My annual bad prediction of the NCAA tournament final four: champion Michigan State :) Ohio State, Miami, and Florida.

This last week was Alex's birthday (double digits...), Friday was his party. The Lincoln Elementary carnival was Friday night, and we just had his friends Timmy and Luke and a new one, Riley, come over when it was done for grilled hot dogs and cake and presents and sleepover. Today was Scout Sunday at Pleasant View church. The scouts, including Alex, did a flag ceremony at the beginning of the service and assisted with collecting the offering, which it looked like everyone in attendance liked. The Blue & Gold banquet/pizza lunch was afterwards, with awards given out.

Today was a birthday party for the kids' friend Sydni. Both of them were invited, so Beth and I went to chaperon as well. The party was held at Splash Universe in Shipshewana, a cool indoor water park. It's no Holiday World but what do you expect. There were around a dozen kids so we helped caravan there in our minivan. The water park itself is not that large but has several slides, a lazy river, a kiddie land, and one of those things that dumps a large bucketful of water every few minutes on whoever is standing under it...all inside a large hotel. And heated fairly well. Beth and I did bring suits and join in the fun, her more than me because I got really cold. We had pizza and cake and presents when we got there (resort pizza) and there was an arcade for them to play in when done swimming. And I got to be a hero for Missy...she was playing a claw game and spent almost all of her money on it. With her last quarters, she had a stuffed monkey in the claw, but it fell out while traversing back to the chute. She was pretty upset at being ripped off. Then when she wasn't looking I went back to the machine and managed to get the monkey without spending too much. That is what she will remember of today.

Tonight, for the second week in a row, the winter weather advisory has cancelled Scouts. Both times, school had been open during the day, but in the afternoon it started getting bad enough that the roads were getting icy and we eventually decided at the last minutes that it would be better not to meet.