Crazy Hair Night at AWANA

Annual Blue & Gold Banquet 2010

Back Row, l-r: JDS, AMS, G'ma, Simon, G'pa
Front Row, l-r: COS, JSS, Ericka

In February, the Cub Scouts held the annual Blue & Gold Banquet, a month which also marked the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America! Our family supplied the cakes for dessert at the banquet, giving attention to both of these grand occasions!

The Pack provided wonderful entertainment
in the form of an animal scientist coming
to teach about some animals in a very entertaining
way! Below, you can easily spot JSS wearing
his red brag vest (for earned patches).

Below, the "entertainment" made my skin crawl!

Below, this is the best shot I could get in the dark
with my camera. What is it? A scorpion that
glows in the dark!

He allowed all the scouts and their siblings
to get up close to one of his specimens (below).

What we all came for...
celebrating the accomplishments
of all of the Cub Scouts!
Below, JSS just received the envelope
containing his "badges," which are really
pins, and belt loops. He's trying to keep
his enthusiasm in check, but I think you
can see it seeping through his facade. :)

You can see a list of what he was awarded,
which actually was not all that he EARNED.
They had trouble getting a hold of
some of his belt loops, so he will
get those next time (hopefully).
Each line represents a LOT of individual
requirements all grouped together to form
the earning of one "badge." You can see
how busy JSS has been working!

Below: After JSS put his "badges"
on his uniform.

Below: JSS showing the belt loops he
has earned so far this year. Each belt
loop earned has to meet three specific requirements.

Below: JSS & his uber-proud parents
were awarded pins for accomplishments.
JSS's goes on his hat and ours goes
on our brag ribbon, which I was wearing.

Below: JSS is putting our pin for
his accomplishments on our parent
brag ribbon. :)

I love this generational picture of
G'pa, Dad, JDS and JSS.

G'ma showing her love to JSS.
She was very proud of her grandson!

Another family picture...this one, COS
is smiling, but JSS isn't quite ready.
That's just how we roll...

The Beauty of Home Schooling

After some thought, we have decided to be KONOS lite this semester in favor of focusing on JSS's Webelos requirements...and I am so glad we have! There is just so much to DO and LEARN as a Cub Scout! I have lamented that I could not find what I was looking for with Brownies for COS, but Cub Scouting offers so much that she could benefit from doing alongside her brother that I have finally come to the decision of doing KONOS lightly and focusing our afternoon studies more on badge requirements instead. For us, this is the beauty of home schooling...tailor-made education!

Below is a small sampling of the fun in learning that can be had as a Cub Scout (& the sibling of a Cub Scout). Fortunately, we have to take photos of JSS completing his badge requirements so we should have plenty of photos to update my blog with from here on out. :)

Below:
A lot of different activities for completing the Artist badge,
including earning the belt loop for Art

Learning about primary, secondary and even
tertiary colors with food coloring and milk
(above and below)

Putting that new-found knowledge to work
in making a variation of a color wheel.

(Re-)learning about mobiles and
making one that reflects who we are.
COS's included her favorite things like
necklaces (below)...

...while JSS's were all based on Webelos badges!
(an idea I found online)

Even big sis AMS wanted to make
an art construction...

COS's art construction projects
(a cake and a flower)

JSS's art construction was robot-like (below).

Fun with sculpting!
This little guy below reminds me of the
bird-like Wild Thing from the movie!
I love it!

These silhouettes took a couple of days
to complete, but they did a GREAT
job! First, they "modeled" for one another
by standing in front of the blank
paper hanging on the fridge. While I held a
lamp up to them to cast a shadow,
the other of them traced around it with
a pencil. It took a while to get "just right."
Then, in stage two, we all got high off the
fumes of large sharpie markers while
they filled in the outline of the
silhouette! They are gorgeous!!
Of course, we had to laminate them
in order to get the fumes out of the house
in order to display them!

COS learning about collages.

JSS learning about patterns by DOING
a patterned piece of art on graph paper.
(another idea found online)

The following are some of the Handyman badge
requirements. COS did not really take part
in these. Below, Dad is teaching JSS
how to check the oil level on one car...

....and then let him practice on the other!

He did the same with checking the tire pressure;
taught on one vehicle, let him learn by doing
on the other! What a great dad!

While he is not in many of the pics,
Simon was right there with JSS helping
him learn how to property maintain and
fix his bike, including the flat he had!

The results being very rewarding!

Snow Day #2, with FRIENDS!

JSS and COS each had a friend scheduled to come over to play on Friday, so the snow just added an unexpected and VERY FUN element to their entertainment. I'll just say, kids can be ruthless with the snow balls...and still laugh!

I hope you enjoy these as much as THEY did! (NOTE: Not a single shot was staged. You never heard so much laughter in one day! What a blessed time they all had!)

Above & Below:
Turn about is fair play, eh?

Above & Below:
JSS's friend snuck up on him while he
was checking the ruler he'd left outside the
day before to see how many inches of snow
we got...8 inches in a 24 hour period!!

Below:
Payback's a LOT of fun! :)

Below:
Girls sharing the ottoman during a grilled
cheese lunch and The Cosby Show.

Below:
The boys ate on the floor near the fireplace.

Below:
COS and her friend kept picking up chunks
of fluffy snow that you'd think would
weigh enough to topple them!

Below:
And then pelt each other with them!

Below:
I was mortified when COS pegged her friend
in the face with this one...
until she turned around laughing, saying
her Dad has hit her in the face with snow, too!

Below:
One tough, easy-going kid!

Below:
The girls got the biggest kick out of
playing fetch with Elanor!
She LOVED chasing snowballs for
hours with them.

Below:
COS decided to make a snow angel.

Below:
When all the wet, cold fun was over,
the girls decided it would be fun
to tattoo themselves with
COS's stash from her Christmas stocking.

Below:
The boys played video games & with nerf dart guns
for a short while, but in the end went
old school with marbles in
front of a warm fire (smart, eh?)...

...and fort-building. These below were
complete with "booby traps," I was told.

JSS's friend went home first at 3.30. The girls
decided to have a tea party and invited
JSS and me to attend, complete with candles
and the chocolate brownie hearts JSS's friend's
mom and sister brought to us for Valentine's Day.