Wolf Advancement

Taylor has lived in this ward long enough to know that the faster you can get everyone's cub scout badges done, the better.  So each January he holds an Advancement pack meeting/Arrow of Light Meeting and really pushes hard to get everyone done by then.

This year he wanted to do a Star Wars theme.  So for the little craft beforehand, he gave all the boys embroidery thread and had them make braids (and tape them onto their hair) so they'd look like Jedi Padawans.

It was actually funny to see all the boys learning a new skill.  It made me laugh because if you asked girls this age to braid something, they'd be done in 10 seconds, the boys had no clue even how to start.

Isla was happy to grab Ethan's braid.  Lucky for him it comes off easily because she's got a good strong grip.

Then the practiced stacking cards to prepare for a later activity.

And then Taylor took all the young Padawans into the gym to perform their skills challenge.  He'd previously set up an obstacle course through out the entire gym.  Each boy got a light saber and then got to practice the course a few times.

Isla enjoyed being passed around.

Taylor got ready to take down times.

Ready, set, go!

And they were off!

One at a time of course because otherwise someone would have been trampled.

Racing over, under and around obstacles.

Stacking cups.

Okay, not really being passed around since Katie claimed her :)

And then since everyone passed their skills challenge (of course) we all gathered to receive the kid's new badges they'd earned.

Jedi Taylor with the new official wolves.

And all us moms coming up to help them get their awards.

Every mom gets a "mother's necklace" when their son starts scouts and then we get to collect all the "mother's pins" that go along with their shirt badges.  The theory is that half the credit goes to the boy for earning their badge and the other half goes to the mom who probably put in more than half the effort.

Then we celebrated with ice cream and brownies.  The boys were excited to eat inside the "bear cave" even though they're not bears just yet.

Isaac is always so excited to be included with the scouts.