Shiner

In May (I know, I'm hideously behind in my posts), I had the chance to spend the weekend in San Antonio with my brother-from-another-mother, Glenn. He was in Texas for a couple of weeks with Ben and the touring cast of Newsies, and while I didn't watch the show that weekend (I saved that experience for when I could take the family this month), we did have a terrific time getting caught up and experiencing the Riverwalk area of San Antonio.

One other thing we did was to hop in a car and head a little east, to the little town of Shiner, Texas. Courtesy of Google, here's a little storyboard of our day spent exploring the place where all that great beer comes from.

Troop 688 Court of Honour

Monday night was the final Court of Honour for Troop 688 for the Scout year, and for the first time David was chosen to be one of the Masters of Ceremony for the night. This was necessary for him to advance on his Communications merit badge--one of only two left for him to complete his list of Eagle-required badges. Here are a few pictures of our self-assured MC holding down the fort that night.

Caleb and David opening the Court of Honour

David addresses the Troop

David at the lectern

Silver Award For Troop 2349

Sarah's Girl Scout troop, Troop 2349, completed their Silver Award requirements this year. For those not familiar with it, the Silver Award is the second-highest in Girl Scouting, and among other things, requires to girls to devote hours to a community service project.

For their Silver Award, the girls of Troop 2349 elected to knit warm winter hats for homeless and less-well-off people in Fairfax County. Each girl committed to knitting at least ten hats. Then this spring, the local council held its Precious Metals ceremony at which it recognized all the girls in all the troops who had earned the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards. Here is the video of Troop 2349 accepting their award and describing their work.

The girls have now crossed over into being Senior Girl Scouts, and for their Gold Awards, have to come up with new projects. The Gold Award, the highest in Girl Scouting, will require Sarah to come up with a project, develop and plan, obtain resources, and recruit others into helping her. She has a few ideas already...it will be fun to see which she chooses and works on in the next couple of years!

Here's our Silver Awardee, note the new pin next to the blue tab on her vest! Congratulations Sarah!

The Eight-Ball

This past Friday night was the eighth-grade dance, known to all at South County Middle School as the "Eight-Ball," which I always thought was a very clever name for it, having once been an eighth-grade boy at a dance and feeling very, very much behind the eight-ball when it came right down to it.

Here are some pictures of our Sarah and her friends getting ready for the dance.

Our beautiful young lady descending the stairs. Sharp eyes will note the broken finger on the left hand...

Saying goodbye to Fergie, who, on the whole, really wasn't impressed.

Preparing to board her coach for the ball. Note the footwear: in her words, "I'm going to dance, and I'm going to be comfortable." She commented afterward that within 15 minutes, there was a huge pile of heels by the side of the cafeteria, and there she was, still comfy.

Before the ball, one of Sarah's friends hosted a pre-party for everyone; there were over 20 kids there getting ready for the night.

Sarah and a few of her closest friends before the ball.

The ladies of SCMS eighth grade before the ball.

I'd like to report that she had a beautiful time at the ball, but she and her friends lasted all of an hour there before returning to the house of the pre-party. Reports are that the dance was in the cafeteria, with the full lights up brightly, and the DJ playing goofy music like the "Dora the Explorer" theme and the Chicken Dance. Not at all what a sophisticated group of young ladies wished to have for their evening. And as there were no sightings of any princes along with my princess, well, I'm fine with that too. But somehow I don't think this will be the last set of pictures like this in the next four years, as our young lady continues to grow and blossom.