Last night I got my first taste of what will be a part of my life for the next oh, 10 years or so.........
CUB SCOUTS
Now I am what you would call a scouting 'virgin' - never had a calling in scouts. I have 2 older brothers who were involved in scouts, but I was much younger than them and don't really recall anything they did, except seeing my brother Troy working on his Eagle project and attending his court of honor. Anywho, scouting is a whole new world for me. I'm trying to pick up on the lingo and like any devoted mother I've flipped thru Zach's cub scout handbook to see just what the heck happens in cub scouts. Andrew went to the scouting office and bought Zach all the necessary attire. Thanks to a very helpful mother in law, his patches are already sewn on his shirt, otherwise I think I would have tried to attach them with velcro since I have no sewing experience whatsoever. (I'm ashamed to admit it but yes, I am a Mormon wife and mother who doesn't own a sewing machine or really knows how to use one, Okay?? I couldn't even sew a button on a shirt if I had to! Why didn't I listen to my mother when she tried to teach me sewing as a teenager???)
Like I said, last night I got my first real exposure to scouting. It was our ward's Blue & Gold Banquet. I had no idea what goes on at these things, but my kids think I'm some kind of expert and constantly asked me questions about it. I finally had to tell them that we will all find out together when we go. Zach was just worried about having to stand up in front of alot of people. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of Zach - it was his first time wearing his uniform and he looked so dang handsome. Apparently though the longer the boy is in cub scouts, the more relaxed they become about wearing their scout uniform the proper way. Some boys had no patches sewn on, some were missing their neckerchiefs, and some shirts weren't even buttoned or tucked in. I thought it was pretty funny.
The wolves were in charge of the flag ceremony so they asked Zach to carry the flag to the front and he thought that was pretty cool. The program was short and sweet and only lasted an hour, just the way we like it. The best part of the evening for me though was my own childrens' reaction to the food that was served - a yummy baked potato bar. Baked potatoes were a foreign concept to my kids. I guess we don't eat baked potatoes much in our family because they each had puzzled looks on their faces and didn't quite understand what to do with this very hot potato wrapped in aluminum foil. I told them how you cut open the potato and put all these toppings on it, etc. but they wondered why they couldn't just have mashed potatoes. Taylor put all her toppings on before cutting open the potato, Mason just wanted to eat the cheese and forget the potato while Zachary tried to eat the potato from the outside with his fork! I guess I need to break away from my old standard of mashed potatoes and introduce my children to the glorious world of baked potatoes!!
We've only been a part of the Cub Scout program for a week now but I've been so impressed with all the Cub Scout leaders in our ward - they are all very dedicated and diligent and on the ball. I really like Zach's Wolf Den leaders and I'm so grateful he has such great people to teach him all about being a Cub Scout.
6 comments:
How funny-- you weren't referring to my child in the untucked shirt without ANY patches sew on, were you???? I was supper diligent with #1 --but have become quite the slacker-- even Shane noticed- he is a webelo and still not even his bobcat is sewn on -- I HATE scout patches with a passion--
I just realized the other day that he has his Faith in God booklet too that he has stuff to do in as well...dangit! We've been so busy passing off scout stuff, I thought I was doing ok.
I think the husbands should be in charge of Cub Scout stuff. Aren't they the experts on this? Didn't they go through it already?
Michelle--the husbands are the experts in everything! --Andrew
I was going to comment with a few scouting mom suggestions for you, but 3/4 of the way through I'm just shocked that your kids don't eat baked potatoes? What the??? Easiest thing in the world. You need baked potato lessons - oven, microwave, bbq, I use all three. We need to talk. As for scouts, have a fun time with it, my first suggestion was to tell you to get that green color thread and red thread because you'll be sewing those color patches forever...but you don't have a sewing machine, again we need to talk. And at the next pack meeting request to do the rainbird clap - it's my favorite. And finally, after awhile, you'll never again here someone in a meeting, no matter how solemn and sacred the occassion, say the word 'announcements' without in your head singing along "announcements announcements announcements. a horrible way to die ..."
In my own defense, I do know how to make baked potatoes, I guess I just make mashed ones alot.
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