Blue and Gold Banquet and a bundle of awards

Last night was Garrett's Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts and a celebration of the 100th Boy Scout birthday. Each boy was asked to make a cake and bring it to share - sort of like last year when he made the campfire log cake. This year he wanted to make a dirt bike cake, so we did... forgetting that the theme was the 100 birthday!

After mixing the cakes, he wanted to taste what flour tasted like, and took a huge spoonful in his mouth! It made a mess on both him and the kitchen sink!

We made chocolate cakes with chocolate frosting and taffy bushes and rock jelly beans. It was a lot of fun! Like his newest slide? We made it to celebrate the BSA birthday month. We are having fun making new slides to fit the holiday or celebration ~ we're such a bunch of cubbing nerds!

We had a ball making it and decorating it with jelly bean rocks and taffy plants. There were 16 cakes, and each boy got an award, so it only stands to reason that some boys would get um, let's call them, less recognizable awards :-) This is Garrett's award:

"Most Creative Use of Materials."

He was happy with it all the same, so that is all that matters!

He also got another 4 belt loops, 2 more pins, 2 more arrows, and the Leave No Trace Patch. his loops were for Family Travel, Good Manners, Geography, and Ice Skating. Now his total belt loops are 16, with 9 pins, and 7 arrows!

It's funny, even with all these awards that he has earned, he is still constantly asking me if he is doing a good job in scouts and if I am proud of the hard work he puts into it. I feel like I am constantly complimenting him him, but I've learned that he is a guy who needs a lot of verbal reassuring ~ about everything. I make sure I tell him I love him numerous times a day, praise him when I'm pleased with his handwriting or school work, never let a night close without reminding him how glad I am that he is part of my family...that is his love language, verbal things. It's been a lesson for me to learn because I do service more easily to show love, but he has taught me that all the amount of service might not matter to someone who doesn't know how to recognize it ~ but the silly, inane compliments can mean so much!