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!