08/29/2012

1.  Two and a half days with the new bikes and we took our first trip to the bike shop for a repair this morning.  :-)  It was my fault, and ended up being no big deal, but Joseph was very upset.  I tried to mount a bracket to hold his bike lock, but installed it too low on the frame.  It jammed the gear-shift mechanism when Joseph tried to shift gears.  Poor Joseph was fit to be tied, worrying that his bike was ruined and it would be really expensive to fix.  I know that totally sick feeling you get when something you really love gets lost or broken, and he was really upset.  So it was a big relief when it turned out to be an easy fix.

2.  The boys have been having fun on photoshop recently.  Here are some recent creations.

Here is an abstract piece by Mosey.


And here, we have some surrealism by Brigham and Joseph.  They love the liquify tool, and after lunch all three of the boys were gathered around the computer in absolute fits of hysterical laughter for about 20 minutes or more as they took turns messing around with pictures of themselves and Sandy (Sandy's photoshopped portrait didn't get saved, unfortunately). Such talent!  :-)

Brigham the extra-terrestrial

 Joseph the... I don't have a clue-- maybe the Joker?

3.  Tonight was our pack meeting and pool party, and the kick-off to the new scout year.  We had a ton of awards to give out.  I'd spent several hours figuring out what each boy was supposed to get, sorting the pins and belt loops and patches, figuring out which ones we were missing (after we supposedly were given all of them...), sorting through the missing awards my friend Andrea went back to purchase this morning, and then dividing them all into separate bags for each boy.
But it was worth it to see the smiles on the boys' faces, especially Mosey.
Mosey was the first one called up to receive his awards.  He earned lots and lots of things over the summer (something like 15 or 16 belt loops and pins and patches), because of cub scout camp and a number of other activities.  He was very excited, as you can see. You can also see Ember, his newest familiar.  He spends half his time carrying Ember around everywhere he goes, and the other half looking for him.  :-)

Joseph and Brigham also received their arrow of light, and crossed over into Boy Scouts.  I'm so proud of them!

Here are the three newest boy scouts-- Joseph and Brigham and their friend Adam-- all three summer birthdays.

Joseph was the first to cross over-- we had to go up to the church this afternoon to pick up the bridge, since the cub master had forgotten it.  I almost said forget it, but Joseph had been looking forward to crossing over the bridge, and I like the more solemn symbolism it represents anyway.  I'm really glad Joseph takes scouting seriously, and I want that to continue. He's done a lot of independent work on scouting this past year.

Then it was Brigham's turn.  He was really funny-- he took his sweet time crossing the bridge, and then at the very end he stood on one foot, extending his other foot over the edge of the bridge-- savoring that last second of cub-scout-hood, before hopping off.  He got a laugh from everyone watching.  

So cub scouts will be starting up again next week!