Finally the big weekend for Scott's Eagle Court of Honor. I had spent countless hours beforehand researching Eagle ceremonies, typing up the program, recruiting readers for the ceremony, sending out invitations and assembling decorations including photo collages of Scott's lengthy scout career starting with Cub Scouts in the 1st grade! It was quite the project! But I really think it paid off.
We were so excited to share the experience with Tom's brother Mark and wife Linda. They arrived on Friday afternoon. I made a ham dinner for Friday night-a belated Easter meal for us. I was planning on a full house for dinner, but turns out Scott was working on a television taping with his classmates and went out to dinner. Allison was not coming home until Saturday morning to join us. She had an end of the season Ultimate frisbee potluck on Friday night. But she was able to join us for the weekend.
On Saturday after Allison got home, we all decided to take a day trip up to Gettysburg. Tom purchased bus tour tickets of the area. The tour company spent two hours driving around the park and explained the multiple day Civil War battle. We have all visited the park a few times, but this was the first time we had the event so well laid out and explained. I would still like to go back and spend time touring the new Visitor's Center. It is huge and they recommend a few hours to explore the place. We really ran out of time and energy to take it all in! And it had just starting raining hard after our bus tour wrapped up.
We drove back home and went out to dinner. It started sprinkling a bit in the afternoon, but it did not really interrupt our tour as we hopped on and off the bus to tour the park firsthand. So we made it through our tour before any heavy downpours. As usual, our local restaurants back home were packed on Saturday night along with kids out for Prom night, and we had to wait awhile for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. That night, Scott was off to celebrate After Prom with his classmates! After Prom runs from midnite to 430am. Just a little busy this weekend. Scott was happy to drive himself to After Prom at our YMCA(and so were we!). He really enjoyed spending the night participating in Bounce House obstacle courses and Dodge ball, as well as attempting to eat all the free food! Scott actually designed a Don't Drink and Drive poster for the event that won second place in a county wide contest that provided $500 towards the event! Sadly he did not even get a free tshirt or gift card for his efforts from the event. But he still had a great time and came home and slept in preparation for our Eagle event in the afternoon.
Tom, Scott and Allison meanwhile spent Sunday morning with Mark at our local park. Allison and Tom took Cookie for a long walk around the lake while Mark got in a run. I had to pack up my van with items I was taking to the Glory Days restaurant for the event in the afternoon. I had some more running around to do before the big day too. On Friday I had to drive about 40 mins to pick up a special cake from a coworkers sister. Faith is a baker and over the years we enjoyed some of her cakes and cupcakes brought in by her sister at work. So I thought it would be fun to have a custom Eagle cake. I also picked up some cookies and cupcakes from Sams Club just in case. So Friday I was off to pick up the cake, along with a quick visit to check on my Mom. On Saturday morning I was picking up the cupcakes from Sams Club before our trip to Gettysburg. On Sunday afternoon I had to pick up my Mom. She has been living in her new apartment now for 1 week. She still had not been given a shower, and her laundry was piling up, and I had not been successful in getting her into the onsite hair salon. I spoke to the nurse and she immediately got up and gave Mom a shower and washed her hair while I picked out some clothes. I got mom dressed, curled her hair a bit, put on her makeup and away we went! We had to arrive early to set up the room.
Glory Days restaurant has a banquet room with tables and large screen tvs. They were able to turn off the music and tvs during the event. Although the guys asked that the tvs go back on during dinner so they could catch up the NHL! We set up a podium and a display table, dessert table. Glory Days set up a buffet table with chicken tenders, chicken pasta, burgers and fries, and steamed broccoli along with a soda bar. Everyone on our guest list arrived, about 30 people which included neighbors and scout members. We had the ceremony before dinner and everyone did a great job. The food was very good and plentiful, and I thought the cannoli Eagle cake was especially tasty. Although some people were happy with the cupcakes and cookies. Turns out the Scoutmaster and Asst Scoutmaster got a sneak peak at Scott's cake since they are friends with Faith's dad. He was asking about the Eagle ceremony since he knew the men were involved in scouting, and turns out he had a photo of Scott's Eagle cake. Small world! Special thanks go out to Mark and Allison for participating in the readings and taking photos! I had Allison read a poem about Eagles for the ending. The poem talks about the fact that when storms are near, eagles rise above them. I thought it was very appropriate for our event. And so now Scott joins a special group of Eagle scouts. (He would have been approved as an eagle scout without the ceremony, but I thought it was a nice way to celebrate the event). Most members just have their ceremonies at the church. But I heard it was hard to find an available date there to book the room, as well as the added issue of getting the food delivered or picked up and served. It was so much nicer to have someone else do all the food prep and most of the clean up. Thanks also to Linda who helped set up and clean up our decorations! I think everyone had a good time. I just wish I could have had more time to chat with everyone, but Mom was getting ansy so I dropped her
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