Cute Kid Pix February 2021

More pictures that didn't make their own post...

My Cub Scout participated in this year's Pinewood Derby. The race was held at the church but we dropped off the car and watched the race online. My son's car came in second for his den and sixth in the overall race.

Spider-man-themed car

Straight-on view

Announcing the final rankings

The first week of February featured a fearsome snow storm. The kids had a chance to sled.

Racing

Wrecking

Blue and Gold 2018

This year's Blue and Gold Dinner for our Cub Scout pack had video games as its theme. One of the traditions is to sell Father/Son cakes to raise money for the pack. My two boys started on the project with some help from mommy.

Seriously working on the cake

Less seriously working on the cake

We're almost done

We decided to make the cake from Portal (of "The cake is a lie" fame). It looks like a regular chocolate cake with cherries nestled in bits of white frosting. Adding cherries was the most fun part of making the cake.

Putting down some white frosting

Cherry placing

That's my hand there not really helping out

Last one

We were satisfied with the result.

Top view

Side view

From the game

At the dinner, it looked very good, especially with some supporting game art.

On sale!

Some of the other cakes were impressive, too.

Mario cake

Campfire cake

At the dinner, my son's den received their recently completed awards. As is typical, they looked a little uncomfortable.

My son is the tall one

The dinner's main purpose is to celebrate the oldest cub scouts who have finished their Arrow of Light and are joining Boy Scout troops. Part of the ceremony is "bridging" to the new group, usually involving an actual bridge. The pack's old bridge was in bad shape, so the cub master made a new bridge which was unveiled that evening.

Covered bridge

The new bridge

Bridging ceremony

My son also won a door prize that was highly coveted by the boys--a gift card for GameStop. We haven't used it yet but I am sure that will come very soon.

Best! Door! Prize! Ever!

See last year's Blue and Gold here, and the prior one here.

BSA Fall Camping 2017

My son's Cub Scout pack had their fall camping trip at the Patapsco State Park. We drove up on Friday night and returned home late Saturday night (after the campfire) so we'd be home for Mass and religious education on Sunday morning.

Our camp site

 The two biggest highlights were the hike down to the river and the tire playground. The hike happened Saturday morning and led us down the hill to the bottom of the park. We saw some weird trees.

Bumps in the middle of the tree

A turn in the trail

A tree growing in a tree

At one point we took a group photo. My son thought it would be fun to have bunny ears on someone else. So I guess he was happy to get his own bunny ears?

Bunny ears or peace sign?

Two sets of bunny ears

 At the bottom of the hill is a railroad bridge with a tunnel through which we walked. We sang and shouted inside the tunnel to check out the acoustics.

RR bridge

Checking the sound in the tunnel

How old the bridge is!

Down by the river we threw rocks to make big splashes. The older boys could throw all the way to the other side. Across the river I saw a rock that I thought was spooky.

The river

Something skull-like, or maybe raising out of the water evilly

We found a swinging bridge that was fun to cross. The bridge was used by workers at the Orange Grove Flour Mill, a water-powered mill built in 1856 that stayed in business until it burned down in a fire in 1905.

Cool bridge

Getting ready to cross

Mill ruins

The other big highlight was the playground which featured a lot of tires. The cubs played Infection, a variation of Tag with a zombie theme pasted on. The fun lasted for at least 45 minutes.

Tire playground

An awesome fort

A pseudo-locomotive

More play areas!

Hanging out

Before dinner, we had knot tying and fire starting activity stations. My son was successful at starting a fire with flint and steel. Too bad the picture with the actual fire didn't come out so well, but here it is!

Striking a spark (that's someone else's fire)

Son and his fire

My son's den (the Webelos) had to make dinner Saturday night. My son was assigned to the mac and cheese cooking area. We had fun following the box recipe and working together over an outdoor boiler.

Boiling the mac

After dinner, we went to another campsite where someone gave a talk on Native American mythology. Back at our own campsite, we had the requisite campfire with smores for the kids and dutch oven cobblers for the adults.

We had a great time and look forward to the next camping trip.

Raingutter Regata 2016

As the scout year came to a close, our pack had the raingutter regata. The boys put together and decorate boats which they race in raingutters (see last year's race). We left it to the last minute so we had some last minute painting and assembling to do.

The finished product

The evening was pleasant--warm but not too warm, threatening rain but never delivering. Getting things ready was easy.

Getting the boys fired up!

Getting the raingutters ready

My son's den had a handful of boys, so they raced in multiple heats.

Getting ready for the first heat, which my son lost

Blowing the boats

We discovered an error--an upside down sail!

The next heat went better with the topside top.

Moving fast!

The fastest racers (which did not include my son) got trophies.

Trophies

First and second place winners

The pack also gave out a trophy for the boat decorated with the best Scout spirit.

Some nominees

The winner

A good time was had by all!