Eagle Court of Honor

The story of Carter's Eagle Court of Honor begins some months ago when he passed his Board of Review and became, officially, an Eagle Scout.

I asked the Scout leaders in our troop what I should do to set up the Court of Honor.

They responded, "You can do anything you want."

To which Frank responded, "We should have a barbecue!"

The scout leader responded, "That's a great idea!"

Well, it was December, so a barbecue seemed like a bad idea to me.

But every time I brought it up, Frank would repeat that we should have a barbecue.

So we waited until Spring and planned a backyard barbecue/Court of Honor/party.

The weather all week was gorgeous!  

The flowers have bloomed, the trees are also in bloom...I mean, it just couldn't be better.

Except for Saturday.

Saturday, the day of the barbecue, was showing a possibility of scattered thunderstorms.

Of course.

Everyday when I would check the weather it looked worse...so I stopped looking.

Seemed like the best way to handle it.

So, in the end we had a barbecue and Court of Honor, as planned.

But the barbecue grills were set up on the front covered porch (yes, right by my front door)

and the Court of Honor took place inside my house.

While I was at work Frank moved the table out of our little dining room.

And after I got back we rearranged everything, moved out the side tables, lamps and other small pieces of furniture and set up the chairs.

It was tight but we made it work.

It was rainy and chilly outside but people still sat out back under the covered porch while they ate their burgers and cake.

Carter's preference would have been to have his Eagle award handed to him straight from the bag from the scout store without any kind of ceremony.

I nixed that grand idea of his though, so he seemed to come around to the idea of the barbecue since it would be less formal.

But as it became clear that not only would we have to have it inside the house but there would also probably be quite a few people here, he got less and less enthused about the idea.

Until, the day of the event, he was pretty much totally not into it.

It added to my stress, I will not lie.

He mostly pulled it together for the actual ceremony.

But I don't think you'll see too many other Eagle Scouts getting their award in jeans and no shoes.

 I planned for the ceremony to be very short and pretty informal.

(I do know my family, even if I fight against them and their antisocial ways sometimes.)

 The local scouts did a flag ceremony and recited the Scout Oath and Law.

Following that, the award was given by a man from our congregation who is an Eagle Scout and that used to teach Carter's Sunday School class.  Carter also likes this man a lot so that seemed like a good choice.

He did a nice job and also kept it short.

Win!

 Frank pinned the Eagle Award.

After that, Carter pinned the Mother's Pin on me.

He forgot to do the Father's Pin.

oops.

Carter presented the Mentor pin to one of his leaders in Massachusetts

(we will mail it to him later)

and thanked everyone for their support and help.

He did a nice job.

Another short talk about Carter (including some good natured ribbing) and about Eagle Scouts...

and the meeting was over.

 I did a good job planning the shortest, least formal Eagle Court of Honor ever, if I do say so myself!

After that it was time for congratulations, food and hanging out.

We really had a nice turnout and it was a fun afternoon.

I'm really grateful for all the people who showed up to support Carter.

I'm thankful for the people who brought food

and for my perfect sister who came early to help me get the food/house ready

and even ironed the scout shirt and neckerchief

because I was a little stressed.

I'm thankful for the awesome scout leaders here who were so supportive of Carter.

So many people came to help with his Eagle project.

And they are just always so kind to Carter and say nice things to me about him.

I even had cute decorations outside, just in case it didn't rain.

That didn't work out.

And Costco came through with this awesome Eagle cake.

Today, the day after the planned back yard barbecue, the weather was back to nice and sunny.

Of course.

_____

I made a little video of Carter through the years in scouting.

I showed it on our tv during the party/barbecue portion of the evening.

I didn't ask Carter's permission or get his opinion.

And I also didn't get his permission to share it here...

So without further ado I give you: 

Carter's Road to Eagle.

Congratulation Carter!

I'm very proud of you.