Sewing on patches tip

My husband is a Cub and Boy Scout leader, so he needed the Cub Scout pack number AND the Boy Scout troop number on his shirt, in the same location. I know not too many people will have this same dilemma, but if you do, I have a wonderful and EASY solution to make this work. And this was actually my brilliant hubby's idea.

VELCRO. The stuff is amazing.

1. Choose which Velcro will best fit the patch(es) you need to sew on. You can get the kind with sticky backs or not. If you get the sticky back, you will still need to tack them down BY HAND, but it is so sticky that you may not have to do it right away. I wanted to stitch with the machine, but I also wanted them to all stay in place while tacking them down, so I chose the sticky.
2. Be sure to take off any price tags or bar codes that do not need to be on the patch, then arrange the Velcro onto the back of it.
3. Tack them down, by hand or by machine, if possible.
4. On the SHIRT, be sure you put the Velcro on OPPOSITE of how you put it on the patch. For example, if you put the teeth part onto the back of the patch, make sure you put the fuzzy part on the shirt. I actually used both on mine, so I just made sure that whatever I put on the top for the patches was on the bottom part of the shirt (see picture below).
5. Be sure to put the set you are not wearing in one of the shirt pockets, so it will always be handy and never get lost.

I tried using the machine, but it didn't work so well. I plan to redo this (and I'll replace the picture), but it will work for tonight!

It really is that easy. I'd been putting this off for so long because I thought it was going to take me forever and be difficult to line them up just right, but WOW, that was easy!

And it looks nice, right?

Sorry, ladies. Man not included. ;)

And here is another tip. Those things on the shoulders called epaulets, my husband had to switch those out too, blue for Cub Scouts and green for Boy Scouts. Again, this was his idea, and it is just so simple.

Just put one inside the other, wrong sides together, and all you need to do is flip them. So you're wearing both sets the whole time. Brilliant.

Pinewood Derby!!!

It is that time again. Time for the Cub Scouts' annual Pinewood Derby race! Jonathan designed his car all by himself. No pre-cuts, no one else's ideas but his own. It looked very aerodynamic and really cool! He also painted it himself and even took pictures of it from every angle himself. What a creative guy he is!

He is in the 4th grade this year (WEBELOS I), so we had to wait a while for the Tigers, Wolves and Bears to race their cars. Once it was the Webelos I's turn, the other den raced first, so just a little more waiting. Then it was time for the Blue Dragons den!

He got first place out of three in his den!!!!

Now on to the runoff between the two dens.......

There were a total of 6 heats, each car racing in each lane one time. Most of them were very close!

In the end, HE WON FIRST PLACE!!!!

It was a very exciting time! This was Jonathan's very first trophy too. He has been wanting one ever since Jayla won her first trophy last year. He was on cloud 9 all day.....all week, actually. He wanted to carry his trophy around and show it to everyone!

Congratulations, Jonathan! We are so proud of you for doing your best!

Boy Scout camp

Well, I wasn't there, so I can't give the details, but he did, um, scout stuff! Fishing, hiking, archery, etc. This was the first time he went to summer camp, so he also got to swim this time! He had a great time and is looking forward to more in the future. He is a Webelos now, but we haven't bought his next uniform yet, so he still has the blue. Myles is also planning on being a leader this coming school year, so they will hopefully get to do all kinds of fun things and make tons of great memories together, as well as learning, um......scout stuff! :)

Cub Scout camp

Oh, I nearly forgot to post about camp a few weeks ago! These pics were in a different folder!

I can't really tell you much about it since I wasn't there, but Myles and Jonathan both had a really great time. Myles said they did a lot of fun activities, and Jonathan had fun with it all and did a great job. Oh, and I have to mention that Myles got a bulls eye on his very first archery experience! He just laughed and said it was an accident though! I don't think he actually aimed. Ha!!

Jonathan's best friend in Cub Scouts is Johnny (isn't that funny?), and Myles said they were inseparable all weekend. He seems like a sweet kid, so I'm glad they get along well.

He got all 10 shots on the paper!!!
They had to go through the maze without moving the cans.
They learned how to make a gurney.....then they dropped the poor kid!
Jonathan and his daddy slept in the red tent. It is just the perfect size for the two of them.
Getting set up for archery.
The arrow in the middle was from Myles' shot!
They really did have fun, I promise! They were waiting on someone here, I think.
The group that was hiking together.
Click to enlarge.....this was a waterfall!
A better picture of Johnny and Jonathan. :)

Myles took a lot more pictures of the surrounding nature. It really is beautiful there, but I don't want to post them all. Besides, it's one of those "you had to be there" type things. It's always much prettier in person! Plus a lot of his pictures are blurry. Haha!

Week in review

I don't have many pictures from this week, but we've been busy!

Monday Myles went to the biweekly (turning into weekly, lately) Bible study with the men in the church. We all just stayed home and did some cleaning and played computer games.

Tuesday was dance and scouts. Nothing exciting, really.

Wednesday afternoon I went out with Chrysinda. We picked up another friend and went out to dinner at this great Asian noodle place! It's cheap and good, so we love the place! Afterward we went to the Bible study with the group from the retreat last weekend. We didn't leave there until nearly 11:00!!! During that time the kids went to AWANA.

Thursday had a lot going on! Myles usually gets home early in the afternoon, so an hour or so later, I went to the grocery store to get some grape juice for the Lord's Supper/Passover we were invited to that night. As soon as I walked outside I noticed a huge cloud of black smoke, and it looked very close to our house. Thankfully it wasn't blowing in our direction, but we were having wind gusts up to 50 mph that day, and it was SO DRY! I pulled out of our neighborhood only to come up on bumper to bumper traffic at the stop sign. Just half a mile from our house was a fire! I could see it! The flames were huge and right at the corner of the main intersection!

As Jayla and I left a little while later, we went to the corner again, thinking they might block off the road to prevent us from getting all the way to the corner. Myles had already taken the boys to watch the fire, and apparently everyone had the same idea. There were probably 50 cars parked in the empty lot right on the corner, and just on the other side of the street were huge flames, high above the trees! As quickly as I had pulled in and found Myles, I was being told to leave in fear that the flames were about to "jump" on our side.

We drove on to meet my friend Mandie to follow her to her SIL's house where the feast was being held. On our way there we nearly got stuck and/or turned around because of more fires. It was so sad. We saw people trying to get to their homes but being turned away by the police who were closing the roads. On those roads we saw people coming out of the neighborhoods with trailors all loaded up with whatever they could salvage in a few minutes. Later we saw on the news houses burning to the ground. Nothing was left, and just as one house would become totally engulfed in flames, the one next to it would catch. Every so often one house would get skipped. It was odd and all very sad.

Once it was all said and done (very late into the night) I think over 100 homes state-wide were completely lost, but I don't think anyone was killed! Praise God! There were some injuries, including firefighters, but no fatalities. One more house caught on fire Friday morning, but by then the wind was nearly calm and they were able to get it out with no more spreading or fatalities.

The Lord's supper/Passover was so fun! I enjoyed meeting several new people. There were over 30 people who attended the meal. The front of the haggadah we used was titled "The Order of the Lord's Supper, a Passover Narration". The group was mostly made up of non-Jewish Christians who were not celebrating for legalistic reasons (because they HAD to), but they wanted to honor Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus was emphasized as the Messiah throughout the entire meal! It was very cool. There was shouting of praises and Hallelujahs and songs! I actually sat directly across from an Orthodox Jew, so I got to listen in as he talked with the man next to him about how this dinner differed from the Orthodox Jewish Passover. He would also say all the prayers in Hebrew before we said them in English. It was neat! I really did have a great time of worship and fellowship with other believers. Jayla came with me and was so excited the whole time. Jonathan chose not to come because he didn't want to be forced to eat celery. HA! They actually didn't use celery, so he missed out on all the other great food (and lots of it!) and tons of grape juice (which he LOVES), so he may change his mind if we do this again next year. We ended up leaving right after the meal. We were so stuffed! I think it was after 10 by this point, so we skipped the last part of the "order" of the meal. Others left early too, mostly those with children.

Friday evening we attended a going away party for a former pastor and his family. They are about to leave to be missionaries in another country! It seemed like a family reunion since we hadn't seen many of them in a while, and it was cool to see how all the kids have grown and changed. :) On our way there we drove past some firefighters who were still spraying down the trees and underbrush that had already burned. Here it was 24 hours after the fires started and it was still pretty smoky. Actually, by the time we went home we saw some more glow in a couple of areas, so apparently there were more flareups. Also the house we were at was very close to the fire. The pasture back behind the house was all burned, and a couple of houses further down the street were burned.

Today the smoke is all gone and it is not windy today either, so hopefully this set of fires is all done. I took Jack for his MRI this morning. It went well. It was kind of scary, even though I knew it was standard procedure and he'd be fine. Just watching them put him to sleep, seeing him struggle for a few seconds, then I had to kiss him good-bye and leave. :( They gave him a drip to keep him asleep. It took about 45 minutes or so and they called me back in. He was restless for a while, but by the time we got home he was asleep again and now is doing better. They said not to let him walk around today though because he could just fall over! :) So he is resting/sleeping and just hanging out in bed with Daddy today. I think I'll take a nap with him later. I didn't realize 7:00 came twice a day! :)

On our way home I drove through the fire area. It was so fascinating to see how it skipped all around the houses! I wish I could see an areal photo of the area just to see the pattern it took. I'm sure people had their hoses out and firefighters did such a great job keeping it away from houses. I'm sure they were exhausted having to fight against the wind for so long! The fire marshal said the fire was intentionally set, but they weren't sure if it was done in malice or not. At least they know who the criminals are, and I am so glad to know that no one was killed!

That's the update for this week, I guess. For the rest of the day we plan to hang out here at the house and maybe go shopping in a while. Tomorrow is Easter, so we're looking forward to a great worship time with our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith! :)

Tuesday activities

This year all of our activities are in two days. So tonight we started with ballet. Jayla is a little nervous being the youngest and tiniest one, but she loves it! Nevermind the boots....she changed just before class began. :) This is her first year in a "real" ballet class, not a "little kid" ballet/tap class. We'll see how she handles it, but so far so good!

 

Next was Girl Scouts (Jayla is the only one wearing her blue tunic!)

 

and Cub Scouts. (Jonathan is on the right with no hat, Jacob is two to his right facing the camera....he was in and out a couple of times.)

 

These are both at the same time and same location! This is Jayla's first year for GS after trying American Heritage Girls last year (we loved it but it didn't work out well with our schedule) and Jonathan's 3rd year for CS.

Thankfully there is a nice playground outside for the two younger boys.

 

 

 

Jack decided grass really doesn't taste as good as it looks,

 

but the climbing was totally awesome!

 

And I just HAD to get some close-ups of their cute little faces before it got too dark. (I don't like to use the flash.) It's amazing what a little editing can do. Don't they just make you melt? :)