Friendship Festival

Just a few photos from this year's Friendship Festival celebrating the Girl Scout's World Thinking Day! This year, the girls chose to represent Poland. They researched and presented information about life in Poland, Polish Girl Guides and famous Polish women Irene Sendler & Marie Curie. At the festival, they ran our troop booth, which included our information, Polish items, Polish foods (pierogies & pizzelles) and a Polish-themed craft. The girls also had the opportunity to tour the other booths and attend an informative session.We had a great afternoon!

Degen's Dino-Mite Bowling Party

I made my cake-decorating tasks pretty easy this year and made this dinosaur cake using a toy dinosaur kit. I added a volcano and some jungle leaves going up the sides of the cake, and I think it turned out really well!

Degen had his party at a crazy-busy-loud bowling alley! Everyone seemed to have a good time, but I was too busy playing host and the kids were too busy bowling to stop for pictures until we got to our party room! We loved having our friends together for a few hours of bowling and arcade games! Thanks to our amazing friends for joining us to celebrate Degen's birthday! I have known most of these kids since they were in diapers, and it means so much to our family to have them in our lives today! 

Happy 7th Birthday, Degen!

We started the day off with the traditional birthday donut!

Our baby boy is growing up! He had an awesome 7th birthday filled with all the things he wanted to do, including: donuts, Chuck E. Cheese, a trampoline park, board games with Daddy, his choice for meals, UNO with the family, presents, cake AND gum! Yes, he is now 7 and can chew gum! This is something he has been waiting to do for years!

His first gift of the day was this gum-robot! 

After lunch, we went to a trampoline park!

Obstacle Course!

Degen & Kyrie showed off some of their gymnastics skills!

Degen's family cake!

Girl Scout Cookies

Kyrie & Darren hit the neighborhood in January to sell Girl Scout Cookies! She has been a Top Seller in her troop since she was a Daisy, and she loves knowing that her hard work helps to provide funds for her troop! Each year, she sells more cookies than the last, and this year was no exception. She will also participate in 2 cookie booths this year. Her troop is working on their Bronze Award project of making entertainment bags for people at a residential facility for the disabled. They also plan to go on a troop camp-out and would like to visit the Hocking Hills for hiking & zip-lining! We are proud of Kyrie for her hard work and Thankful to all our family, friends & neighbors who support her each year.

Ice Skating & Hockey

February was seemingly all about the winter sports. After we hit the slopes, we hit the ice for an afternoon of ice skating before an evening of hockey! We have been attending the Girl Scout Day with the Columbus Blue Jackets for several years now, and we really enjoy it! The Girl Scouts and Arena staff did a great job with the program this year. We were back on the Arena ice, which is just a more special experience. The kids had fun ice skating with Darren. 

That evening, we headed back to the Arena for the Blue Jackets game against the Ottawa Senators. This was a great game with the CBJ scoring 4 goals and winning! We look forward to attending this event again next year!  

(I did not go ice skating... see my previous note in our skiing post. Darren is good on skates, but had a pretty good fall on the ice and bruised his ribs, so I think that my decision is pretty sound.)

The start of the game! 

After each goal, there is a mini-celebration with cheering, music, a cannon blast (which Kyrie hates!) and flag waving! 

Great night for the Blue Jackets! 

Skiing

This was our second year heading up to Mad River for their Girl Scout Day. Last year, we hit the tubing hills, and this year the kids & Darren decided to hit the slopes. We started out on the bunny hill with Darren & I offering basic instructions and lending helping hands when the kids fell. There were some tears, but then they seemed to catch on and enjoy the experience. We had them take a ski course with Mad River instructors for good measure. By the afternoon, they were ready to hit some easy runs on the main hill. They went down at least a half-dozen times and really loved it. It has been a warm and somewhat short winter, so I do not think we will be able to get back out to ski again this year, but they are definitely looking forward to skiing more often next year. I am grateful that Darren now has two ski companions! 

(I stayed off the skis as I have become very aware that if I should injure myself, our family could have some major issues dealing with day-to-day life.... I have decided not to tempt fate.)