Blue & Gold and Great to be 8

So this last week after all of our drama, I got to work at my church calling as 1st counselor in the Primary. I was already overseeing scouts with this calling, but my high involvement got me nominated as the cubscout committee chairman also, so now I can do everything I want I guess. My sister knew I was involved with it and had been planning for weeks, and said some of my cousins had posted about their's too, and that I should be documenting what I've been doing so I can remember. So, though I've been involved with scouts for years, here's my 1st post about it.

The Blue & Gold was last Thursday.  Since my camera has been lost, I borrowed pictures from my friend Whitney, whose son was getting his Arrow of Light that night (oh and she's a professional photographer so it works out perfectly manymoonsphotography.com).

So I started with these invites:

 The program entailed a flag ceremony, prayer, dinner, skits by each den, awards ending with our big arrow of light ceremony, retiring colors and prayer. Being that my husband, the Cubmaster, has been in the hospital recently, I took over his responsibilities.

 We've done a spagetti dinner with salad for a few years, with parents bringing garlic bread or dessert.

 This pic has my son, Xander, in it far left, and he looks pretty funny doing the watermelon cheer after an award with some of the Jones family. We assembled the tables in a U shape with the chairs on both sides, and program in the middle. I put blue & yellow tablecloths alternating. I put 2 balloons on every other table, or a centerpiece (the ones from the scout shop, or homemade styrafoam square bases wrapped in black tissue paper, with 2 little flags stuck in and crossing at angles).

I found an arrow of light ceremony at http://www.cubpacks.org/ks/cs/899/2004ArrowOfLightCeremony.pdf
The picture in the back is made from constuction paper, and stuck in a dollar store frame.
In the front I found "emergency candles" in a 6 pack at the dollar store (can you tell I'm trying to do this  without spending money if possible?) I needed 7 candles, so I bought 2, then dipped them in the wax of another candle, and stuck them on a piece of wood.
I found a place to create a certificate, and made a big one for the arrow of light, and small horizontal ones for the other awards this time. Waa-laaaa. A good program.  http://www.cyberbasetradingpost.com/index.cfm?Page=docs/create-a-certificate1.cfm


Then a few days later the "It's Great to be 8, Baptism Preview" was last night. I was in charge of a little talk on Baptism, and giving the gift. The Primary President introduced the Faith in God program, and then I talked, then we had the Cubmaster (my husband) welcome and introduce the boys to scouts, and the Activity Days leader welcome and introduce the girls to Activity Days. The Bishop spoke and in under 1/2 hour we were eating our refreshments. I'll try to snag a pic of the table, because  the other counselor, Katie, is great at decorating and I saw she had her camera.

As far as the gift, I made what I called "baptism jars." They would have been buckets if I could have found white buckets, but instead I found some fun airtight jars at the dollar store.

I used some ideas from last year, and a few new ones.

Washcloth-Your sins will be washed away at your baptism
Candle-Follow the light of the Holy Ghost
Soap-Stay clean & keep the commandments to feel the Holy ghost
Heart-Jesus loves you, stay close to him & you will be truly happy
Pen-Remember to write down your thoughts & feelings on your special day

I printed out the cute subway art, from a google search for Great to be 8 (1st image)
originating at meekinheritearth.blogspot.com

Alright it's documented. That's what I've been doing.