for the boys

my eight year old is in cub scouts and i am the leader of his den.  our group is large with 14 boys.  we recently had our annual banquet, the Blue and Gold.  this is a special night for the boys (the entire pack, not just our den) as they receive their advancement badges.   i (with my co-leader) was in charge of the centerpieces for this year....18 of them.

we needed to be creative, as there is very little budget for centerpieces.  we also wanted to create something special for the boys.  they all love to camp, so we focused on a camping theme.  this is what we came up with:

we started with the wood bases.  my dad, and his chain saw, helped with this part of the project.

(thanks dad!)

then with a power drill, i drilled holes for the flag and the evergreen branches.

the tents were made out of blue card stock.  i took photos of our pack number and american flag and then pulled them through my print shop program.  printed them off and taped them to the tents.

for the other side of the tent i used a giant fleur di lis rubber stamp (found at michael's for 99cents) and then stamped it on a gold stamp pad.

the fire pits were made out of small rocks and cut branches.  each rock was glued to the wood base as well as the fire sticks.  this made setting them up at the event so much easier.

creating 18 of these wasn't so bad, if you just tackle it assembly line style.

the boys absolutely loved them!  we had tables of 8 and on one chair at each table i placed a piece of tape.  whomever was sitting in the chair with the tape on it, got to take the centerpiece home.

the cost was minimal.  the flags, the paper for the tents, rubber stamp, gold ink pad and a bag of rocks.

and as if making 18 centerpieces wasn't enough....

i also volunteered to bring dessert.  so in keeping with the

 camping theme i whipped up these s'more cupcakes.

oh. my. gosh. they were sooo yummy!

all of this for the boys! 

such a great group of kids and glad i get to

 be part of their childhood.

to my boys in blue...cub scout salute to you!