Archive - April 2014

He’s An Eagle

It’s a pretty amazing thing when your child sets his sights on a goal and achieves it.  Words really cannot express how proud I am of Boo for deciding to be an Eagle Scout and for reaching his goal.  He was 15 years old, 1 month and 20 days old when he did it.

The presentation table was set up with his scarf, medal, pins, flowers and a candle display.  Each candle has a BSA rank badge beneath it and they were lit during the ceremony by a scout of the same rank.

COHPresentationTableOutside the room was his scouting display table.  Starting at the left were his Pinewood Derby cars and trophy, and his red Cub Scout vest. When we received his Arrow of Light at the end of Cub Scouts, his den from back in DC where he started, sent him the same arrow given to all his former den-mates.  When he crossed over to Boy Scouts, an Eagle Scout shot an arrow at a target as each boy’s name was announced.  Boo’s arrow hit the bull’s eye.  Both those arrows were part of the display.

COHCubScoutDisplay Next was the guest book and a basket to hold any cards that came.  Then was his Eagle display. (I made the decoration in the background from an idea on Pinterest.)  We had a flag flown at the US Capitol and it’s there in a frame.  Another Pinterest idea was for a shadow box with each of his rank cards and badges, with a space waiting at the end.  His Eagle certificate is just out of the picture, as is his Order of the Arrow sash.  The framed certificate is his registration into the National Eagle Society.  We put all his official congratulation letters into a binder for people to flip through.  We call it his Book of Kudos. COHEagleandRankDisplay

Here’s what the whole thing looked like.COHDisplayHere’s my Eagle Scout with his cake.  I think they both turned out nicely.

BooCake

HeIsAnEagle

I managed to hold it together, just like I did for Nutcracker.  I had to keep dabbing at my eyes the whole time, though.  Look at him – He’s an Eagle.

 

(You can check out my Eagle COH Pinterest Board to see where I got some of my inspiration here: Eagle Court of Honor.)

Loss and Recovery

Seven years later and I think I can talk about this.

One of my very first blog posts was about my favorite bookmark.  I’d had it since I was a little girl.  It was always in my favorite book of the moment.  It had aged over time and gotten wrinkled.  At some point I had gotten an ink mark on it and I tried to cover it with some White-Out.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the paper wasn’t actually white, so my repair probably made it worse. I covered it with Contact Paper to protect it from further assaults.

My bookmark had no real value, other than I loved it.  I actually I have a whole collection of bookmarks from my childhood…somewhere around here.  But this one was special.  Over the years it would sort of float around, get lost and get found again.  But I always found it.

When I was young and would check out 15 or so books from the library at a time, I learned to check each book quickly for bookmarks before returning them.  I have done this faithfully my entire life.  Without fail.  Never.

And then it happened.  My favorite bookmark was being used in a book I was reading to the children.  A highly illustrated, glossy page edition of “Alice in Wonderland”, if I remember correctly. The children went to library with their dad and that particular book needed to be renewed.

It was not checked for bookmarks.

My bookmark did not return.

It seems silly, doesn’t it, to grieve over something like that.  I could delve deeply into my mind and explain it all to you, but I won’t.  I will sum it up, though.  It has to do not only with the memories of a lifetime of wonderful books but with the way I take care of the people and things that I love. Or fail to take care of them, through no fault of my own.

Pumpkin Girl says I have a wonderfully tragic back-story.  She’s right. Losing the bookmark symbolized so many other things, which is why it has taken me this long to talk about it.

My bookmark is gone.  There, I’ve said it.

The one saving grace was that I had scanned it for this blog which meant that I still have the little illustration.  I tried printing it off, but it came out fuzzy so I gave up and put it out of my mind.

A few years later I tried again but it was still fuzzy, even with my mad Photoshop skillz.

And now I’ve figured it out.  I recreated it.  It’s not the same, but it is close. I can put that particular loss behind me.  And I can make Pumpkin Girl her own copy.

ReplacementBookmark

Getting Ready

Boo Awards1

We’re in the final days before Boo’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor and it’s taking up all my spare time.  I’ll catch up with you all on the other side…

Faux Disney Day

Warning:  This post contains some highly skilled iphone photography.  Brace yourself.

I had to get up early last weekend and take Pumpkin Girl to dance at the mall.  Usually, this is not that noteworthy, nor does it require any special effort on my part. However, that day was not just window shopping with her dancing along instead of walking.  She was actually in a show, with costumes and makeup and music.

When we arrived, the mall was unlocked but not really open.  All of the stores were closed and the only people around were those associated with the day’s festivities.  I had Pipsqueak in tow because Boo was hiking up Pikes Peak, as he does, and Bip and Phil were having fun at Pinewood Derby.

The mall is actually a very cool place first thing in the morning, but really, there is no call for being up that early unless you’re going to Disneyland.

I thought maybe I could make the best of it and pretend that Pumpkin’s performance was the rope drop show and later we could ride the kiddie train around the mall to complete the effect.

And then this happened…
MickeyAtMallWe spotted Mickey!  Really and truly, there was Mickey Mouse (or a somewhat close facsimile).  In this picture, he’s chatting it up with Tchaikovsky.  I don’t know why, I didn’t ask.

So Pipsqueak and I watched Pumpkin’s show and I got this high quality picture.
HipHopAtMall

Her dance is hip hop and she’s quite cute in it, though it amuses me muchly to see my graceful ballerina of a daughter hip-hopping. But when you’re in a dance company, you dance what you’re cast.  And you work it.

Later, we tracked down Mickey for a little character meet and greet.

MeetingMickeyAtMall

Then Pumpkin got ears.

PumpkinWithCowHat

I decided against the train ride because it would have set us back $12 and I was saving up for a Dole Whip, which we never did find. If only we could have found one, or at least a churro, our fake Disney day would have been complete.

When there is no planned Disney vacation in sight, you have to do what you can.

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