Space Derby 2012

The years that Justice has been in Cub Scouts have absolutely FLOWN by.  It's been three years total, and looking back, I honestly don't know where the time has gone.  It seems like yesterday that he first put that uniform shirt on and fumbled his way through his first meeting.  I remember watching some of the other older Cub Scouts that night, sort of in awe of all the pins and patches they were wearing on their uniform, thinking "Is Justice ever going to look like that?" and "WOW, THAT LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF WORK".   Looking at him last night in his uniform brought back those memories, and yes, his uniform does look like that now, and WOW, THAT WAS A LOT OF WORK.  

Last night was the final night he would be able to participate in The Space Derby, and it was ironic because his first racing activity was also The Space Derby.  As he brought the kit home, I remembered his first Space Derby and what a panic I was in because I had no idea how in the world we were going to turn that block of balsa wood and all the little mechanism into some sort of flying space ship.  Joe was in Norfolk at the time, and I was not pleased that I was left to fend for myself.  His rocket turned out just fine after a considerable amount of time and effort, but it was no walk in the park.  Three years, a few Space Derby's, Pinewood Derby's and Raingutter Regatta's later though, I didn't even blink when he brought the kit home.  I'd say his spacecraft have improved considerably over the years, and the time required to make them has decreased considerably as well.  There's also an awesome difference this year... Joe is home.  Yay me!  

Here's this years ship.  I would say he made 90% of this one himself, which is great because that is sort of the point!  

Getting ready to race.  Congratulations on your third place win, Justice!

There was also an awards ceremony last night, and Justice earned what I believe are his last awards as a Cub Scout.  He earned his last three activities badges last night, and I was really happy for him for completing each and every one of them.  That's no easy feat, trust me.  It takes a considerable amount of effort on both the Scout and the parent's part to finish them all.  There are some activity badges that are required for advancement to the rank of Webelos, and the rest are sort of "optional".  After he completed his required badges, I thought "whew".  But I was not surprised when he said "But I want to do them ALL".  Of course you do.  Sigh.  But, they are all done, and I am happy for him and pleased with his effort.

I would like to talk a teeny bit about his Artist activity badge.  Let's just say that Justice is not an artist.  One of the tasks he had to complete to earn this badge was to paint a self-portrait of himself.  Here is his self-portrait.  Did you know Justice only has ONE EYE?  

He was also supposed to make a collage of the things that describe him.  Not exactly what I had envisioned.  As a semi-crafty person, I envisioned poster board and mod-podge.  Justice clearly did not share that same vision.  He used a glue stick and a length of freezer paper with jagged edges because he TORE it off the roll rather than use scissors.

He also earned his Engineer Activity Badge, and I wanted to make sure I added a picture of the catapult he built for it.  Pretty neat.

Receiving his awards.

That's a nice quality fingerprint I have on the lens of my camera.  Ugh.  I can only guess that Jack, the taker of many self-portraits is the reason for the fingerprint.  

I am working on a really cool project for Justice to give to him when he crosses over to Boy Scouts in February.  I am sewing him a wall pennant in the shape of an arrowhead that he can display all of his patches, pins, etc. on and hang on his wall.  We will also have his portrait taken in his Cub Scout uniform to display with it.  

And then, he is off to Boy Scouts.  And I will hang up my Cub Scout hat for three years until Jack turns eight and it's his turn to have some "fun".