Daisies to Brownies!!!!!

It's official - Tate is a BROWNIE!!! We had a great ceremony this past weekend, where the girls literally went over a bridge to become Brownies. The theme was rainbows, and our Leader Tara outdid herself - she had the girls make these cute rainbow hanging things with 6 things they've loved about being Daisies (camping topped out as the #1 favorite for all the girls), rainbow balloons, rainbow backdrop for pictures, and rainbow goodies in their goody bag. She said it looked a little like a gay pride parade, which, yeah, but look how PC we girl scouts are!!

The girls have done amazing things this year - as Tara mentioned in her speech, the amount of service starting at 5 years of age is just outstanding. They have helped a family at Christmas, donated cookies to a troop in Afghanistan, donated money to an animal shelter and a women's shelter, and just recently sent cards to sister girl scouts in Oklahoma with friendship bracelets, to show them we are thinking of them. Here is Tate's card - love her drawing of a tornado.

And the girls on their big day:

 Typical Tate, embarrassed so she pulls away from me when I'm trying to give her a big kiss. Captured on film, no less! I look like a creepy lady trying to kiss some young kid...

One of the girls insisted that all three of us leaders cross as well, so that we can lead them as Brownies. 

Picnics

Tate and I enjoyed a picnic the other day - it was chilly out, but beautiful blue sky. Luckily we brought jackets with us, because WOW the wind was strong out in the field where we were! We decided to bring Spud, and he was a gentleman beagle as always. Sniffing around, but listening, and not eating our food. The sign of a good beagle. We ate, ran around a bit, watched the family flying a kite, then headed home. It was really windy. It's so easy to throw some food in a bag - we need to do this more often! It's unbelievable how happy it makes Tate...

Wine and Moms

A bunch of moms I know through Tate's grade all met up with the girls at a local winery. The girls ran, ran, ran - it was a dreary day, cool, but we moms huddled around a table with wine and a heater. Because the girls always seem to get badges for doing things, I made these for the moms to wear! Smith and his friend and his friend's mom ended up stopping by, and the boys were suddenly attacked by nine 7 year old girls. Seriously, Smith had a girl or eight attached to him at all times. Good sports, those boys. We had pistachios, crackers, Boursin, hummos - a great way to while away the afternoon. Both Tate and I were ready to go again the next day. This may become a standard summertime event!

Tate figured out a new way to play Cornhole. 

Mom/Daughter Trip

A couple weekends ago, my mom and I took a trip, just the two of us, to Annapolis, Kent Island, and St. Michaels. It was wonderful!! We drove to Annapolis, walked around and stopped in stores, bought some delicious chocolate turtles as a pre-dinner snack, then drove to Kent Island. Our hotel was 1/8 of a mile from the restaurant, the wonderful Kent Narrows. Mom arranged the hotel, and at first, because of proms, weddings, Naval Academy's dance, we were going to stay in a hotel that had a highway overlook. But she persevered, as she always does, and we ended up with a water view just near the restaurant!

At the restaurant, there were maybe 25 prom couples. So nice to see all the pretty dresses! Most of the dates had matching bow ties and vests, and most the girls had dresses in shades of melon - oranges, pinks, etc. Dinner was delicious - cream of crab soup, salads, and, of course, delicious chocolate mousse in a dark chocolate bag.

The next day we headed towards St. Michaels with a slight detour at an outlet mall. We ended up there for 2 hours!! It was fun to walk around, no deadlines, no rushing, just doing whatever we wanted. Lucky for us, we're usually on the same page with shopping!

St. Michaels is a quaint little town - I guess I didn't remember that the water part of it isn't really noticeable unless you walk off the main street. We had lunch at Town Dock (I think that's the name of it??) - right on the water. What started as a cloudy, dreary day, suddenly became sunny and gorgeous. We shared a crab cobb salad and wine for lunch.

It was a great weekend, and we decided that this is our new birthday present to each other from now on. How nice to have no deadlines, no interrupted conversation. Definitely something to plan again...

Summer 2002 and 2009

Smith and I were going through pictures a couple nights ago - he was in a band performance, so I was showing him video of it, which led us to look at baby pictures of him, which ultimately led us to find him on a French Horn when he was just a wee little guy! Oh those cheeks.

When I was looking at pictures, I came across these - Cassidy and I had fun in Hilton Head in the summer of 2009; we took Tate's Fischer Price animals. The pictures sort of speak for themselves. Goodness, my Beans was just 3! Look at that little belly!

Odds and ends

Smith started mowing the lawn. We kept saying he'd start when he was 10, then 11, but this will be the summer of 12 year old mowing. We worked out a mutually agreeable rate, so it's win-win. I told him that I kind of like mowing our lawn; it's small, takes about 25 minutes for me, and it's a nice time to kind of empty my head, not multi-task, zone out. He said, "Well, I'm in it for the money." Ha! He did say afterwards that it is rather relaxing, though.

Both kids are preparing for a run in Williamsburg. Smith is running with my brother, doing an 8k. The next day, my brother will be running a half marathon! Crazy. Tate's going to run a 1 mile fun-run for kids, no adults allowed! We go to the elementary school now and then to run them around the track. Smith does about a 10 minute mile which is apparently great - I think my mile would be 25+!! They both are fine with running, part of their day, etc. After the 8k, we will spend the whole day at Busch Gardens. The run comes with two BG tickets, and best of all, it's on Smith's birthday!! Such fun! He'll be fine - he runs 5ks all the time, and it's not a big deal for him.

I'm still mostly gluten free. I say mostly because I am not consciously eating or ordering anything with gluten, but if there are traces of it in something, I am not worrying too much. Did you know soy sauce has gluten? That kind of thing. I had some salad from Panera the other day while at a board meeting, and one of the things in the salad was almost a breaded onion thing in it. So that probably had gluten, but it was a side note. I'm also having traces of dairy, which I think may be more of an issue than I think. Blasted arthritis - so wish I didn't have it. I made these banana date muffins from the Gwyneth Paltrow book that were about as yummy as GF baking gets, I imagine. It's just different - different consistency, different texture. I imagine I'll get used to it and other things are fine, just the baked goods are very...meh. But they look pretty, don't they - with pepitas on top!

Spuddy, oh Spuddy. How I love you. He loves walking around and whimpering with stuffed animals in his mouth. I tell him how brave and strong and powerful he is, and I thank him for saving us from wild cheetahs. He is a dear, protecting us all. I'm not so sure about the Snoopy part - seems a little cannibal-like. They are both beagles, after all.

More later - my mom and I went on a weekend trip to Annapolis and St. Michaels and there are some pretty pictures from our time there. Also Smith just performed in a middle school band concert, and I'm signing off now to do a winery visit with friends and daughters that all just happen to be in the same Girl Scout troop. No Daisy vests allowed!!

Blame it on the Rain...

Ahhh, Milli Vanilli. Remember them? We had a talent show in high school and two girls dressed up like them, hair, outfits, etc, and did that dance and kept running up to each other for that belly jump. Still makes me laugh!

Anyway, they have nothing to do with this, except we went camping this weekend, Girl Scout style, and it rained and rained. A LOT. All of Tate's troop and moms went - it was really, really fun. But by Saturday, it was not raining, although quite wet, but we were able to do stuff outside without getting wet!

We have plans to do this again in the fall, same troop. But maybe not a sponsored event, and at a non-GS campground, because, well, wine.

Before the trip, Tate was beside herself with excitement - she did a scavenger hunt in the house, with the letter "C" for camping in a path to "something that goes with camping." It ended in our pile of sleeping bags in the living room. Love her love for everything!

Pre-trip, our Great Leader, Tara, and I, made these awesome shirts. Tara taught me how to do silk screening - we made one for every girl in the troop, and one for the 3 leaders (Tara, Michelle, and me), but as usual, I left it at home. Sigh. I will wear it soon to a meeting so all the girls can sign mine!

Some pictures from the trip:

See how awesome Tara is? She let all the girls who wanted to try and light a match to do so - chaperoned fire!

Shirt signing

My favorite little girl!!

Sunday was Mother's Day, and I got spoiled rotten. David and the kids went out the day before to buy some provisions - gluten free pancake mix, fruit, etc. I was served breakfast in bed - actually we all ended up eating in bed as they couldn't get enough of the pancakes either! We then went to Smith's soccer game. They are a good team in that they have the least amount of scores against, and they talk to each other, and they pass, and and and...but we don't have any natural scorers. So while our scores against are low, we end up losing because we don't end up scoring any goals. Well, this Sunday was AMAZING. Not only did they play great, like they almost always do, WE WON!!!!!!! It was just the best. An amazing game, happy mom's, dad's and BOYS! Smith said he forgot how good it felt to win! At the end of the game, the boys each got a flower from our great team manager, and they came running across the field shouting "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!"

faces blocked out to protect the innocent

My parents came to the game, and we met up with my brother, SIL and niece for a great lunch nearby afterwards. Mom and I even got to sit at the bar, just the two of us, for a fancy drink!

Happy Mother's Day!