Scouting around

Scouting has kept the Izatt fam pretty busy lately. First off, we braved the cold a couple of Saturdays ago to distribute bags to participate in the very worthwhile 'Scouting for Food' campaign, where the BSA joins forces with the community to stock the shelves of the local foodbank.

It's a Boy Scout activity (hence Chuck's presence), but we Cub Scouts like to be helpful so we showed up too :). Chuck and I each drove a route; somehow he called dibs on Clyde (who very excitedly sported his mini-Scout shirt) and I wound up having Will and Jack (aka the two higher-maintenance passengers) in the minivan with me. Tricky...

My Scouts were Ethan and Joseph, and they were awesome little delivery boys. We had a lot of apartments on our route, so I sported my asics(es) and went up and down some stairs in an effort to assuage any guilt about my ridiculous lack of running lately help out the boys and finish the route quicker.

The following Thursday was Pack Meeting. The boys had talked about doing a talent show / show and tell, so this was my stretch to tie it in with Thanksgiving:

 'We are THANKFUL for the opportunity to develop, explore, and share our hobbies, interests, and talents!'

(I counted this display as sharing my hobby/interest/talent of making posters with crayons, markers, and very sad bubble lettering...)

Blessedly we were in the cultural hall and had some room to spread out. We were very appreciative of the stage that Brother Greathouse made for a RS event last year!

 

It was really fun to see what the boys decided to share - we had two piano performances, two Pokemon collections, one acoustic guitar, one football card collection, an artist, an award-winning reader, a couple of writers, an architect/builder/sculptor, a rhythm clapper, a soccer player, and an awesome story about a head injury and resulting scar :). I wish I had more pictures, but I was on stage alongside the boys a lot of the time, and I was also tag-teaming my children with Chuck, who was at the church doing Boards of Review for the older scouts.

That next Saturday it was time to drive the 'Scouting for Food' routes once more to pick up the food that people left out for us. This time Chuck was at work, so I got all three of my boys, plus three Scouts (Caleb, Joseph, and Jacob) to cover both of our routes.

I loved how excited the whole van got when someone spotted a bag of food on a doorstep as we drove ssslllloooowwwllllyyyy up and down the streets. We ended up collecting probably 15 bags of food that we then dropped off at the collection point and got ready to call it a day.

Except that it was still pretty early and none of my Scouts were keen to go home and resume Saturday morning chores (I'm assuming, that's what I would have been trying to ditch at that age). They all asked if they could hang out some more, so I said, "Well... I guess I have to go to pick up some groceries..." and their goofy little eyes lit up as they asked to come too.

So, they called their moms and I headed off to Walmart looking like I had six sons (ages 10, 9, 8, 6, 4, and 10 months). Also, four of us were wearing Scout shirts, hahaha.

And this is when the most awesome thing ever happened. I told the boys as we went in that if they were all good I'd get them a doughnut as we left. They all did sooo well (not surprisingly, they're all rockstars) and as we walked back up towards the registers, lo and behold there was a Veteran's Day booth set up where customers could write a note of appreciation to those who have served our country and defended our freedoms and... get a free doughnut. So the boys all wrote really sweet notes and happily accepted their doughnuts and I saved like five bucks, wooo!

After that, the boys were still reluctant to go home so I agreed to stretch it out a little longer by walking Caleb to his house from mine, so off we went in the freezing cold... luckily he just lives down the street a bit. And then it was time to take the Duffy boys home, meaning I had to say goodbye to my mother's helper. Jacob (the one pushing the stroller) was SO much help all day with the younger boys. He helped get everyone buckled, kept track of the cart and four boys at the store when I had to take Clyde to the bathroom, pushed Jack the whole walk, got Jack in and out of his carseat whenever we stopped somewhere, etc. Having older kids is awesome!!

And finally, Chuck had a Court of Honor for the Boy Scouts and the 11-year-old Scouts the other night so Clyde busted out his Scout shirt once again to tag along.

So. dang. cute. (And isn't Clyde darling too?)

And thus concludes our recent Scouting endeavors.

(Unless you count weekly den meetings, working on pack meeting for December, and Chuck working with the Friends of Scouting campaign... we heart Scouts!)