Arrow of Light

Tonight was a big night for Le. Le is ending his 5th year in Cub Scouts. Next month he will cross over to Boy Scouts. Tonight there was an "Arrow Of Light" ceremony. This is the highest award a Cub Scout can receive. A total of ten 5th grade boys have worked hard this year to achieve this award. It was a very emotional night. The lights are turned down. There are seven candles. Each a different color. As each candle is lit the meaning of the color is revealed. The Scout Leaders then call out each boys name. As the Scout and parent approach the front an arrow is shot into the arrow of light. It was very dramatic. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. We have been blessed with a WONDERFUL troop. There is a core group of five boys who have been together since 1st grade. They all work and play very well together. (As do the parents!) We are all VERY proud of our soon to be Boy Scouts.

Brush Pile Burn

Tailgating in the back yard. A man and his dog! (No Hans is not an alke. He's holding Gabby's drink for her.)

Two Chace men.

Terry and Dinah. Can you tell they are related????

Blaire and Dan.

More tailgating.

Three years and going strong. Barbar and Kevin.

This is a crappy picture but I wanted to include a good picture of my "adopted" daughter, Blaire.

It's man talk.

Dan, Samuel, and Sammi in the club house.

Barbara demonstrating her wig she will wear dancing in Don Q.

Kevin demonstrating Barbara's dance in Don Q.

Even Bailey had a friend to play with.

Patrick the pyro! (What little.....big boy isn't?)

Smores for everyone!

The real men of River Forest Lane.

The real men to be of River Forest Lane.

Yesterday was the annual "Burning of the Brush Pile". We have a HUGE brush pile in our back yard. It takes us a year of clearing brush, trimming bushes, etc. to "build" this brush pile. After the snow storm a few weeks ago we had even MORE brush to clear out of the woods. This is almost a come as you are party. We have to call the day of to get a burn permit. Once we get the permit we have to call the local fire dept. and inform them we are having a burn. We've tried to have the fire for a few weeks now but either because of the wind or dry conditions we haven't been able to do it. Once we got the fire going we started calling people to let them know it was on go. We had a great time. Everyone showed up around 5:30pm. We roasted hot dogs and grilled hamburgers and had a GREAT kick off to spring.

Sandy and Scott Rock The Allman Brothers

Sandy just got home from a GREAT weekend in NYC. The boys and I gave him two tickets to see the Allman Brothers at the Beacon for his birthday. This yearly concert has been on Sandy's "bucket list" forever. To make it even more fun, Sandy's best friend lives in NYC. I think the concert exceeded Sandy and Scott's expectations. Thanks Scott, Michelle, Lilly, and Ella for adding so much fun to this weekend! BFF 40 years and counting!

The birthday boy!

Sandy's parting shot. Pucci, Ella, Lilly, and Michelle.

Chef Sandy

The Wednesday night dinner with the Dietrich's was a real treat this week. Sandy made Chicken Cordon Bleu. YUM! These weekly dinners have really brought out the inner chef in Sandy. After last night I think he might have missed his calling. He's hammering out the details...yuk,yuk.

Then the bread crumbs.....

Ham and swiss cheese rolled up and stuck with a toothpick. (That was my job.)

Cheese on top and ready for the oven! He even made a homemade sauce to spoon over the finished product. I swear, it was SO good I could have drank it!

Tinkerbell's first experience in snow.

Tinkerbell's view out the back door. Tinkerbell is out the door.......

3 seconds later Tinkerbell is reconsidering actions......

RETREAT!

AAAHHH! Back inside and warm!

It SNOWED!!!

From Left to right:Danial, Dinah, Jeff, Le, Daniel Dietrich, Samual.

Standing in the middle of a blizzard!

We have had an exciting couple of days. A rare occurrence happened Sunday night. It snowed! It was a thick wet snow that stuck to everything. BEAUTIFUL! It rained all weekend and Sunday at about 4:30pm it changed over to snow. It was really cool because there was a lot of lightening and thunder while it was snowing. At 7pm we couldn't stand it any longer. We all bundled up and went outside to play. We, along with the Dietrich's, were out until about 10pm. The snow stopped about midnight. We got 5-6 inches. Of course there was no school yesterday or today. Lucky for us it's going to be 72 degrees on Saturday. (Ya gotta love the south.)