The world of… Cub Scouts

Before Christmas we had a big Christmas party for the scouts. They had pizza and made shrinky dink ornaments (Remember shrinky dinks????) and just ran around the school cafeteria and had a fun time.

Pack 912

In January the Pack attended a Pine Wood Derby.  Jacob and his dad and grandfather worked hard on his derby car.  If you don’t know, it comes as a solid block of pine wood, so it has to be carved out into a car shape and then sanded, painted, decorated, wheels attached etc. And it all has to be under a certain weight. The guys spent a lot of time on it and I was impressed with the end result.

Jacob and his best friend Hunter watching the races at the Pine Wood Derby. I wasn’t there because Bella had dance so there aren’t a lot of pictures

The cub scouts go on at least five “Go See It” field trips each year.  Our Tigers have been to a high school basket ball game, the library, the fire station, Panera Bread and most recently a tour of KSBJ.  Will has some great pictures on his phone of the pack at KSBJ, really hilarious to see them all piled into the producer’s booth.  I will post them next time Will synch’s his phone to the lap top.

Tonight Jacob, his dad and his grandpa are all at the Aeros hockey game.  Jacob received free tickets as a reward for selling over $600 worth of popcorn – big thanks to those who supported our pack!  He gets to go out on the ice, shoot a goal, meet the players etc.

(And if you shop at Kroger you will want to know about our current fundraiser… it’s COUPONS )

In last week’s committee meeting I agreed to be assistant Cubmaster next year, in preparation to be Cubmaster the year after that!  I am really excited about this opportunity to reach boys and their families, teaching life skills, solid values and faith in God.  If you can’t tell – we LOVE scouting!  Our upcoming Scouting events include a Blue and Gold banquet in February, Camping in March, Scout Fair in April, and end of year party in May.

The world of … Ballet

The world of ballet is tenuous in the Fisher household. There are Saturdays when Anabel cannot wait to go. There are Saturdays when she does not want to go. At all.  Ever. She has recently been telling me she would rather play sports, I asked her which one and she said hockey.  Which is fine. We do believe that they need to finish what they begin though (and what we have paid for!)  but after her recital in May she is free to drop dance or go on with it as she chooses.

Here are pictures from the winter recital at Town Center park.

And here is a picture we took one Saturday on our way to class.

The world of…Tang Soo Do

First of all it’s pronounced more or less like Taun Sue Dough.  I asked Jacob one time what it translated as and he looked at me like, DER, and said “The Karate School”, which makes total sense now because the name of his school is, The Karate School. Yes, well OK then.

December 10, 2011 Jacob tested for his green belt.   It is amazing to see how much he has progressed since he started.

I love the discipline and self control the kids demonstrate. It is a wonder to see a room of over a hundred kids, all sitting silently with their eyes on their instructor. I think this must be the same joy the Lord has when we are focused on His Will.

Kicks.

Forms.

At the last tournament Jacob tried to break boards and did not. The orange belt test included breaking and this time he did it!  It was on the other side of the room, so I didn’t get a clear shot of him. But essentially two instructors hold the board between them and they have to break it with the side of their hand. You know you hate to see your kid try something and fail, but I feel this experience really made him realize that hard work pays off. We were really proud of him, it takes guts to slam your hand into a board (And yes, they are real boards and it does hurt!)

Walking back to his spot afterwards, I was surprised he really maintained his composure, because I knew on the inside he was beaming with pride. 

A few weeks after the test, there was a ceremony where he was presented with his orange belt.

The biggest difference from yellow to orange would be that now he does sparring, which means actually practicing all the kicks, punches and blocks (everyone wearing protective gear of course).  The school teaches that with each level comes more responsibility, I have seen Jacob turn into a kid that avoids conflict in a healthy way.  I even hear him counsel his sister “just because someone does something to you, doesn’t mean you can hit back”.