Six things about the first day of 6th grade.

• Woke up around 6:30.
• Packed a lunch made up of a ham and cheese sandwich, Combos and yogurt.
• First year with a male homeroom teacher. Don't know much about him yet accept that he wore a Taco Bell hat to school one day last year. That's how you make an impression with elementary kids.
• Found out that she really needs 3 small cheap binders instead of the huge expensive one that we purchased (The school supplies list that we consulted list did not specify)
• Friends are present and accounted for in each class
• Afternoon bus drop-off was actually early and accurate. In other words, the bus driver didn't drive past her stop, and she wasn't the last kid on the bus for once.

Rainy day women.

At the end of June, our Girl Scout troop went on it's yearly camping trip. This time instead of going to a council organized camp event, we decided to go on our own as a troop to Camp Guyasuta. It's a campground owned by the Boy Scouts that's less than ten minutes from our house. So weren't being particularly adventurous for our maiden voyage. Nonetheless, it took months of planning, paperwork and packing to make it happen, and my co-leader and I had to attend an all day outdoor training in order to meet Girl Scout's requirements for camping.

Finally, the weekend arrived. The forecast? Heavy rain and thunderstorms. This was quite a downer since the majority of the activities that we had planned, like campfire cooking, archery, swimming and geocaching, were outdoor activities.

Like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scout motto is, "Be prepared." Our troop motto for that weekend became, "Make the best of it." Well, we did more than make the best of it - we made a heck of a good time! With the exception of swimming, (Because there really was a torrential downpour most of the day Saturday) we actually got to do everything that we had planned. In fact, we had so much fun, Lauren said that she didn't want to leave!

When we arrived on Friday, the weather was still clear, so we were able to start with some campfire fun. First we made these awesome sit-a-cans:



A sit-a-can is basically a bucket with a lid that acts as both storage for your camping gear and your seat at the campfire. Speaking of campfires, since it rained most of the weekend, we were only able to make one campfire, and that was due to the tenacity of my co-leader who would not give up on getting our fire started even though we were dealing with very damp wood. Thanks to her efforts, we all got to enjoy campfire cones.



We woke up Saturday morning to lots and lots of rain. Thankfully, we rented a lodge with electricity, indoor bathrooms and a full kitchen. Not so lucky were the Boy Scouts that were tent camping on the grounds across from our lodge. I just noticed that you can see them sitting outside the window in this picture - lol.

So since swimming was out of the question, we did a craft - no-sew bandana pillows.



They came out awesome, and the girls loved them.




While we are on the topic of awesomeness, I have to take the time to brag about our girls. What you see in this photo is what makes me so happy and proud to be part of Girl Scouts. Everyone is included. Everyone is having fun. When the girls had down time, they would just breakout in a spontaneous game whether it was cards, hand clapping or just being goofy. As volunteers, we do all this work and planning to come up with fun things for them to do together, but leave them to their own devices and magic happens.

After a busy morning, it was time for our archery session. Big props to the Boy Scouts for having an indoor as well as an outdoor archery range!

By the time the afternoon rolled around, it actually cleared up enough for us to head out and do some geocaching.



The wellies that I had purchased for this trip were a very, very good investment.



After slipping and sliding through the muddy trails, the girls found a cache!




We signed the log and exchanged one of the pins that we made for a mini magic trick kit.




Here's girls posing in at the outdoor chapel.




When I asked them to make silly faces, they were happy to oblige. There should be a badge for that!

And that wraps up another successful year of scouting. Here's to many more!

Meet Mr. Pancakes.

Time for a long overdue introduction. Meet Mr. Pancakes - he's a Syrian or "teddy bear" hamster. Lauren has been begging us for hamster for sometime now. We had been hesitant to give into her on this one because our inn is quite full here with the two dogs, a cat, several fish and chickens.  To convince us, she wrote an essay all about teddy bear hamsters and promised that she would take care of him all by herself and on top of that, wash dishes.



We have yet to see any dishes being washed, but Lauren has been a great mama to Mr. Pancakes.

 

 And apparently he's a Pirates fan, so he fits right in with the rest of the Ross Family!

What we did in May.

 

After Lauren's birthday weekend, May continued to be a busy month. The next weekend we went to Phipps Conservatory's May Market to browse the plants, flowers and other horticultural items sold by local vendors.

 

On the way over to Phipps, I had to get a photo of our very own "locks of love" display on the Schenley Park Bridge. They've been doing this in Europe for years, but Pittsburgh is always about 3-5 years behind trend.



For Mother's Day, we went to see the Pirates play. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, but I've become a little obsessed with it lately. I've either watched or listened to almost every Pirates game this season and already have tickets lined up for several games this summer. Anyway, it was an incredibly hot 90 degrees that day, which made it impossible to sit comfortably in our seats.  We ended up standing underneath the stands in right field for the majority of the game, but it didn't really matter because the Pirates won and I got a free tote bag just for giving birth to Lauren.

After showing her the trailer for The Birds, Mark convinced Lauren to go see the full movie at the Row House Cinema, a new single screen theater in the hipster Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. There is nothing more terrifying than having to listen to the children of the Bodega Bay School sing what Mark calls, "the song you hear before the birds peck your eyes out as you're left kicking and screaming helplessly on the street."



 

When I came home from work on May 21st, I was surprised to see Lauren's photo on the cover of our local newspaper! Her GATE class was being featured for their project where they built a simulated lunar colony out of duct tape, plastic and fans. Alison, the girl next to Lauren, is also in my Girl Scout troop. You can read more about the project here.



Speaking of Girl Scouts, our troop earned their Bronze Award, the highest award you can earn as a Girl Scout Junior. For their service project, girls collected donations of comfort items such as toiletries, socks and towels and assembled care bags to give to children in foster care.



For the second year in a row, we attended our local Memorial Day ceremony. Our area Girl Scouts strewed petals to honor and remember those who served.



Lastly, after seeing giant stuffed donuts given out as prizes at Kennywood's impossible to win games, Lauren decided that she would just make her own and give them to her friends. She did most of the work herself, and they turned out awesome!

She's a 10.

 

I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not feeling the 52 weeks project this year. Part of it is due to just being busy with other things, but it's mostly due to the fact that I've been really struggling lately to produce any photographic work. Anytime I try to pick up my camera I feel like I'm shooting the same old things, and I just don't feel motivated to put in the effort it takes to stage a photo either. So rather than fight it, I'm going back to my old way of blogging and share photos when something interesting is happening. After this post, I'll do a month-in-review for May (Because a lot good stuff happened last month!), which should catch us up just in time for my birthday.

But first, we have to go back to over a month ago when Lauren celebrated her 10th birthday. She had asked me to draw a tiger for her. :)

We started the day off with presents.

Lauren follows a few of the internet celebrity kitties, but her favorite is Lil' Bub.

She's almost as good as having the real Bub.

Lauren's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which also happened to be our school district's annual picnic at Kennywood. So instead of a party, she wanted to go to the park with a couple of friends. The weather was perfect and the girls had a fantastic time. I wish I had some photos to share, but for the second time, I managed to lose a valuable piece of electronics at Kennywood. You would think I would have learned when I lost my Coolpix on the Kangaroo a few years back, but no. This time, it was my iPhone on the Thunderbolt. I realized right away that it must have fell out of my pocket, but it was no where to be found. I did my best not to let it ruin the day because it was just a phone (and an older model one at that), and once we got home, I changed all my passwords, disconnected my Apple ID from it and reported it lost to my carrier. Live and learn - me, electronic devices and amusement park rides don't mix.

 

On Sunday, we had a family party for Lauren. This year's theme was the Eiffel Tower, because that's the design that Lauren had picked for her cake.

 

Keeping the tradition of the homemade birthday banner!

And here it is - I practically wept at the sight of it. Best. Birthday. Cake. EVER.



 I also carried the theme into my sketchbook journal for this week.



Then it was time for more present opening.

 

Pappy was giving her the business about something. If I would have wrote this a month ago, I would have remembered what it was!

 We close with the big moment! When did this:




Become this:

 

 

52 Weeks of 2015 - Week 14

 

This week's theme was blessings. I don't think I need to explain my photo choice any further.

 

Last year for Lauren's birthday, we bought her a new bike. Because she was in between sizes, we decided to get her a bike that she could grow into. The downside was that it was just a little too big for her to ride. This year, it's just right.

Some bonus photos of Kitty Coco. I noticed how her eyes coordinated with the aqua accents in the background, so I had to take some photos.

She's got the life. First it's bath time...

...then it's nap time.

 

No significance behind this week's sketch. Lauren has these really cute bird toys that sing and repeat what you say, so I just decided to draw one because I liked the colors.

52 Weeks of 2015 - Week 12

 

This week's topic was growth. I couldn't help but take a photo of these crocuses growing near my parents' house. And would you look at that - BEES! It's been too long, my busy, buzzy friends.

 

I had signed Lauren up to make a glass egg at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. When we arrived, she was probably the youngest person there. I was wondering if she would be able to work with the heavy metal tools, but she used them like a pro. She always exceeds my expectations!

 

Here's the finished product.




Given my excitement over the bees, I decided to draw one. I've also begun to incorporate Instax photos into my journals. First I picked up a Fuji Instax Mini 8
camera, but shortly thereafter, I learned about their Instax printer, which is a mini portable printer that can be used to print photos wirelessly from your cellphone. Both the camera, printer and film are a bit pricey, but I think it was worth it from a creativity standpoint and just because they so fun to use. The Instax camera has a bit of a learning curve, but I'm enjoying the process and hope to add many more photos to my journal.

52 Weeks of 2014 - Week 44

I can't believe that Halloween has already come and gone. We were so busy with other stuff this month, that I didn't really have a chance to enjoy it. Now it's on to Thanksgiving and Christmas.



This year, Lauren dressed as a zombie girl. I'd like to say that she was playing the part for these photos, but that's just really her naturally grumpy look.



We were just leaving to drop her off at her friend's house for trick-or-treating and a sleepover, so I guess it's understandable that she wasn't in the mood for picture taking.

If George Romero ever decides to film another Dawn of the Dead movie here in Pittsburgh, she'll be a shoe in.