Western Blue & Gold

We went right from piano to pick up a cake and then on to church to set up for the Blue & Gold.  I finished setting up the games right just before people started arriving and didn't have the opportunity to take pictures.  I have to use what my son took to share this event.

I started off my morning making several batches of popcorn.  You can see in this first picture a quart jar of popcorn below the balloons.  I don't recall the flavor of Jell-O I used just that it was berry and it would have been blue jello.  I used a recipe from Our Best Bites for the berry popcorn.  I didn't have time to dig through my book for my friend Sharon's recipe.  I had to make extra caramel popcorn because that is a favorite for one of my girls and she wanted to be sure there would be some for her.   Two jars went on each table.

The jail and trading post on the wall took an insane amount of time to make between sketching the buildings, drawing the letters and then painting it.  One of the Cubs took the jail home with him.  The paper cost $2 and I used Crayola paint that cost $5.99 for 6 colors (I had a 25% off coupon).  Not to spendy for something that adds a lot to the decor.

The piece below was by the cake, which oddly enough, my son didn't take a picture of. I was surprised because if there is something he likes, there are usually 20 pictures on my camera. I snapped a picture at home to share.  I really don't like making medallions.  I even made a circle to help when I was getting that center down, but I still find it a challenge.  Gobs of hot glue was used on that! The wrapping for the jar and idea came from HERE.

I bought some horseshoe shapes at Michael's near their wood section and painted them silver.  I used that as a weight for the balloon.  This wasn't the centerpiece I intended but I couldn't find what I was looking for and I was shooting to keep this at a reasonable cost.

We told a story about life on the prairie.  The cub standing brushed a broom on  the backs of the 3 on the floor for the wind, had a flashlight on their heads when it was sunny and squirted them with water for the rain. The Cubs did another skit about water and at the end they throw the "water" out at the audience but the bucket was filled with popcorn.  Pretty funny!

One of the games we played was Straight Shooter.  Each person took a straw and five toothpicks.  They stood 3-5 feet back depending on size and tried to blow their toothpick in the pan.  

You can see another game behind them, Ten Gallon Hat Toss.  They had to get as many cards as they could into the hat in 30 seconds.  I didn't find that one a successful game because they stood to close or just chucked the whole deck at once instead of going one by one.

Here they are getting ready to play Rattlesnake Tag.  The head tries to catch the tail (rattle).  Once the "rattle" is tagged, he becomes the head.  They have to hold hands in the line the entire time.  This one got a little crazy and they had to be reminded if they were causing the line to fall, they were going too fast.

This game was the Barber Shop.  They blew up a balloon, put shaving cream on it and then shaved the balloon.  The goal was to be the first done without popping the balloon.  So glad I brought towels to clean up the boys and the floor.

Other games we played but I don't have pictures of are:  Snake in the Hole - I brought our cornhole game so 2 could play at once.  I put some rubber snakes from the dollar store on and around them.  They got to take the snakes home.

Tin Can Toss - 6 can stacked in a pyramid on the table.  They needed knock the cans from the table with a beanbag.

Wild & Weary Trail Relay - they had a "bedroll" (rolled up pillow or small sleeping bag) between their legs.  They went several feet to a hula hoop where they tried to "Lasso a Bull" (we just used the backs of the chairs).  They went up to the chair to get a broom and soda bottle where they "Took the Cattle to Market" by having the broom in constant contact with the bottle back to the start line.

We then proceeded with awards and cake.  We skipped the dinner this year but will most likely have it again next year. :)