All packed up revving to go

Next weekend we're off to Tranabo, our cottage in the woods, for a sleep over, in preparation for the group camp in May. We usually have a sleep over in the scout hut in the autumn, a sleep over indoors in the cottage early spring/late winter and then sleep outdoors, in old troop tents, at the camp in late spring. It's a nice progression for the kids, who, in some cases, never have been away from their mums and dads before.

We started of by warming up and releasing some steam with a tag game: First round the tagged people joined hands in pairs, then threes, but when a forth person got tagged, the quad split into pairs again. (Does that make sense?) It was a great game! The second round, instead of breaking the chains, it got built onto, and in the end two loooong chains of taggers herded the few brave left in to a corner of the field. This game really practise quick communication and teamwork.

This week we had two things going on: Talking about packing, and finding nice sticks to finish the sixes' flags. The weather was perfect for both: Lovely crisp spring sunshine, and dry ground. Victor talked about how to pack evenly in a backpack, while I demonstrated the less favourable option, by carrying my packing in a sports trunk and two carrier bags. "It's ok", said Victor, "but how are you going to carry your pack to the cottage?" The second-years seconded him, whispering to the first-years about the biiiig hill up through the woods to the cottage. We agreed that a backback, even a school back pack, was better than carrier bags anyway.

The Cubs also had very strong opinions about me bringing a china plate and ditto cup. "Just THINK about the poor wild animals!" said one of the boys, "You're so clumpsy, you'll fall and break your plate and then all the animals will cut their feet on the shards!" He didn't agree with my need for bringing ALL my beauty creams either. He was SO funny!

"Lotta, do you REALLY think there is a fashion show on in the woods?" He sneered at my silk pyjamas, and told me that I'd need three t-shirts to keep warm if I chose to bring those, and didn't approve of my cookery book either, even if it had all organic recipes. He told me firmly to write down a few EASY favourites on a note and keep it in a pocket instead.

For some strange reason a majority of the Cubs didn't think that bringing a toothbrush was essential... Hmmm....

After Victor and I had done our little 'play', the Cubs played Kim's game with the 'right' stuff splayed out on a tarpoline on the ground. They were very good, most remembering almost all the stuff, and noone forgot about the toothbrush (but one six left out the toothpaste). It was getting a little bit cold so after the sixes had found good sticks for their flags, we went inside.

As we brought the 'Brownies' and the 'Wolfcubs' together after Christmas, to be able to use the leader resources better, as my strenght is still not reliable and Marie has another shop opening and Jessica's job is restructuring (you probably know what it's like) we are now 33 cubs and at the most 8 leaders. Being 8 consistant leaders allows a leader to have a meeting off when we need to, and still feel that we can provide the Cubs with safe and fun activities. We also have parents comming in to help some times, and if we need to, some of the other leaders in the group help out. Last night, Therese from scouts came in to help. Thank's!

Bringing the two groups together also meant that we had to adjust the sixes a little bit, as we had two caterpillar sixes, two glow worm sixes etc. In some cases the sixes could be merged, in other's we had to split them and make new ones. So now we have six: The Caterpillars, the Glow Worms, the Flies, The Lady Birds, the Dragon Flies, the Ants. The making of the flags turned out to be a good exercise in democracy, as in some cases a choice had to be made about which flag to use, in other which way up the flag should be. The flags were then ceremoniously handed to the leaders for safe keeping, before we sang the scout song and finished.

And oh, as it was my birthday (28th, if you count hexadecimals) everyone sang to me in both Swedish and English and I got these absolutely LOVELY flowers! Thank you so much!!!!