Happy birthday BSA!

February 8th was the 101st birthday of Boy Scouts of America, as I'm sure you all knew. For Cub Scouts, that means the annual Blue and Gold Banquet to celebrate the Scouting program. For me, that means the slightly stressful task of providing dinner and a program for fifty people. Luckily I had all sorts of wonderful help and we had a really nice night!

Here are the boys bringing in the flags.

I was the esteemed emcee for the night.

We did a baked potato bar, chili, salad, fruit, and chicken nuggets for the little kids, and I wisely put the men in charge of serving :).

For the entertainment portion of the evening, I recruited the cheapest acts I could find: the Scouts themselves! I scoured their handbooks and found ways for them to pass off achievements/electives at the same time - the Wolves performed a skit (and created the scenery for 'London'), the Bears made musical instruments out of recyclable materials and performed 'Yankee Doodle', and the Webelos wrote (with a wee bit o' guidance from me) and performed a one-act play.

The Wolves and their skit about how Boy Scouts of America was founded.

The Bears drumming, strumming, and shaking their little hearts out while Maren and I did most of the vocal work :).

The Webelos and their play about fulfilling their duty as Scouts by providing service without accepting pay.

And since it was a birthday party, the dessert was cupcakes! Much thanks to my lovely friend Nicole who came over that afternoon and helped me frost and sprinkle 72 cupcakes (and provided and mixed all the food coloring/frosting).

Then I presented a few awards and before we knew it, it was over and time to retire the flag and clean up - and I was so amazed and grateful by the help we received cleaning up. I'm pretty sure every family chipped in, and the room was back to normal soo fast. And everyone humored me and carefully wiped down and saved the dollar store vinyl tablecloths (which they will understand the wisdom of next year when we don't have to buy new ones!). I say it all the time, but I love working with the Cub Scouts and I really appreciate these families who support the Scouting program so much.

Then it was time for Chuck and I to retrieve our little boys from my mom's house - she graciously watched them all afternoon and evening to lessen my stress. Thanks Mama!

AND they had early Valentine's Day presents for each of us, hooray!

Oh, Clyde - always there to help with the unwrapping :).

Naturally, we needed a shot of the two of us in our matching shirts - Chuck has one since one of his callings right now is Boy Scout Committee Chairman. I have to acknowledge how much help Chuck was as I planned and executed the banquet - he even took the night off so he'd be there to help. He was incredibly patient, even as I argued with each of his ideas that ended up being exactly right - a recurring theme in our marriage :). Thanks babe!