My Pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch

I got the lovely experience of being UberMom with Evan this week as we made the pilgrimage to Vogt Farm in Batesville, Indiana this past week with his Cub Scout Pack. We knew well in advance that we were going, but being that I have a career, I tend to forget the details unless they are staring me in the face. So after Evan left for school that day, I pulled out the event flyer to take a look. " Bring One Dozen Cookies, Please." D'Oh! These people apparently did not get the memo that I do not bake. I can cook, but I do not bake. It has been my Achilles' heel as a mother, one that brought tears as an expectant mother. I had made a chocolate cake, and I wanted to ice it. But I made it way too large, and the cake saver doodad would not fit over the top of the thing. The top layer tried to slide off and had to be rescued, and each time someone took a piece, the sides of the cake scraped against the sides of the container. It was not pretty and John referred to it as "Chocolate Ugly Cake". It tasted good, though. But I, in all of my pregnant glory, shed tears over this. I could just see my soon-to-be-born child taking cupcakes to school which noone would dare eat.

So here I am now. I still cannot bake, but they want cookies. John says, "Andrea, just go buy a bag of Oreos or something." No way. I am now playing the role of CubScout Mother. Oreos do not fit the bill. So I head to the grocery store to get the needed ingredients. (I guess I am a bad mother in that I do not keep the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in my cabinets at any given moment where I am struck into a baking frenzy.) So I decide on frosted sugar cookies, and I get the goods, including those little pumpkins that taste like candy corn.

So I stand here in my kitchen, and I individually decorate not the requisite one dozen, but two. And they are cute and pumpkin patch-ish with little sprinkels and pumpkins. And when we get there, all of the other Moms tell me they are adorable. As they are hauling out their bags of Oreos and Chips-Ahoy!

Then we get to the festivities at hand, and Evan has a ball getting messy and into things. He pets animals, rides a pony, and he and his Pack Leader completely lose me, City Girl Supreme, in a corn maze. That picture up there is them running away from me. I kept hearing that eery Children of the Corn music in my head as I wandered through it. But at least Evan knows his Mom is a good sport. Then I discovered that one of the leaders just happens to be a guy I dated in high school. Lovely.

Mommy's Little Cub

Evan came home from school yesterday with a flyer clutched in his grubby little hand. His face was aglow, and I waited patiently for him to explain what the excitement was about. "Mommy, I can be a Cub Scout!" Then John got excited as well. So tonight at 6:30, together with my boys, I will be heading to a Cub Scout meeting. John is sure this will be his opportunity to interact with his son. I am pleased that they will get the opportunity to do this together. John says that while he was never a scout, he is a veteran of the "biggest Boys' club there is". He is sure he can teach the children skills about survival and more.

In the meantime, I received a call from my beloved son's teacher. Apparently my child called another faculty member a "doo-doo head" and now my son has to serve a detention. I do not understand him at all. I was the child who cried when she got her name put on the board as a warning. My husband was the kid who got suspended for fighting all of the time. I think Evan is a mix of the two. I just never counted on my 7-year-old son having to serve detention. I went through my entire school career without ever having to serve one. What is going on with my child?