Keeping It Real: Cade our little Cub

At 6:30 Tuesday morning I drove Cade to our church down the street for him to meet his AMAZING scout leaders that were waiting take he and his troop up to Cub Scout Day Camp.

Wait a minute. Back up here. I have a cub scout?!!!

Where did time go? Kyle's little camping buddy has gone from this...

To this!

He LOVES being a cub scout. Kyle has been great to keep him motivated and pass things off. He was really quick to pass off his Wolf -- he did it in less than a week of being a cub.

Here he is waiting in line patiently for his award.

Before he turned 8 they let him go to the Blue and Gold banquet -- which they have to decorate a cake for.

Remember that birthday cake for Kyle?

Well, Cade had the brilliant idea of just using what was left of it for the banquet.

I couldn't deny the brilliance of it. So we scraped off Daddy's funfetti icing, made vanilla pudding, added a chocolate for an eye, and thus Cade's Amazing PacMan cake was created.

There were lots of awesome cakes.

So back to Tuesday morning.

My son is a scout-- so he was really excited about this being gone all morning from home doing important stuff.

Here he is being asked, "Hey Cade, is this your very first Cub Scout day camp?!"

Members in his troop. They are such great boys. Boston and Cade are definitely cougar fans and got a kick out of wearing the same hat.

He was gone for about 6 hours. The girls and I had fun together. Among other things, we went to Target....and then got popcorn and a pretzel.

When he returned home, Ruby was napping and Savvy was at BYU. I had my scout all to myself to hear about his day.

For the first time EVER this boy was animated and excited to share all that he got to do at cub scout camp. Usually after something like this I'd get a brief, "It was fun," and MAYBE ---MAYBE one or two descriptive things before he is ready to change the subject or stop talking so he can go play. Instead, I got a very energetic "I got to shoot a b-b gun, a bow and arrow, do an obstacle course, learn about Leave No Trace, make a square knot, and I made this leather star with beads and....."

He went on and on.

I had tears in my eyes. While it seemed like an every day interaction a mother has with her son, it really just hit me. He is growing up! I was trying so hard to just soak in the excitement, the innocence and joy of my little Cade.

I had him empty his pockets...curious about what treasures he found.

Does your boy like to collect treasures? Mine does. I get a little chuckle every time I do the laundry and forget to empty his pockets. There's always a little "clang, clang, clang" in the washer or dryer from something that he had collected.

The day had worn him out, so he took off his shoes and socks, untucked his shirt and stretched out on the floor of our family room.

{It's been particularly inviting ever since we sold our couch. It's kind of nice having a big space on the floor not occupied by furniture.}