Cub Scout Day Camp

Last week was Cub Scout Day Camp. Our Day Camp goes from Wednesday to Friday and this year included a campfire on Friday night. Kaden was very excited to go since it was his first time. Tanner was not very excited. This year he attended as a Webelos. Last year Tanner got put with the Webelos by accident on the first day and they sat and listened to people speak all day. He was extremely bored and he was afraid that this year was going to be the same. I can't say I blame him. I wouldn't want to sit in the hot sun all day listening to people talk. I tried to convince Tanner that this year could be different. He wasn't convinced. I hoped he was wrong.

Since we have so many Cub Scout the parents are needed as chaperones at Day Camp. I signed up to go on the first day of camp. I was hoping to help Tanner have fun and I was excited to see how Kaden liked his first day camp experience. The only problem I had was that the Webelos are separated from the rest of the Cub Scouts, so I had to split my day in half. I started off with Tanner and the Webelos. I was glad it worked out that way because I got to be with Tanner when he saw that this year was going to be different. The first station Tanner went to was a craft where they made a Webelos plaque. They had to paint a piece of cardboard blue and then they put a picture of the Webelos emblem on top of the paint. Then they put brads all around the emblem. It turned out really cool, but the brads were a pain. They boys had to use a nail to make a hole in the cardboard for the brad to go through, but they just had to twist the nail in (they didn't want the boys to use hammers or anything). They had to put 100 brads around the emblem. The inside of our hands were black and blue by the time we were done. The next station was clay. Tanner really likes to work with clay so he thought this station was pretty cool! I was glad to see him having fun.

After the first two stations, I ran over to the Archery Range to catch up with Kaden's group. Kaden was very excited about doing Archery. He said it was his favorite activity all week. The nice thing about Archery and BB Guns is that the boys get to do it each day of camp. They quickly become the favorite stations! It is also the only place the boys can earn the Archery and BB Gun Belt Loops. Kaden did a good job, he missed some but he kept on trying and he always had a smile on his face. If you look close you can see that Kaden's arrow hit the inner most blue ring (on the bottom). He had a lot of fun.

After lunch I got lucky and both the Cub Scouts and the Webelos were scheduled for the BB Gun Range. Tanner and Kaden were both excited to shoot the guns. This is Tanner's third time doing BB's at day camp so he was excited to get started. Tanner was lucky because the Webelos had a small group so Tanner was able to shoot the BB's three separate times before moving onto the next station. Kaden did really well for his first time. Our Cubmaster was in charge of the BB Gun Range and he said that even though Kaden was one of the smallest boys in the range he was the most accurate. By the end of the week he wasn't missing any of the targets.

The next station for Tanner was the Archery Range. Tanner enjoyed shooting the arrows, but he didn't get to go more than once this time. I love the pictures of Tanner at the Archery Range. You can tell that he is putting all of his effort into it (look at his right hand)! If you look close you can see his arrow in the target on the bottom right hand side.

I got to end the day with Kaden's group. Their last station was crafts. They got to make a catapult out of popsicle sticks, clothespins, a rubber band and a spoon. The boys had fun building their catapults. They were given a large marshmallow to launch, but it had been so hot during the day that all of the marshmallows were sticky. Do you think that stopped the boys from wanting them? No way! They stuck them to their spoons and tried anyway. They were pretty yucky. The only advantage of the marshmallow was that you couldn't lose it because it stayed stuck to the spoon! I was glad when Kaden decided to throw his marshmallow away and get another one at home.

I had a lot of fun with Tanner and Kaden and their friends. The day went by very quickly and the weather wasn't horrible. We had cloud cover part of the day that helped to block some of the heat. I am glad I got the opportunity to go with the boys. I hope they will have fond memories of Day Camp. The only downer was that I didn't get a picture with Tanner and Kaden. Oh well, I have a feeling I will have plenty of other opportunities in the future! So in the meantime here is a picture of the whole group.

The Webelos