Cub Day Camp 2009

Cub Scout Day Camp 2009 was, of course, TERRIFIC! The boys all had such a fantastic time. Jeffrey was a Webelo (10 yr old cub), Bryce a Wolf (8 yr old cub), and Nathan went to sibling camp, dedicated to kids too young to attend the regular festivities (ages 3-7).

I couldn't find my camera this week. So. You get lots of pics, just not of anybody I know. I want to at least present a good snapshot of how many things occurred in 5 days, from 8 am-1:30 pm each day:

The theme this year: The American Adventure.

Webelos, Bears (9 yr olds), and Wolves= light blue shirts (and if you see them in red, those are pics from last year, 2008)

Adult volunteers= royal blue shirts,

Staff= forest green shirts,

Youth volunteers= orange shirts

Siblings= regular green shirts

The "main" meeting place, without all the people. Each flag represents an entire den (4-18 kids), and you can only see about a third of the flags!

The main meeting place, WITH people. Wowsa. And we were the morning session. There's still another whole session in the afternoon, repeating everything we did in the morning. Again, you can only see about 1/3 of the whole group in this pic.

Den flags. Each den paints one. LOADS of fun for the boys.

Several scouts patiently listen to instructions to start off a rotation; each den has 5 rotations a day. (Except that kid in the middle with glasses who's grinning and smiling for the camera while covering his ears!)

This is Sibling Camp, where anyone who's not old enough to join the rest of the stuff gets to stay, so moms can volunteer toddler-free! Bryce attended sibling camp the last two years and loved it, as did Nathan.

I couldn't find a shot of the playground, but I liked how sibling camp was set up, in a shady area with its own crafts and whatnot, right next to a great playground.

Woodworking. Another fave. HUGE fave. This year Bryce made a toolbox, Jeffrey made a boat with a propeller.

Tug-of-War

Go-Carts

Lunchtime! Another fave--the kids would go buy snacks each day, usually candy or ice cream.

The den sits together in the main area eating our lunches. I sign Nathan out of sibling camp to come eat with all of us.

Our GREAT youth volunteers. They are all over the place, and really help camp run. And their energy and vitality is infectious. : )

Aquatics. Only for Webelos, so this was Jeffrey's first year canoeing, kayaking, rafting, etc. Something different every day until water wars on Friday.

And.... here it's Friday. Let the water wars begin! The cubs throw soft balls at each other that sit in a tub of water.

And.... this is AFTER the water wars. Bryce was literally swimming in the mud at the end, wallowing like a cute little piggy! I don't think we'll ever get his clothes clean!

ARCHERY!!! Need I say more? Hands down the BEST part of cub camp. And it's one rotation every single day, so the cubs get to shoot EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Jeffrey's a great shot. He hit a perfect bulls-eye on Friday, and then I also hit a bulls-eye right after him!

Bottle rockets. Notice this dad volunteer getting in on the action. : )

More bottle rockets. Do you see the straight shot of water going up? The youth volunteer is sure getting wet!

And all of these pictures are only a snapshot of the week. I didn't find shots of the games they played, the hikes they took, the raising and on Friday, retiring of an old flag, the entertainment program each day during the final half hour of cub camp, the "caught-being-good" coins they earned and could trade in for small toys, marbles, cooking over open fires, etc, etc, etc!

And then our pack had a huge pizza pool party where we gave the boys all the awards they earned during the week. It was quite the blow-out.

Speaking of which, I'm exhausted!

So. We meet again, Laundry! (i.e. Household Nemesis)

After a nice chat, my friend was on her way out the door today, saying, "I gotta go do laundry. I swear, my laundry is having babies."

LOL!!

Isn't it true? How is it that no matter how much laundry you do, it seems to grow at a faster rate than you can wash/fold/put away!!

(This deceptive little chick is entirely too cute; he makes doing laundry look adorable!)

Daily Grats!

1. The sun! The sun came out!

Emo, on a kid who is locked inside all the time: "My parents had one rule. NEVER open the "cellar" door....
But one day, it was unlocked, and I just had to see what was behind that door. I opened it, looked out, and saw--- trees, grass, flowers; the sun--oh yeah, the sun, *that* was nice."

2. My parents got an offer on their home, and both sets of parents may have jobs SOON!

3. Nathan's adorable comments:
--"Mom, what's the elbow on my leg called?" (knee)

--In the morning, when I needed to do several housework items and told Nathan I was not going to play Zelda just so he could watch me:
"Mom, Heavenly Father wants you to play Zelda" (recognizes we consider God to be an authority greater than parents, so when I tell him "no" to something, lately, he'll quite sincerely use God to try and get around my answer. Another example is:
"Heavenly Father will be happy if I get one more drink of water and then go back to bed."

--Leaving a several story building: "Mom, what was the alligator called again? We just came down the alligator."
Me: "The elevator?"
Nathan: "Ohhhh yeaaaaah! The elevator!"

--Going to a well check-up: "Mom, are they going to choke me?" (due to a strep test over a month ago)
Me: "No."
Nathan: "Are they going to choke my ear?" (due to them cleaning the wax out of his ears a few days earlier, a painful experience for him)
Me: "No, honey. They're all done. They won't choke you or hurt your ear."
Nathan: (covering ALL his bases) "Are they going to hurt me at all?
Me: (as I wince) "Yes, honey. Today you get lots of shots." Luckily he was very brave about them.

4. Jeffrey's good attitude when doing homework. He had a good attitude Monday, and it made *such* a difference!

5. Tomorrow's the last day of school! As much as I'm not ready for school to be out due to the extra messiness, I am SOOO excited to have my kids home!

The Gospel, According to Jeffrey

Adorable Sunday notes--

How can I not share some of Jeffrey's sporadic notes that he has taken during different sacrament meetings? I've tried to retype exactly as he wrote as I transfer most of his written notes to Word, for posterity (or maybe blackmail, hee hee hee, or just teenage embarrassment...). I have italicized what I think are the cutest ways he writes things, the funny ways he thinks:

What I know.
Before you were
born, we were all in heavin.
And lucipher (who is saitin) was a
good man. Then,
he wanted to rule everbody.
they had a fight and god won.

When you die,
it's not actuly
a bad thing.
You get
to go to
heavin, you
get to be
a teenageor,
and heavin
is the
best place
to live!
Well not really,
it's really the cellestial kingdom. [As if the celestial kingdom were something different than heaven.... Ooh, and to get to be a teenager!]

We see faith in
Jesus Christ, and the gospel.
The gospel teaches us
about god and what's
happening with
him. Why do
some people not go
to church? Because
people like to play
twoday instead of just
saterday. Everyone
needs to go
to church. If you
do not go to church,
you will not live a happy way. [That one just cracks me up. We'd better get over being sick and having to stay home from church-I want to live "a happy way"]

We can
all be a good exsample.
You've studyed more
than ever before.
We know that we
live for a long time.
How important
are the things we do
today? Most important.
You need to work
more for your parents
(except sundays). On sunda-
ys, ye shall read
scriptures by working,
especaly when you
are a missionary. [Another one that just cracks me up; "No, mom, I can't help clear the table today. It's SUNDAY. I should be working on reading my scriptures"]

And my very favorite of all:

If ye are idal [idle], ye are crazy. Ye shall not be crazy.

*wipes tears from eyes* What an enjoyable morning. Cute kiddo!

Finding spider egg sacks...

...is much preferred to NOT finding them, and then noticing hundreds of little itty bitty black widows around.

*shudder*

Even better is realizing the black spider next to said egg sacks is not a black widow. Double phew!

It's the END of the World!

Nathan declared that today is the end of the world.

Why, you ask? Because he cannot STAND taking baths, and today I reiterated that he still needs to take a bath almost every day, even if he's not terribly "dirty."

After that, from the bathtub, he declared multiple times that today is the "last day," i.e. The END of the WORLD!!!,

so he doesn't have to take a bath tomorrow!

What's really funny is that once he gets into the bath for a few minutes, he plays for quite some time. So I don't know what the initial aversion is, but it was the same way with his naps (when he took them, aaah, what nice days those were).


Daily Gratitudes:
1. Telephone. This morning I have ticked off at least four pressing items by telephone. Quick, done, ta da.
2. Friends. I just love my friends. They make life bearable (this doesn't exclude family, who I also consider "friends," not just people that have to put up with me no matter what).
3. Music. My students played fantastically Sat. morning at a nursing home, and shared their talents with at least 30 of the wheel-chaired residents that were gathered in the main dining room. I loved hearing all of them and they did a GREAT job!
4. Sleep. And Rob, who lets me sleep. Right now, I've bumped up from 9-10 hrs to 11-12 if I can swing it. Sweet sleep.