Festival of Lights at Mike's Farm

Going to Mike's Farm to see the Festival of Lights has been a longtime local tradition here in Jacksonville. Although we have been to Mike's Farm before, tonight was our first time to see the Festival of Lights and it was AWESOME!! We purchased our tickets and although the line was quite long, it moved quickly. While we were waiting, Santa Clause came out to visit!After around 2o minutes, it was finally our turn!! We boarded our hayride bound for a beautiful light show.

The last attraction in the light show was a huge American flag and a Marine kneeling next to the grave of a fallen warrior. The hayride came to a stop and the song "Proud to be an American" was played. Mason and Reagan sang along and it was so sweet! It was the absolute best part of the show!!After the hayride, we checked out the Country Store and Bakery. First, we went into the Christmas store, which had so many breakable ornaments.....not protected in boxes, but hanging from trees and all I could imagine every time the kids went up to admire one, was the sound of shattering glass and the four of us leaving the store with our heads hung low. Needless to say, we got outta there quickly! Our next stop was the Bakery. Everyting was so old-timey and all the drinks were served in glass bottles. And while I like Coke, I LOVE Coke in a glass bottle (seriously, it tastes so much better!), so I was grinning from ear to ear when I saw them in the cooler! We bought a few sweet treats, popped the caps off our drinks and found a nice place to sit inside. The kids picked big-as-the-size-of-your-head chocolate chip cookies, I got a cream cheese puff (delicious!) and Adrian got an apple jack, which he LOVED and couldn't stop talking about all night! I admit, it was soooo good and the moment I took a bite, it reminded me of my Granny Scott's apple turnovers.

Cheers!

On the way out, I snapped a few cute pictures of the kids.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!!

The kids especially liked the outhouse. Potty humor....when will it end???

We even ran into a sheep and a donkey on the way out. It is a farm, afterall!

Pack 90 December Meeting

Pack 90 held their monthly meeting tonight at Bitz (Mason's school). A pack meeting is were all the Dens (Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Weeblos 1 &2) of Camp Lejeune get together to recognize each individual scout's achievements. They also have a color guard, play games and ususally have a performance by one of the Dens. This month, our Bear Den led a Christmas cheer.

Bear Den 7

"We say 'Merry'......"

".......You say 'Christmas!!'"

After the cheer, each Den was called up and belt loops and patches were passed out. In addition to Mason's belt loops and patches, he was awarded a medal for his 2nd place finish in the Raingutter Regatta.

Receiving his belt loops and patches from Mrs. Amy.

Raingutter Regatta Medals
Mason - 2nd, Jaron - 1st and Mark - 3rd

So proud of his medal!!

After the awards, they all played a fun game where they had to race around a loop while balancing a (shatterproof!!) Christmas ornament in a spoon. Fun!!

Mason's Awards:

BB Shooting, Archery and Fishing Belt Loops

Space Derby and Raingutter Regatta Patches and Raingutter Regatta Medal

Reagan Lopez, V.I.P.

This week, Reagan was selected as the Student of the Week in Mrs. Adam's classroom. On Wednesday, she was presented with a V.I.P. award and given a pencil and a certificate for a free kids meal at Logan's Roadhouse. An "All About Me" sign that lists some of her favorite things and a few pictures of her hung on a bulletin board in the hallway all week long. This morning, Adrian and I were invited to share in a V.I.P. breakfast with her in the cafeteria. She may only be V.I.P. at school for one week, but she is always a V.I.P. to us!!

Receiving her V.I.P. award from Mrs. Perry, Principal.

"All About Me"

"The Gingerbread Man"

What a day it has been for Reagan! Not only was she V.I.P. this week, but today her class put on an AMAZING Christmas play!! Mr. Robinson, the school Music Teacher, wrote the play and composed the music based on the books "The Gingerbread Baby" and "Gingerbread Friends" written by childrens author Jan Brett. For weeks, the kids have been learning their lines, creating their costumes, working on backdrops and the results were FABULOUS! The play told the story of 4 gingerbread men (played by Reagan, Kristian, Tyree and Jeffrey) who are always running, trying not to get caught by the old people, butchers, cows and pigs, but are finally eaten by the sneaky wolves. Everytime one of the groups of characters tried to eat the gingerbread men, they would run from them, singing "Run, run, fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. No, no , I won't come back. I'd rather run than be your snack!"

Popping out of the oven, freshly baked by the old people.

Talking things over with the butchers.

RUN!!Lauren, a narrator, and the Cows
The PigsReagan and her friend Kristian singing "Run, run, fast as you can......"

Those sneaky wolves, doing the "I Missed The Bus" dance.End of the play singing "We hope you enjoyed our Gingerbread Show. We have a secret we want you to know. Gingerbread is what we like to eat." to the tune of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town."

Reagan with her teacher Mrs. Adams.

Grace and Reagan

Carlee, Lauren and Reagan....the Tripod!

Kudos to Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Flott, Mr. Robinson and all the students on a wonderful job!!

Dark Shadow, Fruit Preserver

All month long, the 3rd graders at Bitz have been studying about Native Americans and today Mason's class gave a presentation in their classroom. They were assigned a job that was performed in a tribe and were asked to write a report and create an object used for that job. Mason's job was that of a food preserver and he was to show how fruit was preserved. Of course, he totally wanted to be a spear maker or a hunter, but by the time it was his turn to pick, only cook and food preserver were left. He wrote his report and made a basket out of the bottom half of a 1 gal. water jug painted brown with a rope for a strap. But the way he tells it, the basket that he used to gather fruit was made from tree bark and mud and the strap was made from the skin of a dead animal.....most likely a buffalo!! He also glued various dried fruits to a chart to show what fruit looks like when dried by the sun. Parents as well as students from other classrooms were able to walk around from child to child and hear all about their jobs and what they had created. They also made vests and headbands with their Indian names on them. They got to pick their own Indian names and Mason chose Dark Shadow. My favorite name was from a little girl who sits next to Mason......Fluffy Mouse, how cute!!

Flying Sun and Dark Shadow

(a.k.a. Pierce and Mason)

Mason telling other students about his job.

Cub Scout Cookie Exchange

Tonight at Cub Scouts we had a Cookie Swap. Our den leader Ms. Nannette invited all the Scouts, plus their families, into her home for cookies and crafts.......CRAZY, I know, but the kids were on their best behavior, so the chaos was kept to a minimum. First, they carved snowmen out of a bar of soap (such a cute idea!) and then they made Christmas wreaths out of paper plates.

After all the crafting was done, it was time to get down to what we all came for......COOKIES! Each family was asked to bring 3 dozen cookies to be distributed to each of the Scouts. I, however, only brought 2 dozen because I had the worst baking day of my life and ruined the other dozen. Anywho, the kids all lined up and were able to get 2 of each of the cookies and treats, so everyone got to go home with a yummy assortment of goodies!

Mason with his goodies!