Blue and Gold Dinner

Last night we went to our pack's Blue and Gold dinner. It was a resounding success! Bob and Judy drove down to go with us, since Kellen was being awarded his Bear, and we were really glad they were able to join us. This is the first time we've lived close enough for them to be able to participate in some of the things that Kellen does so we've all enjoyed being a little closer. I think the closest we've been (until now, obviously) was a 6 hour drive from them, and that was in the first year and a half of our marriage. Anyway, the dinner...

Kellen was awarded segments for going to the scout snow day and for participating in the annual pop can drive, as well as getting his Whittling Chip and his Bear patch. We are so proud of him for doing the work to get these awards! Way to go!

These are the boys who went to the snow day (not a very high turn-out, huh?) and Kellen is the one in the center.
These are the boys who participated in the pop can drive and Kellen is the fifth one from the right in this picture; I know they're really hard to see!

This is Kellen and another Bear being awarded their Whittling Chips. I apologize for the blurry factor, but my motion-stabilizer only works if I'm using the flash, but I can't use the flash when I've set the camera to off-set the flourescent lights in the school gym...

Steve and I were recognized, too, as parents who helped make each of those events possible, since Steve was one of the drivers for the snow day and I helped all day at the pop can drive.

These are the drivers for the snow day, and Steve is in the green uniform.
These are (most of) the parents who helped with the pop can drive, and I'm the blue shirt in the center. Those of you who check out our pack blog might recognize the woman on the far left (our den leader, Diana), and the two on the far right are moms of Bears.


Although they did forget to note the time that Steve was there. He wasn't there the whole day, but he certainly put in time shoving cans/bottles into the recycling machines. For those of you who don't know, our state offers a 5 cent rebate on cans and bottles that are recycled if you take them to the machines (usually, I just put them out in the recycling bins next to the trash) so for the pop can drive the boys knock on doors asking people to donate their recyclables to the scouts, which we then take to the machines and get the rebate on. We pushed over 7000 cans/bottles that day, netting the scout pack just over $350, although it took 5 hours of sticky, smelly work to get it :) But back to the dinner! Sorry, I keep getting side-tracked; short attention span!

Madison found the Webelos' Klondike sled that was on display and kept trying to pull it. She'll need to gain a little weight and muscle, first!

Madison loves fortune cookies, and they were all over the tables so Grandma showed her how to crack them open herself. Fortunately, it didn't spoil her appetite, because she downed all of her dinner, too!
Since we live within a couple miles of a university, one of our den leaders found a few Chinese exchange students who were willing to come demonstrate two aspects of their culture for us. One of them was their writing. They brought the ink, brushes, and rice paper with them so that they could actually do the writing right there on a table in front of us. As children they spend lots (and LOTS) of time practicing this so that it will look right.

And, if you're interested, you can go here to listen to part of a song that was sung by another Chinese student. It starts out rather quiet, and I don't know any of the words (of course!) but it's fun to listen to and he has a very nice voice :) Afterwards, one of the girl's said that the song kind of says, "I can move the sky and I can move the earth but I can't move you" and that it's a love song. Anyway, a rather cool way to end the evening!