Boy Scouts of America

My time has been filled with the BSA this week. I am a cub master and we had our Blue and Gold Banquet on Tuesday. For all of you who are not in the know about the BSA. A cub master is a party planner and emcee. My day started off with brainstorming what to do for decorations. I had two criteria. It had to be cheap, and fast! The idea I came up with is not totally my own. It was shared by another talented cub master at one of the many round tables (classes about being a great BSA leader) I've attended in the last year. I bought 24 bottles of chocolate milk, and poured them into pitchers. I didn't need the chocolate milk. (thank goodness I have 5 kids who drank it!) Just the bottles. After they were washed and dried, I filled them with candy. The cubbies would used as table centerpieces and then given out as party favors after the banquet. The candy helped to anchor the bottles so that they wouldn't fall over while being painted.  Next using 2 cans of spray paint, I gave the bottles about 5 coats of paint. That's how many it took for them to become opaque. After they dried, I painted a peach half circle for a face. That too two coats, and a yellow kerchief. Again two coats for the paint to be opaque. Then I finished them off with some dots for eyes and mouths, and some pink dry brushed cheeks.  there's also a little bit of definition on the kerchief, just to show the knot. The brim of their hats are crescent moon shaped that are hot glued below the cap. I also made flags, by printing out 3"x5" flags on the computer and taping them to bamboo skewers. Three cubbies stood back to back with a flag in the canter. It was kind of like a little color guard. I bought yellow table cloths on a roll, and ran a white strip of paper down the center of each table and put a set of cubbies on each table. 

 I don't have pictures of the cakes I made. I baked two sheet cakes, and frosted them with white frosting. Then a wolf head shape was cut from a piece of printer paper and placed in the center pf each cake to act as a stencil. I shook blue sprinkles over the cake, and then removed the stencil and shook yellow sprinkles in the space left by the wolf head. 

The remainder of the gym was decorated with blue and yellow streamers and yellow balloons. The balloons turned out to be a hit with the younger kids. 

We had a potato bar for dinner. I provided the two pots of homemade chili. And then we had cake and ice cream. 

 the highlight of the evening was a presentation put on by Baden Powell himself! The week before the banquet, I delivered a mattress box to the scouts to have them build a time machine. After dinner, the time machine was brought out and Baden Powell emerged. The date of our shindig just happened to coinside with his birthday! As he came out of the time machine, he asked when he was, and decided to stay a while and talk to the cubs about the start of scouting. He was delightful. The boys and other children were entranced. 

This wonderful man researched Baden Powell, and then put together a presentation for his Wood Badge. He told the boys about catching monkeys, and why he was wearing a cowboy hat and neckerchief. He brought great props and pictures and really made the night wonderful.

"Baden Powell"  with the scouts

 Today is slower day. I am sewing on the patches of my eleven year old scout's uniform so that he can wear it for the first time to a day camp tomorrow morning.

 The Boy Scouts of America is such a wonderful program! When I was first asked to be a cub master, I thought, "me?! But I'm a girlie girl!" I  have enjoyed spending time with the little boys. And have even lost 50 lbs because of the scout program. I decided that I couldn't teach them about health and fitness if I wasn't following my own advice. I joined a gym that same week, and have loved my new healthy lifestyle. 

And the smaller clothes sizes. Teehee!

Gotta get back to the sewing. I have a date tonight...with my handsome husband.

-Paulette