Elijah's Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet

Last night was the annual cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet. In this ward, they have a tradition of the boys making cakes every year. Last year, Sebastian and Elijah (and Dave) made this dino dig cake. This year, Sebastian is no longer a cub scout (he's an 11-year old scout), so the cake project was all Elijah's...and Dave's. :) Well, and I baked the cakes and made the frosting.

Here is Elijah spreading the red "lava" frosting on the cake that has already been frosted with chocolate frosting and surrounded by smashed oreo "rubble." Basically the whole hollow center of the cake ended up being filled with "lava"....that's a LOT of frosting!

Here is Elijah with his almost completed cake. We wanted to wait until we got to the church building before adding the exploding lava candy pieces (candy made by Dave) so there wouldn't be a chance of them falling off in the car. Of course, right as we were about to get out of the car, Elijah accidentally let some pieces slide off the cookie sheet onto the dirty floor, but most were still on the sheet, so no harm done.

Here is the finished cake. Dave got the plan off of the Family Fun website. I think it turned out pretty cool! In past years, the kids have all just eaten the cakes at the Blue and Gold Banquet. This year they did something a bit different. For the past two weeks the boys have had the opportunity to earn points by meeting different scouting requirements. Every boy had the same opportunity of earning points; it was up to them to full-fill requirements. They then got to use their points last night in an auction to bid on the cake they wanted to take home. Elijah ended up with a lot of points and got the very cake he wanted: a cake decorated like an X-Box and controller.

Here is how Brighton and I spent most of the time before the banquet actually started (we got there a bit early and they started late...so a good 30 minutes or so.) He had LOTS of fun wandering around the gym trying to get into fun stuff and just letting his little legs move and move and move! Scarlett helped follow him around. At one point, she turned to me and said "it's okay, Mom, I will take care of him and you can go find a place to sit down." :) Sweet girl. But I didn't take her up on that offer. I'm thinking 4 years old isn't quite old enough to watch a baby all by yourself. :) She is good at it, though.

Everyone always has a good time running around the gym. These two cute little girls did their fair share of running around with friends and having a good fun! Here they are settled at the table, waiting for it to start.

Here are Fiona, Sebastian and Elijah waiting patiently. Just as Sebastian has stopped pulling weird faces (and thumbs up) when I snap a picture, Elijah has started....he really was having a good time! :)

Here he is getting a few awards (he got his Bear and some arrow points and a belt loop.) After each boy received his awards, there was clapping, of course. Brighton thought the clapping was so fun...though he didn't actually do any clapping until about 30 seconds after everyone else was done clapping. :) He also, instinctively I guess, rolled his arms after every clapping session....like how when you play patty-cake you clap and then roll your arms. It was super cute. :)

I love the scouting program! It has given the boys lots of cool educational opportunities, amusement opportunities, character-building opportunities, and lots and lots of opportunities to have fun with friends! I have a very busy brain, so Dave has done an awesome job of being the main parent who helps the boys keep track of and accomplish their scouting requirements. When the boys recieve a big award (like Elijah earining his Bear,) they have the mom come up to recieve a special pin in honor of all the work the mom does to help the boy earn his award. I always feel a tinge of guilt at this point, since Dave is really the one who did all the work to help! But oh well...I did give birth to him and nurse him for almost 2 years and wash his clothes and cook most of his meals and clean up his barf....I guess those things count too! :)