#Popcorn, Chick-fil-a & #Coffee - Oh My!

It's that time of year again. Everyone is trying to sell something to raise money. My kids included. This year, my son is selling Popcorn for Boy Scouts. His goal is to pay for summer camp next summer as well as to pay his yearly dues. If you'd like to help him out, just let me know. I can send you an email with the link to order online.

My daughter is selling Chick-fil-a calendars (LIMITED quantities!) and Coffee/Tea for American Heritage Girls. The calendars are $7 each and CFA has changed the way they work. It's a card (assigned to an email) now, instead of individual coupons. If you're interested, contact me and I'll see what I can do to get one to you. If you like Coffee/Tea, you can order through this link:

[ Giving Bean - a coffee/tea fundraiser for American Heritage Girls Troop GA0593 - Lawrenceville]

Please assign my daughter's name to the sale during check-out so that she gets credit for it.

For my friends with kids also doing fundraising.. I'm willing to do a swap.

PSA: Lilburn Camp Cards (coupon cards)

For my friends in the Lilburn area, my son is selling camp cards to help pay for scouts. I have a PDF file that will show the discounts you receive, but included on it is a $5.00 off for Bass Pro Shops & Publix. It also has Ace, Frontera, SONIC, Waffle House, Brunswick Zone, Hardees, Subway and Discount Tire. Cards are $10 to purchase. There are variations of these for Lawrenceville and Snellville which we can get as well (I have PDFs of those cards too).

Scouts on Parade

We watched the local parade on the 4th. There were some very cute entries. The local Boy Scout troop along with their Cub Pack had entries as well. I was impressed with their creativity (so was my son).

There were scouts in the tent and Cubs around the 'camp fire'. They "bribed" the judges by giving them marshmallows that had been heated over the fire. Very cute.

These were being pulled behind the Scout trailer. The canoes were mounted (or tied on to) furniture dollies.

They started a water war while "bailing" their canoes.

The rest of the troop. It looked like a very large troop/pack combination.

Flag Retirement Ceremony

Once a year, generally at the end of the Cub Scout year so that the Cubs can participate, my son's troop holds a flag retirement ceremony. These are pictures from last night's ceremony. There are around 80 boys in the troop, I don't know how many Cubs.

Service Project

My son's troop went out to Stone Mountain this past Saturday to help a group called FODAC with their fun run/walk fundraiser. The boys helped set-up and take down tables/tents/etc as well as with the activities. Other than getting there too early on a Saturday, the boys seemed to have fun. I know I did and I was (technically) just a spectator. I did, though, meet up with a friend of my parents there and end up helping him out with funnel cakes.

Setting up My son and another scout served food to participants

Adventure Base Green Screen

It's not the best green screen edit I've seen, but it's a cute picture anyway.

Dogwood Festival

My daughter and I decided we wanted to check out the Dogwood Festival this year. My son was originally going to go, but as we were going after Scout Blast, he ended up backing out. The draw for him was to be the BSA 100 years Adventure Base. Anyway, we caught the Dog Disc Club demonstration first.

Adventure Base seen from top of hill

AdventureBase was nice, the lines for the rope course were too long. We didn't stay around to try that. The museum was in a semi-trailer. The draw for that for us was the virtual pinewood race. It was more a quiz than a design your car and race it, though. We didn't try to see the movie in the small dome either. Next door were inflatables that cost a minimum of $3 each to try, so we skipped those as well.

I have to admit, all in all that my daughter and I toured the entire park. We also bought very little. Most of it seemed to be paintings or sculptures. All of it seemed to be priced out of our range. Dinner ended up being $20 for the two of us. I think I was a bit disappointed with what I saw, though with the crowds that were out there it looked like vendors were doing ok anyway.

Scene at Scout Blast

Scout Blast is held every year at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. Different troops gather and camp the night before and set up exhibits and activities for the next day. It's also where the district Pinewood Derby is held. We dropped by for a while to check it out.

Court of Honors

My son's troop had their Court of Honors on March 29th. I'm a little slow catching up, so here are some pictures..

Honor Guard

Merit Badges - Chemistry, Electronics, & Reptiles and Amphibians

New Scout rank

Picture with mom

New Scouts

My son at his Crossover.. getting his new neckerchief and slide being welcomed by his new Scout Master My boys are now Scouts! All but one (my special needs boy) were welcomed by their new Scout Masters. 5 went to troop 580, 2 to troop 593, one to troop 100. Of those, 7 earned their Arrows of Light.

Boy Scouts

I officially filled out the paper work this week to transfer my son from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. It's a somewhat scary thing for me, but he's excited. So much so that he's signed up for his first 3 Advance-a-Ramas already. His first topic of choice for his first Merit Badge is electronics. For his second, he's looking at Reptiles and Amphibians. I forget what he'd selected for his third. It's all good, though.

He's going to start going to church on Wednesdays with a friend of his. The church has a mission group for kids that meets that night and it'll be a good way to get started on service hours. My daughter will go as well, but hers will count toward American Heritage Girls.

My son has also (at least for now) signed up for his first sleep-away camp. The troop will be going out to Skymont in TN this summer. He's signed up to go. He has until February to make a firm decision since that's when I make a down payment on it. For now, though, he's in.

As is usual for my son, he's taken a flying leap into what interests him. I'll give him a lot of support since once he's made a decision he sticks with it. As for me, I've been recruited to help the Troop as well. Amazingly (ha!) enough, I'm to be an advisor for the web site. There will be a boy webmaster, I'll just guide and help as needed. After all, it's a boy-run organization with adult guidance.