Cub Scout Treasure Hunt

We were working on the Traveler Pin for scouts, which in my opinion is the most boring pin.  One of the requirements is that you talk about using a compass and how align a compass on a map.  That took all of 5 minutes.  Big whoop.  The rest of the pin is looking at bus routes and talking about how to catch connecting buses and talking about other modes of transportation.  Seriously...the most boring thing to do with 10 year olds.

What got us through?

Aaron telling the boys that we would do a compass course at the end of all of it.

Today was the pay off for the boys.

Aaron and I went out yesterday to the church building to figure out where the balloons would end up being and what route they would take to get there.  We worked it through backwards and then Aaron had me do it.  I haven't worked much with a compass in recent years so I was a little rusty.  But it helped us work out the kinks.

This morning, I started filling up water balloons.  125 water balloons.  I did it in two shifts.  I did 70 this morning.

True story about this picture.  I was going to take a picture of this REALLY hole filled balloon so I refilled the tube with water and put the balloon back on.  But when I put the balloon back on, it was in a different spot than the first time...and I totally sprayed myself in the face.

This is what the water balloon looked like.

Oh...did I tell you that Pippen tried to eat these balloons a couple days ago so most of them were filled with holes.  Yeah, good thing we had another untouched bag.

I sprayed the dogs ONCE while we were outside and this is as close as they would come for the rest of the morning.

When I got tired of that, I moved inside to work on the "maps".  I told Aaron that I was going to do something to make them cool and legit looking.

So, I got out the tea and set the oven to warm.  They came out looking really good. (Guess who Captain Red Beard is?)

I decided that I wanted them to look even cooler so I got some matches.  I was going to singe the edges.

That ended poorly for me.  Seriously people, I'm a giant klutz.  But at least I had time to make more.

Don't these look awesome?  By this time I'm imagining myself in 10 years having an 8 year old pirate themed birthday party for my kid and what an awesome mom I am.  It was good day dreaming when I went back to filling up water balloons.

Then Aaron got home and we headed to scouts!  When we got to the church we were a bit alarmed to see that cars were parked in the parking lot...like every Wednesday.  WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THIS!?!?  The map leads them right through the cars!!  Oh well.  I walked with the boys while Aaron got the treasure hidden.

I was kind of super impressed with some of the boys.  They really grasped onto the concept and would get the compass pointing the right way and walk as straight as they could the whole way.  While others would start to stray and their friends would have to call them back (I spy with my little eye, a Gospel metaphor).

When they finished the treasure map, this is what they found.

I wanted him to dress up like a pirate because it would have been hilarious and we have the costume for it.  It wouldn't even wear the hook hand!  LAME! Side note: The boy with the plastic bag on his arm, was wearing a brace since he dislocated his wrist at home.

The treasure for the boy was totally worth the hunt.

I don't know what we are going to do next week to top it though.