The bus routine this year has been better for Dad. Since Mom is teaching at Sterling Middle School, which is a lot closer than Springfield, she can drop Sam off at the bus at 7:32am on her way to work.
So Dad wakes Pete up at 7:45am. Pete wonders why his 12 alarms didn't wake him up, then staggers out of bed after a few minutes. For about the first half of the year, Pete would come downstairs around 8:15 and enjoy a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles before walking to the bus at 8:28. (Or going with Dad on Tuesdays and Thursdays to allergy shots at ENT and/or orthodontist appointments with Dr. D.)
But for the last few months, it has just been Dad sitting at the table with the empty bowl and milk, on the off chance that Pete comes down in time to eat. After Pete heads off to the bus, Dad puts the empty bowl back in the cabinet.
It is 10:15pm, so Sam should be brushing his teeth and quickly shuffling off to bed.
However, apparently this is not too late for a game of "lip or tongue". Dad needs to gess whether Sam's upper lip is actually his lip, or in fact his tongue. You would think Dad could guess right at least 50% of the time just by random chance, but Sam is pretty tricky and can fool Dad rather easily in this game.
The reader can rest assured that Sam did eventually go to sleep later that night at some point.
The weekend of the family campout got off to a rough start. Sam went to a sleepover birthday at Colin Nestor's house. This turned out to be one of those parties where the parents just let everyone stay up all night. So Sam was a mess on Saturday morning and wanted to stay home.
Then Pete was disappointed when they arrived at the campsite at Camp Snyder and he realized that there were going to be other families there too. He thought it was a more traditional family campout. And he wasn't happy about not pitching the tent, either.
Anyhow, once they settled in, everyone had some fun doing fishing and archery. Sam went back with Mom to take a nap, while Dad and Pete did a craft and hung out at the dining hall doing crossword puzzles.
The meals were not as good as they were for the Webelos Camp. Lunch was hot dogs and dinner was spaghetti.
At the evening bonfire, the family did a great skit written by Dad, called "The Stick". It was a successful performance, despite their having to go first and Pete accidentally leaving out the "horrible tragedy" line.
They were home by 10am on Sunday morning, leaving plenty of time to relax and recover before school on Monday.
The marigold planters that Pete and Dad made at the craft station actually flourished rather nicely in the kitchen. One of them was decorated as "Happy Mother's Day" and the other was "Eagles Super Bowl 2016".
Dad announced at dinner that he had installed a new camera app on his Samsung Galaxy S3 phone which featured a "selfie mode". It figures out when everyone in the picture has their eyes open and is smiling, before taking the picture. So of course everyone took the opportunity to test it out - with Pete at the helm.
Sam was elected as leader of his new Scout Patrol. And then in June, he was re-elected. Here is the sequence of events that occurs each time leading up to these elections:
1.Dad asks Sam if he is going to run for Patrol leader
2.Sam says "nah, probably not"
3.At the meeting, Sam decides to run (for whatever reason)
4.Everyone in the Patrol runs in the election except William
5.Everyone votes for himself
6.William votes for Sam
7.Sam wins the election with a tally of 2 votes
At some point, the other boys are going to figure this out and one of the others will not run and vote for someone else. Until then, the Sam/William block will remain in power.
Sam and Dad went to the Family Golf Day at 1757. First they signed up for the raffle. Then they headed over to try out the games.
First was the driving range with unlimited balls. Sam actually hit really well that day. They were going long and straight.
Next was the chipping game. This was not so enjoyable, since the "balls" were these weird plastic things, you were not allowed to hit from the grass, and the guy was giving a bit too much instruction.
Next was the putting challenge. It was a little bit of fun, once they figured out how to navigate the obstacles. This was not any sort of organized contest. You just hit the balls through the obstacles for about 5-10 minutes.
Finally was the DJ area where various kids were trying to chip the plastic pieces into a dinosaur's mouth. There weren't very many statioins here, so Sam never got a chance to try this.
They hung around at the end for the raffle drawing. There were only about 15-20 people left, and they were only giving prizes if people were present, so they figured their odds were pretty good. There were about a dozen prizes. Lance and Michael (friends from Cub Scouts who were there) each won a prize. And pretty much everyone else. But no luck for Dad and Sam this time. They got a free drink cozy and squeeze ball, and of course most of all were some good memories and time spent together.
All in all, this event was about a C+. But it was free and the weather was nice.
