Klondike

Greg and Morgan camped out this weekend with the Boy Scouts! Isn't that CRAZY!?! This weekend was the annual winter weather campout known as Klondike. I believe the high temperature yesterday was in the 20s! His troop had a large army tent with 2 stoves for heating it. Morgan says that he was warm while sleeping last night. Greg said he wasn't cold, but wasn't necessarily warm. Needless to say, they were both glad to be back home in the warmth of the house today.

While they were at Klondike, they got to learn how to use a bucksaw, shoot with a black powder, pitch a tent while blindfolded, build a fire, search and rescue, and throw tomahawks. Their troop got 2nd in bucksaw, and 1st in the dessert making contest (golden syrup dumplings).

While Greg and Mo were gone, Maggie, Marshall, and I had a day out. We started by going to my friend's daughter Emily's basketball games. They played 2 JV games at a neighboring school against 2 other teams in a round robin style tournament. They won both of their games, so it was a good morning. Following the games, we went to St. Joe to exchange some Christmas presents of Mags. We went to the mall and then to a different outdoor shopping center. After that, we picked up my niece, Aubrey, for an overnight stay! When we got home, all three kids had a blast playing around the house!

Today our friends', Eric and Deanna, boys are here for a few hours! Marshall and their middle son, Jacob, have been planning a play date forever! They are very excited to be here and play the Wii! Maggie, Aubrey, and I baked some cookies this morning, and I am going to make Greg his favorite cold weather soup this evening (Loaded Baked Potato Soup)! We got snow last night....I'm not sure how much, but I would guess 2 inches!

Update

This has been a good week for the Farrell family. I think since returning to life post Christmas vacation, this has been the first week that things have felt like they are normal. Maggie was well again and back at school all week long. I think that she even managed to go to school everyday without tears in the morning. We struggle from time to time with her not wanting to go to school because she is away from me too long! It can be very frustrating!

Morgan played a couple of basketball games on Monday night. In the first game, his basketball team "Rowdy Redbirds" played a group of 4th and 5th graders from the school whose girls were playing our varsity girls. They beat the team hands down with a 20 point lead easily. Then the varsity girls played their game. Because the school didn't have a varisty boys team (yes, we live in a conference where schools are THAT small), our coach scheduled our "Rowdy Redbirds" to play a 5th grade team from Cameron. Morgan scored 9 points in the game and we won. It was a good experience for the boys! The refs from the varsity game stayed and reffed the game for us and the high school cheerleaders even stuck around for the first half of the game and cheered for the boys! It was really exciting for the boys to have that kind of attention!

Tuesday night Maggie returned to dance class after her absence last week and had a blast! I was watching the routines that the class is working on for this summer's recital and for the first time ever, the class is doing some "bigger girl" stuff with AT-TI-TUDE. She was really having fun with it. Her cousin Aubrey was taking Tae Kwon Do this fall, but has since returned to dance and gymnastics! That makes Maggie even happier about dance class! She missed Aubrey!

Marshall has been full of himself this week. He has started going in to open gym and "Rowdy Redbird" practice with Morgan of a morning. He thinks he is really BIG stuff! During the first game on Monday night, the coach would have put him in during the last minute, but Marshall had left the bench to get a drink from the cafeteria! I bet he will never leave the bench again! His friend Jakub got to play and he didn't!

Morgan and Greg are headed to a campout this weekend! BRRRRR! It is his first official activity as a Boy Scout! They are going to layer on the clothes and sleep in a heated tent! There is no way in the world I would camp in this weather!

This week!

Although I thought the week was going to start off peaceful with a day at home for the whole family....but, I was wrong. It turned out that Maggie woke up sick on Sunday with a fever! She hadn't been acting like herself all week, but I had figured she was just tired from getting back into the swing of things. Our pediatrician sees kids at any time, so I figured I would take her in to get her started on some antibiotics so she would feel better to go to school on Monday. Well.....long story short, we ended up at Children's Mercy making sure that she was not REALLY sick and in need of hospitalization. They sent her home with a diagnosis of viral infection (nothing to be done but wait it out). She missed three days of school, but got to spend some quality time with Granny, Aunt Gayle, and Papaw, as it was impossible for me to be away from the daycare :(, but she is now all better and back to her smiling self.....with a lot of homework to make up!

Morgan played his last ballgame in his Albany league yesterday. This has been a hard league for his team as it is 5th and 6th graders and 2 of the boys on his team are younger than that. There were only 3 teams in the league and they only won 2 games, but they learned a lot about playing good ball. They won their game yesterday which was a great way to end the season! From here on out, he will have a few tournaments on weekends to play in, but no set schedule like it has been. It will be nice to have our Saturdays back! We have been going to Albany (about 40 miles away) since the beginning of November!

Greg spent yesterday working...got to get in the good days while he has them, but today we are all at home enjoying being in the house together for once! Maggie is working on her load of homework and Greg and the boys are playing the Wii. Me? I'm catching up on housework, Facebook, the blog, e-mail and getting ready for next week's events!

Take care!!

Back to the Real World

What a crazy week! The kids jumped back into school on Monday! Maggie spent 3 hours doing homework on Monday and Wednesday night! She is now starting to learn multiplication--ARGHHH! By Thursday night, I was sick of 3rd grade myself! On Saturday, Morgan had a basketball game and unfortunately his team lost. For the first time, they had a certified referee and he was calling all kinds of fouls! They needed it, but the whistle was blowing all the time. Afterwards, we had a carry-in-dinner and a Cub Scout meeting where Morgan and 4 other boys bridged over to the Boy Scout troop. So, now Morgan is an official Boy Scout! He and Greg are at their first Troop meeting right now planning their winter campout, Klondike. They will be attending the weekend of January 23-25, 2009. Camping is freezing temperatures is not something I would consider fun, but Greg is the one who gets to go!

Morgan and the 4 other boys who bridged to the Boy Scout Troop.

Morgan, Greg, and I as he is getting ready to bridge. The Boy Scout gave him his Boy Scout neckerchief and removed his Cub Scout neckerchief.

Marshall and the 2 other "prescouts" . They will get to join Cub Scouts after they are finished with kindgergarden.

There's No Place Like Home!

We are back to our home!! We had a great trip, but we were happy to see our own house and sleep in our own beds!



As usual, we jumped back in to the busy-ness that we call our life! We stopped in Columbia on the way home and met with some friends to watch a local high school team play in a basketball tournament. We spent the night at the hotel and let the kids play in the pool there! We had a fun time, but I could tell that our whole family was dragging after being away from home for a week!



We got home at 11:30 on Sunday morning and then attended a birthday party at the skating rink for one of our children at the daycare! It was fun! I'm not sure that Marshall had ever been on skates before, but he caught on pretty quick. Maggie and Morgan did a good job as well. I skated too and was just thinking how good I was doing, when I lost my balance and fell! We all know how graceful I am!!



After the birthday party, we came home a crashed for the evening--after getting ready for our first day back to school on Monday! We are currently without a washing machine as it broke right before our trip, so I will be making a trip to the laundromat at some point this week! YIPPEE!!



The group at Mizzou arena prior to the game!

It's been a long time....

No, my computer is not broke....but I have been busy and I do have dial-up internet connection. We are going to work on that, so maybe I will be able to keep this more current. I am updating this right now from my sister and brother-in-law's computer in Tennessee!

We have had a wonderful Christmas week....really that is about how long it has lasted. We had Christmas with my dad and his wife on the Sunday before Christmas. The kids got to see their cousins from Cameron and Kansas City. Although we see the cousins from Cameron all the time, it had been a while since we had spent time with my other brother and his kids. It was a good time.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's and had Christmas with the Browns, the Gibsons, Aunt Gayle, Uncle Randy and Granny! As usual, it was a blast! We took our time opening presents and then played a round of Taboo! We also had a lot of fun with some Hannah Montana wigs (thank you Judy) and some microphones! Then it was home by 10:00 to get ready for bed and Santa's visit.

On Christmas morning, Morgan woke up about 4:00 a.m., but chose to watch a little TV before waking up the rest of the family. At about 5:30 a.m., I head giggling coming from the living room and we got up to open presents. Santa was good to the Farrell kids bringing them all new MP3 players and some Wal-mart music download gift cards as well as a travel game. Greg and I finally broke down and entered into the world of video-gaming. We bought the kids a Wii for Christmas and we spent most of the day getting acquainted with playing it and downloading music onto the MP3 players! The rest of the gifts were mostly clothes and not that exciting, but hey we got to dress!

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Greg's mom and dad's house for our Christmas with the Farrell side of the family. We got to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles! It was a blast. On Saturday, we had Christmas with the Pollard (Greg's grandma) side of the family. It is always great to get to see and visit with them as we only get together 1-2 times a year anymore!

Saturday evening, we had the Farrell Christmas. Again, it was great to take our time opening presents and see what everyone got! We had a great time eating and visiting and playing with our new finds! Maggie and her cousing played Webkinz on the Internet and Morgan utilized a computer to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

Sunday we left around 3:30 and began our Christmas Vacation to Tennessee. It is much easier for Greg to take off time in the winter than it is in the summer, so we are taking a trip to Tennessee to see my sister and her family.

We took two days to make the 13 hour trip. We spent Sunday night in Louisville Kentucky and finished driving in to Johnson City on Monday. The weather was great for the drive and I can't tell you how many times the question "Are we in Tennessee yet?" was answered. Once we were in Tennessee, it was "Are we in Johnson City yet?" We love them!

We are having a wonderful time visiting my sister, brother-in-law and niece. My nephew is in Pasadena, California, marching in the Rose Bowl parade, so we are sad that we haven't got to see him. But we did see him marching in the parade this morning.

We are headed back to MO tomorrow with a pit stop in Columbia for a basketball game on Saturday. Then it is back home and back to the grind. My resolution for this year, is to stay more electronically connected to those who live far away. Be sure to check out the blog and e-mail me if I am falling behind!

Talk to you later!
The Farrell kids prior to opening Christmas presents on Christmas morning!


Happy New Year from the Farrells.....the kids have sparkling apple juice!