Double Digits

It's true.... time flies! Isabelle turned 10 on March 9th! These past 10 years have proved to be full of joy, laughter, excitement, fear, nervousness, tears, smiles, songs, hugs, kisses, love and just about everything you can imagine. Having a daughter brings something new just about every day! We're very proud of the young lady Isabelle is becoming.

Isabelle's day started with breakfast in bed.

Followed by her presents from us - a set of nail polishes and an alarm clock / radio that also docks and charges her iPod Touch.

Grandma Diane and Grandpa Clyde visited us in the morning.

Diane & the Birthday Girl

Isabelle opened a Lego Friends set from them plus two smaller Lego kits.

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Barb visited in the afternoon.

Isabelle opened a Butterfly Dreamlites and a unicorn Pillow Pet from them.

Isabelle requested, as usual, a "Caffeine Cake" from Grandma Barb. Isabelle doesn't like traditional cake, but she loves this one!

Here we are with our Birthday Girl!

And a goofy shot...

That evening, we had a birthday party for friends. The theme was a dance party, so our basement was decorated with a disco ball and a "scene banner" along the walls.

The girls had pizza from Zanzi's then had a good time dancing and playing their own games. Here they are running around the pole.

I made an ice cream cake again this year, a copycat recipe of Dairy Queen's cakes. It was delicious, although I admit the decoration could have been much better!

Time to open gifts from friends. Most of the gifts were gift cards. Rowan gave her a book, Out of My Mind, that she's really enjoying.

Seth got to hang out with Rowan's brother, Holden. The boys had a great time together!

Erika, Faith, Sara, Isabelle, Rowan, Hailey

And of course, a goofy pose

Happy Birthday, Isabelle!!

Safety Patrol

Isabelle is on Safety Patrol at school. This is something only 4th Graders get to do. They cross students at one busy intersection in front of the school. She loves it!

Here she is wearing her safety badge. I'm pretty sure she will be noticed in this bright green coat!

Upward Cheerleading

Isabelle participated in Upward Cheerleading for her sixth season this year (5th for basketball). She had a great time with her coach (Angel Ison) and all the girls on the team really got along well. The team was made up of 3rd and 4th graders. Isabelle made a couple of new good friends - Taylor and Tristya. The Upward colors change every season, and this time they were blue & gold.

Isabelle is second from the left.

At the beginning of each game, the cheerleaders and players run through an Upward banner and along a line of cheering parents. Isabelle was always the first one out, since it was alphabetical.

Seth in the tunnel - he got a lot of high fives from the players

Parker and Isabelle after the tunnel

Parker and Seth like to play together and have snacks during the games

At each game they performed two half time cheers. Here's a clip of one - Isabelle is the furthest in the front row (it was so crowded, I couldn't get any closer to record it).

There were also 2 Upward events at church this season. Stay tuned...

Parker's Hair

Parker decided to tear apart a window gel cling and put it in his hair. It kept him busy for a while, and it's quite fashionable!

Crazy Hair Day

Today was Crazy Hair Day at school. I think the kids' hair looked pretty good for the occasion!

And Parker and Mommy got to go out for breakfast at Big Boy. I love spending time going fun places with this little guy...

Parker liked to "hide" under the table

Happy Friday!

Seth is the Boat Champion!

Seth joined Cub Scouts this past summer. He's been having a lot of fun with it. They have Den meetings 1 -2 times a month, and a Pack meeting once a month. Seth's Den has 8 boys in it, and the Pack is a group of several dens together. The Pack event for January was a Regatta Boat race. Each boy received a boat that had to be put together and decorated. Shane and Seth did this together. The boats had to be inspected before they could race. Then they put the boats in rain gutters and the boys had to make the boats go just by blowing the sails, no hands allowed. They paired up the boys to race against each other and had a bracket-type tournament.

Seth won the race in his Den! Then the winners of the Dens competed for the Pack Champion, and Seth took 2nd place in the Pack!

Winning Medal

 

 

The top 3 Pack winners (our neighbor Dylan (middle) won third place)

 

Trophy, winning boat and a Medal

 

Here's Seth in his full Cub Scout uniform. He also has a hat and several more badges now.

 

Seth's Grandpa Clyde was a Boy Scout too! Here he is in 1952...

 And here is what the Boy Scout Handbook looked like (published in 1942):

Front cover

Back cover

This Handbook contained a lot of information and instructions on how to do so many things - start and put out a fire, cook over a fire, carry an injured person, swim, when to wear the Boy Scout uniform and many, many other topics.

Things have changed a bit... Seth's Tiger Cub Handbook has the look of a kids book and its pages are filled with requirements.

The cover of Seth's Tiger Cub Handbook (published in 2001)

One of the required family activies

As a Tiger Cub, Seth fulfills advancement requirements at home with his family and at den meetings with Dad or Mom. He's making great progress toward his Tiger Cub rank and is having a lot of fun with all of the activities and events.

Pajama Day at School

February is School Spirit month at school, and each Friday has a theme. Today was Pajama Day.