Battle of the Books

Believe or not even though I have super reading kids, not one of them entered the Battle of the Books held every year here in Kamloops until Mitchell did this year. He has been reading the books with his class and then he was chosen to be one of the Grade 3/4 representatives. I was totally surprised when he came home and told me...... then when I talked to his teacher found out he really did have one of the higher scores (even though he hadn't read all of the books!). So we had a team from Grade 6/7 and Grade 5 and these 3 little Grade 3s, not a one in Grade 4 and it was all their first time. What was even funnier was that Mitchell was the only boy (not that he really appreciates that right now). So they went to the Zones where they won 2nd place and even won a medal..... they were so thrilled!

They had to answer 30 questions on quite a few books, Lafcadio, James and the Giant Peach, The War with Grandpa, Frindle, Leaving the Log House, The Seven Treasures, Because of Winn-Dixie, Bobby Baseball, Harriet's Hare and Invisible Harry. When they went to Districts a week later (top 7 teams out of the 23 in the city), they didn't do quite as well, but the questions were harder and I think they were up against more Grade 4's, but it was a great experience for him! Hoping he and Rebecca will both do it next year, only we are going to start reading earlier!

When I asked him how they did so well, he said: "Well Mom, the girls decided what book it was and then asked me if I agreed and I usually did!!" Can you tell he lives with a lot of women!!!

Concert!

So yes I'm insane but I actually agreed to take this group of yahoos to the Rascal Flats concert in Vancouver the first week of April. Of course they bought the $100 tickets months ago and then it came to the week before and I realized we had better make some plans. I had just come back from Europe a few weeks before and was so happy to be home but since Don was working the next day....... I was the chosen one!! We left right after work that day, the concert wasn't until 8 but I wanted plenty of time to get there, you never know what Vancouver traffic will be like!

So we drove down, the kids had an absolute blast... said it was the most fantastic concert they had ever been to (how many have they been to.......like 2!!) Anyway, I went to a cute little scrapbook store for a little more, then went to eat and then spent the rest of the time reading the second book in the Twilight Series.....

I was dreading the ride home with good reason, I knew it would be late and getting out of Vancouver in the dark..... I had too many navigators and too many trips as the passenger to feel very confident. We finally got out of there by midnight, had to drop a friend of Melodie's off (it was just off the highway I was told..... which was right but getting back on the highway was a nightmare!), I ended up back on the number 1 west back over the Port Mann bridge heading back to Vancouver at 1 in the morning. I couldn't even vent because I had all these impressionable teenagers behind me, I just had to grit my teeth and try to find a way to turn back around. The only thing that saved me that night was the Mel and Kevin both have their N's so they were able to drive part of the way, it made the world of difference.

So note to self......... make them take the bus if they buy out of town tickets!

Have to admit, they were very grateful......... lots of THANK YOU MOM!!

Kub Kar Rally

I realized that I haven't written anything about Mitchell's first kub kar rally! This is his first year in cub scouts and he just loves it! The leaders are wonderful and he eagerly heads out every Tuesday night. They are working on all kinds of badges right now and I think he has about 5 by now.

You can imagine his excitement for the kub kar rally, he was able to go and watch last year......but this year he was going to be making his own. You can also imagine Don's excitement, his only son's first kub kar rally. I think he was almost as happy as Mitchell! So the two of them worked on it, finding patterns, buying paint, heading over to a friends garage to saw it out......and then creating it. They really worked hard and it turned out to be a beautiful spiderman car (we think). The rally was in Clearwater, so I wasn't able to make it (too many other things scheduled that day!) but Don filled the van with Scouts and they headed to Clearwater on a Saturday a couple of weekends ago. They came back pretty happy because Mitchell's car had taken first place at least 6 times (apparently this was awesome!), so even though he hadn't won any of the big prizes, he was still pretty proud of his car and so was his DAD!!

Bologna Snobs

Okay, I'm taking a break from my travel blogs because this one has been in my head for a few days! What is a bologna snob?

I have to go back to my childhood when we lived out in the country and frankly we were not a rich family. Lunches if they weren't peanut butter and homemade jam (we owned a blueberry rock and had tons of wild strawberries which are very tiny!!!!!), then we had cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches a lot. Mom used to buy those huge 5 pound blocks of cheese that lasted forever (now that I'm a Mom I know they last about 2 weeks!) and so that's what I remember we had most (plus tupperware cups with drink crystals inside that we would fill with water at the water fountain and thus have juice!!). Mom also reminded me that it was almost always homemade bread too, how did she do it!!! I don't think it was until we moved into town that she started buying lunch meat and of course it was mostly bologna or salami. So I learned to love bologna sandwiches, with mustard and butter on white bread! Real healthy I know but they are just so good, not too many tastes..... just butter, tangy mustard and the bologna! ( I also like mock chicken, the meat with mac n cheese, or the kind with pimento in it, not real fussy with lunch meat).

So fast forward a few years to my family......... who are all bologna snobs!! If its not black forest ham, I don't know why I bother buying it!! They turn up their nose and refuse to eat it......or just complain and whine about it!! Why don't you buy the nice deli meat they say........ and I tell them because I flatly refuse to spend 10 bucks on a few slices of processed meat that is sliced super thin! At least with bologna you can buy the thick slices!! Not only that but only one likes mustard, someone else doesn't like mayonnaise, someone else wants the tomato in a separate container because it makes the bread soggy........ and I start yelling, "Do you think this is a restaurant? Because in this house you are going to get what you get and like it!!!" They don't believe me.......

So the package of bologna sits lonely in the fridge because I can only eat so many in one day....... maybe I should just go back to buying that big hunk of cheese!!!!