The MacFarland's » Brady

Happy 100th Birthday BSA!

krmac — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:12:33 +0000

Saturday was our annual Blue and Gold Banquet and we celebrated by throwing a birthday party in honor of the 100th year of Boy Scouts of America. This year as Bears, we were responsible for putting on the banquet, which was a major undertaking. I have the best den as everyone pitched in and pulled their weight to make this event happen. The night was wonderful, everything went perfectly and everyone looked like they enjoyed themselves. Saturday morning I met our den up at the church to get everything set up. We had to set up roughly 32 banquet tables and 240 chairs. Then since I was responsible for centerpieces and table decorations, I went to work with a couple of great helpers and got it all looking great. I couldn’t have done it without my awesome den moms and their daughters, who were so eager to help and got things put out correctly without me even having to give them instructions…so proud! That night the girls also headed up the ticket and check-in table and did a mighty fine job of it. Even though the day was very stressful trying to get things in order, it was fun being stressed out with my den parents. I really do have such a great group! After we rushed to get all 240 people served their dinner, we were able to sit down and enjoy the events. Each den was called up on the stage to be recognized with their badges. All ten boys who started out the year, graduated and got their badge…what an accomplishment! I think we might have been the only den that had all of their boys graduate. I am one proud den leader! The biggest moment of the night for us was when Brady won the category of “Most Campy” in the dessert contest. His face was priceless when he heard his name called, he was so happy and I was happy for him. We closed out the night by saying goodbye to our Webelos II scouts with the Arrow of Light Ceremony performed by a local Order of the Arrow troop, which is like the honor society of scouting. We also said goodbye to some great leaders including our current Cubmaster who will be moving onto Boy Scouts with his son. It was an overall wonderful night and was so happy that everything went as planned. I can’t wait to sit back next year and watch the new Bear parents do all the work!

Here are some photos from the evening

Crazy for Camping!

krmac — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:38:56 +0000

Tonight is our big Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet and every year we do a dessert contest. Brady came up with the idea to enter a cake into the category “Campiest”. He quickly, and very proudly, came up with the name “Crazy for Camping”. We sat and brainstormed on how we could decorate it and came up with some really cool ideas! Here are some photos from start to finish. We had so much fun being in the kitchen together, baking and getting messy.

***Since everyone was asking “how did you do that?” or “what are those made from?”, here is an explanation of the cake in detail.

I doubled a batch of white cake mix and baked it in a 13×9 pan with straight sides. Once it cooled i took a long knife and cut the top off to make it flat. I also used wax paper in the bottom so it would come out cleanly when inverted onto the base that I constructed out of cardboard and foil.

The whole cake was iced with green dyed vanilla icing, except for the stream which was blue dyed icing.

The trees are sugar ice cream cones smeared with icing then we took a knife and pushed it lightly all over the cone to make the “points”

The grass is shredded coconut dyed green then chopped up finely in a food processor.

The rocks ARE edible (that was the big talk of all the desserts!) They are just milk chocolate candies and I found a tub of them at Wal Mart on the candy aisle. They look almost too real, people were asking if they could eat them.

The tent is graham crackers smeared with orange dyed icing then leaned together with a stick pretzel for the top and supports.

The campfire is brown sugar for the dirt, chocolate covered peanuts for the rocks and stick pretzels broke in half for the firewood. The flame is just a dab of orange icing.

For the final touch we stuck 2 mini marshmallows on some stick pretzels

I don’t ever attempt stuff like this in the kitchen so Brady and I were both shocked we came up with this whole thing and actually pulled it off, haha!

Snow Day!

krmac — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:11:09 +0000

After waiting patiently all winter for some snow, we finally got some today! Final reports say Round Rock got about 2 to 2.5 inches of snow and it was just enough to be able to get out and have some fun in it. I loved watching it come down hard all day but was sad that the kids were in school and not home. I thought about getting them out early, but I decided to wait because I knew it was going to continue. It had let up for an hour or so before I left to get them and was wishing it would start coming down hard again and as I was sitting in the pick up line, it did! The kids were super excited, talking 90 miles an hour and we couldn’t get home quick enough. They ran upstairs, threw on extra layers of clothes, got their jackets on and darted outside, straight to the trampoline. It was like a dream come true for them really. I had been telling them since we got the trampoline last summer that if it ever snowed, they could go out and jump and play on it. So many giggles, so many smiles. We didn’t stay out too long because the kids were soaked and cold but before we headed back inside we ran out front to make a snowman. I loved watching them go crazy in the snow, even if it wasn’t all that much, it was only the second time we have seen a decent snowfall since we moved here in 1998. And to top it off, it was Kacey’s first real snow! Here are some photos from our fun in the snow…

Love makes everything better

krmac — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:29:22 +0000

Earlier this week Brady was sick with strep throat and was feeling pretty bad. Monday, while he was on the couch I caught these 2 cuddled up. Shorty has always been our “sick” dog. If you are sick, he is always right there by your side.

Then Tuesday morning we woke up and found this precious little message on Brady’s art easel in his room. Kacey had gone in there after he fell asleep Monday night and wrote ” I hope you feel better”. It’s moments like this that absolutely melt my heart.

Pinewood Derby

krmac — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:30:42 +0000

Today we were up bright and early for our cub scout pack’s pinewood derby car races. Brady and Scott worked really hard on B’s car and it turned out really good! Brady drew up his own plan and Scott let him use the saw (with help of course) to cut out his design. They then worked on sanding the body and polishing the wheels and axles. Then Brady painted it and I helped him apply the decals. The last step and the most important was to put the weights on and put graphite on the wheels to make them zoom. His car was the fastest out of our den and he came in 4th overall for our age group. Not bad! We thought he would end up in third place and advance to the finals, but it wasn’t to be. We are all very satisfied though because he had a much faster car this year than last. Brady had a great time and I loved watching the faces of all the boys…the winning, the losing, the happy and the dissapointed. It’s all an important thing to experience for these young boys. They were all such good sports and even if they didn’t do too good, they were happy for one another and happy and clapping for the winners….that is what it is all about!

Ready, Set, Race!

krmac — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:41:36 +0000

This past Sunday our Cub Scout Pack held the annual Raingutter Regatta at a local park here in Round Rock. The boys built their boats from a kit provided by the organization. After hours of sanding, painting and putting on the finishing touches, the boats are “raced” down a raingutter filled with water. It is always lots of fun to see the creativity that goes into all the boats. Brady went with a Red, White and Blue theme this year.

Elbow Deep in Pumpkin Guts!

krmac — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:04:13 +0000

Last night the kids and I carved the first of the two pumpkins that we bought this weekend at the Pumpkin Patch. We decided to do a traditional jack-o-lantern face since it’s been a few years. The kids helped me cut out the eyes and nose and loved getting their hands all in the squishy pumpkin guts. Tonight I will tackle the larger pumpkin and we still need to decide how we want to carve it. Scott snapped some photos during last night’s carving session…he makes a pretty good photographer

Pumpkin Patch

krmac — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:52:29 +0000

Today Scott and I took the kids to a local church’s pumpkin patch. The kids went crazy at the sight of all the pumpkins. Brady immediately went for the largest pumpkins he could find and Kacey loved all the little baby ones. We let the kids choose their own pumpkins then we picked out two for carving. I loved how Scott got into it, helping me to find the perfect ones. I can’t wait to start carving on them….and I better get started because it might take me all week to get it done!

First Day of School

krmac — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:50:37 +0000

Here are a few photos I snapped this morning of the kids on their first day of school. Brady was so excited to be back and Kacey did very well when I walked her to class. No tears at all, just happiness and smiles.

My Big Kindergartner and 3rd Grader!

Kacey got settled in her seat and started playing. She was very happy about having a friend from her preschool class sitting beside her in the new class.

I think she is also comforted knowing that big brother is just above her upstairs in the 3rd grade hall.

I walked Brady to his room and casually said goodbye, no hugs or photos or anything. He pretty much sat down and got straight to work…they don’t mess around in 3rd grade!

He was, however, petrified when he realized I had come back upstairs after dropping Kacey off to get a photo of him. He was muttering “oh my gosh mother” when I walked in! The teacher thought it was funny!

Here is a photo I got when we got home from taking Brady to Kung Fu this afternoon. First day of school just wore her out completely!

Hop on Pop

krmac — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:16:08 +0000

What a lazy, do nothing, lay around, relaxing kind of weekend. Doesn’t get any better than that!