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!