Happy New Year!

It has been a while since I last posted.  Time flies when you're having fun!  How is your Girl Scout year going?

Ours has been busy, but not so busy all at the same time.  A Junior Troop was disbanding, so the remaining girls joined us in September.  These girls have been a wonderful addition as we had two Juniors in our troop.  They have been able to focus on the Agent of Change Journey and discuss ways that lead them to more leadership roles.

In November, members of a disbanding Brownie Troop joined us to add to the fun, friendship, and experience.  The Brownies have been working on their Brownie Quest Journey and have all but finished.  With all the new girls, they have earned the new Making Friends badge.

In December, those interested walked in our local Hometown Christmas Parade and helped pick two tags from the local Angel Tree.  Our girls are so kind and giving.   After donating blankets, comforters, etc. for the Share the Warmth campaign and gloves, hats, and scarves for Warm Hands, Warm Hearts, they voted to adopt an Angel from our community.  The girls chose two.  For those who were available, we met at our local superstore and purchased two shirts/blouses, two pairs of pants, and items related to their wish list.  What a great experience!

Our January meeting brought us cookie training and COOKIE Sales!!  The girls are out and about selling away.

February is going to be a fun month, and I hope March tops it.

What are you doing to celebrate the 100th Anniversary?

We have some extra Brownie Try-Its from the old program.  If you are in need or are interested in earning some, let me know.

Badge Work

This Saturday, my friend/co-leader and I are hosting a Brownie Try-It Day where 42 Brownies and second year Daisies will be rotating through stations to earn 3 Try-Its.  I am so excited and pray all goes well.

Have you participated in or hosted a badge work day or event?  What did you do?  How did it go?

April Is Here!

Can you believe it is already April?  What plans do your troops have for this month?  Will you be participating in Earth 2011?  Do you have other Earth related service projects planned? 

We began Water Everywhere and Earth Is Our Home Try-Its in connection to our conversation about Earth 2011.  It will be exciting to see what our Brownies and Daisy come up with for projects.

Share your ideas with us . . .

Snow Day #2 -- What did you do?

For those of you snowed (or iced) in today, what Girl Scout activities did you complete? 

We worked on/completed four Try-Its: 
Caring and Sharing, Write Away, Let's Pretend, and Computer Smarts

The Boy Scout in the house completed a few requirements that allowed him to finish two of his pins too.

Snow Day = Girl Scout Planning

I am off work and almost every school district and business around me is closed today due to the sleet and snow that fell overnight and this morning.  What does one do with a day off?  Well, if you are a Girl Scout Leader and/or serve on the Service Unit Team, there is always work to be done.

I have been working with my co-leader the past few days to plan our next meeting.  This meeting will incorporate cookie booth sales and World Thinking Day.

We have been working on both Try-Its tied to cookies.  One is in the Try-It book, Cookies Count, I believe, but the other, Smart Cookie, can be found online at http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/online/cookies/brownie_smart_cookie.asp.
By the time our booth sales end, our girls should have both of these.

We need to make signs for our booth sales, discuss "thanking" our customers, practice selling to booth sale patrons, and ask our parents to work with our girls on making change.  We have to create a shopping list too, so we just need items to make the posters for this part of the meeting.

The rest of the evening will be spent working on our presentation station for our local World Thinking Day event.  Those organizing the event let us know two days ago what our country would be.  (We had to give our top 3 choices.)  We have been asked to create a presentation board, possibly made from a science fair board, that shares something about what Girl Scouts is like in that country, their language, a snack, a game, a SWAP, and their flag.

We are going to make a flag from a pillowcase.  We will probably create it with fabric paint, but we haven't made a final decision yet.

We haven't decided on our snack yet, but we need to feed about 150 people, and we need something that can be kept hot or cold easily or can be enjoyed at room temperature. 

As for our SWAP, we need something easy enough for our girls to complete and also make 150 during our meeting.  Besides making the item, we need to print little cards with our troop #, World Thinking Day 2011, and something that goes along with our country.

We have seen a couple of games that wouldn't be too hard, so we will have to make sure we have the space necessary around our station to play it.

Our presentation board will include the Law, Promise, pictures of uniforms, and more that represent Girl Scouts in our country.  This will probably be posted in the country's language and English.

Guess we'll complete the shopping list, and when we thaw out, we'll go get the supplies.  The meeting should be fun.  Maybe I will be able to post some pictures.


What are all of you doing for World Thinking Day?  Know of any helpful sites?

Do you have any good ideas to make the most of booth sales?