BYSS World Series 2023: Shopping Trip

I'm happy to report that my team, the Scrappin' Banshees, won Game 1 of the BYSS World Series 2023! This is my contribution for Game 2:

Shopping Trip (affiliate link)

This page tells the story of a shopping trip with Trevor and his friend and fellow Scout, Logan. As a bit of background: In our Scout troop, each patrol (6-8 kids) typically plans their own menus for each campout based on a budget of $5/person/meal. A designated Scout does the shopping, then everyone in the patrol helps with meal preparation and cleanup during the trip. I've taken Trevor shopping for campouts many times over the years. The first time, when Trevor was 11, was rough. I had to show him where everything was located, teach him about unit pricing, demonstrate how to keep a running total of his expenses, help him estimate the quantities needed for his patrol, teach him how to judge produce quality, coach him through his interaction with the cashier.... and a million other skills that I take for granted when I go shopping alone. Supervising Trevor's Scout shopping is still an exercise in patience for me, but he gets faster every time. 

Once in a while, the whole troop shares meals. This happens when the total group size is relatively small, or when the logistics of the camping location make it tough for 5 separate cooking stations (4 patrols of Scouts, plus 1 adult patrol). For the June 50-mile bike ride, all the Scouts ate together. Trevor and Logan agreed to do the shopping. Which meant I agreed to take them. It would have taken me about 40 minutes to go to the store, get everything on the list, load it up, and get back home. I figured it would take Trevor and Logan double that. It actually took two hours, and that was with me telling them where to find everything and gently pushing them to make decisions and move on. I had to keep reminding myself that they were learning important life skills, and that their friendly bickering and ongoing negotiations were good practice for when Trevor will potentially be shopping with/for college roommates. 

As I said, this layout was for the BYSS World Series. Here are the requirements for Game 2:

I'd actually printed four photos of Trevor and Logan shopping, but it was easy enough to drop one of them to meet the three-photo requirement. For the connected word, I snipped sentiment stickers to change them from uplifting phrases to the more blunt ones I needed. For specialty paper, I used vellum across the top and a metallic paper for my journaling. Speaking of metal, I groaned when I saw it on the requirement list. It showed up last year too. I really wish we could use metallic items rather than actual metal, but that's against the rules. Metal letters to the rescue! Last time, I colored them black with a Sharpie. This time, I left them plain. To get the grand slam, I distressed the brown edges. Grand slam for the Banshees!