02/28/12

1.  Mosey had a great day today!  He happily did his practicing and his chores.  While we were doing cello, he said, "I'm NOT going to let this song beat me!"  And he didn't.  On the way home from the Blue and Gold Banquet tonight, Brigham was feeling bad about some things.  Mosey said to him, "You just can't let life beat you!"  What good advice.  :-)

2.  The Blue and Gold Banquet was tonight.  This was sort of dropped into our laps (my co-den-leader's and mine) at the last minute, since neither of us realized we were supposed to do it, and didn't know how to do it!  It worked out well, though.  I let the boys have the day off of school lessons.  I did practicing with them, and then went to the Scout store to buy a uniform shirt for myself, then to Target to pick up prescriptions, then to Walmart for supplies for the banquet, then to the post office (FINALLY!-- Naomi, your package is on its way), then to the dollar store only to realize they don't fill balloons in the store, then home to pick up the boys (with a 5 minute delay while we frantically searched for-- and found-- Ben's keys to the church), then to the church to set up tables and chairs, then home to help the boys finish their cakes, then back to the church for the banquet, cleaning up, then home!  Whew!  Busy day.

3.  At the post office, a woman that I vaguely know from the Learning Without Limits homeschool association we are in came and knocked on the van window as I was getting ready to get out.  She asked if she could take my package in and mail it for me!  Isn't that the nicest thing ever??  So she did!  And then the post office worker had to come out and talk to me to grill me on what was in the package, since it "could be a bomb."  My homeschool friend told me they really gave her a hard time and told her never to bring packages into the post office for someone else ever again.  Sheesh!  No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

4.  The cub scouts are supposed to make and decorate cakes with their dads for the Blue and Gold Banquet.  This year Ben really did help them with a lot of it.  Brigham made a castle out of rice crispy treat "blocks."  Joseph made a giant pancake with chocolate chips and blueberries and frosting topped with skittles.  Yum.  :-)  And Mosey made a fish cake.  (Just a cake cut out in the shape of a fish.)  They were all very creative. 

5.  The banquet was very simple.  Blue table cloths, blue and gold balloons, hamburgers, fruit, veggies, and chips, pinewood derby cars for centerpieces.  We didn't do any sort of program or skits or anything, besides the presentation of awards.  Instead, I put together paper bags full of various craft supplies-- pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, small plastic cups, skewers, tape, glue, and scissors, and instructed all the kids to create something over the course of the evening.  I think the kids all had lots of fun, and there were all kinds of cool things made from hot air balloons to parachutes to helicopters, to trees!  A very simple, fun activity.

6.  Mosey did have one sad point tonight after the Blue and Gold Banquet (where he got his Bobcat award).  He brought a grocery bag carrying several small clay creations he has been making over the past few days out of Sculpey clay.  He made an alien, a cat, a porcupine, and a junk critter (a little creature using odds and ends like screws and staples to make a face and body).  They're really cute and he's been very proud of how they turned out.  Sadly they disappeared sometime during the banquet, and by the time we realized it, the trash had already been taken out to the big dumpster.  Mosey was so sad and shed some tears, but then really rallied and decided he would just have to make some more, and they would be better than the original!

7.  Joseph and Brigham left the Banquet feeling a bit down as well.  They were the only boys that didn't get an award.  I'm really confused about how Webelos is supposed to work.  According to the handbook, the requirements are all supposed to be done as a den, with very little being done at home with the parents.  But somehow the other Webelo, just a month older than the boys, earned his badge tonight plus a bunch of other awards.  So we are missing something.  I have tried to delegate Brigham and Joseph's scouting to Ben, but I don't think he understands how it is supposed to work either.  Anyway, both boys were very disappointed, and so was I.  Not because they didn't get awards, but because Scouting is something Joseph has been enthusiastic about, and I hate to have anything happen to dampen that enthusiasm.  I think I'm going to have to delegate Brigham's and Joseph's scouting back to myself.  :-(