Blue & Gold (ie Cub Scouts)

Since Samuel turned 8 he has become a Cub, so he is getting his first go-round with all that entails such as "creating a collection", building something less-than-useful out of wood, flag ceremonies and making a derby car. It's Isaac's last year (he will graduate into Boy Scouts). Scouts has over-all been a frustrating phenomenon for me as a mom. First there's the little problem of lack of commitment by several of Isaac's Den leaders over the years. Then there's my disdain for statism in conflict with scout's official and overt patriotism. But it's a program that gets my boys together with a bunch of peers to do (sometimes) fun things, in addition to being pretty well required in Mormondom (and my Primary calling has me presiding over the whole Cub shebang right now) so I've done my best to be supportive. Mark was called to be Sam's Wolf den leader, too.

Once a month the Cubs have a Pack meeting where the Dens (different ages, Samuel is a Wolf, Isaac is a Webelo, in-between are Bears) all come together, usually doing something fun and presenting awards. In February, the Cub Master was out of town so he asked Mark to lead the Pack for the annual Blue & Gold dinner. We had a soft taco bar, watched skits, and beat down two pinatas. Sam was a big hit being a loud mouthed leader of a confused crew in one skit. Isaac's den sang a funny song.

In March we held the best activity in all of Cub Scouting: the Pinewood Derby. Both my boys decided on a distinctly two-toned car this year. Isaac went with a blue & red vehicle and only mild expectations, having had a fairly slow car in past years. While Samuel chose red & green and had extremely high expectations which he tried to pretend were moderate by saying he only expected to come in "third or so" over all. (I regret not getting a photo of the coolest derby car I've ever seen - designed to look like Perry the Platipus.)

There were nearly thirty racers, many of them put A LOT more effort into designing a superfast car than Sam (who really cared more, in the beginning, about creating a cool looking curvy car).  Nice that his award was for Best Curves, but he his fun was ruined when he checked the computer after all was said and done and discovered his car had come in 21st. It's a tough parenting conundrum to get your child to care enough to really invest in an activity, but not care so much they are devastated at losing. At least it's tough for me, with my kids. Isaac's final ranking was never looked up but he came in first place in two of his three races and this year that was pleasure enough.