2014 – Page 29 – Andelin Adventures

Nokia “Tell My Story”

So a few weeks ago, I had read about a program Nokia was doing where they send out their latest device, the Lumia 1520, for people to use. Part of this program is they want one hundred people, between the ages of one to one hundred, to tell their stories: take pictures that show who they are. I thought a chance to play with the phone sounded good, but also the project they were going for sounded really interesting. I applied for it and wasn’t needed, but they actually had room for younger people, and Jeremy and Ethan fit the bill.

I had to send in pictures of my two lads with brief biographies about them, and Nokia sent out two 1520 phones from England, one for each boy to use. Here is what I sent as pictures and bios:

My name is Ethan. I love LEGOs. My favorite LEGO theme is LEGO NINJAGO. I HATE GETTING MY HAIR CUT. I love everything Pokémon, including cards, marbles, movies, figures, and pretty much anything. I am in 5^th grade and doing homeschool this year. I am the oldest of 7 kids. I am a Webelos scout and my dad is our leader. I love burritos and doritos tacos, but my favorite food is pizza. My favorite color is purple, and I have a seven foot long purple snake that I got at the aquarium, and take with me everywhere.

Hi, my name is Jeremy. I am eight years old. I am the third of seven children. I am in second grade and this is my first year doing home school. I just started cub scouts, and I am in the wolf den. I love chili and tacos. I can eat a whole can of chili, maybe two, or eight tacos in one meal. I am a king at making silly faces. My favorite characters are Snoopy, Donald Duck, and Jar Jar Binks. My favorite colors are yellow, green, and blue. My favorite animals are turkeys, dogs, bats, and skunks.

The boys were excited for their own chance to have phones, even if only for a month, and they didn’t even mind that they didn’t have phone service. Jeremy actually got his phone first, and Ethan’s is still on its way.

Once Nokia has collected enough pictures and videos from all their testers, they will create a website documenting the lives of all their participants. It should be fun to see once complete, and my boys are lucky to be part of this!

Ethan’s swimming progress

Ethan is still taking swimming lessons, and he seems to be making progress. We will have to take him to the pool sometime before pack meeting to finish signing off the Aquanaut badge. Hopefully he will be able to do well enough to earn it.

Ethan’s 11th Birthday

Ethan had a simple birthday this year just cake and presents after dinner. I made purple frosting for the cake. Ethan really wanted fondant, but I didn’t have time for that, and I had lots of whipped cream, so I made a whipped cream frosting instead.

With turning eleven, Ethan will move on to the big boy scouts, so for his present this year we got him his scout shirt, sash, and book.

My Cub Scout in Training

Adam found Ethan’s scout hat lying around and decided to try it on for size. 🙂

Ethan’s Conservation Project

To earn the cub scout World Conservation award, Ethan had everything completed except participating in a den or pack conservation project. Well his den and the pack haven’t ever planned a conservation project so it’s not like we just never participated. We have actually worked on this award while he was a wolf and a bear too, but never actually got it finished before his birthday, and as the requirements change with each rank, that meant starting all over again each time. With his eleventh birthday coming up in just a couple of days we didn’t want to get this close to finishing the award and not finish it yet again, so we discussed possible conservation projects, and let Ethan decide which one he would like to go ahead with. He decided on making bird feeders to feed the birds that stick around for the winter. Next we explored the different options for bird feeders that we could make and we decided on one that uses gelatin to make the bird seed stick together and you press it into a cookie cutter to make it into cool shapes to hang from the trees. Then we invited all the cubs in the pack to come over to our house to make some. We had about 5 boys show up, plus Ethan and Jeremy which makes about 7 from our pack. Then we invited cousins Lars and Daniel to come participate as well since they are also scouts. I mixed up the bird seed with the softened gelatin and we explained to the boys what we were doing, what the award was and how to make the bird feeders that we were making. Then I had Ethan pass out the seed.

I’m excited to finally have the requirements for this award finished, and I’m so glad that several boys from the pack came to participate. I was starting to fear that nobody was going to show. 😉