Space Derby

The Cub Scout Space Derby was earlier this year. It happened to fall during the period of time where I was sick for over a month with a pesky, obnoxious cold. One of my sisters was also visiting me at the time. I put her to work hanging up all of my decorations. I tried to keep it fairly simple- just cut out some aliens and spaceships with my Silhouette. 

Tiger had fun. He was quite pleased with his Tie Fighter. He and his dad had started it- probably a month before, but hadn't finished it. The day of the derby snuck up on us, and I was left to finish his rocket while he was at school. I figured he wasn't going to win so it would be ok to just make it look cool. No one was more surprised than I when he took second in the Tiger division.

Pinewood Derby Cake

Several years ago while I was wandering the clearance aisle at Walmart, I found a stadium cake pan. You can tell that I have Scouting in my blood, because I didn't think football or soccer or anything like that when I saw it. I thought- that looks like it will make a cool cake for a Pinewood Derby. I finally got my chance to put it to use. It helps that the local dollar store had chocolate race cars, and I found the race flag pics at the local party supply store.

I wander the aisles of Walmart too much. The early afternoon of the Pinewood Derby I was there again and saw some Valentine Treat boxes that looked fun. I just spray painted the pink part black and left off the heart topper and made some cupcakes to go with my cake.

The Golden Plates

I was asked to make two replicas of the golden plates for a Stake Youth Conference. After much search, I found this New Era article, and decided to copy the version shown there. They were just for stage use I was told, so only had to look real from about 20' away. 

Jedi Training Academy Blue & Gold Banquet

Warning: Post in Progress- I will update it with links and descriptions eventually.

My little sister keeps lovingly reminding me that I need to post pictures of my crazy life. So, only a month after the event, here are the pictures from the Jedi Training Academy Blue & Gold Cub Scout Banquet. My good friend Shawna is a Cub Scout leader in another pack. We used the same theme and had way too much fun planning. As always, I was too busy to take pictures. Fortunately, a Cub's mom willingly took pictures for me when I handed her my camera.

The welcome sign:

The gathering activity:

Larger images of the symbols were hidden around the room for the scouts to find. As a last minute project, I wrapped some silver tape around the pencils to make them look a little more like lightsabers. The lightsabers on the sides of the papers are the utensils/napkins for the dinner.

The decorations:

Paper lanterns in different sizes were strung from the ceiling, along with some star twirly things, and some Star Wars paper airplanes. The tables were black tablecloths sprinkled with gold star confetti. I spray painted star balloon weighs and star glass candy dishes gold and spread them along the tabletop. I used some Star Wars silicone molds and plaster of Paris to make some more centerpieces. Leftover black plastic tablecloth was taped to the walls with  some more gold stars. Star Wars posters completed the effect.

The food:

The beverages:

The activities:

Mouse in the House

I tried to make a mini Minnie, inspired by Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderful sleepover pals. This is what happened instead. In my defense, the three-year-old I made it for loves it.

A Frozen Halloween

We just got back from Trick-or-Treating with the kids. Other than being a bit on the warm side, I think they had a great time, and they loved their costumes. This year I actually purchased patterns for the girls dresses (from Joy2Sew- love this site). I have been way too busy lately for my own good, and these patterns were the closest I saw to what I had in my head.

 The Kristoff costume I free-handed, but I got a lot of my inspiration from here.

 They didn't quite understand "Stand back to back".

 The little Anna LOVES her costume. Not bad considering I decided this afternoon that she needed the cape. I curved the edges of the pattern, and simplified things by just using ric rac for the embellishment, but the results were worth it- Monkey wouldn't take off her cloak. The hat liked to flare up, so I ended up pinning it to her yarn wig (sort of like this one).

 Elsa also loved her costume. I loved that the train was detachable so I could take it off when she wanted to run all around- especially since she wanted it nice and long. The wig tutorial came from here). I used fabric paint to get the arm detail.

 Poor Kristoff- I thought he was going to roast in his costume. We need to move somewhere cooler for next Halloween. Either that or we need to go as surfers or something like that. Even though it was hot, Tiger still liked his costume. You can't see it, but it even had an elbow patch on the sleeve. I didn't make it to lining the top of his boots with fur, but he didn't seem to mind. I had a hard time finding the right colors. His shirt I ended up making from an XL men's shirt- when you have JoAnn's and Walmart to choose from, the fabric selection can get a bit limited. The fur on his collar is actually white and I took an old tooth brush and some black paint to color it- I think it worked out pretty well.

 I liked how the Elsa shoes turned out. I found the jelly shoes at Target- they had some princess bow thing on the front that I clipped off. I then used fabric paint and free-handed and Elsa-esque pattern onto the front and sprinkled it heavily with glitter. 

And this picture is so that I can remember next year how I made the little witch hats for the party we were invited too. Hershey Kisses, Grasshopper cookies, frosting, and some star sprinkles. They were tasty. Inspiration from here.

And just for fun- how they really used their costumes. They are silly:)

Secret Agent Pack Meeting

I hope what you think when you see these pictures is "Gee- she really needs a new camera", and not "Gosh- what a lousy photographer she is". My camera is getting temperamental. The buttons don't always work and it has issues. But until I get a new camera, or find someone else who took pictures last night- here are some pics from my Secret Agent Pack Meeting last night.

The boys entered through the security entrance and had to scan their hands.

The boys picked up their badges and added their thumbprint. On the back was a code individualized to each boy. 

I adapted the CIA Logo to suit my needs. Hope they don't mind.

 These props were left over from VBS that the chartering organization had held within the last year or two.

 This was the Code Breaker station so that the boys could figure out their individual code.

 And if they wanted to do some more fingerprinting, that was available as well.

 Told you I needed a new camera. This was the spot for the boys to put anything they wanted to display.

 My Tactical Tiger Team had to practice their vault breaking into skills to get their awards. The code on the vault matched the code on their badge, and their awards were inside.

 My Strategic Wolf Team had to diffuse some bombs to get their awards.

 The Covert Bear Team blew up some dynamite to get their awards.

 The Elite Webelos Team found their Grappling Hook Gun. When they pulled them over, the hook was attached to a Top Secret manila envelope that contained their awards.

 Back to needing a new camera- here is Tiger with his awards.

And a bonus:

Tiger is now a hockey player (oh the things I will do to help him get his Cub Scout Belt Loops). I finally got him a proper hockey water bottle. Since it looks just like the one most of his team uses, I personalized it with vinyl to make it easier to identify. I also used vinyl to write his name on the other side (in the Star Wars font of course). I think he will like it. Now back to cleaning the house....