Arrow of Light

Sam received his Arrow of Light award at the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet. This is the highest award one can receive in Cub Scouting. As you can see, Mom presented the award to Sam and his fellow Webelos II Scouts (as their Den leader). Dad also presided as emcee over the banquet, as the Cubmaster.

This was the last Cub Scout event that Sam would attend. (He was sick for the Crossover ceremony at Discovery Elementary in March.)

Mall Parking

Everyone knows that people in Virginia don’t know how to drive in the snow. Pete and Dad discovered that apparently they don’t know how to park in the snow, either.

They were able to piece together what happened in the above picture. First, the mini-van decided that since it snowed he can park across four spaces. Then the other cars decided to implement vigilante justice and park all around the mini-van so he would be stuck there for a while.

Pete seemed to appreciate this community effort. It fit in well with his sense of fairness.

Nagoya - The Home Edition

Dad thought it would be fun and economical one night to cook dinner for the family and try to emulate the Nagoya experience at home. It did not go as smoothly as expected. First of all, he did not plan to spend 20 minutes cutting the chicken (which only takes the chef a matter of seconds in the restaurant). And it was all downhill from there. Somehow, the rice cooker did not cook the rice smoothly (is that even possible?). So no one would eat the rice, which is kind of a deal-breaker to begin with.

The good news is that there was plenty of food for whoever was willing to try it. You can see in the picture above that Pete ended up with a decent plat of steak and chicken. Just whatever you do, please avert your eyes from the griddle in the background. Which surprisingly did not simply wipe clean with a damp rag like the grill at Nagoya.

Family Thesaurus

Sometimes Dad digs pretty deep to come up with games to play at dinner. On this particular night, he decided it would be fun to name words and try to guess some of the synonyms listed in the thesaurus. Unfortunately, however, apparently not all Thesauruses are created equal. Which is fine. But Dad was deeply disturbed when someone pointed out that the word “chum” was not even listed in alphabetical order.

Duct Tape Sleeves

Sam know what he likes, and he certainly knows what he doesn’t like. And what he doesn’t like is snow going up his sleeves. Of course, the solution for this involves some creative use of duct tape. If you look carefully at the picture above, you can see that Sam is playing in the snow – which means that he has some duct tape around his wrists.

Can Stack

Mom got a good deal on canned goods the other night at Giant. Her only mistake was to leave them all out on the counter before going to bed, with Pete still awake. The next morning she had some un-stacking to do.

Chair Man

Dad knew something looked odd when he glanced over at Sam one night during dinner, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Perhaps Sam had been working out.

Timeline Project

Pete had some crazy assignments this year. Case in point, the timeline that he had to do for pre-AP History. Above is a picture of Pete’s timeline laid out on Mom and Dad’s bedroom floor. Pete is lying next to it to give an idea of the scale. Or maybe he passed out from working on it all night - it's hard to say. 14 pages in all its glory.

And don’t even mention the “Thrice Told Tale” and personal Anthology that he did for Honors English.

Nice Font

Some of Sam’s basketball games could get a little dry at times. Fortunately there are other things to enjoy besides the quality basketball. For example, Dad was blown away by the awesome font they used at the Rock Ridge gym in Loudoun Valley Estates. Look at how thick that ‘K’ is!

Also, Sam’s team won the game. Or lost. Can’t remember. This is also the game where Nana and Poppy couldn’t find the school so they turned around and went home.

Cub Scout Ice Skating

Dad managed to convince Sam to come to the Cub Scout ice skating event at the Ice House. They had a great time. Sam is wearing his Cub Scout t-shirt, although you won’t catch a glimpse of it from under his sweatshirt.

Sadly, Sam suffered a bit of an injury to his “rear” extremities, rendering him unable to play in his basketball game. (He did sit on the bench to cheer his team on.)