Happy Halloween!

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Take a ride on a mini-train

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I stole this idea from my friend Jennie, so thanks Jennie for pointing me to this website. See posting on 10-14 for more information on this train.

Out of the mouths of babes

Drew was being really silly before bed tonight. He was up on Blake's top bunk and threw a pillow at Scott, and just thought it was hilarious. He really cracks himself up. He was still laughing about it as Scott was trying to put him to bed and reminiscing about his funny act, he said, "I laughed so hard, I lost my mind."
Not sure where he picked up that phrase.

My goofy family

Arrrrrgh!

We had a party at our house on Saturday, so the family "themed" that night. Here's a picture that Blake took of Scott and I. Not bad. Of course, our heads were cut off in the first one he took, but "you can see the rat really good," Dad told him (note rat by my knee in this one. Blake insisted it had to be in the photo).


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And of course, Blake and I had to mug for the camera. I think Drew took this one (with a little help from Dad). Hence, why it's a bit out of focuse.


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Online scrapbooking

Howdy, partner!

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Blake and Drew are Buzz and Woody from Toy Story this year. Here they are before a Cub Scout Halloween event.

Picture that makes me go ahhhhh

Drew's class took a field trip to the Watershed Nature Trail. This is him (in green jacket) with Zachary and Danny, two of his buddies from school.


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A ride on some tiny rails on a tiny train

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Glencoe, Missouri, has this great miniature train ride if you have kids. Drew really enjoyed this ... I think almost as much as Uncle Don. The trains are operated by the Wabash, Frisco and Pacific Association. They are 12-inch gauge steam trains. Volunteers keep the trains running and also help out with selling tickets and other things. The ride is a 30-minute round trip ride that's a little over a mile long. It travels through some woods along the Meramec River on the miniature train.
Here's Drew doing "his train" There's lot more pictures, so be sure to click on the top one and look at them all at Dropshots.

http://www.dropshots.com/sklingsick#


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What's a pine needle taste like?

Get ready for a flurry of posts.
We'll start with Blake's Cub Scout campout. We camped out at Silver Lake in Highland. It was fun though the campfire on Friday night started a little late for our two early-to-beds. Drew fell asleep on my lap at the fire, and Blake was ready to go -- right after he had a marshmallow. Only one other Tiger Scout came from Blake's den. Jop is from the Netherlands and is living in Edwardsville while his Dad works for a year in the states.
Here's Jop and Blake eating their Candy Cannon loot:


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The highlight for Scott and I was when Blake tried a pine needle. This man named Luther who is very involved with the Scouts conducted a nature tour on Saturday. This guy knows EVERYTHING about nature. Anyway, he was telling us this story of some pilot in Bosnia that survived on grass and leaves and other things. He also told us that if we had to survive, pine needles were edible. So Blake decided to try one.
Here's his reaction:


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The kid won't try carrots, green beans or broccoli (pretty much anything green), but he'll try pine needles! Go figure. Next time I serve him his chicken nuggets, he's getting a side of pine needles. Apparently, he likes the White Pine variety.

The highlight for the kids by far was the Candy Cannon. One of the scout leaders wrapped up gobs of candy in some newspaper, shoved it in a pipe with some gunpowder in it, and out blasted the candy. The kids loved it. Be sure to listen this video with the sound because the guy's pretty funny, dragging it out and getting the kids into a frenzy. "Did I tell you about the candy coming out of the cannon and going up ... oh, I did."
"Just fire it!" You have to watch it in two takes.


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One last game

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Scott and Blake got in one last Cardinal game before the season ended. And thanks to A-B and their Aunt Beth and Uncle Don, they had a fantastic game. Blake and Scott toured the dugouts and ran the bases. Plus, Beth's seats were upgraded to the box! Blake was excited because he finally got to buy a souvenir because they had Anheuser-Busch bucks to spend at the game.