Popcorn Delivery Time

A and I went out and picked up our order of popcorn from the Popcorn Kernel this afternoon. Once we got home, he got into uniform and off we went to deliver it. He got 13 orders delivered today (20% of total). I'm hoping that between church and another round of delivering in the neighborhood tomorrow that he can get over 50% delivered. We may have to take a thermos of cocoa with us tomorrow, though. It was quite chilly today. Not so bad if you are just walking to the car, but pretty chilly for dragging a wagon around for over an hour.

Daylight savings also makes the deliveries more difficult, as I don't really want to be wandering around in the dark trying to deliver popcorn and too many people aren't home until dark once the time changes tonight.

Growing and growing

I decided to measure the kids today, and yep, they are both still growing like weeds. M currently measures 69 1/2 inches (5' 9.5") and A is 59 1/4 inches (4' 11.25").

What I find really interesting is that A is the same height that M was on 3/30/08, or 2 years 7 months ago - whereas A is 2 yrs 10 months younger. So A is just slightly ahead of M's pace. This could be A is going to be taller, or A is peaking slightly sooner or just chance. Who knows. I suppose we won't really know until they are both done growing.

But due to all this growing going on, I'm not buying A a hiking backpack anytime soon. I've been told that they will cover about a 9 inch height range, but given that M is a good 10 inches taller than A now, and both are still growing, I think any pack I get now, A would outgrow in the next 3 years. He's borrowed one from the Scoutmaster for the campout this month. It will be a very gently intro to backpacking.

Pathfinding in Old Town

A and I took a walk around Old Town today, for work on his pathfinding merit badge. He had a blank map of the area and had to mark all the streets and alleys as well as a bunch of different types of places from churches to sandwich shops to car repair shops and the fire station. It was a truly lovely day for a walk - not too hot and not too cool. And the people at the welcome center were very helpful, providing us with a map, website info and a local history page.

In about an hour A got the small map all filled out and a few questions answered from the police station. He's still got to fill out the county map in a 3 mile radius from the Scout Troop meeting site.

First Class Scout

A had a Court of Honor last night at Scouts. They only hold these a couple of times a year, so this was for all the merit badges and rank advancements since May, including summer camp.
A ready for CoH:

A getting his rank advancement, 2nd class and 1st class ranks. This is pretty impressive since the Scouts like to claim you can reach 1st class in a year and A has only been a Boy Scout since February (7 months).

They call a parent up there with the Scout, so that the Scout can pin a parent's pin on as thanks for the parents involvement in the Scout's journey. A managed to pin my pin on with the pin part under my collar - and I didn't discover that until almost the end of the evening.

Happy 1st class Scout!

A also got to participate in an Eagle ceremony that was held immediately after the Court of Honor. He got to light one of the rank candles (in the dark the picture came out extremely blurry). The Scout who made Eagle was a sophomore at M's school, so we got to see a lot of M's teaches there (and his middle school English teacher, who was disappointed not to get to see M - he stayed home to do homework, rather than get free food and sit through a ceremony).

Long time no post

It's always hard when I don't post for a bit, because then I wonder how I can catch up. Well, I guess I can't. Maybe at some point I will put up some photos of the past month or so - or maybe not.

Anyway, the house has been quiet this week. D is in Colorado, with some students. He and they seem to be having a good time. They are enjoying MUCH cooler weather than we are. They had snow flurries - meanwhile we're having triple digit heat index days.

A is at Scout camp. I went out there tonight for parent's night and enjoyed pizza and desserts - what a healthy combo! At least I drank plenty of water (thanks to the heat index). A is doing fine and having fun. He doesn't seem overly bothered by the heat. He says the food is good - they cooked themselves spaghetti yesterday and hot dogs today for lunch. He is swimming at least once every day (swimming merit badge plus some free swim).

The Scouts were going to have ice cream after all the parents left, to help console the Scouts at their parents leaving. This is a slightly foreign concept to me - A is having a blast, he won't need consoling. One of the other parents said she had asked her son if he was homesick or crying and he said yes. It hadn't occurred to me before that to ask A, but then I did. A's response, "no, I'm not homesick, but I miss the computer".

A was happy to see me, and the stuff I brought: googles, spray sunscreen and a book. He'll be happy tonight eating ice cream with his friends too. And tomorrow doing his activities.

Meanwhile, back at the home front, M is hanging out in his room on the computer and reading. I'm trying to get him to tackle his summer work little by little, so it doesn't ruin his last week of summer. He misses his friends, but doesn't want to initiate any plans for getting together.

Me, I'm trying to tackle bits and pieces of things around the house and getting ready for our vacation. It sure is quiet.

A's Campout

A reported that he had a great time on his campout with the boy Scouts over the weekend. He was very happy to report that he has earned his first Merit Badge - Indian Lore. They cooked an Indian lunch, made an Indian longhouse, a tomahawk, and a dreamcatcher. They also learned some Indian history from a Cherokee Indian. All in all a great success!

A and Boy Scouts

(Sorry for the long dearth of posting. Once I miss more than a few days, it's hard to get back into the swing of posting. I'm going to try to be better.)

So, A and Scouts. Long story. After Christmas, his Webelos II leader had to bow out due to job issues. There were really only A and one other boy coming regularly, and both of them had already earned their Arrow of Light, so the decision was made to just send them on up to Boy Scouts a few months early. They would have been going up in March anyway. A decided that since he was really close to earning all the Webelos pins, he wanted to finish them up.

While school has been out this week, we plowed through the last few requirements. This week, A painted 2 wooden objects that he made at day camp as a Webelos I, and fashioned a picture frame out of cardboard and natural objects (sticks, pine cones, and sweetgum balls). So, now that those are all done, A is ready to officially move on to Boy Scouts (he has been attending their meetings for about a month already).

This weekend, A is on his first campout with the Boy Scouts - without us. One of us could have gone with him, but we decided that it might be best for him to figure out his place without us. And yes, this was fine with A. And, since he has now finished the Webelos pins, D turned in the official Boy Scout application and now A is able to start earning merit badges (handy since they are working on the Indian Lore badge this weekend. It sounds like it should be fun (and maybe a little crazy since evidently the adults were only given their assignments of what to teach this evening)).

Crazy week

This past week or so has just been crazy busy. Especially for and with regards to M. Over the weekend he had to finish up his science experiment, write it up and do his triboard. Tuesday he had math team practice starting at 7:30, then parent breakfast at 8:15 and science fair project due. Then they took the Explore test (some sort of pre ACT I think) all morning. Then after school he had a game design class. Home for a quick supper, then he and I went off to the magnet school to hear about their program that he is applying to for high school. Last it was hurry up and finish packing for the 8th grade trip to Savannah. Whew. Makes me tired just remembering all that. Luckily D could take him to school early on Wed to catch the bus for the trip - they had to be there by 7:00.

The rest of this week has been busy enough, even without all that. A had his usual afterschool activities on Wed and Thur. I've been trying to get us ready for Thanksgiving - baking quick breads and making lists. And realizing that Christmas really is coming up faster than I'm ready for and I'd better start thinking of getting ready for it.

In the midst of all this, A had another project for school. I don't know why the teacher is so insistent that all these projects be "illustrated" in color. We don't currently have a color printer, so anything we print out has to be hand colored - and A HATES to color. He never has enjoyed it, so its a rather tiresome requirement - and one that I really can't see how it adds to the educational knowledge. On top of that, D was gone last night for the last of the info sessions for the magnet school while A and I went to his pack meeting. They were serving dinner supposedly around 6:30, but when we got there, no dinner in sight. In fact, they hadn't gotten started fixing it yet. We finally ate at 7:45. Had I realized it would be that late, we'd have eaten at home! We usually do, but last night, because it would only be A and I at home, I thought it would be easier to have dinner there - and they were serving pancakes - yum. They were good, but not enough of them - I only ended up with 2 pancakes, so I came home hungry.

All in all, a crazy week. I'm glad we've got next week off. But with both kids wanting computer time, I may not get much time on here myself.

Popcorn, popcorn everywhere

This weekend has been all about popcorn. First up on Saturday morning I had to go pick up our pack's popcorn order. I fit over 70 cases of popcorn into the back of the van, even though the estimated number of cases was 60. I didn't have a lot of spare room left, though - and the front passenger seat had popcorn in it too.

Then after I got home, I had M help me unload it. I learned a few years ago (the hard way) that if you let a bunch of microwave popcorn sit in the car, even overnight, your car will smell like a movie theater - for a good long while. So, we promptly unloaded the car. M decided we needed a "fortress".

It was impregnable to ordinary people, but not to Pounce. She quickly found the path off to the right and proceeded to wander through the popcorn arena all afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon I had most of the people show up to pick up their orders and one dad got his this evening. I'm down to 5 orders to get to other pack members and the pile of popcorn is MUCH smaller.

Equally good news, A managed to deliver a lot of popcorn around the neighborhood today. All but 5 orders in walking distance. Unfortunately we didn't do quite so well at church this morning, so we have a good bit to haul back there again next week. But the pile is definitely diminishing.

Show and Sell Popcorn Sales

A and I were up bright and early today for a popcorn sale. 7:45 am found us in front of a gas station/convenience store, for 2 1/2 hours. A was good for about the first 2 hours, then he was ready to GO. Our location sold for about 3.5 hours and some other pack members had another location, in front of Lowe's, for about 4 hours.

Sales seemed to be down, compared to show and sells we did several years ago. But, donations were up. I'd guess there were a lot of people who didn't want to/couldn't swing the cost of the popcorn, but wanted to support the boys anyway. Between the 2 locations, we sold over $550 of popcorn and collected another over $200 in donations. Wow! And to think that certain people thought that it wouldn't be worth our time. I think it was. But, I'm just as glad we're done and that we sold out (all but one) of our least expensive product - so we really don't have the product to have any more show and sells.

Now, we have some data on what we might be able to sell and how much. So, next year, whoever is doing this (not me, as we'll have moved on to the troop), can decide how much to order more realistically - if they choose to do show and sells.

Initial popcorn goal met

A started selling his Scout popcorn last Sunday and now, 1 week later, he has met his initial goal of $600.  Way to go A!  My unofficial tally is $675.  That is enough to get him:

1.  dues paid for this year

2. clock radio with iPod dock

3. pie in the face or dunking (they haven't decided which yet) a leader

Now, A says his next goal is a total of $1500, which would net him an extra $50 gift card, over and above whatever other prizes he chooses.  He is very interested in the getting the prizes, but less so in going out and selling the popcorn.  Or rather, he isn't interested in getting off the computer and heading out - once he is out there, he will stick with it and do fine for a reasonable period of time.  A says he wants me to "remind" him periodically about popcorn, so I will, but I'm not going to push.  After all, the more he sells, the more I have to help him deliver.

Popcorn Sale Season starts

Cub Scout popcorn sale season has begun.  Actually A could have started selling last weekend, right after I went to the Popcorn Kernel kickoff meeting, but it didn't seem quite fair when none of the other Scouts in his pack had their materials.  But then on Tuesday I went to a leaders meeting and handed out a few packets, so at least 5 or 6 Cub Scouts had their packets and I assume all the Boy Scouts got their packets, so I figured why not.  Plus D and I both had to be at church early this morning to man our booths for the ministry fair (listing all the various opportunities to be involved at the church) - so selling popcorn would keep A busy and not bugging us.

A sold almost $200 of popcorn before and after church, even with 2 other Scouts also selling popcorn there this morning.  So, quite a good start.  He's even got one more person who said to talk to them next week.

Then after dinner tonight A and I went out again.  Mixed success - no one said no, but he only sold to 2 people even though we knocked on about 10 doors.  1 person asked him to come back tomorrow and 1 person was only housesitting, but the other 6 houses either weren't home or weren't answering the door (and we saw a person in at least one house and lights or TV in several others).  We won't necessarily cross those houses off the list just yet, but it was a bit discouraging.  Still - over $200 is a great start.  A's initial goal is $600, so he's a third of the way there.

climbing

A went to Webelos encampment recently and D 'got' to spend one day out there, so I have a few pictures.  (He 'got' to spend the day and night with them because we didn't have another person who was willing to spend all 3 days, so 1 leader was with them the whole time and D and 2 other parents each took one day).  

Anyhow, when D arrived, the boys were headed off to the climbing/rappelling area.  There were a bunch of boys eager to have a chance, so they each only got to rappel once.  Here's A at the top of the tower:

Now part way down:

He said it was lots of fun!

Then on to the climbing wall.  The boys evidently complained that some of the holds were too far apart for them - maybe they were set up with older Scouts in mind.  But fun anyway.

Getting Ready for Camp

Every year M has had Scout camp the 2nd week school is out, but somehow it has crept up on me more this year than before.  I just realized yesterday that I should check and see if he has everything he needs.  I had him try on some shorts in his drawer - and yep, most of them were too small!  Of course, I think I bought most of those shorts 2 years ago (and some of them were sizes 10 and 12, while he's currently mostly wearing 16s).  So today it was off to Target.  I don't know why he is so unwilling to try on clothes at the store, but at least with shorts I only have to worry about waist size and not length also.  He tried on one pair today (fits fine) and will try on the other tomorrow.  I offered to get more pairs, but he said 2 more is enough.  Not a shopper, obviously!  He already had 2 pair, plus a pair of zip-off pants - so now he has 5 pairs of shorts - plenty if he can manage to wear them more than once and/or make sure they make it into the hamper once dirty!  Plus, during swim team season, he often lives in his swim suit.

Last year at Scout camp it seems that M did live in his swim suit.  We've been told that won't happen this year as theoretically they aren't allowed to wear swim suits to the dining hall, but we'll see...  I guess I'd better check M's laundry situation and start hunting up all the other stuff he needs - non aerosol bug spray and sun screen especially - and have M clean out his Camelbak.

Oh, and also important - I need to plan lots of yummy, not-liked-by-M foods to eat next week!

Bye-bye turtle

M has been keeping a turtle since the end of last summer, part of earning his reptiles and amphibians merit badge. We tried to return the turtle back to the teacher we got it from, but he didn't really want it back. Then it seemed rather cruel to release it in the middle of winter. But this past weekend, spurred on by Mutts "Happy World Turtle Day", we took the turtle over to my mom's backyard, where she has an occasional creek and plenty of green stuff and released her. She wandered off eagerly. I hope she enjoys the yard (and doesn't discover the garden!).

Crossing Over

A had his crossover ceremony at Cub Scouts recently. This is the last year he will be crossing over still within Cubs. Next year he will be crossing over into Boy Scouts. The Webelos I's were reminded that they have less than a year left of Cubs (they cross over to Boy Scouts in March usually). Here they are getting ready to cross over:

Crossing over the bridge:

A and his buddies who are about to receive their awards. A needs to learn to tuck in his shirt at times like this!

Camping at High Falls

It was family camping weekend with the Cub Scouts this past weekend. Not a huge turnout, but in some ways that is better. We had about 8 family groups - some just one parent and Cub and some 2 parents and 2 or 3 kids. Probably about 25 people total. It's much easier (and faster) to cook pancakes for 25 than for 75!

We had a visitor in our tent:

We didn't have any organized activities, so while some of the group went fishing (we didn't have poles (and none of us are really that big on fishing)), we went down to the creek to climb around on the rocks.

I didn't get a picture of the little waterfall behind them, but it was about 4 feet high.  A was climbing around above the falls and slipped.  Oops - over the falls he went!  It was a bit scary, especially since we couldn't see him for a minute and it was too noisy to hear each other.  He popped up in just a moment though and gave me a thumbs up (in response to my thumbs up question).

After that trip over the falls, A was soaked, so we headed back to camp.  Then D took the kids off for free comic book day (M was insistent that the comic book day had been booked prior to the campout, so it should take precedence.  He would have preferred to stay home with comics and computers, but after we made arrangements to go to a comic store near the campground, he stopped being actively against the trip.)

After lunch, the Cubmaster was telling the kids about this cool place where you can slide down the rocks - yep, the same place where A went over the falls.  So most of the group headed back down there, in swimsuits (or clothes they didn't mind getting wet in).  A had to get back into his wet clothes, since he "didn't hear me" tell him to pack a suit.

The kids had a much easier time going over the falls than the adults - mostly due to weight I think - they sort of floated over more.  I finally let M talk me into going over.  I wish I hadn't - I still have a lovely bruise on my backside and scrapes and bruises on both elbows.  I didn't take my camera this time as I knew I was planning on getting in the creek.  We ended up all hanging out in the creek for probably an hour and a half.  It was warmer than I expected - and a good month before I'll usually get more than my legs in the neighborhood pool.

M with a nerf machine gun.  One of the adults brought it out and the kids ended up playing with it (of course).

All in all a good trip, even if I still have tent pieces draped around the house (they were still wet when we broke camp) and I haven't quite finished the camping laundry yet.  Oh yeah, and there is still random stuff in the back of the car.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll take care of all that...

Arrow of Light

Saturday night was our Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts.  We do this every year, but this was a special one.  A received his Arrow of Light - as a Webelos I (most Scouts don't earn this until they are Webelos II).  Here they are lighting the candles for Scouting values.  It was a very nice ceremony (especially considering that last year they didn't have any real ceremony to it).

Here are A and 2 of his buddies who also earned the Arrow of Light as 1st year Webelos, showing off their certificates and "arrows".

A is very proud of himself and so are we!  Now he says his goal is to earn all 21 pins as a Webelos.  10 down and 11 to go....  several of the Webelos II earned them all this year.

Pack Meeting with pie?

A had his monthly pack meeting recently. The Webelos were responsible for opening and closing with the flag ceremony.  Here A is trying to hide in the flag:

At the end of the meeting, it was pie time!  All the kids who sold at least $600 in popcorn in the fall got to pie a leader of their choice.  I think there were 8 kids who earned the priviledge (out of 50+ in the pack).  A's leader thought he was going to be out of town, but luckily (or maybe not for him), he wasn't.  A chose to do the 'top of the head' pie.  I love the shaving cream goatee!  

It was a very messy meeting! A few extra people got "pied" and lots of people got collateral damage in the form of shaving cream here and there.  It was tons of fun to watch and A was certainly glad he got to participate in the pie-ing!

Webelos badge

A got his Webelos badge at the last pack meeting.  Here are the 3 boys (and parents) getting awarded their badges.  I think that they all earned the badges before Christmas, but the December pack meeting was a skating party and they weren't awarding rank advancements then.

Here's A with his new Webelos badge sewn on:

He has his compass too, and only needs one more activity pin before he earns his first compass point.