They've made it to Boy Scouts!

A brief change to the regular header as a shout out to our 2 terrific, newly titled Boy Scouts!

Last night we attended Gregory and Jacob's Blue and Gold banquet and watched as they and 10 other boys crossed the bridge over into Boy Scouts. We are very proud of them, as many boys fail to stay committed to the journey of scouting. Preparing for the night took years of preparation on their part and some time for us too. Decorating cakes, putting together shadow boxes, pulling together a few years worth of scouting photos. Well worth it and our pleasure.

In order to pay for the food at the banquet, each scout was asked to help decorate a cake for the cake auction. The hope being that the cakes would fetch enough money to cover the cost of the food provided. While the pack came up a bit short, there were some fantastic cakes. We made a 'Rocky Road' cake and a Rainbow cake. The rainbow cake was fun to make.......unfortunately we ended up having to SCRAPE every last bit of frosting from the tub in order to have enough to cover the whole thing. I had visions of a much prettier cake, but the inside should have looked fantastic! After all the hard work I failed to take a picture of the darn cake when it was all finished!

The Rocky Road cake, while it looks like it took hours to decorate, was actually really simple. Mix up the nuts, chocolate chips and marshmallows, then take a hand full and smash it on the frosting. Well, actually, smashing is not recommended-but I'm sure you got the picture. I think some folks thought we put it on piece by piece. Sorry, we don't have THAT much free time!

To highlight all the pins, belt loops and other special awards the boys have earned, their den leader made beautiful cedar boxes for each scout. As parents, it was our job to determine which awards to include and how to arrange them all. There's no way we could fit all the patches in, but we were very happy with all that we were able to fit in. If there is one thing that is a pain about scouting, it's the attaching of patches and then ahving to take them all off.

We found a few more important patches that needed to be put in the boxes after we took this picture-

Starting the evening off -presenting of the colors
Eric and his den taking in the ceremony-thankfully they actually sat still for the whole thing! And that's saying a lot....
As the night progressed, the main event took place. The bridging of the boys on into Boy Scouts. First was the removal of their Webelo sashes, then lighting of the candles, and reciting of the Scout oath

The older scouts from the troop they will be joining came to perform the ceremony. They put the new sashes on-you can see Jacob in the background-
and their new shoulder thingamabobs (surely they have an actual name, but I don't know it),
handed them their new books and congratulated them with a scouting hand shake.
As the den leader of Eric's den, you might wonder why Bill is sporting a lovely white tee shirt and not the scouting dress shirt. Well, one of the boys in G and J's den could NOT find his shirt ANYWHERE......of all days for that to happen....so Bill gave him his own shirt to wear for the evening. Have I said before how much I LOVE my husband? It made things much better and stopped the tears, thank goodness. I don't know how his parents walked in without steam coming out their ears...... I'm sure I would have! Oh, and their dog ate their decorated cake right off the counter too. The night, of course, will be remembered for happier and more important times!
Catalena and my Grandma came with us (my parents are out of the country and Bill's parents kept Luke and Laurel for us) and I am kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures with them. How did I manage that? Caught up in the moment I guess. We are very proud of Gregory and Jacob and look forward to all the wonderful adventures they will participate in, and life lessons they will learn in Boy Scouts. We really are hoping, encouraging, and expecting them to complete the rank of Eagle Scout. GO Boys!!!