Christmas Break

Ah, Christmas! Here you are again.

Just because we are taking a small holiday break from Girl Scout Journeys doesn't mean we can't earn patches!

Like this one...

We spent the evening making gingerbread houses with her older sister and my grandsons. We kind of cheated buying a kit, but I'm so glad that we did.

And this one...

Then, the next night we all made the cookies, you know, because Santa must have them...

Our family tradition is to open one present on Christmas Eve. They each got a new set of pajamas and we do family movie night. This year we watched Arthur Christmas and munched on popcorn. Then the kids checked Santa on Norad. Finally, set out the cookies, carrots and milk for Santa, of course!

Checking on Santa's progress

Then THIS happened!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Swap Tree

Miss Thing wanted to do something special with her Christmas/Winter  themed swaps. I scooped up this mini tree at Dollar General for $3.50 and cut her loose!

Swap Tree

I think she did alright :)

She was really excited when we received them about 10 days ago, and she's already talking about the next swap which will be World Thinking Day (sign ups starting in January.) Next up is Earth Day (sign ups in March), then 50 States swap (sign ups in May). The link for the group is Girl Scout Swaps mail-in exchange and it is a closed group, so you have to join to see all the past swaps. The moderator, Angel, is awesome and helpful, so I hope to see you there.

On to the next craft! 

Girl Scout Themed Christmas Cards

Miss Thing really wanted to send out a Girl Scout themed Christmas card to her pen pal. Yeah, you can't find 'em.

 Anywhere.

I looked. I Googled. I gave up on buying one and we put our heads together.

                             This is what we came up with...

Inside

We looked up the item number for the patch that we bought on the GSUSA Website and printed it on the card (I surprised her with the Omnes Girl Scouts font), then we used a glue dot to attach the patch over the picture. That way her pen pal can use the patch without messing up the card. Sometime that kid comes up with such cool ideas! She even helped me design her own return address labels. The only thing is that I have to take it to the Post Office to have it hand postmarked.

May your days be Crafty and Bright!

2015 Ward Christmas Parade

Yesterday was the Christmas Parade in Ward, AR. We were invited by Troop 6533 to join them. I was pretty impressed by the leader. She even made a super-cute costume for Miss Thing :)

Candy Cane Cuties

I didn't get a picture of the banner - I'm still waiting for the lady that took all of the pictures to send me a link. The top left picture is Miss Thing and her brother, the top right is me posing with her. The bottom 3 pics are the activities which ended with cookies and Santa!

It was 71 degrees, which is crazy for December, but I wore my ugly Christmas sweater anyway.

Sad news is, they didn't win in any category this year, but we still had a blast.

So now I'm on the hunt for a Christmas Parade fun patch. Julietting is so fun!

Now my little Brownie is pestering me to go work on a mini Christmas tree to show off the Winter/Christmas themed swaps that we received (I mentioned in an earlier post). I'll post the link to that group, as well.

Happy Julietting, my friends!

We Met the CEO!

Yesterday was the big holiday party for our Service Unit. The theme was "Sharing is Caring" and the service project was to fill stockings for Lonoke County CASA for foster children. The guest speaker this year was Dawn Prasifka, CEO for Girl Scout Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma & Texas. Miss Thing got to meet her and even got a patch!

It was a lot of fun. They let the girls write cards to the local firefighters, craft ornaments and play a game where they got to decorate their Troop Leader like a Christmas Tree! In this case, Miss Thing decorated her old Daisy Troop Leader. It was kind of sweet how she included my daughter whenever they grouped up kids by troop. Sister to Every Girl Scout!

We had an opportunity to meet another Troop that has invited us to march in the Ward Christmas Parade next weekend. So, now we have another event to look forward to!

Happy Holidays to all!

Girl Scout Shopping and Fun Day

I've been naughty... But it's OK. We took a vacation day from school yesterday to go Girl Scout shopping. It didn't start out that way, but where we live we can't just run to Little Rock whenever. It is over an hour drive one way, and I say over an hour because for some reason my GPS thinks I WANT to detour through the hood.

Anyway, Miss Thing was way ahead on her progress for the week with her schoolwork, so I think she really deserved a fun day. So, an email to her teacher and off we went. Our Council CEO is going to make an appearance for the Christmas party this year, so everyone wants to look their Girl Scout-y best. And we didn't have a THING to wear -just kidding, but I did want to get the polo shirts for both of us.

BIG score! I made quite a haul because they were having a 50% sale on the fun stuff. I actually got myself a fleece pullover! Yay! Miss Thing got that Brownie purse she's been bugging me for and is going to get Girl Scout Barbie for Christmas (Shhhh!), and I found the Council Patch!

Isn't it Perrrrrrrty?

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I had to get one. I'll probably sew it onto my canvas bag that I cram all my Girl Scout stuff into. Mom's should get patches too!

This whole post is pretty much just to show off the patch. I just think it's cool how you can stumble across stuff when you least expect it!

Now, if I could only stumble across some Girl Scout Christmas wrapping paper, I would be over the moon :)

Call me Crazy!

**side note** Before anyone calls the truant officer, my daughter is in K12 at Arkansas Virtual Academy. It is an online Charter school. You've probably seen the commercials about how it's a "self-paced, mastery-based public school option". I personally have a love/hate relationship with schooling my daughter at home, but it works for us, (especially when we are iced in during the winter storms and couldn't otherwise get to school.) A lot of the kids that attend ARVA have disabilities or health problems that make it hard for them to keep up at a brick and mortar school, so the schedule is flexible as long as you keep up with the assignments. My daughter works ahead most of the time and doesn't need to take time off for appointments, so she'll actually be done with her 2nd grade coursework by the middle of March. She may even have to option to start on 3rd grade work, but I suspect that she would suffocate me with my pillow in the middle of the night if I push her to do that!

Until next time my crafty, self-motivated Juliette Family!

Girl Scout Way Legacy Badge

Here we are again with another project - but at least this is badge work.

The Brownie Girl Scout Way Try-it is part of the “Legacy” badge set introduced in 2011. This badge replaces the older Girl Scout Ways (Brownie Try-it).

We've been "working" on this badge for a few weeks. I typed up the basic requirements for all of the badges and grouped them together in card slots in my binder. This is also how I store the badges (because I lose stuff.) Since we are independent of a troop, I can keep up with her progress on badges better this way. I like it because I can document when she does activities from the heart instead of being told to. I think it means more that way and shows that she is truly growing in character. Here is what it looks like:

When I was planning out the first couple of months to order her journey badges, I added the fun patches that she had earned and I plan to do all at once (shipping is expensive at GSUSA).

These aren't the best pictures, but you may be able to see that I date the activity and sometimes make notes of how we did it right on the card. Then, when they are complete, I can transfer the card into her Girl Scout Scrapbook along with any pics we took. I do the project life pocket pages, so these are a smidge smaller, but it works for us.

I created these on my word program 5x7 size and then screenshot them into my paint program to print out. That way I can print them out at whatever size I want at the time. Strange, I know, but it's my process...

She had already completed all of the activities for this badge, except for the girl scout tradition. We do S'mores all the time, so I wanted to do something different for her to earn the badge.

We decided on Sit-upons! We do our sessions on the kitchen floor so we aren't distracted by anything else going on on the TV (or XBox). I have ceramic tile and it is cold and hard. These sit-upons will make it more comfortable and Girl Scout-y.

I found a lot of different ways to do these, but I settled on the no-sew version with duct tape. The supply list is real simple and cheap! Duct tape, grocery bags from the store, and reusable vinyl bags from the Dollar Tree.

before

We just filled the reusable bags with the grocery bags and taped around it with duct tape and voila! These are very comfy and I wonder why we didn't make these sooner! They look very much like the old boat cushions that floated if they went into the water. Miss Thing is looking very proud of herself!

after

And here is a better picture of the Brownie Girl Scout Way card that I made.

Until next time!

Thinking of and Thanking Our Soldiers Overseas

This week we are focusing on getting some homemade and store bought Christmas cards out to the soldiers overseas. The deadline is Dec 1st, so we're kind of under the gun. This is a cause that is close to our family's hearts because I have been deployed during the holidays, and this time of year just amplifies your homesickness. I encourage anyone who has the time to participate because I can tell you from personal experience that it really makes a difference for the moral of a soldier to be remembered and appreciated when you are away from your family.

This is their website for instructions: Operation Christmas Cards
This is their Facebook page if you like updates: www.facebook.com/operationchristmascards/

This has to be the best thing about being a Girl Scout Juliette family. When my daughter was a daisy in a troop, we spent one meeting decorating cards for the military, then the next meeting putting stockings together for our Service Unit's holiday service project, then on to cookie season, then World Thinking Day, then bridging. It was always hard to get any badge work done. Now, working independently, we can do stuff like this and take side trips and still sit down and work on the journeys whenever we want. I just love it!

On to the next project!

Guess Who's 8!

I guess I blinked! I don't have to tell another mother that time flies when you have kids. It just seems like yesterday that we were using sippy cups and potty training. (sigh)

So here are some highlights of the fun!

And yes, there's a patch for that.

Until next time, Happy Everything!

Swaps, swaps, swaps

There are several explanations for SWAPS or Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere. The basic idea is that they make it easier to make friends. I mean, you have to approach someone to swap with them, and you will probably have to introduce yourself as well! I have to admit that my little brownie is so wrapped up in having a swap that she forgets to be shy.

Lately we've been working on swaps. Whew, swaps are fun... tags and pins are not fun. We are making snowmen for the Winter/Christmas themed swap in a Facebook group that we joined. After spending hours on Pinterest (you know you do it too), we really had a hard time narrowing down our choices. We really wanted to do the melted snowman, but I think with 55 of them (the requirement for the swap), I don't think we would have any fingerprints left, so we settled on the beaded snowman. He's so cute.

We worked on this a couple of days because I had to go back to the store to buy more black beads. Then we had to attach the tags, which really didn't take too long.

So, since we already had the beads out... Miss Thing wanted to make Christmas ornaments!

Toy Soldier, Snowman, Penguin, Christmas Tree

The patterns for all of these except the Christmas tree is on MakingFriends.com. There is also a beading pattern for the Girl Scout, but we will save that project for another time.


So until next time - Happy Crafting!

Listening to the Past - Retired Brownie Try-It

Listening to the Past -
Retired Brownie Try-It

Today we spent the day at Pioneer Village in Searcy, AR.  This was the perfect opportunity to complete the Listening to the Past Try-It. There are 6 parts to this Try-It with a requirement to complete 4 activities to earn the badge.

1. Community Stories.
2. If These Buildings Could Talk
3. Visit the Oldest Cemetery
4. Tell Stories of the Past
5. Acting Out
6. Games of the Past

We chose to do 1, 2, 3 & 6.

We got to see the old meeting / school house; climbed all over an old wagon;
milked a "cow" and meandered around the animal stables

Look who's already in trouble with the law!

This is a trapper's cabin

Although I haven't looked for the Listening to the Past badge, I made a small card to put into our Girl Scout scrapbook. Even if I never find or buy the patch, it was an awesome activity that created memories and possibly built character in my daughter (probably). We had such a ball checking everything out at our local Pioneer Village, and it turned out to be a learning experience as well. I highly recommend it!

Until next time!

The Uniform!

Just wanted to share. This is her new Juliette vest! I know it isn't a big deal, but we're so tickled!

We chose the Lightning Troop Crest - it stands for inspiration and creative power.

Connect Key

Tonight we merged sessions 2 & 3 for convenience. We have 2 Service Unit events coming up and I didn't want to split up the badge work in case we don't have time next week.

We started out with the Promise & Law and talked for a few minutes about last week's session and what we learned about ourselves and our family to earn the Discover Key. I gave her a card that I printed up with the Discover Key on it, but I wont iron on any badges until she earns the whole leadership set for the journey - just for neatness sake.

Session 2 has a team building exercise where you either pass a hoola hoop or a ball back and forth down the line to learn how to problem solve, listen to your teammates and work together. We wrote up a team agreement to help each other and listen to each other. We did the ball activity because my oldest daughter and I are so much taller than my 7 year old that it would not have been fun for any of us. Passing the ball using our ankles was hysterical! I wish I'd had a way to get a video of it. We dropped the ball often and laughed for a good 10 minutes, but we finally figured out a technique to pass it successfully enough (though not really gracefully).

(The blue cast is a trick of the light)

Next, there is an activity where we try to find ways for Campbell in the Brownie Quest story to help out at home. Then we talked about ways that my little Brownie can help out at home...

I moved on from there to figure out ways to show family we care by finding a Healthy-Living Family Activity that we can do together. There are some pretty good looking healthy recipes that we are going to try out this week to satisfy this requirement.

From Session 3: We hung up her Family Star from last week and made a circle map showing our connections from "Me" to Family to the Girl Scout Sisterhood, to the Community then to the World. We talked about who is in each group and ways to show how we care. For the letter writing part, we decided to write to the County Road Dept. about the grass growing up waist high at the bus stop. The wasps like that grass and pester the kids while they wait for the school bus in the morning.


So, now we have learned how to connect as a team, with our family, and our community. And there is our Connect Key!

For our upcoming session 4, we have to have a Take Action Project. We have decided to participate in the food drive at the Service Unit's Fall Festival by bringing canned goods to donate. I will also be taking her to donate gently used clothes and toys to a women's shelter.



**Newsflash! The brownie pin
gets to turn right side up! 

My little brownie has completed 

3 good deeds without being asked!



Fun Patches earned this week:
Pumpkin Patch
Corn Maze
Hay Ride

Until Next time!

Finally Getting the Ball Rolling

It seems like the last almost 2 weeks since we made the decision to Juliette (I made this a verb) has been tied up in admin stuff. I've been waiting on books, materials, and badges to come in the mail and looking up activities and crafts to plan out at least the first couple of months of our brownie year.

Today has been an exciting day for us because our Juliette ID strip came in the mail. Happy Dance! This was the biggest pain to find and an even bigger challenge to get ahold of. The Girl Scout Council of Suffolk County had these little gems. You can call them at 631-543-6622 and ask for the shop. They only charged me $1 apiece and that included shipping.


After and exhausting search, I found a picture of the placement of the Juliette ID strip, but it is not mentioned anywhere in any official printed guide that I have read. I think I have scoured at least 40 council guides.

As you can see this is a vest setup from before the Journeys program, but they really haven't altered the placement of that section. I think I'm going to run with it... The nice recruitment lady that I spoke to said that I am attached to Service Unit 617, so I still need to find out if that is the number I use under the crest - which we haven't chosen yet.

**Update from nice lady at our Council: The correct uniform is to leave the numbers off.

So with the arrival of the leaders guide and Journey materials, we finally had our first meeting tonight. Yay!


First Meeting:

We chose Brownie Quest to start out our year. I like it because it introduces the characters and in the story "the Brownies uncover how Low, the founder of the Girl Scout Movement, discovered, connected, and took action as an early-20th-century leader." Sweet! Her birthday is this month, so that is perfect.

I wasn't going to post my incomplete display board, but I thought, what the heck. It will evolve over time. It would have looked better if I had a full roll of decorative duct tape instead of the last 5 inches left over from my last project. We started out with The Promise and The Law, which neither of us remembered from last year. (That was the first thing to go up on the board.) That awesome Brownie Quest map came with the leader's guide. The badges to check off as we go are up there in pink, and a calendar that already has 2 council events that we are registered for this month.

The first activity we did was have my little Brownie fill out the "All About Me" that I found at the Fashionable Moms blog.

Next we bounced a ball to each other and called out our good qualities. My oldest daughter did this with us. She was in Girl Scouts about 10 years ago in high school, so she couldn't resist. This activity was harder than it sounds because nobody really focuses on their own good qualities - so we all just drew a blank when it was our turn - but we managed to muddle through it with lots of laughter. It's a good thing it wasn't supposed to play out like "hot potato"! We went around 4 times and called it good.

We didn't have a group to do the Girl Scout Law search, so I had printed up a word find for her to search for keywords in the Law. I found it here.

Next we moved on to the Brownie Quest Family Star activity where we figured out which law best applied to our family. We settled on Honest and Fair, then talked about why we felt it applied to us for a few minutes. On each point of the star we wrote in a different family member and listed a special quality or skill that they possessed.

So the Leader's guide tells me that we found/earned the Discover Key tonight - cool. Filling out the Star sheet was supposed to be a take home, but we just did it in the session.

The last thing that we did for tonight's session was to read the first chapter of the Brownie Quest Activity book which introduced the characters and the quest that they are on. The story makes a nice ending to the session. I have to say that my daughter wasn't the only one that got something out of the whole thing. She had some nice things to say to me and my oldest daughter, and I got to tell her what I thought her good qualities are - it was a good night.

**Bonus Round** We had a chance to make our first swap of the year! There was a lady on the Juliette Girl Scout leaders Facebook page that has a daughter doing the 50 States Swap badge. My daughter has been so excited that she couldn't decide what to do. I kinda had to talk her down a bit, but we settled on this.

I have to trim the tag - 'cause that's how I roll, lol. She gets to fill out the envelope in the morning because she is doing friendly letters in her Writing Skills class - win/win!

By the way, she asked me to pass it along, so if anyone is interested in the 50 States Swap, I can hook you up, but I've got Arkansas covered.

Until next time, my Juliette sisters...

New Scout Year as a Juliette

We love Girls Scouts. Let me say that again "We LOVE Girl Scouts". I truly believe in the Girl Scout mission. I can't think of any better way to spend my time than with my daughter helping her to develop confidence, good character traits, and succeed in the skill building activities that are the foundations of the journeys. We enjoyed her 2 years as a Daisy. We loved the leaders and girls in the troop and participating in the activities. I even completed the training so that I could better assist and support the leaders. But I felt that there was something missing.


I considered starting a troop in my small community, but there is really not enough interest in my daughter's age group, and there is no way that I want to try to start a multi-level troop. Besides I'm not that person that needs to be in control of a group. I was quite happy to be that person to lift up the leaders and work in the background. But when you want your daughter to have the full & wonderful experience sometimes you just have to do something else. That being said, we decided to strike out on our own this year as her first year in Brownies and see what we can accomplish as a Juliette.

I am starting this blog to document my daughter's journey as a Juliette.