From Cub Scout to Boy Scout

Last Saturday night was Cub Scout Pack 220's Blue & Gold banquet and Webelos Arrow of Light/Crossover Graduation ceremony. This year was especially meaningful for our family because it was the night that our Cub Scout was going to become a Boy Scout. After four years of busy Monday nights, long camping weekends, pinewood derbies, raingutter regattas, fund raising, and community service projects our little boy was about to take a huge first step toward becoming a young man.

It was also the night that I would no longer be a Cub Scout Den Leader. I had mixed feelings of relief that I would be freeing up a big chunk of time in my life and sadness that I would not be spending every Monday night with 10 of the greatest boys you could ever meet. For the last four years I have been dedicated to providing a fun and meaningful scouting program for these boys.

The banquet was held at a local church. The theme of the night was "Blasting into the Future." Dinner was provided by a local pizza/Italian restaurant. The room was decorated with rocket ships and stars.

The program for the evening included awards for leaders and volunteers, a special award for 5 sisters of the scouts, video presentations, and the highlight of the evening...presentation of the Arrow of Light award.

The Arrow of Light is the highest award that can be earned in Cub Scouting. It is the Cub Scout equivalent of Eagle Scout. We were lucky enough to have 10 Arrow of Light recipients in Pack 220 this year.

CJ is awarded the Arrow of Light by Cubmaster Hoyos and Asst. Cubmaster Smith.


After the Blue & Gold banquet we traveled to a near-by lake for the Arrow of Light ceremony. At the beginning of the Arrow of Light ceremony each of the boys is given an Arrow of Honor. The Arrow of Honor is painted by the parents of each boy. Each part of the arrow represents a part of scouting. The rings that decorate the arrow represent each of the achievements that the scout earned while in Cub Scouting.

Next, each of the boys is called forward to shoot a flaming arrow into the lake. This is the part that the boys had been looking forward to all year.

After the Arrow of Light ceremony the boys moved on to the Crossover Graduation ceremony. Each of the boys walked across a bridge that is decorated with the Arrow of Light. The crossing of the bridge symbolizes the boys crossing from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. This is the moment that it really hit me that these 10 boys were no longer Cubs, they had grown up and were ready to be Boy Scouts.

The members of the Boy Scout troop wait for the boys at the far end of the bridge. The Boy Scouts welcome each of the new Scouts into the troop. The Scouts remove the old Webelos neckerchief and replace it with a Boy Scout neckerchief. They also remove the blue Cub Scout shoulder loops and replace them with green Boy Scout shoulder loops.

And just like that...they are Boy Scouts!

When I look back at our years of Cub Scouting I will remember all of the work that went into it. I will also remember how much fun we had, the friends that we met, the memories that we made, and the difference that we made in the lives of the boys.

Raingutter Regatta

Saturday was a very busy Scouting day for Cub Scout Pack 220. We had two big events scheduled. The first was Scouting for Food. This is an annual event in which Cub Scouts and Boys Scout all over the U.S. go through their local neighborhoods to collect non-perishable food items for local food banks. Pack 220 collected 300 bags of food which we donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank. It was a great experience for all of the boys. It was their opportunity to put into action several of the values that Scouting teaches (ie. courteous, kind, helpful, loyal, cheerful, and reverent).
The second event of the day was the Raingutter Regatta. For this event each boy/sibling makes a boat that they then race down a length of raingutter filled with water. The kids propel the boats by blowing into the back of the sail. It is fun to watch and a very competitive event for the kids.
My scouts, the Webelos II's, are the oldest boys in the Pack and most of them are very experienced Raingutter Regatta racers. You could really see their boat building and racing experience come through this year. They ran some good races and it took quiet a few heats to finally come up with a winner.

The sisters of the Webelos II den were ready to race too. Most of these girls have several years of Raingutter racing experience, just like their brothers. They ran some good races and they all had a great time!

CJ was very determined to win a medal this year. We (with a lot of help from Grandpa G.) worked hard on the boat this year. We have learned a few tricks in our 4 years of racing. This year we kept the boat design very simple, made the boat nice and smooth so it would glide through the water, and added a Yankees logo for some extra luck.

In the end hard work, determination, and a strong desire to win paid off. CJ won first place in the Webelos II division. We were also very proud of two other Webelos II den members for winning design awards. Colin won "Most Seaworthy" for his Navy Battleship and Gabe won "Most Original Design" for his King Neptune themed boat. Congratulations to all of the boys on a great day!!!

Back to the Pack

Today it began. The 2009 - 2010 scouting year got off to a great start for Cub Scout Pack 220. To get the year going we (and by we, I mostly mean me) organized a field day. The boys and siblings were invited out for 2 hours this morning to play soccer and flag football. There were 17 cub scouts and a bunch of siblings in attendance. The kids had a great day playing and getting to know each other once again.
This was the first event of the year for our new cubmaster. He did a great job of jumping right in and getting the kids excited. It looks like Pack 220 is going to have a fun, adventurous, educational, and exciting year!!!

The kids were happy to see each other after the long summer break. It didn't take them long to become reacquainted and start having fun.

Cubmaster Alberto got the kids organized and ready to play. He quickly got them back in the habit of using "signs-up" to keep everyone on the same page and paying attention.

After playing soccer and flag football everyone had a snack and posed for a group picture. The boys are excited to get a new year of scouting started!

Cub Scout Pack 220

Ready To Go!!!

2009 Crossover Campout

This past weekend was Cub Scout Pack 220's annual Crossover Adventure Campout. Each year, at this time, we plan a big campout with lots of fun activities, a crossover graduation ceremony and dinner on Saturday night.
This year's campout started on Friday night. After everyone had set up their campsite and had some dinner, we set up an outdoor movie theatre and showed the movie, "Night at the Museum." The kids loved it. I don't think I have ever seen a group of 25 kids sit so quietly for that long.
Saturday morning everyone got up early. We served a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and juice to the whole group. The morning activities got started at 10:00 am. The younger boys (Tigers and Wolves) stayed at the campsite to work on their geology belt loops and go on a nature scavenger hunt. The older boys (Bears and Webelos) went on a 3 mile hike. The park has a really nice 3 mile hike to a destination called "Split Oak."

Here are the Bears and Webelos, along with a few Boy Scouts from Troop 22o, at Split Oak. Split Oak is a spot in the woods where there is an actual "split oak." Apparently this 200 year old oak tree was struck by lightening. Each half of the tree has continued to grow. It was very cool to see. The boys did great on the hike and were able to see many other natural wonders along the way. We found lots of deer and raccoon tracks. We also found some frog eggs and tadpoles and saw a few different types of birds.

Saturday afternoon the younger boys made "creatures" out of the items that they collected on their nature scavenger hunt. They came up with some very cool little creatures made from sticks, leaves, pine cones, moss, and rocks. The older boys worked on earning their geology belt loops and geologist activity badges.

The big event of the afternoon was the end of the year Pack meeting/graduation ceremony. The boys were each awarded all of their last awards and advancements for the year. We awarded 21 boys their religious emblems for completing the God & Me and God & Family classes. We handed out recognition awards to all of the adult leaders to show them a small amount of appreciation for all of the volunteer hours that they put in during the year. And finally, the big event of the day was the graduation ceremony. Each den was called to the stage. The boys were painted with Native American style face paint and received the neckerchief and slide for their next rank. It was very exciting for all of the boys. Each one of them looked thrilled to be moving on along the scouting trail.

Here is my boy and his best friend during the graduation ceremony. The most exciting part of the day for them was to be able to wear their new uniforms. They graduated from the Webelos I to Webelos II rank. As Webelos II they get to wear the same uniform that the boy scouts wear. What a difference it made in them. They all walked around the rest of the day with just a little bit of "attitude" and a little bit of a swagger. It was really cool to see. Many of the parents of the Webelos II commented to me about how grown up they looked. We hardly recognized our own sons.

This is the Webelos II den after the graduation ceremony. They look great in their new uniforms. We are glad to have reached the end of another scouting year. We had a great campout and a very productive year. The boys are looking forward to their last year as Cub Scouts. The time has gone by so fast. Soon they will be earning the "Arrow of Light," and crossing over into the Boy Scout Troop.

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Look out Idol...here we come!!!

It's Tuesday already. What happened to the weekend? And Monday? Did we take Monday out of the week?

It was another event filled weekend for us. Saturday morning it was up early (earlier than a school day), and off to our annual Cub Scout Family Fest. Well, 3 of us went to Family Fest. And the funny thing was, it was me, and the girls, not my Cub Scout. Yes, the girls were scouts for the day.

Family Fest is an event in which each district within our council gathers at a central location to show the public what scouting is all about. Each Pack, Troop and Crew from the Sand Lake district sets up a tent/booth to show or demonstrate something about scouting. There were lots of cool things to do. The girls made bird feeders out of plastic bottles, ice cream in a plastic bag, a Cub Scout weather rock, and got their picture taken with Ronald McDonald. And that was just a small segment of the booths.


While the girls were scouting the boys were playing baseball. CJ's Little League team had their first playoff game on Saturday morning. I wanted to go so badly and hated missing the game, but in the end, I guess I didn't miss too much. The Royals ended up loosing. It was not a pretty game, from what I was told. The good news is, there is another game on Wednesday night. Here's hoping they play a better game!


Saturday night we were invited to a bar-b-que, but opted to spend some time with grandma and grandpa instead. Grandma invited us over for some pulled-pork and corn-on-the-cob. We needed a quiet night, and that seemed like the best solution for us.


Sunday the kids and I went to the Disney Hollywood Studios with grandma. We had this trip planned for about the last month. We wanted to go one last time before grandma leaves for the summer. We had all been looking forward to going on "Toy Story Mania," and "The American Idol Experience." We got to do both attractions plus many more. When all was said and done, it was a good day. We got to do all of the things that we had planned on and it was just a nice fun day!

Will next weekend be just as busy? I hope not!

Where Did The Week Go???

Spring Break started last Friday for our kids and what a week it has been. We jumped right in on Friday by headed up to Camp LaNoChe for a Cub Scout campout. The theme for the weekend was "Fun With Son - Jurassic Pack."

We arrived at the camp on Friday afternoon. After a quick camp set-up, and a dinner of fried chicken we headed out for the Friday night movie, "Ice Age 2." The movie would have been pretty good if not for the 300 Cub Scouts that talked through the whole movie. I guess that is what you get when you put that many 6 to 10 year olds in a room together. Oh well!

Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast and headed out to the daytime activities. Our group started off the day with crafts and then headed over to scout skills. Scout skills ended up being one of the cool activities for the day. The Boy Scouts had constructed a rope bridge that all of the Cubs and their siblings got to climb across. Here are some pictures of my 3 going across the bridge.

CJ takes his turn on the bridge.

Next it was Caitlyn's turn.

Then came Caley. Yep, she cried the whole way across. The funny thing was that she walked across the bridge better and with more ease than most of the other kids. She just had to add some drama.

A little girl talk and some hiking!!!

The rest of the days activities included BB Shooting, Archery, a nature hike, and we were supposed to go canoeing, but it was very windy and the water was too choppy. This was our 4th or 5th time at Camp LaNoChe and we still have not had a chance to go canoeing. Maybe we will make it onto the lake one of these days.

After dinner on Saturday night many of our c0-campers packed up and headed home for the weekend. They all had good excuses for leaving, but I would find out in a few short hours that I should have packed up and left too, excuse or not.

About 2:30 am I got a call from Chris. It seems that while we were sleeping the weather had decided to turn bad. I had a really bad connection with him so all I got in my half asleep state was... the radar is all red, be careful. GREAT!!! What do I do now??? I sat in my tent for about 10 minutes running through my options. Finally, I decided to wake up the other campers. By this time I was hearing thunder and seeing lightening in the distance. After some discussion I decided to go get my car and park it close to the tent, just in case we needed a quick get away. Of course we were in the woods, so the car was a ways away. I jogged to my car, looking for large furry animals the whole way. When I arrived back at the campsite all of the other campers were awake. We determined that we might have just enough time to pack up and make a get away. WRONG. About 5 minutes later we were in the middle of a downpour. We got the kids and our stuff into a shelter and decided to wait out the rain. Sadly, it rained until 8:30 am. So, 13 of us spent the night in the shelter. We did not have a very restful night. Everyone slept wherever they could. I was in a camp chair. Oh joy! But, thank goodness we were all safe and made it home without too much rain soaked equipment. I'm all camped out for awhile, REALLY!!!

Monday was a much nicer day. It was a sunny day and we decided to go to EPCOT. Monday and Tuesday were the last two days that our Disney passes were good, so we had to go one last time. After the weekend that we had I would have liked to take one day to regroup, but that was not possible. So, off to EPCOT we headed.

EPCOT is currently hosting its annual "Flower and Garden Festival," so the whole park is decked out in all kinds of flowers and topiaries.

We had a great day. We got to go on most of our favorite rides. We even got Grandma to go on "Test Track" and "Soarin" with us. We ended the night with "Illuminations."


One last look at "Spaceship Earth" as we headed out of the park. We can't wait to go back.

Tuesday morning we got up and headed out for our last day at the "Magic Kingdom."

We started the day with a ride on the Tomorrow land Transit Authority, The Carousel of Progress and Buss Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Next we had lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus, toured Mickey and Minnnie's houses, road Goofy's Barnstormer and It's A Small World. Then we got a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain and spent a little time on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Here are my 3 crazy kids climbing across the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyer Island. I guess the theme for this week is bridges. We went across this one twice. It is a wild ride!

After our ride on Splash Mountain we headed to the center of the park to watch Wishes and the Spectro Magic parade. It was another great day. We sure will miss having our annual pass. We will just have to see what the future holds and how soon we will get to go back to Disney!

God & Country

God & Country is a religious awards program, offered by the P.R.A.Y organization. This program helps young people to develop a deeper relationship with God and to understand how God is active in their lives and in the world around them. The God & Country series offers 4 separate courses for school age children. The classes include God & Me for grades 1 - 3, God & Family for grades 4 - 5, God & Church for grades 6 - 8, and God & Life for grades 9 - 12.

Our Cub Scout Pack, Pack 220, is very proud of offer this program to all of our scouts and any siblings who are involved in Girl Scouts. Six of the boys in my Webelos Den recently completed the God & Family class.

The class runs for 7 weeks. During the 7 weeks the kids learn how their families can grow together in God's love. The class compares family to pizza. A very interesting way to break down the family structure.

In week one the kids learn that all families need a crust or foundation. The foundation is built on God and God's love. All of the kids choose a favorite bible verse to write on their crust. They also drew a symbol in the center of the pizza to represent Jesus.

In week two the kids learned that the sauce on the pizza represents their family and spiritual heritage. They added strips of red and orange construction paper to the pizza to represent the sauce. On the strips they wrote the names of people who had helped them grow in their Christian faith.

Week three had them add toppings to the pizza. The toppings represent the talents, gifts, and strengths that we get from our families.

Cheese was the next ingredient that was added in week 4. The cheese represents rules that we all need to follow. The boys wrote the Ten Commandments on their strips of "cheese." The melting of the cheese tells the kids that God will always love them even though they may occationally break rules or make mistakes.

In week 5 the kids baked their pizzas. The baking represents that being a member of a family and having God in our family helps us when things are tough. The kids made paper oven mitts to represent the protection that God gives us to get through the tough times.

Finally in week six the kids shared the pizza. Their assignment for the week was to decorate their pizza boxes, make coupons for their pizza and think of ways that they could share their pizzas with others. The lesson learned... How can I share the word of God with others?

This is a great series. I really enjoyed sitting in on the class and working through the booklet with CJ. I highly recommend this series of classes to any scouting organization that would like to promote "duty to God" to their scouts.

For more information about the P.R.A.Y organization go to http://www.praypub.org/.

Tackle It Tuesday - Banquet decorations

This weeks "Tackle It" project is a wrap up of my Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet decorating project. This was a very time consuming project for me, but I think it turned out great. It is nice to be able to put this one behind me.

Our theme for the banquet this year was baseball. We tried to have fun with it and go all out on the baseball stuff.

The tabel decorations included a blue table cover topped by a white table cover that I made look like baseballs. This was pretty easy. I drew two curved lines with a black marker and then added the "laces" in red marker. They do not look exactly like a baseballs, but it gives the feel of a baseball. Also on each table, I placed 8 "baseball buddies." See last weeks "Tackle It Tuesday," for more info. on this project. In the very center of each table was a balloon weight, covered in blue and yellow tissue paper and two balloons.

On the walls of the room I added a painted scoreboard, and poster paintings of a few of the logos of Major League Baseball Teams. I cannot take credit for the painting of these decorations. One of the other mom's from the pack helped me out with this project. They were great, and they really helped to make the room look more like a baseball field.

Here are a few of the MLB logos that were hung on the walls to decorate the room. All of the decorations turned out great and really helped to add some fun and excitement to the banquet.

I am so glad to put that project behind me.

For more Tackle It Tuesday projects go here

Tackle It Tuesday

This coming Saturday is our Cub Scout Pack's Blue & Gold banquet. One of my responsibilities for the banquet is the decorations. The theme for the banquet this year is "Season Opener." So, my challenge was to come up with baseball themed decorations. One item that I wanted to include in the decorations was some type of table favor. Of course, being a not-for-profit organization money is always a consideration, so I knew that favors would have to be inexpensive.

After searching the web this is what I came up with.

On a website called DLTK-Kids I found this "Benny the Baseball Sports Buddy." You can find it at www.dltk-kids.com/sports/pbaseballbuddy.asp.

The website allows you to print the templates to make your own "Benny" in either color or black and white. I choose black and white so that I could color it blue and gold to match our banquet theme.

Before I could color my baseball player I had cut out all of the template pieces, glue them together, and take the finished product to our local office supply store to have them copy and shrink it to fit on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. The actual finished project as printed from the website is much larger. Since I knew I was going to need 150 of these for our banquet, I wanted it to fit on a standard size piece of paper for copying.

My next step was to color "Benny" in the colors that would compliment our banquet. In this case, Cub Scout Blue & Gold. I choose crayons as my medium for coloring, but you could also use markers or paint. After I had my baseball player all colored, I took him back to the office supply store to have him copied onto card stock. I choose card stock, because I wanted him to stand at each place on the tables at the banquet.

Here is the finished project. After having copies made, I brought them home to cut out (150 copies, that is a lot of cutting! I did have help, thank-goodness!). Next we turned them into paper dolls. The little stand piece at the bottom was our own invention. We used old shirt boxes, cut them into rectangles, cut a slit in the top and slide it onto our finished "Benny."

It was a much more time consuming project than I had hoped for, but hopefully they will make a fun, themed addition to our Blue & Gold banquet!

Back to the Pack Campout - Part 2

After everyone finished their lunches and had a little time to rest and play, we got back to the business of the campout. The afternoon started with a visit from one of the park rangers, Miss Ginger. Miss Ginger was nice enough to set up a nature scavenger hunt for all of the kids to go on. While we were busy doing our morning activities, the park rangers were out putting up 20 bright orange signs. Each sign identified a different plant or tree that is common to Florida. The signs also gave useful information about each plant or tree. The kids were given a checklist to carry around the park with them while they looked for each sign. We broke the kids up into 4 groups to complete the activity. When each group had found all 20 of the plants on the list they reported to Miss Ginger at the park office. Miss Ginger asked the kids a few questions about what they had learned, and she gave each of them a prize for completing the scavenger hunt.

After all of the kids had completed the scavenger hunt we broke them back up into our two original groups from the morning session. The afternoon activities included a softball game and building and shooting marshmallow shooters.

While half of the kids were playing softball, the other half was working on their marshmallow shooters. Each kids was given a zip-loc baggy that contained all of the pieces that they needed to construct a marshmallow shooter. Once they got the shooter put together, I gave them stickers to decorate their shooters.

Finally, once everyone finished constructing and decorating their shooters, we gave them each a small cup of marshmallows to shoot. We set up a target range of pie tins. The kids were allowed to shoot only in the pie tin target range and only at the targets. They were given strict instructions that if they were caught breaking either of the rules, their shooters would be taken away until the end of the campout. Luckily for us, everyone followed the rules!

CJ takes aim at the targets.

The girls got in on the fun too. They waited until most of the boys were gone, and then took advantage of having the range all to themselves.

Back to the Pack Campout - Part 1

I can't believe it is Thursday and I am just getting to writing about last weekend's campout. What happened to the week?
Last weekend Cub Scout Pack 220 held a "Back to the Pack" campout. The purpose of this campout is to get the new year started and to get the boys thinking about scouting after the long Christmas break.

This year we held the campout at Magnolia Park. A park/campground that is about 20 minutes away from where we hold our den meetings. It was nice and close to allow everyone to participate. It was a cool weekend, but we still had a good turnout. We had 25 campers the first night and 22 the second. We also had about 65 adults and children out for the day on Saturday to participate in all of the activities.

When I arrived at Magnolia Park on Friday afternoon I was greeted by two wild peacock's. It was really cool. They were very friendly and tame. They just milled around while we set up our campsite.

Saturday morning everyone got up at about 7:00 am. The pack leaders prepared a breakfast of pancakes, sausage and orange juice for all of the overnight campers and anyone who came out early for the day's activities.

After breakfast we had an opening flag ceremony and organized the kids for the morning activities. The cub scouts and their siblings were divided into two groups. While group one was playing flag football, group two was making a mosaic craft(see my Tackle It Tuesday post from last week). After one hour the groups switched places and completed the activity that they had not already done.

All of the kids really seemed to like the mosaic craft. They worked hard on it and really took their time. A few of the kids made something that they could bring home to their mom's. Others made something of interest to them. We had a few with flowers, a few with Pack 220 and a few with a Star Wars theme on them.

Here is what some of the finished projects looked like. Not to bad, and pretty creative. It turned out to be a great craft idea for the outdoors. The clean-up was easy, the mess wasn't bad, and the materials, if dropped on the ground, would not be harmful to the environment.

After the kids finished their craft projects and played flag football, it was time for lunch. All of the families were on their own for lunch. It was a nice time to talk and get to know each other a little bit better.

To be continued...

Tackle It Tuesday - Cub Scout Craft

If you have read a few of my posts, you know by now that we are heavily involved in Scouting. Well, if we haven't bitten off enough for the pack in the past, we certainly have this week. This weekend Cub Scout Pack 220 will be hosting a 'Back to the Pack' camp out. And, guess who is planning the whole weekend? Yeah, you got it. My husband and I. Crazy, I know.

For my part, I am working on a couple of crafts for the kids make while they are camping.

Since all Cub Scout packs are not-for-profit, and generally have a limited budget, most activities need to be done without spending too much money. Another consideration I had for this particular project is that the kids will need to make this outside. I didn't want to choose materials that could be damaged outside or that would 'leave a trace.' We are always reminding the boys to 'Leave No Trace,' leave the world the same or better than you found it.

So, the project that I came up with is an original mosaic picture made with simple, everyday objects.






My supplies for the project are; cardstock sheets in various colors - cut in half, wooden craft sticks, glue, and a variety of dry beans and different types of dry pasta.

Here are the samples that I came up with. I used a half sheet of cardstock and glued crafts sticks along the outside edges to make a frame. Next I drew my basic design on the cardstock with glue. On top of the glue I placed pieces of dry pasta and beans to make my picture come to life. While I was creating these two pictures I realized that it would be nice to have a few more colors to work with. I will be going back to Target to get some split peas, for a little green, and a couple more types of pasta to make the pictures a bit more interesting.

I think the kids will have fun with it. I will post a few pictures of their creations as soon as I have some!

A Saturday Full of Scouting

This weekend was the annual Sand Lake district Webelos Woods camp out. This camp out is designed for Webelos from every pack, to spend a weekend with all of the Webelos from the district, doing Webelos stuff. CJ and I did not camp the whole weekend, but we did drive out early on Saturday morning to join the other boys from our pack.
The day started with an opening flag ceremony at 8:45 am. From there the group was divided into patrols. Each patrol had a schedule for the day to attend classes for 6 different activity badges. Pack 220 was part of the Cougar patrol. In the morning our boys worked on their Readyman, Athlete and Outdoorsman activity badges. In the afternoon we had classes for Engineer, Artist and Forester activity badges. It was a full day of activities. The volunteers who planned the day did a great job of making each activity badge class fun and informative.



Our first class after lunch was Engineer. The class was taught by a Disney Imagineer and an Architect. The boys all loved this class. They got to see a set of surveyor plans for Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. They also got to see elevations and a floor plan for the guest room that is now located inside Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom. If that wasn't enough, they built catapults, a working electrical circuit, and a simple crane. All in one hour!

At the Artist activity badge class the boys made a mobile out of hangers and found nature objects, a sculpture out of clay, painted a picture with water colors, talked about primary and secondary colors, and learned about different careers in art.

After all of our classes were done, we took a little time to celebrate a 10th birthday for one of our scouts. It seems like we have a birthday to celebrate at every camp out. It is great for the boys to be able to celebrate together and eat a few cupcakes!

When the birthday celebration was over, I gave each boy a special patch that they get for attending the event. One of the boys from our den had gone home already so he is not in the picture. We had 5 out of 9 boys attend the camp out. Great participation! They had a really good day, got to know each other a little better, and learned a lot.

Next year we will make plans to spend the whole weekend at this event. It was a good time, well organized, and something that CJ is already looking forward to next year.