No training needed....

I told these boys to smoosh together to take a picture....

Apparently, I've raised these boys right!!!! Hours later and I'm still giggling at them! So all in all a super fantastic, goofy professionals, day!

Decisions....

What do you do when you're stuck on a rock in the middle of the Pacific and your kid wants to learn an instrument that no one knows how to play....much less teach? Skype a teacher of course!!! First lesson down........hundreds and hundreds left to go ( I hope). Buddy is super excited and of course, thinks he's the cats MEOW! He, of course, thought that before the lessons, but whatever. MEOW away!!!!

So all in all a super fantastic, isn't technology amazing, day!!!!

Scouting professionals....

Today our troop became trained professionals...

Not sure what they are trained in, but boy, are they trained! Just kidding...the boys got certified in doing a little of this....

a little of this....

and a little bit of this today...

To show how truly superiorly awesome they are, they decided to put together a tent.....blindfolded of course....

Then lash together a chariot and give free rides....just for funsies....

Ending the day with some jumping....just because they could!

Now I'm sitting here wondering what else we should have penciled into our schedule for the day! So all in all a super fantastic, I'm out, day!

The Best Surprises....

Today was chock full of surprises! I walked to go pick up Buddy from school in the nice warm sunshine....then we had a nice walk back home....

When Shane came home, he brought home another surprise. Thankfully, I didn't wish I had a nice warm fireplace to warm up next to afterwards! 

Shane found an acoustic guitar pretty cheap on one of the online neighborhood yard sale sites. I don't know if Buddy had ever heard him play before, but he was enthralled....

The boys have spent the last hour teaching each other songs....Buddy is of course planning a flashy Youtube video in his very near future! Best surprise EVER!!!!!! So all in all a super fantastic, loving our surprises, day!

Humble pie....

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. One of the Elders was from the Marshall Islands. We've had a few from there, and I'll admit, I think those guys are always the bees knees. This Elder was enthralled that we actually kept a rat.....as a pet. He was so gobsmacked that he preceded to play with the rat and video it for 10 minutes just so he could send proof to his family that Americans really are crazy.....

Then Buddy showed him Battleship and challenged him to a game, since he had never even heard of the game before. Then Buddy ate a huge slice of humble pie when he got demolished within 5 minutes! I would imagine if you grow up on an island without TV's, videos, and the internet to assist your brain with being a vegetable, you probably use your brain a lot!!!! But that's just a guess! So all in all a super fantastic, won't be challenging him to anymore games, day!

Fun and Games....

 I took Buddy and his BFF to the beach the other day. They thought a really hilarious game would be to hide from me at the beach....because children hiding while playing in the ocean is EVERY MOTHER'S FAVORITE GAME. Let me assure you, they excelled at it! 

 Let me also assure you, that I cheated....a lot! What can I say.... would you trust this face?

I didn't think so! In other news, I decided to see what it would be like to have a gaggle of kids around today....

Turns out, as long as there are free balloons to be had, I totally rock at it! 

In other, other news,  Buddy has hit puberty way too quickly and is already fine tuning the fine art of balancing 3 chicks at a time....

That would be baby chicks....I hope we are many, many,  years away from the other kind of chicks (and he will be in huge trouble if he EVER refers to the opposite sex as a chick like I just did!).  In the most important news of all, this arrived...

It all started when I happened across a 2cellos video last week and showed it to Buddy. He immediately became obsessed, watching all of their videos, listening non-stop to their music, humming and playing the air cello. He has forced everyone that comes into our house or car to listen to the 2cellos at a decibel that I'm sure is causing early hearing loss. The cello arrived yesterday afternoon, Shane had to 3D print a new bridge that got broken in Buddy's excitement in putting the cello together. (FYI-cheap cellos have to be assembled when they arrive, which is a lot trickier than it sounds when you have absolutely no clue what you are doing)! Shane pieced the cello together for Buddy this morning and the Budster has been playing it every free second he gets! It even came in a handy dandy carrying case, so of course Buddy had to take it for a walk...

He ended up walking over to the school and playing it over there for a while, because that's what you do with instruments.....take them on walks and stuff! I searched the internet, made a ton of phone calls and never found a single cello teacher on the island. Thankfully there is this little thing called the "world wide web" that I found him an online cello teacher on so he can live out his dreams of being a cellist extraordinaire. Buddy gets his first lesson next Monday, in the meantime, he's perfecting the art of looking like a boss! So all in all a super fantastic, ready for more fun and games, day!

Smart....

I took away Buddy's TV and video game privileges with his last report card. I think he's adjusting rather well.... 

So all in all a super fantastic, we never liked that TV or those video games anyway, day!

Reading....

Buddy got a new swing in the mail today......

He may or may not need to reread the instruction manual! So all in all a super fantastic, just swinging, day!

Misplaced...

The hospital that I work at has been CRAZY busy lately.....on top of that, Joint Commission decided to rear it's ugly head(unless you are part of the accrediting agency, in that case I mean super awesome head)  at the same time! I decided to play nice for once and picked up a couple of extra shifts this week to help out. Apparently, all of my brain cells were used at work, because letting two 11 year old boys play with extremely sharp knives never registered on my "not to do list".  

They lived.....and I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure I used those brain cells at the hospital either. I'm hoping I just misplaced them somewhere and will be a fully functioning individual sooner than later. To make it up to Buddy for my poor lack of judgement, I took Buddy out for a spin on the sand kayak....

Or he took me....it's really unclear at this point! To thank me for my awesomeness, the boys treated us to some "beatboxing" on the drive home....

It sounded more like wet farts, and Shane was driving, so the back of his head was covered in spit by the time we reached home, but no one said I deserved a good thanks! So all in all a super fantastic, getting by with my misplaced brain cells, day!

Rolling with it....

Buddy attended his first Boy Scout Court of Honor on Thursday and was awarded several patches and merit badges.....which he of course needed to show off at school the next day under the ruse that "one of the other kids wanted to know what a scout uniform looks like".....yeah, I pretty much didn't believe it either, but whatever, it was April Fool's Day so we just rolled with it!

 It's nice to roll with things. It's so nice, that I made Buddy a special treat to help him roll.... 

 A special treat made of onions, that is!!!! He liked it so much he gave it to his teacher, who in turn liked it so much, he gave it to the teacher next door.....It may or may not be true that all of the 5th grade teachers received a special present that day! In other news, Buddy and I found the perfect spot to enjoy General Conference...

 Yep, that would be my car in the garage....whatever, it totally worked....except for the part where the signal started getting really sketchy and Ballard started moving at a sloth like pace. I'll be honest, we enjoyed that part. Since there were so many talks about family, we decided to go celebrate ours....

Truly, I think Buddy may have gotten confused about what a "Family Celebration" means, or maybe he understands a lot more than the rest of us.....Smart boy that one! Of course, who do you think he got all those smarts from?

So all in all a super fantastic, teaching that boy right, day!