Seth cooks

Summer's coming to an end and this boy has been working hard on his cooking merit badge. He and I put Jeff's charcoal grill together and with Jeff gone for soccer we had to figure it out all by our lonesome... okay not really all by ourselves. We called grandpa Bell for help. And it all worked out pretty well. Seth did a great job!

Pack meal

My boys have been working on the cooking merit badge. They had to make two pack meals. Adam needed to do the same, so Heidi and I decided to go out together to get it done.

We both forgot a hot pad, so the boys took off their shirts to use them as hot pads and then Sydney was sure she had to follow their example. So, they all three hung out shirtless, cooking and eating. Silly kids.

Here are the mom's... attempting to survive the cooking merit badge.

Cookies for Santa!

I love this little girl! And she loves Santa. She was so excited and anxious to make the big guy cookies. We tried out a new recipe, chocolate orange cookies and they were scrumptious!

Bakers

This girl loves to cook. She asks me on a regular basis to bake cookies or a cake. She's a good helper.

Mom's peach cobbler

When I make a recipe that my mom always made and even better when it's written on a card in her handwriting, I almost feel like she's there baking with me. It makes me so happy. I miss her so much right now and with every bite of that fattening dessert I thought of her. It was bliss. 

My Sous Chef

This girl LOVES helping mommy cook.

It's one of her new favorite things to do. 

And I love it too!

Don't drink the Kool-Aid

Look how she is lovingly looking at that Kool-Aid. 

I think she wants to be a Kool-Aid chef when she grows up. Because lately she wants to make Kool-Aid every-single-day!

At one point we had one pitcher in the fridge and two on the counter because there was no room in the fridge. 

But with the way the girl makes her Kool-Aid--no one else should drink it. So, if the Kool-Aid was on the counter it's kind of a warning not to drink it. 

She loves to stir it, but her hands and hair make it into the pitcher. And then she started lapping it up like a dog.

Cake in a Mug

I've been trying really hard to eat well. I've been making sure I use MyFitnessPal everyday, recording what I eat and staying within my calorie goal. And it's going well. I've lost 5 pounds and other than the headaches, I really do feel better! I feel more awake!

Well, the other night, I had 500 calories left at the end of the day. It felt like a grand opportunity to eat something totally yummy. So, I made Seth and I a cake-in-a-mug. They are so yummy! But I also made myself semi-sick trying to eat the whole delicious thing!

Cooking

Tim is so close to his Eagle... SO. CLOSE.

January of 2014 they decided to add another mandatory merit badge. 

(I'm sort of crying inside)

But Tim is such a trooper! All he has left is one more bike ride and now this cooking merit badge. And it's a biggy. A doozy. Whoo! 

It's coming though! 

Blue & Gold

My boys were so excited for our Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner. 

Landon originally wanted to make a cake with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on it.... Yeah... I'm not that good. So, we went with his 2nd choice, the American Flag.

Seth's was a giant chocolate chip cookie, but he still wanted to decorate it a little, so it's a cookie with daubs of frosting. :)

Seth's sold for $45 and Landon's $60 

And here's the cake we bought. It's missing 3 of it's spires... the kids ate those on the ride home. :)