Posted in Before FIAR book activities

 This is another Before FIAR title, chosen in honor of Ted’s birthday being this week. Red happens to be his favorite color, and rolling out the red carpet is a great idea for birthdays! (Alas, we forgot to do that actual part, but we had a blast anyway.)

We turned in our shoeboxes at church, and Ted has continued on with choir practice.

Monday we did our lessons and then Ted did another Cub Scout elective activity by selecting and preparing the snack for the evening’s den meeting (it was our turn to bring snack). Unfortunately the meeting plans changed … instead of six Tigers and their moms, it ended up being the whole pack plus siblings and parents … but Lysle said it stretched. (I asked him to take over, once I found out they planned to work on those crazy boats during the meeting.) They had a good time anyway, though Ted would have preferred more free time to play with all his friends.

Tuesday we did manage to go to storytime, which was all about baths. The pirate bathtime story was very cute. Afterwards Karen and her kids came over to eat lunch and visit, and though I think we ended up visiting longer than was good for their busy schedule, we had a really good time, and it was very refreshing.

Wednesday Maddy and I began to bake Ted’s birthday cake… I had thought he would want to help, but he insisted on being surprised … though he ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and red lettering. And a number 7 candle. We had the cake mix and canned frosting, but not enough for red. That turned out to be a problem, as we were out of both shortening and powdered sugar…

Thursday we took the day off of lessons to celebrate. The kids decorated with red balloons and streamers, and Grandma (bless her heart!) rescued us with lunch. I say rescue because Maddy turned out to be sick, thus nixing all our possible plans for the day. She had been up ALL NIGHT the night before, crying and sniffling and watching movies. Lysle took most of that duty. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa Glenn came bearing Captain D’s and gifts, and were much welcomed.

 Their gifts to Ted were a nifty solar system walk-on mat from Learning Resources, and a globe lamp that plugs in and lights up. Ted loves both. Grandma also brought a Play-Doh party kit, which we saved for the next day (a good choice).

For dinner, Daddy took the night off of overtime, and we had Ted’s chosen dinner of hot dogs and fries, eaten camp-style in the Cranium fort tents he’d built. (Maddy was napping at that point.) Then we gave him his big gift, a V. Smile Cyber Pocket. He had been wanting a handheld game system (he really wanted a Nintendo DS but we weren’t quite ready for such a big purchase for a 7 year old, though the FIAR mamas gave good advice about them). And we have a V. Smile system already, so have lots of cartridges. I wasn’t initially impressed with the handheld, but Ted loved it and it worked a lot better than it did when I tested it out. So it’s a hit! Yay!

Friday, since Maddy was still sick, we cancelled our Jennifer visit (she was sick last week so we missed that one too) and after lessons we did the Play-Doh kit. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and there are a lot of goodies left to share when we try it again with friends. A very cute concept.

Tomorrow is our big Rain Gutter Regatta … they worked hard tonight to finish up the boats, the final touches like decals. We shall see how it goes! Also the popcorn orders are supposed to be ready, so we will hope we did everything correctly…