Mataguay Scout Ranch

Well, three of the VanBuskirk men got to go to Boy Scout Camp last week for a week fun, hard work, and a lot of dirt!  Troop 104 had a great time time the wilderness together.

They got to sleep on cots in Army tents.  Ahh, the good life!

Dennis, and the other dads and scout leaders, Doug, Ron, Ty,and Polo, worked so hard, as You can see from these pictures.  I heard they managed to run off to the local casino... to get some apple cobbler. (Isn't that why most people go to casinos?)

One activity my guys really enjoyed was fishing.  They caught some pretty big ones.  They were catch and release, so nobody knows just how tasty they might have been.  But Dennis cam home all excited about his new-found hobby.  He has fished a few time before, but never actually caught anything.  Now he is a pro, and the guys will be doing a lot more of this I think.  Fine with me, as long as I get to eat the fish, and not clean it.

Mataguay Scout Ranch offered a lot of great merit badge classes that let the kids not only learn a lot, but also have some fun experiences.  Alex had a great time getting his canoeing merit badge where they had to practice rescuing an overturned boat, among other things.  

Alex also got to do a special overnighter where they did stargazing and had s'mores.  He really loved it!

Alex came home with 5 merit badges - Canoeing,  Indian Lore, Outdoor Cooking, Geology, and Weather.  That is awesome to get so many badges in one trip!

Nate got to do something very cool for his Aviation merit badge - he got to fly in a glider!  it was very exciting!  He spent 25 minutes up high in the air, and even got to experience zero gravity, just like the astronauts!  He said that zero gravity was so cool because the dirt on the floor of the cabin was just floating in the air in front of them.  Lucky kids!

Nathan also had an overnight adventure that didn't involve s'mores.  It was called wilderness survival.  They had to go out in the wilderness, build a shelter, and spend the night with nothing but what they carried in their survival kits.

Beside his merit badges in Fishing, Aviation, and Wilderness Survival , Nate also earned badges in Nature and Environmental Science.

There were a lot of other activities as well, like swimming, hiking, shooting, and just hanging out.  

Alex LOVES to hike, and he hiked all over the place.  It is tough keeping up with that kid on the trail.  He certainly wore in his new hiking boots.

Nate discovered he is quite the marksman, doing very well in both rifle shooting and archery.  Dennis was really impressed with Nate's accuracy.

The guys all had a great time.  What a great experience it was for them.  We love scouting.

Next year the twins will join them - that means five at camp, and only the two youngest and mom at home.  That will be strange.

Oh, and by the way, by boys have started their own blog, and Alex had documented this camp adventure himself.  Check out their blog, The BoyZone, at www.vbboyzone.blogspot.com, to get their perspective of life with 5 brothers.

Teenager Troubles

Yes, we are having teenager troubles.  Not with my 13 year old, or even my 12 year old.  This story is about Caleb.  He is five.

We went to the park this morning.  Caleb is in afternoon kinder. It was a dreadfully hot day so most of the kids were playing in the water feature.  All of the kids were tiny - shirtless toddlers in diapers.  Caleb was by far the biggest kid there.  So he was at the water feature all of three seconds before he ran off, obviously upset, to the other side of the park, where he just moped.  I could not figure what I or anyone had done to make him so upset.  So I went to go talk to him and ask him what the matter was.  "I can't go play in the water,"  he explained.   I told him that of course he could.  "But I'm not allowed to! " he protested.  I thought he meant I didn't want him getting wet, so I assured him that he could change before school if he got wet. He said, "I'm not allowed to because the water is just for babies."  I told him that that wasn't true, and pointed out that the mommies were playing in the water too, not just babies.  "It's only for mommies and babies," he insisted, "but not teen-age-ers." This was said in an ironic tone, that sounded pretty teenagerish, actually.

"So?" I said, not quite getting his point, "you're not a teenager.  Go play."

"I KNOW I am not a teenager, but everybody THINKS I am a teenager!"

I had to laugh out loud.  "Hon-ey, you might be big for your age, but NOBODY thinks you are a teenager."  

He is five, granted a gigantic five, but looks all of seven, tops.

He just started crying.  "EVERYBODY thinks I am a teenager.  Those moms do, and they don't want me to play with their little kids.  They think I'm a teenager, and nobody likes teenagers!"

Poor little guy.  There was nothing I could say to convince him that he really didn't pass for a teenager, and my amusement really wasn't very amusing to him. He was convinced that everyone thought he looked like a teenager, and nothing I said could convince him otherwise.   

We ended up leaving the park... and his childhood ... behind him.

Have compassion.  We all know adolescence is tough, but it especially rough when you are only five.

Alex' Birthday: an Series of Unfortunate Events

Poor Alex.

Today was his birthday.  He turned 13.  He is now a teenager.  Officially.  (OK, Obviously I am way too young to be the mother of a teenager!  Don't you agree?  It is some weird time warp thing.  Can't explain it.)

So becoming a teenager is kind of a big deal right?  (I remember my dad used to torture us.  When we turned 13, 14, 15, etc. he would always say, "So, you're finally a pre-teen!"  Drove us crazy.  Apparently he had a problem dealing with the fact that his little girls weren't so little anymore too. He still does, I think.)

Today was a big day -  but not for Alex.

Dennis' dad died this morning.  

Grandpa V. had been slowly dying for a long time, but he took his last breath this morning.  He was only 65.

We are all grieving.

Birthdays and death days should never be the same day.

Never mind that of all the birthdays, Alex is the most often neglected because it falls during the holiday season, so even in a good year, mom is a bit too busy to usually give him the kind of party I can give his brothers at other times of the year.

Never mind that our family life is kind up turned up on its end with Dylan sick.  

Then, Grandpa dies on top of all that.

Dennis was with his family until late.  I was away at Loma Linda for doctors' appointments much of the day, then at home I was rushing around trying to put out fires and get everybody to do what needed to be done.

Alex was neglected.

He even had to make his own birthday cake.

I tried, though.  I really did.  His only request was homemade pizza, and I made him his pizza, but it didn't get on the table until very late, almost 9, like an afterthought, and nobody was in much of a celebratory mood.

He opened his few presents.  (I haven't had much of an opportunity to go out shopping, as of late.)

He did get some very cool night vision goggles.  Wonder what he will do with those?  

And he also won the birthday drawing on the radio, which was very cool, but nobody heard his name on the radio or had a chance to go pick up his prize - a free birthday cake.

Good old Al, he never complained.  He was sad about grandpa too.  He said he understood.  But I was sad for him.  I believe birthdays should be a really big deal, especially monumental ones, like becoming a teenager.  I tried to make it as special as I was able, but it just wasn't in the cards for him today.

Today I had to be several people at once: On top of the bus driver, house cleaner, disciplinarian, etc. that I have to do everyday, I also had to be the doting nurse to a sick kid, the supportive wife to a grieving husband, and try to be the happy party planner  for the birthday boy.  I didn't handle it all very well.  Alex got the short straw today.

I'm so sorry, Dennis and family!  I love you all, and I pray for Mom and all of you!

Happy Birthday, Big Al!  

I'm throwing you a big party in my heart, OK?

Puppy with Big Paws

Don't get so excited by the title.  We did NOT get a dog.  Banish the thought.

Dennis took Alex, our oldest, out to buy new shoes for school yesterday.  When he got home he couldn't wait to show me.  

"Cool,"  I said.

"They're size 10 1/2!" he said, beaming with pride.

It took me a second to process.  Hello, that is a MAN's size 10 1/2, not a kid's size.  Remember?  It took me another second to do the math.  If I wear a women's 12, that translates to a man's 9 1/2...

"Holy Cow, boy!  You have bigger feet than I do!"  I grabbed his new tennis shoes right out of the shoebox, pulled out the tissue paper stuffing, and slipped them easily onto my enormous feet.

And the thing is, I have gigantic feet!!!  Size 12.  I can't even walk into your average shoe store and buy a pair of shoes.  In all my years of garage saleing, I have only once found shoes my size (that was a happy day!).  My feet are freakishly large.  His feet are larger - and I am almost a foot taller than him!  That might be why it caught me so off guard. He still seems little to me.  His feet, obviously, are not.

Whoa!  When did this happen?  Only 12 years ago his feet were like two inches long, and I would just marvel at his perfectly formed tiny little toes with those eensy weensy toenails.  

But the truth is, with the gene pool he has, there was never any hope for him, or any of my sons, to have normal size feet.  We used to joke that when our babies are born, they weigh the baby, then they weigh his feet.  Wait till Caleb gets bigger.  Special order shoes for him?

No wonder those boys sound like a herd of cattle when they're running through the house.  What ever happened to the pitter patter of little feet?

Anyways, I am over the shock of it now.  It was just one of those mom moments when you have to stop, and to try to catch up with how fast your kids are changing right under your nose.  Of course, he'll be up over my nose in no time.  That will be another shock, when I realize a kid is taller than me.  And THAT will be no easy task either.

It will happen, of course.  You know what they say about a puppy with big paws.