Fun in Fruitland

Most of July is always spent with family, either at Grandma & Grandpa's home (in Ontario) or up in the mountains (McCall or Donnelly), and this year a bonus trip to southern Utah, but there were at least a couple times we did our own thing and had our own fun.

More than once we filled up bowls of water balloons for a backyard water fight.

And we had a great time splashing and playing at Christensen's Pond with the community scouts and friends.

The kids went down that water slide a hundred times, and I had a turn on the zip line, too. Such a fun local attraction!
Not to be forgotten entirely, we also attended a few of the library's reading program events, seeing friends and getting treats.

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.

Scouts

Isaac is diligent in scouting as in everything he values, attends his weekly den meetings and works with me or his dad to get all his requirements completed. We are so proud to report that Isaac earned his Bear badge!

This is the third ranking in Cub Scouts, following Bobcat and Wolf. Sam will become a Bobcat in June! He loves coming to the pack meetings once a month and seeing whatever Isaac is doing for scouts. (But he's a little worried that it will be "too much work" for him!) This month was a lovely outdoor pack meeting "campfire" and the last activity Isaac will have with his current den leaders, as they are moving soon. He played the lead role in this month's skit, too.

We are thankful for the den leaders' hard work the eight months Isaac has been a Bear, and look forward to scout day camp in June!

Pinewood Derby '12

Isaac felt like he learned a lot last year about how to have a successful Pinewood Derby car and was excited to race! This year he once again designed the look of his car, sanded, and painted it himself (with some help). He did a pretty great job in that department, earning the Judge's Favorite award.

He had tons of fun during the races. Once again it was very well organized and timed all by computer. Each scout had eight races, two in each lane. Isaac was pretty thrilled to watch his car come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd each time.

It's pretty fun for the families to watch, too. (Though it can be hard to keep the little ones behind the flag line.)

In the end, though his car was not fast enough to race in the final rounds, he did have the second fastest car of the Bear scouts and the 6th fastest over-all! I'm really proud of him and all the work he puts into scouting.

The biggest bummer about the Derby is that all that effort goes into just one night of races! It's kind of too bad there isn't a rematch or track set up somewhere for races between the annual competition. We'll look forward to the fun again next year though!

Our First Pinewood Derby

Before we left for Mexico & Guatemala, Isaac and Mark sat down and designed the shape his block of wood would be, and Mark cut it out. When we returned, they worked together to sand it and then Isaac designed how he wanted it to look when painted.

Silver with a curvy green stripe and the number 8. Then they added some weight on the bottom of the car.

The Cub Scouts had Pinewood Derby specialists come set up the track and run the races for them, all well organized. Every scout raced his car eight times, I think. It went pretty quickly. Someone had popped a ton of popcorn for all the spectators (and participants) to enjoy.

Though Isaac's car didn't make it into the top 4 this year, he had a lot of fun and learned how to make a faster car next year.