The MacFarland's

Cameron Park Zoo

krmac — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:55:35 +0000

Saturday we met up with our parents in Waco and had lunch together then surprised the kids with a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo. The whole thing was actually a surprise for Brady for his birthday. 2 weeks ago we planned everything out that we would all meet at Luby’s and the grandparents would surprise him. The timing worked out beautifully and all the grandparents were waiting inside when we pulled up. We told the kids we were just stopping for a bit to have lunch then we had 5 more hours in the car. Yes, we are cruel, I know Brady’s face was so funny, he looked like he was thinking he was being set up or something. I think he was genuinely shocked to see them. We hadn’t told the kids anything about the day except that we would be driving somewhere fun. They had all sorts of guesses but never guessed we would be meeting the grandparents for an exciting day in Waco. The zoo was so much fun! None of us had ever been so it was exciting getting to check it all out. The kids had a blast and I think everyone else did too! Click on the link below to see the photos from our fun filled day at the Cameron Park Zoo.

Zoo Photos

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.

Crazy Hair!

krmac — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:48:15 +0000

I just love it when K’s hair gets all crazy and frizzy when she’s jumping on the trampoline..

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!

Christmas Morning

krmac — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:55:26 +0000

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and Santa was really good to the kids. For once, the kids actually came in and woke us up and we all went downstairs together. I was so happy they did because we got to see their reactions to their gifts. Usually they have already been downstairs playing when we wake up, so we miss out on those first few moments. Some of their Santa gifts for the both of them were iPod Nano’s, digital cameras, and art easels.

Cookie Dough, Sprinkles and Sugar…Oh My!

krmac — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:01:33 +0000

This morning the kids and I decided to bake some cookies for Santa…what messy FUN!!! After they made around twelve cookie cut-outs for the santa cookies, they decided to take the rest of the dough and play with it and make their own huge cookies. I just let them go nuts with it and do what they wanted and be creative. It was so fun watching dough, flour and sprinkles flying everywhere! They loved playing with the rolling pin and making a huge mess for Mom to clean up

Schlitterbahn Hill Country Christmas

krmac — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:10:36 +0000

Tuesday night we loaded up and headed south to New Braunfels for some family fun at Schlitterbahn Waterpark. We didn’t quite know what to expect, this was our first time going and it really exceeded our expectations! The whole place was lit up with over 1 million lights and tons of decorations. I think all of us were in awe at the sight of all those lights. We walked through candy cane lane, and visited Schatze the Dachshund, the mascot, at Schatze’s Central Park, which was decorated up like a Christmas wonderland. Then we headed over to the Christmas Carousel and Kacey and I took a whirl on it…awe to be a kid again. We watched Mr. Scrooge for a bit then the kids ran through a hay maze. We then walked over to the The Luge Sled Run and all four of us grabbed a sled and made the steep climb to the top of the slides. I expected Kacey to chicken out once she realized how high up we were but she threw that sled down and took off when it was her turn. I went at the same time, right next to her and I was trying to go slow and keep up with her but my lane was super fast and I flew down to the bottom and thought at one point I was going to take flight, haha! I looked back up and Kacey had huge smiles coming down the last part and she was really moving fast! We waited for the boys, who went right after us and both had huge smiles and I think Brady was even laughing when he got off. We handed our sleds to the people in line and made our way over to the ice skating rink area. We stopped and bought the kids some souvenirs, watched the ice skaters then walked along the banks of the Comal River, which was lit up beautifully. We stopped to watch the Christmas Reflections light show and it was spectacular! The lights in the trees and over the water danced to the music. After the show we made our way around to where the Abominable Snowman was known to be and walked around till we spotted him. They had fog machines going and during the summer it is a Congo River water ride but they had it transformed into a Congo Christmas. It was really cool and we all loved walking through the mysterious thick fog. The night seemed to go by really fast but so much fun was had and lots of memories made. On our way out the kids stopped in the gift shop and built themselves a stuffed animal (kind of like build a bear) the we hit the road for the hour long drive home. We will definitely be back next year!

Click here for all of the photos from our fun-filled night