Cub Scout Chaos
For those who don’t follow the Cub Scouts religiously, scouts are arranged by age and geography into dens. Daniel’s den – number ten – consists of a dozen third graders from our subdivision. About once a month, all the dens in the area get together. This is called the pack (though “mob” might be a better description).
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )The Battle of the Giraffe Report
I started dropping hints about reading the book and how we’d have to start working on the report soon. No dice. The “hints” were raised to “suggestions” then – finally – “ultimatums”.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Pinewood Derby Summary
Friday night, we tried the car out on our “test track”. We rolled it back and forth on the kitchen floor. We have a grid pattern in the tile and could tell if the car tended towards the right or left. A careful whack on one wheel or another with a ball peen hammer slowly brought the car into alignment.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Taking in the Sights
There was a new wooden car sitting in the middle that I didn’t recognize. “Where did you get that one?” I asked. No answer. “You only paid a penny, Dad,” he said finally. “You only get the tour if you pay fifty cents.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Building a Better Birdhouse
Daniel’s den meetings are on Monday nights. Usually they get together, say the Pledge of Allegiance and work on a small project as a group. The last two meetings, they worked on building a birdhouse designed for wrens. I have to admit I was intrigued by this. Not so much by the birdhouse itself, but how the librarians would react when they saw a dozen Cub Scouts walking in with hammers.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Extreme Life of Daniel Boone
It seems that Time has passed Daniel Boone by. There were several books about his life, but even the ones in the children’s section were weighty tomes that dated back fifty years or more. We finally found a juvenile biography written in the 1980’s. It had a lot of pictures.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )The Rainy Day Time Machine
We worked a bit on Daniel’s Cub Scout requirements to become a full-fledged Bear Saturday afternoon. It was cold and rainy, so we decided to do something indoors. He had to find out what had happened on the day he was born. I asked him how he might go about this.
“Can’t I just ask you [...]
Ancestral Cake
I went to the library and checked out their single book on Lithuanian Cuisine. I was dismayed to find their diet apparently consisted of fish, potatoes and lard. It made sense that – traditionally – Lithuanians didn’t have much sugar in their diets. Lithuania has a climate similar to northern Wisconsin and they don’t grow too much sugar cane around Green Bay either.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The First Night of Camping
I’m not an avid camper, but I do like to camp out with Meka and Daniel. We do it about once a year. A few weekends ago, we joined the Cub Scouts in a trip to Rock Cut State Park. It’s just north of Rockford.
I was a little dismayed at first. We had to drive [...]
The Acting Scouthelper
Recently I volunteered to help out with Daniel’s Cub Scout Pack. I don’t have enough time during the week to be a full fledged den leader, but I asked if there was anything else I could do. Well, it turned out I could be a gorilla.
The kids all had a weekend camping trip at Rock [...]
Card Shark in Training
There’s a history of card playing in my family that goes back generations. We’re not talking Pinochle here. My grandma taught all of us poker at an early age. We started with Night Baseball and worked our way up to Seven Card Stud. While we played for pennies, the games could get pretty serious. I [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Cub Scout Kickball Report
Daniel’s last pack meeting was on Saturday. This was the official graduation. Daniel finished the requirements to become a Bear Scout a couple of months ago; we had the Blue and Gold Dinner affirm that. Still, this was where they actually got their new neckerchiefs and new books full of things to do for next [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Forced to Play Kickball
Daniel had his last Cub Scout den meeting as a Wolf Scout last Monday. After all this time, Daniel still has a hard time fitting in. This evening was no exception. We met at the park by the river. All of the parents were under the picnic shelter and the kids [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Signs of Global Warming
The Cub Scouts met in the conservation district last Monday night to do their part for Earth Day. We were there – scouts and parents – to collect trash. Unfortunately, the groundskeepers had cleaned up the paths earlier in the day. The kids ended up fighting over what little remained: mostly empty [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Son of Pinewood Derby
My son Daniel is in Cub Scouts. A couple of months ago, he placed in the Pinewood Derby, winning second place in the Wolf Scouts. We had to pack up his car and seal it for the Blackhawk District’s Pinewood Derby. I remembered thinking – back in January – that at least it would be [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Cub Scout Cake
The Blue and Gold Dinner features a couple of dozen cakes. Some were pretty basic: a brown frosted lump that had “HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR” written on the top. Others were more interesting. One was the shape of Chinese money and another was a cake that had a stuffed rat nibbling on the corner. Another cake actually was a rat, covered in coconut colored gray. It was inventive, but looked like roadkill.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Pinewood Derby
Luckily, they had the “pit crew” standing by. We were able to take the weights off the bottom of the car and use a hot glue gun to stick them to the sides – a la 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.
Note: You never want to grab a hot glue gun by the tip. They don’t call it a hot glue gun for nothing.
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