Cub Camp, The Home Stretch

This is what my den looked like ten minutes ago...
...and this is what it looks like now...

Despite creating a slightly awkward decorating dilemma, I grew to greatly appreciate this little pen.  The only problem is that it doesn't have a lid.  A certain small someone has figured out the pen system, and she's all about the jail break.  I put her in the pen and turn my back, and she is out of the pen and six steps ahead of me before I can even start walking.  I need new running shoes.  Or a lid for my pen.  

Seriously, life just got so much harder. 

Cub camp is drawing near an end.  Oh, have mercy.  There are certain people living here who are over tired and over done and who have been falling apart and having fits way too easily.  One more day is all I can take.  Getting there is the entire battle.  Once we are at camp, things go smoothly and we have a great time.  Here were the highlights of the day....

Pop!  Pop!  Popcorn!  Foil packet popcorn pouches popping over hot coals.  The sweet souls who volunteered to hoover over those coals all day deserve a medal.  It was all kinds of HOT.

The rain gutter regatta was a huge hit.  The kids decorated boats and sails, then raced them down the gutters.  Since we were the last group of the day at this station, I tried really, really hard to ignore all the little boys who were actually drinking water from those gutters with their straws.  The old water that had been blown in and touched all day long.  I promise I didn't yell at more than seven kids.  Or maybe seventeen.  Camp is gross and that's just a fact.  You just go with it.  You learn to roll like a sweat bead.

The boys earned a forester badge after a two day forestry stint.  Today we went on a "hike" (more like a wander) to identify several kinds of trees.  Did you know two rings represent one year's tree growth?  Sanding this limb made the rings stand out.  We will do some more sanding at home then spray with an acrylic finish to be able to see the rings even better.

Tomorrow is the last day of camp, and we are celebrating with an egg drop.  We have to come up with some way to protect our troop's egg from breaking as it is dropped from a cherry picker.  We'll see which cracks first; the egg, or the mom on her fifth day of camp.  :)