A Tree and a Wolf

Today the kids and I had the chance to participate in a tree planting in honor of our home school group's participation in the Arbor Day Poster contest this year. We were given a certificate for one free tree to be planted anywhere on county property and I was working with a nice man in the Park's Department and he said he had just the place for it - a small park whose trees had died through the winter and was in need of new ones. So I met him at the nursery to pick out which tree would work best for them, and they were really helpful to us. The certificate had a dollar amount on it, and the county was so nice that they let us pick out a tree that was worth more than our certificate was and they paid for the overage! We chose a Purple White Ash on his suggestion. He thought it had the best chance of surviving the strong winds that whip through the canyon park where it was going to be planted.

It might look teeny, but it was actually bigger than a lot of the other trees at the nursery. He thought that the other trees weren't sturdy enough to withstand the elements of the canyon park and he thought this little guy was strong and healthy and perfect for the job.The kids had a fun time playing in the dirt.And they were impressed with how thirsty the ground was when it was watered. Bucket after bucket of water was absorbed into the dry dirt.One day this little tree will be a wonderful shade tree for the playground at the park. The gentleman at the Parks Department chose to put it in front of a playground in honor of it being donated by the children of our homeschooling group and so it could be appreciated by other kids as well - I thought that was really nice of him! We also used this tree planting for a patch Garrett is working on in cub scouts. It is the Celebrating 100 Years of Scouting - A Year of Celebration Patch (which is a really neat patch that I wish more people knew about so they could get it too!) He is really close to getting it, and I think he will be done by next month!Then tonight we went to his pack meeting, and since he had misplaced his lists of achievements for a couple of months, tonight was another large sweep for him.

He received 5 belt loops (Reading/Writing. Maps and Compass, hiking, computers, and softball), 5 pins (ice skating, reading/Writing, hiking, maps and compass, and computers), another silver arrow head (his 8th one), the Say Yes to Reading Patch from Boys' Life for writing and submitting an essay about his favorite book, and the family was given three pins for the Family Fun Award that we work on. He is still determined to get all the arrow points he can and all the belt loops; he is up to 23 loops now, and I don't know exactly how many more he has to go on his goal, but I do know he is running out of room on his belt! He has so much fun working on all his achievements (so do Tig and Owen), and I find it really easy to integrate it into our school and family time.

Poor Owen is just biting at the bit until the day comes when he can be a scout like Garrett! He had to have his picture taken with Garrett and his awards tonight also. He is begging me to find him a Tiger pack to let him join when he turns 7... only a year and a half to go! I've told him that I would try my hardest when the time comes. I think that he will have the same drive in scouts that his older brother has now, and Owen has a competitive enough nature to where I think he might even try to outdo him! If that is even possible.