Owen really is a bear!

Owen is really a bear. (Bear Scout that is!) Today we had the annual Blue & Gold Banquet for Owen's Cub Scout Pack 3934 and Owen achieved the level of Bear Scout. He received a new neckerchief and book and his Wolf Badge, officially completing that level and advancing to bear level. The boys and their families were treated to chicken strips and fries from Courthouse Pub and subs from Cousins Subs. In all five kids advanced to their next level today. Ten more will advance by the end of the school year.

Quinn Gets a Closet

Quinn had generously donated her previous closet to expand the bathroom and was rewarded with a new closet in her bedroom. Quinn was right in the middle of it and the boys helped use the nail gun to put the pine bead board in. Now on to mud, trim and paint and it will be complete.

Cub Scouts Rocket Races

Owen participated in the Monroe Cub Scouts Rocket Races tonight. Grandpa Vater helped with the design and it worked great! Owen's rocket was one of the farthest and fastest travelling rockets on the evening. Most parents were trying to figure out how Owen's went so fast and were quickly duplicating the propeller setup. We were able to slip on three rubber bands and at about 100 turns of the propeller we were ready to go. Both Owen's and my fingers show the wear of loosely holding the propeller and having it "snap" onto our fingers. Lesson learned. On the last launch of the evening for Owen, the rocket jumped off the string and crashed into the floor, snapping the propeller. We'll super glue it back on so it can be displayed with pride on his bookshelf at home.

Knights of the Realm!!!

We took the boys to Medieval Times in Chicago today and to quote both Owen and Gavin, it was "AWESOME!" We saw live jousting and Knight skill contests along with some outstanding sword, mace, axe, shield and flail work. The horses were absolutely stunning and were so impressive. We upgraded to the front row and had great seats. There was a falconer and a lot of great food. The wench (known as a waitress nowadays) came through and instructed us that our right hand was our fork and our left hand was our knife while our napkin was the sleeve of the person next to us. Owen grinned. Then out came dragon soup, a half chicken and a sparerib plus herbed potatoes and a mug of "Pepsi." All without utensils, it was great.

Furthermore, the boys met the Lord Chancellor, (right hand man to the King regarding affairs of the state) prior to the show. On top of that, we were seated in the blue kingdom and our Knight won the entire event, was granted the hand of the princess and marriage and saved the day over the evil Lord Marshall (general of the King's army.) If you haven't experienced Medieval Times, it is well worth it.

Thanks to Grandpa for watching Quinn for the day so we could play with the boys. We brought Quinn back a princess hat which she said is beautiful.

Winter Fun in Wisconsin

Snow has finally fallen in Wisconsin and Quinn and the boys were out enjoying a little winter action. Quinn enjoyed the inflatable snow tube at Wilson Junior High School, Uncle Donny's alma mater, while Owen tried out his new snowboard at home that he got as a Christmas gift from his godfather Aaron Haas. Owen says "Thanks Aaron, this is awesome!" We are making him wear a helmet to keep medical costs to a minimum as Owen also got Heely's for Christmas from us. Gavin apologizes for not looking at the camera for the picture. We take what we get sometimes.

New Bathroom Coming Along

Our six-month long renovating project is nearing its end with only the sinks and some trimwork remaining on our new bathroom. The plumbers installed the toilet in mid-December and we put the shower together shorthly thereafter. After several weeks of use, everything seems to be working just fine. We'll say this for sure, it's way better than the previous bathroom.

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Well, Santa was here at the Maurer household! I can only think that we were all real good! Owen, Gavin and Quinn have all spent their week off enjoying the spoiles from the holiday. Owen's favorite gift was the pair of HEELYS that he got from us. Gavin is having a load of fun with a new Avatar game for his Gameboy that he got from the Seiler's. And as for Quinn, she is loving all of the new things that she can get into! Santa brought James a new guitar which he and Owen have been tinkering with for the last few days. I have heard the theme to James Bond more times now than I wish to count (thanks a lot Uncle Rob!), however, I am happy that they are both enjoying it. James gave me tickets to , The Lion King, which I cannot wait to go and see!

Christmas at the Vater's was a hoot as well! We got a new game from Mom and Dad which we have played most every day since Christmas (ingenious). The boys love it! Dora the Explorer has also moved into our humble abode. She has been spending a lot of time getting undressed and dressed with /by Quinn. We left at the end of the day feeling full and tired!

Congratulations Rob!

The Maurer clan joined the Seiler clan and the Vater clan on a mini-vacation to enjoy Rob's graduation from Platteville and get some quality pool time in at the Best Western in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. The Best Western has an indoor/outdoor swimming pool that is open all year, even in frigid below zero temperature. This trip, the weather was more May-like than December-like and the swimming was excellent.

We got up and headed out at 6 am on Saturday morning. We drove to Madison and picked up Chris and then stopped by for a visit at the Theobald Farm to drop off a photo of the kids and "the buck". We chatted for about forty minutes before piling back into the van for the remaining 40 minute drive to Platteville. After arriving at Platteville, we enjoyed a brunch put together in the Engineering Building and Rob gave us a tour of the UW-P campus.

After Rob's graduation ceremony was over, we drove back up Hwy 151 to Dodgeville and enjoyed some serious $5-$5-$5 pizzas at the local Pizza Hut. After filling our bellies, it was to the swimming pool for us and a couple of hours in the warm water was just what the doctor ordered. Through the magic of Chris' waterproof camera, we were able to get some great shots. Sunday morning we got up, swam another hour or so and packed up.

On our way home, we stopped at East Town Mall to visit Santa, but Gavin wouldn't participate because we didn't have his Christmas list from home (he didn't want to forget anything). So we bypassed Santa, hit a McDonalds drive-thru and travelled up Interstate 39 to Westfield for a quick visit with James' parents. Then we drove the remaining two hours home and were glad to sleep in our own beds again.

Up next....Christmas!!!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Both Gavin and Owen scored well in their first Parent/Teacher conferences of the year. Owen is doing great in his reading and has moved on to some Jack & Annie Magic TreeHouse books on his own. He's really, really good in math and is a great problem solver, according to his teacher Mrs. Cavanaugh.

Gavin's teacher Mrs. Schmidts says Gavin will be reading by the end of the school year, he is doing so well with his sight words and sounds. Gavin is also good in math and is a quick learner. Unlike at home, he actually does sit still while in school.

Both teachers said the boys are joys to have in their classroom.

Day Trip to the new Cabelas

We took the afternoon and travelled to Richfield, Wisconsin, to visit the new Cabelas store which opened recently. It did not disappoint with part store, part amusements, part museum, part zoo. It was pretty cool. Lots and lots of people, lot and lots of hunting stuff. Plus camping, fishing, hiking, gifts, etc. We'll definately have to visit again and will always stop at the new Cabelas in Rogers, MN, on the way to Jon's cabin.

400+ miles, 13 GeoCaches

We just got home from our cross-country trek in search of geo-caches in familiar and definately not-so-familiar territory. We started out heading west and picked up our first find in Menasha, an easy micro to get us started. We then went to the town of Dale, just west of Appleton and learned about train-road crossing safety while finding another find. 30 minutes later, we were in Amherst which is just east of Stevens Point. After a trip through some pretty "thorny" woods, we were 3 for 3 and had picked up a travel bug to drop later in the day. We stopped for lunch in Point and played at a new park across the street from Subway, missing out on a "nano"cache (too small to find and not sure what we were looking for) We then got back on HWY 10 and headed west to a little town called Miladore, where Jen found the small cache hidden in a tree near an old school. Further west, just south of Marshfield, we found a Virtual Cache which was a memorial to POWs. 1o miles after that we found a cool little park in Dexterville, WI which held an easy find for Gavin. After another 30 minute drive, we were in the State Forest and stopped at Spaulding Pond Campground which was Owen's first visit to a "bear" woods. I think he walked backwards most of the way, watching out for bears coming up from behind. We found the cache and left the Fast Freddy Travel Bug we had gotten earlier in the day. 30 m0re minutes and we were in Black River Falls, where our hotel reservation was set for the Holiday Inn Express (a stay we had won at the Spring Wine & Cheese Tasting). Before going to the hotel, we found our 8th cache of the day, a Virtual one which turned out to be a HUGE orange moose. After Pizza Hut and some fun in the pool, we headed to bed...tired! The next morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Then we went to Jackson County State Park & Campground and hiked up towards another Virtual Cache which was a view from atop a magnificent rock structure. Unfortunately, the observation platform was closed (actually destroyed and broken) so we couldn't go all the way to the top. The boys were disappointed (see photo). After our hike back out, we drove to Mirror Lake State Park in the Wisconsin Dells and found two caches, arriving at the first one at the same time as another fellow cacher from Kenosha who shared some great tips with us. After the long awaited and often asked for visit to McDonalds, we drove to Westfield while Quinn napped and found a cached that had eluded us on our last visit to the area. Then to end it all, we geocached in a little tiny cemetary in the middle of the boondocks before grabbing a pair of pumpkins in Ripon on the way home.

Spooky Party 2006

It was a great Halloween Party at the Maurer's this year with 15 kids, 8 adults and Devon in attendance. Jen was the hostess with the mostess and the best costume to boot, an authentic looking Hawk Girl! What a hottie! Jen served up some tasty bloody monster toes, vampire fangs, zombie brains, spicy mummy toes & intestines, brain punch, stuffed werewolf eyes. Jane brought along some great cupcakes and the feed bag was on! Jen coordinated a great game of mummy wrap, skeleton waiter relay, pin the wart on the witch and of course the spider pinata. Two hours later, the house was cleared, cleaned and we were on our way to Dad's and Devon's birthday party. Quite the day. For more pictures of the party, watch the Maurer portion of the Vater Photo Gallery. As soon as we remember our username and password (Don, any help would be great) we'll get the photos posted.

Poopin' on the Poddy

Quinnie has taken a giant step towards the Maurer's elimination of Pampers products from the household by spending a few minutes on the toilet doing her duty. Still a very long way to go.

Quinn Going International too!

Here's Quinn in Catherine's Korean Ceremonial Dress. While Catherine refused to wear hers, Quinn was more than happy to oblige the attendees at Jane's 31'st Birthday party with a quick fashion show in the "pretty-pretty".

What a Cooky Family!

Check out this crew from the Creagh wedding. We're not sure who they are but they look vaguely familiar. Thanks to Caryn for the picture. I'm sure we'll always remember the show that Owen put on to the song "I Like to Move It, Move It".

Bandits Going International?

Thirty members of a delegation from the city of Komogawa, Japan, were in Manitowoc this past weekend enjoying the sights of their sister city of Manitowoc. At a reception held in the Holiday Inn Atrium, Bandits officials Quentin Powalish and James Maurer were invited to participate in the festivities which themed around both countries favorite past time, baseball.

In a pre-reception meeting with Mr. Takao Hasegawa (pictured), Superindent of Education and Mr. Suzuki, Vice President of Sister City Relations, discussion began on offering a Komogawa ballplayer the opportunity to play for the Bandits next season and beyond. The future of that is to be determined at a later date, however, the event was probably one of the "coolest" things that the Bandits have participated in during their entire team history.

Mr. Hasegawa graciously accepted a Bandits home jersey, which he will take back with him to Japan and wear proudly. So proudly in fact, that during the reception which was for the most part of formal attire, Mr. Hasegawa wore the jersey the entire evening, even during the presentation of gifts made between the two city's delegates.

Another short sidenote, during discussion with the Japanese delegation, was a comment was made by Mr. Hasagawa to explore the possiblity of the Bandits playing a team from Komogawa one year in Japan and another year in Manitowoc. Could it happen? Who knows!

Happy Birthday Quinn

Guess who's 2 years old today!!!!!! Our little munchkin Elizabeth Quinn Maurer. Already she's had donuts for breakfast, got new clothes and a fisher price toy, a new purse/bag from Aunt Brookie and a fairy/doll from Grandma Vater. Party's at 6:30 pm tonite. Let them eat cake!

Just How Dumb is Devon?

Going where no young man has gone before, surpassing his brother Chris in stupidity in only eighth grade (however, peeing on someone's hat just because it happens to be in a urinal is a close second), Devon Vater has taken his game to an all new high, (or is it low?) Devon attached a pencil eraser to a strung out paper clip and inserted it into his classroom's electrical outlet, only to find out that Wow! metal conducts electricity. (I thought those outlet protectors weren't necessary like after maybe 8 years old!?) And in addition, frying a monitor that was plugged into the same outlet and tripping the circuit, sending the class into darkness. Grounded Until Further Notice, remember those days Chris, or in other words, probably GROUNDED FOREVER!!! and deservably so.

Let Wolf Scouts Begin!!!

Owen is officially a Wolf Scout and we've had our first meeting of sorts. Our old den of four Tiger Cubs appears to have grown to a den of ten Wolf Scouts! Should be lots of fun. Here he is with fellow scouters Alex and Collin at the Bandits baseball game where they were given their Tiger Cub Badge, Bobcat Badge and Wolf Books! The boys should earn their Wolf badge by February. We've got lots of fun outdoor activities scheduled including geo-caching, ultimate frisbee and indoor rock climbing. Yep! It's gonna be great!