I read to you, you read to me

There's a whole lot of reading going on around here.  I read to Evan...

 Evan reads to me...

Actually, Evan reads to all of us...

including Moxie...

who has a sixth sense about when it's time to go upstairs to read in Mom and Dad's bed.  :)

I think Evan loves his audience!

Dear Seth,

Dear Seth,
We’ve watched you grow from a cute, little Kindergartener to a smart, capable, and funny fifth grader. It is a bittersweet time to say good-bye to grade school, but we can’t wait to see what is in store for you in middle school! We couldn’t be more proud of the fine young man, excellent student, loyal friend, caring family member, and dog spoiler you are!
Love,
Mom and Dad

(All fifth grade parents get the chance to write a special letter to their child that will be included in the yearbook. This is ours to Seth. The pictures above were ones that I took of him when he was five.)

Feed My Starving Children

Today, Caroline and her Brownie troop helped a very worthwhile cause.  They spent the afternoon at Feed My Starving Children.  As stated on their website, "Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit. The approach is simple: children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children, and we ship the meals to nearly 70 countries around the world.  A single meal costs only 22 cents to produce, and 92 percent of total donations goes directly toward the food program."  Guess what?  All of our girls hard work paid off.  They were able to package up enough food to feed 58 children for one year!!

We're proud of you, girls!  Good job!

Our brand new Boy Scout!!

Seth crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts tonight at the Blue and Gold Banquet!  It's been 5 years of all kinds of fun experiences with some of his very best friends...

and now we're looking forward to lots of new adventures in the years ahead with his Boy Scout troop!  A funny story from his cross-over...When the American Legion representative was announcing Seth's name for his Arrow of Light award, he mispronounced it, calling him "Sheth Noah".  When it was time for Seth to cross over the bridge into Boy Scouts, big brother Henry and his friend Alex had told all the rest of the scouts in attendance to say, "Congratulations, Sheth Noah!" one after the other when they shook his hand!  Seth was totally laughing!  :)

Then the troop leaders congratulated him, this time calling him by his real name, lol.  I love this picture, and am so happy that Seth has such amazing role models in his dad and the troop leaders.

Seth and his den earned all 20 Webelos activity badges, which earned them the Super Achiever award!  They were the only den in our troop to do that!

Here's some close-ups of Seth's awards...his Arrow of Light Award as well as his Arrow of Light badge, which is the only badge from Cub Scouts that he can wear on his Boy Scout uniform.

This is Seth's Webelos Super Achiever Award as well as some of his badges.

This is the award from the American Legion, recognizing his Arrow of Light achievement.  Right by it is Seth's 5th Year Service Star, which he earned by (you guessed it) serving in Cub Scouts for 5 years.

Seth was so happy and honored that his Grandma and Grandpa Nosek

and his Grandma and Grandpa Orton were able to come to his Arrow of Light Ceremony!

We are all so very proud of you, Seth, and look forward to all of the scouting to come!  We love you!

Dance Party in the Bathroom

Evan and I follow a routine nearly every day.  First we do school work together, play with Moxie, have a snack and watch Word World or Max and Ruby, do more school work, have lunch, shower, get dressed, and then...
THIS...

evan dance 001 from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

Yup, everyday.  Dance party in the bathroom.  This boy has got some moves, lol.

Twister

Tonight, after completing homework, religious education class, and dinner, we needed to blow off a little steam.  So when the kids decided they wanted to play Twister, we were game!

Evan started out as the "spinner", which meant that he got to tell his brother and sister where on the game board to put their various appendages. 

I'd say he kind of got a kick out of his job!

Then, it was Caroline's turn to spin, and two brothers competed.

Evan started talking smack to me, so of course I had to challenge him.

I won't say who lost, because I wouldn't want to embarrass him.  (Just kidding...I was on the losing end!)

This boy is like a rubberband...

as is this one...

and our daughter too!  I think if I challenge them to Twister in the future, I'll have to start stretching now!

What to do?

When you've already played Avengers, Nerf guns, and foosball...
And your Wii is broken so you can't play Lego Star Wars...
And your friend doesn't want to play Legos or playdough...
What are two 6 year old friends to do??
Stratego!!  I couldn't believe when these two pulled this game out and excitedly started setting it up, talking about what their older brothers and dads taught them.  And if they actually started playing, my jaw was going to be on the floor.

After a few minutes, they decided that they couldn't remember enough, so they pulled out another game.  Sorry was definitely more up their alley.  I was so impressed because they were able to play the game for the most part on their own, with just a little bit of advice from me as far as strategy.

If you have ever played this game, you know that it can last forEVER.  They stuck with it, which just floored me too!  They had a great time, and Cash said that he wants to play this game again when he comes back to our house.  :)

So Cash and Evan's first play date went really well.  I'm kind of glad that our Wii wasn't working, although I am crossing my fingers that its not permanently broken!

Good dog, Moxie!

She takes care of us when we are sick.

She is an eager playmate.

 

 

And she always keeps me company at night when I'm reading.

Good dog, Moxie!