Arrow Of Light

I'm a bit late on this post. Ben received his Arrow of Light award last month but I'm just now getting around to sharing the fun here. Ben recieved his award and then went through the Crossing Over ceremony in which he crossed over a bridge out of cubscouts and into the waiting crowd of boyscouts on the other side who welcomed him with a new scout manual and a promise to walk by his side as he continues his scouting adventure.
This is the last picture of Ben with his cubscout den. He had the best den ever. His buddy Dan lives right up the street and Dan's dad Mark was their den leader. His wife Linda was my scout savior - always bailing out my day-late-dollar-short bottom from every scout obligation we ever had that I never registered for on time or managed to fill out the forms right or realized I owed money....bleh...

This is the Indian dude who their pack always has go through a little ceremony with the boys. He lights candles and speaks in pidgin English and encourages them to move forward in the spirit of scoutiness. Ben has always found this part to be a bit hokey but he survived it ok and I thought it was sort of neat (even though Indian Dude is getting a bit old and forgot a few important points and repeated a couple of points...).

And here's the coolest part - Ben with his Arrow of Light award which his dad made for him. Those are his den-mates Tyler on the left and Dan on the right. I'm not sure what spastic cubscout contributed the blurry hand in the background.

Ben and Dan have moved on to troop 238 and Tyler went to a different troop - we're gonna miss Tyler! The way cool thing about troop 238 is....that it was Tad's troop when he was in scouts! He was pretty touched that Ben wanted to literally follow after his footsteps and Ben's already jumped right in. I think he's gone to 3 meetings now and even earned his scout badge this past week. Next stop, tenderfoot.

I'm a terrible Scout Mom. Scouts have always confused me and now that Tad's been relegated the official Scout dad for Philip's Special Scouts I get to take Ben to his new troup meetings on the same night. We were driving home from Thursday's meeting the other evening and I confessed my insecurities to Ben:

Ben, I'm sorry but I'm a terrible Scout Mom. Scouts scare me.

Well, they don't scare Dad. You can always send him.

Yeah, but then I have to go to Special Scouts. I guess that's slightly less scary.
I just don't know what to do, I confessed. I have Soccer Mom down now. For that, I just stand behind the white line and yell for an hour. Easy. But scouts? I mean, what do I yell? Go....Tenderfoot! That's my boy - tie me a knot! I really don't think parents yelling would go over all that well at a scout meeting.

Yeah, maybe you should send Dad, Mom.