Dinosaur Stew

Many years ago, when I was a second grader, during our study of dinosaurs, we were all given the assignment to bring in an ingredient to make Dinosaur Stew.

I remember this clearly, and remember thinking how good the stew was.

So this month, while my cub scouts were learning about dinosaurs I decided they should have the same experience.

I made the recipe ahead of time at home, since it takes a few hours to cook in the crock pot, but I had my scouts prepare another batch during den meeting. When they were done compiling the ingredients, we enjoyed the prepared stew.

It was highly successful, and I thought you might enjoy it too.

Here's the recipe:

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Dinosaur Stew

by 2nd grade teacher Dashel Watkins

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2 or 3 seaweed roots (chopped carrots)

chopped club moss (chopped celery)

white sand and volcano ashes (salt, pepper and oregano)

1 can red swamp water (tomato soup)

3 stegosaurus eggs (diced potaotes)

ground brontosaurus (hamburger)

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Brown the brontosaurus, add all other ingredients, cook in crockpot or stew pot.

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I doubled the recipe and ended up with a second batch that the scouts made. We enjoyed it again for dinner the next night.

My cub on the left is on his second bowl here, while Mark was polishing off his stew. I hope your family enjoys it too.

Cub Scouts Will Be the Death of Me

Picture the scene at Cub Scouts last night.

The theme is Seed of Kindness, so we are playing Kindness Charades. The scouts take turns acting out different acts of kindness.

(Let me add that while these scouts are great at acting out, they struggled somewhat acting out acts of kindness.)

Scout #1 is frantically attempting to display "Let someone go ahead of you"

Scout #2 calls out: "Having a seizure!"

Me: "Remember that all of these are kind things to do."

Scout #2, yelling now: "Politely tell someone you are having a seizure!"

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At intervals throughout the 1 hour den meeting the scouts would take random turns calling out: "Silence! I keel you!"

This was especially humorous when I was doing the scout sign to call them back to order and one scout had not yet noticed my two fingers held up in a V.

The others would look at that one, who was inevitably still talking/singing/shouting and yell at him "Silence! I keel you!"

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It probably didn't help matters that I found these things so funny, because it only encouraged them to continue their energetic, if not well behaved, behaviors.

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If you don't know what "Silence, I keel you!" comes from, please watch the following video.

Chili Cook-Off!

Our ward's chili cook-off was last night. For den meeting on Thursday I took a bunch of chili ingredients and spices.

I had browned the ground beef ahead of time.

My cub scouts opened cans somewhat randomly and poured in a variety of spices.

The scouts got really into it and had a lot of fun.

I heated the chili and took it to the cook-off.

The note at the bottom of the page says: Made BY cub scouts, not WITH them.

But even though we clarified that there were no cub scouts in the chili we still won the award for most unique ingredients.

(That may also have had something to do with the fact that I really don't know what was in the chili.)

Almost surprisingly, the chili was actually pretty good. One of the judges told me it was one of his favorites and one person asked for the recipe. Which I was completely unable to give.

Our pack won a dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kreme.

I will redeem them and bring them to den meeting next week.

The scouts should be happy.

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There was also a pie contest.

I made my quadruple berry pie.

Which I have to admit was delicious.

But I forgot to take a picture until they were all gone.

I didn't win anything for my pie. But all 3 of the ones I made got eaten.

(Actually, almost all of the pies got eaten).

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Chris was disappointed that his chili, which contained 8 different kinds of peppers, didn't win the award for spiciest.

He's already revising his recipe for next year.

I think he's disappointed that his chili didn't make anyone cry.

New Buddies at scouts

Some of you may know that I am the den leader for our cub scout pack.

If you know anything about scouting you are asking, "which den?"

Unfortunately we only have about 6 boys in our pack put together, so, lucky for me, I get them all.

One thing that is fun is that Mark is only 7 and can't technically join our pack for 6 more months. But since I am the den leader he gets to come anyway.

It was a good thing he came last night, because other than he and CJ, no one else did.

Especially since our theme this month is New Buddies, and all of our activities required at least 2 boys.

We were working on teamwork and our first project was to draw blindfolded pictures. One boy was blindfolded and drawing and the other boy gave him directions of what and how to draw.

They did surprizingly well.

Next we had a 3 legged race. Which was really just a lap around the room since there was no one to race against.

They did really well and worked together on the first lap. The second lap they tripped so CJ just picked Mark up and ran the rest of the way with him.

Teamwork at it's best.

Finally we did the "short guy with a humpback" activity, where one child put his arms through a pair of pants and hands into shoes which he rested on the table. The second child stands behind him, inside a large t-shirt that they share, but with boy #2s arms through the arm holes. Boy #2 reaches around and attempts to complete tasks for boy #1, including brushing teeth and eating.

They took turns.

Here were some of the results.

When I got called to do this they gave me the tip: If you're having fun, the boys are having fun.

We all had fun last night.

Tag: Ideas for New Buddies, scouting theme, September 2008