Scouts and Suggestions

Josh turned 8 so that means he gets to start cub scouts. He was so excited. He has seen Matthew go to cub scouts for almost a year and a half and he was so excited to finally get his turn. Last week we went over to the scout office and picked up his uniform, patches, neckerchief, slide and book. Wow that was pricey!! Anyway, here he is all decked out in his cub scout uniform:Here's the two cub scouters together:Matthew is a Bear scout and Josh is a Wolf scout. Last night was Josh's very first activity. It so happens it was the Blue and Gold banquet. For the banquet they provided dinner and tried to make it a family affair. Aaron and I decided we would brave it with all the kids. When we got there they had a social mixer for anyone to do. It was a bingo game where you had to ask people different facts and have them sign off on which ones applied to them. For example one of the questions was find someone who watched General Conference--an another was find someone who went to church last Sunday, etc. Josh took this game quite seriously. He went around to anyone and everyone whether he knew them or not and asked them if they could sign off on any of the questions. I guess his philosophy was forget socializing just get 5 in a row signed off so you can get bingo and receive a prize. He did get two Bingos so I guess his philosophy seemed to work out for him. Sarah just saw the unattended pencils and paper and got to work on her latest scribble masterpiece.Lately Matthew has been obsessing over prayers and programs. When we got to the banquet Matthew attached himself to the Cub Master and incessantly quizzed him over who was saying the opening prayer and what the program was for the evening. I tried to grab him and have him sit quietly in his chair, but he seemed to view this as more of a suggestion than a command. As soon as our backs were turned he was back holding on to the Cub Master's hand following him around and asking the same questions about the prayers and program again. When it was time for things to start, Matthew took it upon himself to conduct the Pack Meeting. They didn't have a microphone, but Matthew gets lots of practice at projecting his voice at home so no one had any difficulty in hearing and understanding him. Luckily, the Cub Master is pretty laid back and just rolled with it. Good thing most everyone on the ward has gotten to know Matthew and his little idiosyncrasies so they just rolled with the punches, too. I tried to get him to come and sit back down, but he was too busy announcing who was going to say the opening prayer. We were sitting at the very back of the gym so to get his attention I had to either yell at him, or walk up to the front in front of everyone to tell him to come and sit back down. After the prayer was over I was getting out of my seat to go and get him, but Matthew inserted himself into announcing the Flag Ceremony. I had to sit back down and wait until that was over. Finally I was on my way up to get him, when the Cub Master gave him a job to do. He was supposed to pass out Easter Eggs filled with candy to all the boys who wore their uniforms. Whew, that got him busy doing something other than conducting the meeting. When he got to our table he gave Josh an egg and moved on. Once Sarah saw the egg had candy in it and that she didn't get one, she came UNGLUED and inconsolable. Aaron had to take her out to the foyer because she was in hysterics since she didn't get some candy. Luckily you couldn't hear her too much while Aaron was out in the foyer with her. That left me all alone trying to man my 4 boys. That's when they started the dinner line. Of course my kids are always up for food so they hopped out of their seats and got in line. I had to hurry over to help them. It's a good thing I did, too. They were having a taco salad bar. It started out with chips, salad, chili and cheese. When Matthew got to the big bowl of salad he took a huge tongful of salad, but saw there were carrot and cabbage pieces mixed in with the lettuce leaves. He started picking those out of his salad while still in the tongs because he didn't like those things. I had to tell him to just put the tongful of salad on his chips and he could pick out the pieces he didn't like later. When we got back to our table Aaron had calmed Sarah down enough that he could bring her back inside the gym. That's when she saw my dinner plate and laid claim to it. To prevent any further hysteria from her I gave to her quickly while my stomach growled in hunger. She loved it as you can tell from the picture. She got it all over her face, shirt and hands.

Aaron was nice enough to go and get me another plate while he was getting his own plate. I had to stay at the table to man the hungry, but finally eating kids. Because of Daniel's allergies we didn't know what he would be able to eat. Instead we brought nuggets for him so he didn't go hungry. However, I forgot to bring any dessert for him. When they started passing out ice cream bars for dessert Daniel got upset that he wasn't going to get anything for dessert. I felt awful because in our frenzy of getting five kids ready to come to Pack Meeting Daniel's dessert wasn't a high priority on my remember list. However, the Primary Secretary, knowing about Daniel's allergies, happened to have a sucker, some candy and some gum in her purse that she quickly gave Daniel. Whew--crisis averted!! Our ward is so nice to roll with my different kids' needs!! I love it!! On the food table they also had a crock pot full of nacho cheese you could pour over some chips. Once Josh finished his first plate of taco salad he said he wanted some nachos. We made him wait until everyone had gone through the line at least once and then told him to go ahead. He went over and got a heaping plate of nachos and poured cheese all over them and then all over his new scout shirt, too. Doh!! I guess his scout shirt needed to be broken in and boy did he ever break it in. I hope the huge cheese stain on the front of his shirt comes out!! Anyway, he came back and finished his plate of nachos and asked if he could go and get another one. Aaron told him no and that he had eaten enough. Josh seemed to view this as more of a suggestion than as a command. So as soon as Aaron and I weren't paying attention, he headed over and got another heaping plate of nachos pouring cheese all over them and all over himself AGAIN. Once we saw what he had done he got the mad parent look and felt bad, but he didn't feel too bad because he got to comfort himself in a big plate of nachos.

Later on in the program they called up the three newest cub scouts to welcome them into the program. Josh is on the far left in the picture. After introducing them to the program they then wanted all the new cub's parents to come and join them up front. Aaron and I hesitantly walked to the front to stand with Josh. We were very nervous leaving the other four kids closely unsupervised while we did this. It didn't take Sarah long, but she ran up to the front yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" I had to pick her up to prevent anymore hysterics even though she was a complete mess from the chili. By the end of the parents portion of the program, my shirt was filthy from Sarah's chili hands, face and shirt. Anyone who saw me after that probably thinks I am the messiest eater!! Anyway, on the way back to our seats Sarah spotted the bag of snack size candy bars on the front table. Once she saw those, she refused to budge until she got one. I tried to shoo her back to our table, but she would have none of it. The Cub Master followed her gaze and saw it was locked on the bag of candybars so he said she could have one. He probably was trying to avert another round of hysteria so he would have given her anything she wanted. I quickly grabbed a candybar and gave it to her and she then allowed us to walk back to our table. When we got back to our table she unwrapped the candybar and shoved the whole thing in her mouth. I looked over a few minutes later to see chocolate tinged saliva pouring out of her mouth all over her shirt, but she was being quiet. I just turned my head and pretended not to notice. All the chocolate stains would just blend in nicely with her chili stains.

The main part of the program was put on by a very serious hunter. The bits and pieces I heard over my noisy kids was about how he hunts all kinds of animals. He also brought in his hunting dog to do some examples with. For some reason Daniel is scared to death of dogs. As soon as he saw the dog in the gym he steered clear. And anytime the dog came within 30 feet of Daniel he would start screaming. Between dealing with him, Sarah, Josh, Matthew and Noah I breathed a sigh of relief and was ready to come home when the banquet ended.

During dinner I let Noah eat some of the chili because he seemed to really like it. He managed to get chili all over his face, hands and shirt, too. Later on last night the chili didn't seem to agree with him, though. He ended up screaming most of the night. I am not exaggerating that we only got about 3 hours of sleep the whole night. I am a walking zombie and unfortunately even though I took care of him down in the family room he kept everyone else awake, too. That means we are in for a day full of chuckles (orneriness) from everyone. All the while Noah is sleeping peacefully upstairs. He wore himself out last night so he has to rest up for another fun night tonight. I can't wait!!

All in all it was a good program. Have been a scout leader I am appreciative of what work goes into being a cub scout leader. However, I am glad to know we have another 4 weeks to recuperate from this experience before we will attend another Pack Meeting. Wow we are seriously outnumbered by kids. I shudder to think what will happen when Noah becomes mobile....