Girl Scout Camp - 2014

Reagan and Kennedy attended their first Girl Scout summer camp in June. They loved it! It was especially fun because they were able to go with several of the other girls in their troop as well as their cousin Heidi. The last day Aunt Dorothy and I went to watch the closing and all the skits the girls had created. It was pretty cute! :)

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My favorite story/rule that the girls came home with from the week was "If you kill a bug you have to eat the bug." Love it! lol :)

 It was crazy hat day so I had to take a picture of these two crazy girls...

Reagan, Kara and Kennedy

 Jackson kept picking flowers which Aunt Dorothy helped him make creations from while the girls were doing their closing activities.

 The girls are definitely looking forward to returning to camp. Reagan's only regret for the week was only being able to spend the night one week. This crazy girl is more ready than Mom and Dad to start week long over night camps! :)

Girl Scout Cookie Sales

While we all do personal sales, our Girl Scout Troop has realized that as a homeschool group we have a great opportunity to sell cookies to college kids. We have taken advantage of this the last two years at UK and at Transylvania University. We send a group of girls to both universities (the campuses are both in downtown Lexington) around lunch time and sell between 300-400 boxes in 2-3 hours. It is amazing! College kids rock!!! :)

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Here is our crew (or cookie parade?) heading out to sell cookies with a couple of wagons overflowing with these delicious treats! :)

   Here is the Transy crew - ready and open for business!

Younger siblings get to join in the "fun" cookie sales as well - these two are at least good buddies and in the same Classical Conversations class. :)

 Brothers making better use of the wagon...

 Cookie salesmen or cookie thieves??? Judging by the smiles I'm sure you correctly guessed the latter... :)

Apple Gleaning with the Girl Scouts - October 2013

I have again fallen behind, but for once it's not entirely my fault! :) My computer has been on the decline for a while (getting progressively slower and next to impossible to use). It pretty much completely quit working a couple of weeks ago and after Tim spent several nights trying to figure out what was wrong we finally took it in this week. It turned out my hard drive was going bad. After replacing that it looks like we're back up and running! Time to make some progress posting pictures again! :)

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I decided to begin with a quick and easy post regarding activities from last fall. One Saturday in October we headed out to a local orchard for Apple Gleaning. Gleaning basically means that the orchard allows us to come and pick any fruit from the ground (which they are not allowed to sell or use) and donate it to charity. Along with help from some Boy Scouts and parents we managed to glean 1100 pounds of apples for God's Food Pantry here in Lexington in just a couple of hours! It was such a great activity for the girls to participate in since it was something they could actually do to help others vs just asking for money. Here are the girls with a fellow Girl Scout and a load of apples ready to go back to the truck.

Thank you Grammy for coming along to help us glean apples!

Hard at work under the trees

Kennedy was a little more interested in the slugs and making sure they had food than collecting apples for the hungry. lol :)

Missy K getting back to work after finding the perfect apples for her slugs :)

I'm thinking this little apple tree is going to be an amazing producer someday. Look at all the apples on this little sapling!

Miss Reagan worked hard at finding good apples. She found what she considered the perfect, and most enormous apple ever, and asked if she could take it home. They gave her permission to take this one and it was delicious!

Thank you to our Daisy leader for arranging this outing. I am so thankful for the fabulous Girl Scout troop our girls are a part of!

Girl Scout Camp 2013 - Day 2

I think this picture of the Daisies ready to canoe has to be one of the cutest pictures ever!!! I LOVE this picture and all these sweet little girls! I couldn't help but start this post with this picture even if it is a bit out of order. :)

Our day actually began with breakfast, prepared by the girls and it was quite the feast including eggs and a new favorite treat called "Dough Boys," among other things. To make a Dough Boy you take premade biscuits and wrap them around the end of your stick (which has tinfoil on it). You then bake it, roll it in butter and cinnamon sugar and you have a wonderfully tasty breakfast treat!

 The Daisies all busy with their Dough Boys

 Reagan and Kennedy with their completed Dough Boys

 Headed to the lake to canoe

 

While we were down at the docks we had the opportunity to see this dragon fly emerge and dry out in the sun

Then we noticed the shells of the dragon flies were everywhere. Here are three who came out at the same time and played piggyback as the came out before flying away.

 Sweet Miss Nina 

 Kennedy walking with the big girls from canoeing back to camp for lunch

 Time for a swim!

 We have several sister groups in our troop and I was able to capture a picture of most of them together in the pool. :)

 



Nina was a little unsure about the pool at first but was having a great time in no time at all! :) 

 Headed back to camp to pack up and get ready to go 

Here is a picture of our crew of Daisies, Brownies, Juniors and Cadets from our troop that were able to participate in our two day camp. They are such a great group of girls!

 Thank you so much to everyone who organized and made this trip possible for all our girls. Thank you also to all of you who purchased Girl Scout cookies in support of our troop. Thru our cookie sales none of the girls had to pay for this experience and we appreciate that so much!

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Thank you also to Ms. McKinley's birthday buddy, Lauren. I don't know what we would have done without her to watch my two little munchkins while Tim was at work and I was with the big girls.

What a great way to kick off a super fun summer! We look forward to many more wonderful camp experiences and memories at Camp Judy Lane! 



Girl Scout Camp 2013 - Day 1

In June our Girl Scout Troop took a two day camping trip to Camp Judy Lane in Eastern Kentucky. It was a fabulous experience. Both the girls have declared it their favorite Girl Scout activity of the year and cannot wait to go back again next year.

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Here are the Daisies (1st row) and Brownies (2nd row) with their wonderful Troop Leader, Jeannette. She has done an incredible job all year and truly outdid herself with this trip for the girls!

 Teamwork was first on the agenda. The girls participated in a number of activities and obstacle courses which challenged them to think and work together. Here are pictures of a few of the activities they did.

 Trying to balance all together for 10 seconds

 Everyone had to go thru a different portion of the "web"

 Everyone had to follow the leader exactly thru this web. If the web was shaken and the bell rang, someone would lose one of their senses/abilities making the course that much more challenging.

 The Brownies making their way across the tire swings

 The girls had some time to play on the tires too 

 

 

 The girls divided up into groups and were responsible for preparing and cleaning up each meal including making fires as needed. This was a bit slow at times but a fabulous learning experience for everyone involved!

 The Daisies enjoying the fruits of their labor

 Sweet Miss Maddie

 After lunch we headed for the rock climbing wall. We have never done this before but Reagan was a natural and was one of only 3 girls to make it to the top. Kennedy did an awesome job as well making it over half way up.

 Missy K all ready to go!

 Reagan and Maddie ready to climb! :)

 Posing for a picture lol :)

 There goes Kennedy! :)

  Reagan at the top of the rock wall

Nina on her way up 

 This mother/daughter duo both made it to the top - way to go Denny girls! :)

 Kennedy's favorite Cadette, Zoe, gave it a good try too

 Next we split up again and the little girls headed to archery. The girls were extremely excited about this opportunity (I'm thinking because of Brave?). The moms tried this out as well and I have to say it's a lot harder than it looks!

 

 Ms. Meg managed to hit an acorn! lol :)

  Kennedy helped her "Big Big Sister, Zoe" make the "Stone Soup" and keep an eye on the food over the fire in general by bringing her sticks to keep the fire going. The girls and I agreed that the "Stone Soup" was super yummy and fun!

 Enjoying supper around the fire

 Kennedy found this large snail which she fell in love with

 The girls put on a couple of impromptu plays at "Thicket Theater" for our evening entertainment. They did a great job and I was pretty impressed with some of their improve!

 What better way to end the day than with a new found treat to cook over the fire - Banana Boats!

As you can see we had a super full and fun first day at camp! No wonder the girls can't wait to go back!!! :)