Sunday, February 22, 2009

Blue & Gold Dinner

Saturday night we had our cub scout pack's Blue & Gold Dinner in honor of the birthday of scouting. Our pack here is HUGE in comparison to our pack in Hawaii last year, and they do things a little different here.

For instance, we didn't have a father-son cake contest. I was kind of bummed by that. I suppose we could have baked a cake together anyway, huh? (shoulda coulda woulda)

Also, last year in Hawaii, we had a cool bridge-crossing ceremony toward the end of the school year to promote the scouts to their next den and award them their Tiger / Wolf / Bear hat and scarf. Here, they had a promotion ceremony of sorts at the Blue & Gold dinner. They basically called up each den, and handed each scout a little envelope with their new patch.

ES stepped forward thinking it was his turn to get his patch.

Unfortunately, they had an administrative mix up with a scout that transferred out and ES who transferred in, and they didn't have one to present to ES. He was very confused and a little perturbed why all the other scouts got their patches, but not him (understandably so). His den leader quickly scrounged up another one and handed it to him after the fact.

ES checking out the Wolf patch after his den leader found an extra.
(It actually goes on the left side of the other two,
but you get the idea.)

The theme for our Blue & Gold dinner was America ABCs. At our last den meeting, we made placemats. Each scout had to choose a state to use as the theme of their placemat.

So take a guess what state ES chose. Go ahead... Those of you who know ES will NEVER guess.

Virginia where we live now?

Nnnnnope!


Hawaii where we just lived for 15 months before moving here?

Nnnnnope!


Oregon, California, or Massachusetts where his grandparents live?

Nnnnnope!


New Hampshire where we like to go on vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee?

Nnnnnope!

Florida where we like to go on vacation to DisneyWorld?

Nnnnnope!

ANY of the SIXTEEN states we drove through on our recent trip across country???

Nnnnnope!

He decided on...

NEW YORK

Why???

I haven't the foggiest idea.

First he traced the outline of the state from a United State of America puzzle the den leader had on the table. Next he drew the city skyline silhouette. Then he drew the Statue of Liberty.

He did a really good job with the Statue of Liberty. He drew it totally from memory. Even before he colored her in green, if we had been playing pictionary, I totally would have been able to tell it was the Statue of Liberty. Then he drew a car with something on the roof, which I thought was a police car at first, but then he colored it in yellow and I figured out it was a taxi cab (h/t to the King).

Then we started talking about how there's more to the STATE of New York than just "the city." After some discussion about the rest of the state, he added Wegmans and then Niagara Falls, because hey, they're of about the same relative importance aren't they?
Aside: For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have a Wegmans near you, Wegmans is an AWESOME grocery store with a food court. It used to be a regular thing for us to go there for lunch on Saturdays. They originated in New York and have been spreading across the country from there. If you have one near you and you haven't been there, you should stop by for lunch in the food court and just check the place out.
Anyway, we adults had a good laugh - both at my son's placemat and the others' as well.

3 comments:

divrchk said...

The place mat could have been more random. His great grandparents, who did visit within the past 6 months, live in New York.

Sagey said...

Yea and he is a tad obsessed with 9/11... My side of the family has a lot of ties to the state, not the city. But he have does a lot of info in that brain of his, I wouldn't have thought anything of it except Blunoz was so perplexed. My only question is did he come up with Wegmans on his own or was that prompted? :-)

Loping Squid said...

why?
why?
why, because NY is the greatest state in the Union is why!!!!