to move on so I will just have to read that one next time.

Then we went to the barns to see the animals. They were feeding them right as we walked up to it so we got to talk to the lady that feeds the animals. She was telling us the names of the animals. She informed us the sheep didn't have names because they were not friendly. So Andy made the sheep noise to see there response.



Yes, they stopped what they were doing and stared right at him. It was strange. After a while the other two stopped staring but the one on the end kept his eye on Andy.

After that the general store was open so we went to check that out. The man there was a little strange because he kept saying how are you ladies doing to me and AARON? We didn't stay there long. Finally we went to the playground and the kids had fun.

It was a nice time and we will probably go back to read what we missed the first time. It would have been even more interesting if they had placards up to explain everything but oh well. At least the trees were pretty.

The best part however was Aaron and Kara saying there favorite part. They both liked the sheep staring at daddy. Kara even did a re enactment of it. It is hilarious. She is still doing the sheep face and it cracks us up!

Here's a movie of it.:

Thanks to all the veterans

Just wanted to say thank you to all the veterans out there. I am very blessed that Andy came back to us twice safe and unharmed. I know that others were not as fortunate.

Aaron voting on election day.

Sorry about the delay in writing. Kara is getting yet another molar so she hasn't been sleeping at night. Ughh. She has been up every night since Sunday fussing about. One night I was even in her room sleeping next to her and she was still tossing. In her sleep she managed to slap me, crawl under my pillow and I woke up coughing when she stuffed her fingers in my mouth. How on earth she can do that in her sleep and wake up the moment we fall asleep in our room I have no idea.



Well, the kids at Aaron's school set up a voting booth and a little pamphlet with information about the two candidates. Aaron helped out. He checked IDs and handed out ballots and retrieved the ballots when the children were done voting. It was very cute and adorable. I love his expression waiting to vote. How many adults had that expression on election day? This picture, by the way, was in our local Fort Rucker newspaper, the Army Flier.

Wednesday morning we turned on the TV to see who won. I read the headline to Aaron, "Barack Obama wins the presidency." He looked at me and said, "Aw man. Can you vote again?"

When Aaron got home from school he was telling me that they were going over which candidate won which state. Aaron told me, "We used red for Republican and blue from African." I looked at him and said you mean Democrat? "Oh, yes, that's right." Apparently Aaron has picked up on the news continually saying our first African American president.

Other funnies. I was looking at the popcorn in the commissary because I am supposed to be eating healthier. I noticed that the light popcorn isn't much better than the one I usually get. So I said I like this one better. Aaron told me, "It says butter not better!"

On Saturday I wore a shirt with ghosts on it. Aaron looked at me and said, "I like your shirt mama, but I have to tell you something. It's past Halloween." Yes, you can't wear any holiday stuff a day past the holiday in this household.

Kara wanted to get a cookie but she was whining so I told her to ask daddy in a normal voice. So she says, "Normal voice, please."

Then at supper Kara shouted Stop it. So we looked at Aaron and asked what he was doing. He said nothing. O.k. we kept eating. Then she screams, "Stop it. STOP it. STOP IT." Again we looked at Aaron (sometimes he kicks her under the table) but he wasn't doing anything and his feet were to the side. So we asked Kara what was wrong. She was made and she told us, "He looking at my milk!" Interesting. I didn't think that started at age two.

Trick or Treat

The kids trying to scare daddy:

Well, we of course had an interesting past few days. Thursday I got a call from the school nurse that Aaron had thrown up. Poor Baby. When I got there she said that there was a stomach bug going around, one minute you are fine and the next not so much. Apparently when you throw up at school you can't come back the next day, so he missed the costume parade and the Halloween Party. Hm..He didn't seem to notice though because all day Friday we played video games. And by Saturday he was totally better.

Friday night was fun. We got the kids dressed up and ready to trick or treat. I had to take tons of pictures which the kids were not fond of but oh well. Andy took the kids up and down the street and I passed out the candy. One good thing about an army base is there are set times to trick or treat and then it's over, so no one rings your doorbell a hundred times. Anyway, Andy said they were really cute and very polite. I sat on the swing in front of our house and talked with the trick or treaters. I let the kids pick their treat and most of the kids only took one. I did have a few that took a whole handful, but almost all only took one. It's a good neighborhood. After a while the kids and Andy came back and Kara ran up to me all excited and tried to grab more candy from our bowl. I let them have first pick of a treat before they went out but I guess Kara didn't understand the only one from our house rule. We were totally out of candy after 30 minutes and I passed out four bags of candy. YIKES. Then we came inside and tried to take more pictures. We put Kara's little outfit back on and she got all excited and yelled, "More Candy!!!" We did tell her we were just taking pictures, but she was still miffed that we didn't go out and get more. Hm..

Saturday we went to a chili festival on post, which was nice. Aaron and Andy got to go for a helicopter ride. Kara was too small so she and I did the bouncy houses and looked at the fire truck. She was upset though. She really wanted to ride in the helicopter.

Aaron in the Huey:

Andy and Aaron in the Huey:

View from the helicopter. Kara and I are the two people walking toward the open field.