The Saga of the Armpit Stitches - Part Two

It's been two weeks since Adam slipped in our tree and ended up getting stitches in his armpit. You can read all about that fun day here.

Yesterday we headed to the doctor's office to have the stitches removed. I assured Adam that it would be easy and not painful.

I was wrong.

One of the stitches had a knot that was embedded under his skin. Three doctors tried to get that stitch out. Two nurses had to hold Adam down. He screamed and screamed. It was really horrible and I felt so bad for him.

They couldn't get that last stitch out so we had to go to the emergency room again.

This was so crazy. He had more pain and trauma getting the stitches removed than he did when he had the accident and got the stitches. AND we waited A LOT longer at the ER and had medical staff who were a lot less friendly and helpful.

In the end they gave him a (painful) shot to numb the area and then with one quick snip it was done. It was literally less than a two minute procedure..... but the whole saga ended up taking SEVEN hours!

Adam was very patient (a patient patient - ha ha). I was less patient (big surprise). He is happy to be cleared for climbing again, he loves his new cool scar, AND he got another can of orange Gatorade (which made him VERY happy). Ever since his first trip to the ER he's had me looking for canned Gatorade. He says it tastes better. Let me know if you know where to find it other than the hospital. ;)

And of course this all happened on a TUESDAY!!! Tuesdays are yucky cursed days.

Anyway, I'm very thankful to Jon for rushing down to the doctor's office to help and support our screaming boy. And many thanks also to my friend Becky for watching Ray all afternoon. And thanks mostly to God.... for a healthy boy with a healed armpit.

Halloween Campout 2013

We had lots of fun with my family at our 2nd annual Halloween campout at Buckeye Lake. Even though it was cold and it rained on Saturday, it was great to be together. The kids had an absolute blast!

 

Adam ate every bit of caramel and sprinkles off this apple without eating one bite of the actual apple.

We're having a Star Wars themed Halloween this year.
Ray is Luke Skywalker.
Adam is Han Solo.

... and Jon is Darth Vader!
The boys begged me to dress as Princess Leia.
I got an awesome "bun headband" and they were happy.

 

I didn't get to keep those buns for long!
Mike is the real princess of our family! ;)

Dancing at the "Monster Ball."

 Big time fun.... followed by hundreds of loads of laundry. Still trying to get the campfire smell out of my car. But the memories are worth it.

Big Money!!!

 
 
We had a fun adventure at 7:30am last Thursday morning. The boys were invited to be part of a check presentation during a board meeting at AEP. They represented our Pack in receiving and expressing thanks for money donated to the Boy Scout Council.

 

It was literally a ten minute gig.... and we're up early anyway!

 

Here they are posing for a picture for the paper.....

 

 ...and telling the newspaper man how to spell their last name (which isn't easy). We're waiting for the neighborhood paper to come out on Thursday. Hopefully we'll be in it!

 

 

The folks at AEP gave each of the boys a tin of Boy Scout popcorn as well. It was funny to hear the boys say, "We get to eat it? We don't have to sell it?"

 

They ARE still selling popcorn though.... let us know if you want to order any!

Pumpkin Globes

Inspired by Pinterest (of course), we just completed a fun project of painting pumpkins to look like globes. It was a big undertaking, but well worth it. We made these globes during the first three weeks of our Friday co-op. We're doing an entire year of "Around the World" Geography and this was the perfect "kick-off" project. Here are some pictures and a step-by-step how-to guide. Enjoy!

 

My first completed sample. I had a great time experimenting with different techniques and templates. I ended up with two samples that looked pretty good. Then the challenge became figuring out how to make it do-able for 20 children in grades 1-6.

 

 

We were fortunate to get the pumpkins from one of the mom's sisters for only $1.20 each!
Hauling them down the stairs was a big chore... but we managed to get our own little mini-pumpkin-patch set up before the students arrived.

 

 

The task for day one --- paint those pumpkins blue. You need to use acrylic paint in order for it to adhere to the pumpkin.

 



We managed to keep the mess to a minimum!

 

At the second class session we helped the children paint the continents on their pumpkins.

 

First, we had them paint white on the bottom of their pumpkins for Antarctica.

 

 

 

Next, we had them draw the Equator by stretching a rubber band around the middle of their pumpkin and then tracing around the top of the rubber band with a dark colored Sharpie.

 

 

 

I made foam stencils for all of the continents except Antarctica.(We just had them paint the bottoms of the pumpkins white.) Making these stencils was challenging! It's difficult to get a very basic shape that will translate well onto a round ridged pumpkin.

 

 

 

I attached a duct tape tab to each stencil for gripping.

 

We had the students use brushes to paint a thin layer of paint on each stencil. Then we helped them press the stencils onto their pumpkins. The stamps worked "so-so." They did leave a general shape of the continents. The students had to do a lot of filling in with their brushes though. I was very impressed by how hard they worked. Fortunately, I had lots of moms helping me. Unfortunately, I did not get to take ANY pictures of this process. It was an "all hands on deck" experience.

We had them do Africa first, lining it up with the equator. It was important to have several sample pumpkins and globes available to help us place the continents in the right spots.





After stamping Africa and painting on the island of Madagascar, we moved on to Asia.

It was fairly easy to place the rest of the continents based on their locations relative to Africa, Asia, and the Equator. We tried to add as many of the islands as we could.

Before the third class session I went in and sprayed all the pumpkins with a glossy sealer. This made them shiny and hopefully kept the paint from peeling easily.

When I made my sample pumpkins, I labeled the continents and oceans with a Sharpie. I decided to make laminated tags for the children to use as labels for their pumpkins. At our third class session they used flat thumbtacks and/or straight pins to attach the labels.


 

The children worked very hard on these pumpkins and they are very proud of them. I think they turned out great!