A Knight to Celebrate

Holy toledo am I glad it's February 9th. I've been waiting for this day for the last three months. Today is the day after the Blue and Gold Banquet, and today is the day I take a big sigh of relief.

The Blue and Gold Banquet is the kickoff of the new cub scouting year. It's also the birthday of the cub scouting program. It's the biggest event of the year, dinner is served, family is invited, and stress levels of certain cub masters skyrocket.

This month we were supposed to focus on the core value resourcefulness. One way or another that led me to a Renaissance theme? After I was halfway through planning I realized nothing I planned really had much to do with resourcefulness, but it ended up being a fun theme anyway. Here's Eli (cutting 5 teeth) trying on the king crown I made:

I thought it would be fun if we had everyone eat with just their hands, so we served a bunch of finger food. I originally thought this fit the Renaissance theme, but I'm again left second-guessing my understanding of the Middle Ages. Oh well. Eating with your hands is fun and different so it worked well enough.

We served our birthday cake in cupcake form.

My biggest stress of the evening was wondering exactly how much food one needs to feed 100 people. Other than having to make an emergency call to the nearest grocery store for 75 more chicken legs, my food guesses were pretty spot on. We served chicken legs, french bread, grapes, strawberries, celery, carrots, cupcakes and cookies. 

Waiting for our Lords and Ladies to arrive.

I set up a little picture area which ended up being my pride and joy of the night.

I meant to have someone take a picture of me and Jeff in the photo area, but I forgot and we were busy. So here is a darling family who attended the banquet. Notice the castle in the back. I impressed myself with a sudden surge of architectural skills.

The pinata architectural skills impressed me, too! I asked the den leaders to have each of their dens make a pinata so we could "Slay the Dragon." I told them to just make a circle pinata and draw a face on it. Then the Bear leader walked in with this stunning paper mache creation. Wow!

The Webelos also provided an impressive design with this knight:

The pinatas hung peacefully from the basketball hoop as they awaited their fate.

The Wolves also went above and beyond with their pinatas. They all made one! Such crafty scouts we have.

Each den created a coat of arms. I loved them!

In no time we had a full gym and a mighty cute leader conducting the meeting.

Each den did a skit, we handed out awards, and then we busted open some pinatas.

I did not fully think through the craziness of 25ish kids running after a candy explosion.

Until next February, Blue and Gold!