Cub Scout Rocket Academy

Our local scout council held a full day Rocket Academy for the boys (and dads!).  Stuart and Nicholas were pretty excited about going.  The boys started off with shooting some pre-made pressurized rockets with some type of air pump. 

They also shot some rubber band guns.  While I don't see the connection between the rubber band guns and rocket academy,  I can tell you that after talking with Nicholas and one of the other scouts, these guns were close to the best part of the day.  They loved them!

If one gun is good, then two must be better!

There were also live critters to examine and touch like this king snake!

Rocket Academy was held at Sid Richardson Scout Ranch.  They have their own special grace that they say before meals.

Finally it was time for the boys to build their own rocket.

The rockets were marked with identification so you would know which was yours and then they were lined up in a row on a table.

A short distance behind the rockets was another table where the rocket builders waited for the command to hit the button to launch their rockets.  There were 18 stations and rockets went off one after another down the line.

Stuart didn't put enough wadding in his rocket which caused the streamer to catch fire and burn up.  So in addition to his rocket falling back to earth quickly, he also lost the marker to help him identify it.   But I think he figured it out since he may have been the only one without a streamer :)

Nicholas is quite proud of his own rocket!

After a long day building, running, and playing, Nicholas snoozed a little on his way home.  Although he still denies that he was asleep.  He was just "resting" for a moment.

Cub Scout Blue and Gold Celebration

Tonight we had our Cub Scout Blue and Gold celebration.  It's kind of a birthday party for Boy Scouts of America which was first organized in February 1910.  We celebrated their 103rd birthday tonight.

Our pack threw a big disco party at Lone Star Skating Rink in Denton to celebrate.  We had the whole place to ourselves and it was catered by Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers!

Since Nicholas is so used to ice skating, he chose some inline skates.  He's never been on inline skates before but he did an amazing job skating around.  Although he had no idea what "disco" was, he enjoyed the laser lights on the floor and lots of glow sticks.

Rachel wasn't intimidated by skates.  She grabbed one of the cradles to help her get used to the skates.  Soon she was zipping all over the place.

She was excited to see some of her friends there too.

Here's a quick video of Nicholas and Rachel skating around.  I wish I had gotten more video of Nicholas but for most of the time the lights were low so the camera couldn't pick him up well enough.



Happy Birthday Scouting!

Cub Scout Bear Badge

In Cub Scouts, third graders are working on their Bear Badge. This requires completing 12 achievements in the categories of God, Country, Family, and Self.

The Cubmaster read the following as one of the Assistant Cubmasters painted Nicholas' face with blue and gold face paint.

"Nicholas, tonight we recognize that you have taken your next step along the Cub Scout Trail.

"You have completed the achievements required to ear the Bear badge.  The Bear is respected by all other animals because of its size, its loyalty to its family, and its ability to hunt and fish.  In The Jungle Book, the story from which the names of the Cub Scout badges come, it is the bear Baloo who teaches the man child Mowgli the Law of the Jungle.

"In earning this badge, you have traveled the way of the Bear, sharing activities with your family and demonstrating useful skills in life.  You also have followed the Cub Scout Pledge, learning about your faith and your duty to God and learning about our country and its traditions.

"Tonight we mark you with the Cub Scout colors of Blue and Gold.

"Blue represents truth and the loyalty for which all Bears are known - loyalty to God, family, country, friends, and, most importantly, loyalty to your beliefs and convictions.

"Gold represents good cheer and happiness.  It's easy to be happy on a special night like tonight.  But remember that a Cub Scout always looks on the bright side of things, rather than the gloomy side.  Remember to spread your good cheer by bringing happiness and a bright outlook to those around you.

"I now present your Bear badge to your Akelas (that means parents) and ask that they present them to you.

Later his whole den was called up to get their patches and pins from the last month.

To celebrate the new Bear, we took the kids to Tutti Frutti for some frozen yogurt.

The kids love this place because they can fix their own yogurt cups and mix and match from lots of different flavors.

Then they can add toppings like fruit, candy, sprinkles, and syrups until it is a mound of sweet sticky goodness.

What a fun night!  We are so proud of Nicholas and his how much he has learned and achieved through scouting.

My Boys on the Cub Scout Stage

Tonight both of my boys were on the stage at our Cub Scout Pack meeting.

Stuart enjoys being Assistant Cubmaster. He helps to plan and run the Pack meetings and Troop outings. Recently he has been giving the Cubmaster Minute which is at the end of the meeting and usually presents a thought or short story that sends everyone home with inspirational ideas to think about.

Tonight he talked about Resourcefulness. He held up a little piece of wire. He asked the audience, "When you see this, what do you see?". He explained that some people may see nothing important, but when twisted and turned, that little piece of wire can be useful. It could be used as a paperclip, a twist tie for for closing a bag, or it could join with other pieces of wire to tie things together. It could even be used to keep shoes on for a short time.

Then he talked about Michelangelo and his beautiful sculptures. Michelangelo said the sculpture was always there. It was just hidden inside the stone. His job is to remove the stone that is blocking it. He was helping that stone reach its potential, just like the Cub Scouts can help that piece of wire reach its potential.

He wrapped it up by saying that we all have strengths, talents and other potential hidden inside us. But we can be resourceful and help remove the things that are blocking them in and help others bring out their own potential and talent as well.

Get creative. Be resourceful. I think everyone could be inspired by that message.

At the Pack meeting, each den is called up on stage and given various patches, belt loops, and pins as awards for tasks they have completed since the last Pack meeting. Nicholas is used to getting on stage for this but he hasn't used the microphone to speak in front of a crowd before. However, tonight he was asked to speak the closing ceremony.

He was a little nervous but you couldn't tell.

I was really proud of my boys tonight!

Pinewood Derby Car Time!

It's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby time!

Nicholas did a great job this year on his car. He sorted through his vast collection of toy cars and picked one that he thought would be aerodynamic and cool looking.

He drew a pattern for the car on paper then copied the pattern to his block of wood. He did a lot of work with tools on his own with just occasional help from Stuart.

It turned out looking great!

Side view

We had the races at the school. It's always exciting to see this track set up in the cafeteria.

Nicholas did great on his first few runs. He's the white car, second from the left in this video.



The boys race their cars multiple times. Unfortunately, as the races continued, Nicholas' car went slower and slower. We aren't sure what happened but something must have wiggled out of place which affected the car's performance.

Nicholas was a little sad that he didn't place because he did so well in the race last year. But it was a good opportunity for him to practice good sportsmanship and to start making plans for next year's car to be his best ever!

Cub Scout Ornaments

We had our weekly Cub Scout meeting tonight. We talked about safety but while we talked the boys made Christmas ornaments.

Our den leader had lots of foam wreaths and cool stickers out for everyone to use.

Even Rachel made a few ornaments during the meeting.

Angry Birds Cake

Nicholas' Cub Scout den has a cake auction every Fall around Halloween. The scouts have to decorate the cakes and at the Pack meeting the cakes are judged in three categories - scariest, scoutiest, and funniest. All of the cakes get entered into a silent auction that takes place during the meeting. One of the Pack's alums is a professional auctioneer so some of the best cakes are pulled from the silent auction so that he can run a live auction on those. All of the money from the auction goes straight to the Pack for activities for the boys so it is really for a great cause.

Last year Nicholas made a scary cake. This year he decided he wanted to go with a funny cake based on his favorite game to play on our cell phones, Angry Birds.

Nicholas wanted to make the birds and pigs out of cake balls. I found the basic recipe for them and they are amazingly easy. Make a cake - something yummy but simple like my favorite, Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mix. Crumble the cake up into crumbs in a big bowl. Get a tub of frosting and mix about half of it into the cake crumbs. Then mix well with your hands.

It will feel kind of weird in texture but there is something fun about getting your hands all covered with cake and frosting.

Now take out little clumps of your mixture and roll them into balls. This is fun too!

Once you have your cake ball foundations made, chill them in the freezer for a little while to let them firm up.

Then melt some chocolate or candy coating and roll the balls around in them.

We found a great tool that can help with rolling them and removing them from the candy coating. We took two plastic forks and removed the center tines. It worked great without always stabbing the cake ball or wiping off the candy coating.

Remove the cake ball from the candy coating and set aside to harden.

Now you can eat them as is or you can decorate them in all kinds of fun ways!

In the game, these little green pigs steal the eggs of the red birds. The red birds get angry and throw themselves at the pig house via a sling shot. Nicholas set up a knocked down pig house with pretzel sticks and used a piece of Twizzler for the angry bird sling shot.

The cake was quite popular and Nicholas won first prize for funniest cake. The cake even made it to the auctioneer for the live auction.

....somehow we ended up bidding on our own cake again this year. Nicholas just has so much fun making these that it's hard to let it go to someone else....plus that darn auction fever will get me every time!

Of course, the first thing the kids wanted to eat when we got home were the cute little cake balls. We're definitely making those again!

Cub Scouts Visit The Local Landfill

Yesterday, the cub scouts took a tour of a local landfill.

They were super excited and had lots of comments and questions for our very patient tour guide.

We saw some cool trucks at work.

The scouts had a great time and learned a lot about reducing waste and recycling. Nicholas especially loved the little toy garbage truck and light up yo-yo that he was given!

Republic Services has some good online resources to help children learn about protecting the environment including a Recycle Rosie Curriculum and an online newspaper called Earth Preservers. Check it out!

Camping with the Cub Scouts

Our Cub Scout pack had their Fall Family Campout this past weekend. Our tent is really only comfortable for 2 people and with all that has been going on lately we never had time to shop for a bigger tent. So we decided that the boys would campout and the girls would come out for the daily activities but sleep at home. Hopefully we'll have a larger tent by the time the Spring Campout rolls around.

We got out to the campsite late afternoon Friday and took care of the most important thing first - setting up the tent. I was so proud to see Nicholas jump right in and start helping instead of running off to play with his friends.

We had a great camp site right on the lake.

There's our little green/grey tent in the middle. I really like the big tent on the left side of this picture though. I think we need something like that for next time!

After the necessary tent assembly was complete, the kids headed down to the beach area to play and explore.

Rachel loved playing in the sand.

She crawled in a spiral circle in the sand and laughed at the pattern she made. She was having fun but I just kept thinking of all the sand getting in her shoes, clothing, and hair.

The boys were combing the beach for sticks, rocks, and dead stuff like this!

His friends found a giant spine from some kind of unidentified critter!

It was getting dark and Rachel and I headed home. It was rather windy that night so Stuart had a hard time sleeping. It was noisy from the wind hitting the tent and the poles of the tent aren't incredibly strong so at times the tent would sag inward.

Saturday morning, Rachel and I made it out to the campsite just in time to have some breakfast with the boys. Then we all headed out to another area of the campgrounds to do some conservation work, aka trash pickup.

As soon as we arrived, this sweet butterfly landed on the van. Rachel talked to him some before he flew away.

We all listened to the plan to cover multiple camp sites in a line formation to ensure that they were free from trash.

I love watching Stuart in his leadership role as Assistant Cubmaster for the pack. He is a great leader and seems to really enjoy getting more involved with scouting this year!

Everyone got gloves and trash bags.

Even the smallest conservationist!

Our den scoured our assigned campsites. We seemed to keep losing our line formation but in the end I think we got the area pretty clean.

Rachel enjoyed carrying her bag around and playing with her gloves.

But she did actually contribute to some trash collection as well.

But eventually she put her bag down and just started running around exploring.

The boys kept at it a while longer though. Overall the area was rather clean when we got there but we did help with picking up little bottle camps, wrappers, etc.

We headed back to our campsite to enjoy some free time before lunch.

We decided to go fishing with some friends. Rachel offered to help Daddy carry his tackle box.

Stuart showed Nicholas how to put a worm on a hook.

Rachel wasn't sure what to think about all of that.

Nicholas tried to do it himself. He didn't quite pinch the worm. It was more like a stretch until it popped but the overall mission was accomplished.

He did great with threading the worm piece on the hook without poking himself.

Then it was time to get the hook wet and try to catch some fish.

Unfortunately, it was windy and the ground was very mushy. Check out this little friend at the edge of the water who sunk down way past his ankles!

We gave up on fishing for the day and cleaned up for lunch.

After lunch, there were several scout activities and games planned but we had to leave to get Nicholas to his hockey game in Arlington. Here he is all decked out and ready to go. When he was picking out his helmet, he was trying to decide between black and white. The salesperson told him that most kids chose black helmets. So Nicholas quickly decided that he wanted white. I love that he is comfortable being his own person and it certainly makes it easier to find him out on the ice in the sea of black helmets!

He did well at the game despite being tired from all that he had been doing at the camp site since the day before.

We got back to camp and started preparing for the evening festivities around the camp fire.

The moon was pretty but we could see clouds rolling in. There was predictions of a storm coming during the night.

Stuart did some fun singing, dancing and acting silly for the show. The other leaders tried to pull an initiation prank on him. They all pretended to act out a skit and had Stuart kneel down and pretend to be a table. The other three leaders ended up putting their drinks of water down on the "table" and then left the stage area. Stuart was stuck with the three cups of water on his back and they told him he had to get up on his own! Nicholas ran in and saved the day by scooping up two of the cups for him. I think the other leaders were a little miffed because they had all had to get wet when they had to do this. But I was proud of my little guy for rushing in to "save" his Daddy!

Nicholas' den did a little song and skit too.

Rachel and I headed home for bed and the boys stayed at the site a while longer. But they ended up leaving the tent and coming home because of rain and wind. They went back Sunday morning to get the tent, fix breakfast for those that braved the weather or had come back out in the morning.