Camp Yale!

Camp Yale was awesome. It started out chilly and overcast, but the sun came out later and it turned out to be a beautiful day!

We started out with several challenges. The girls first had to figure out how to organize themselves on this beam by birthdate. Every time someone fell off, they had to start over.

We are not thrilled.

They finally worked out a way where they could step over each other. I'm not sure this would have worked with adults, but they got it done!

Harder than it looks.

We moved on to the teeter totter and iceberg challenges. Every girl had to get on and then they had to balance the platform. Once it was balanced, they had to sing Row Row Row Your Boat. These challenges were a good lesson in teamwork and frustration. There were tears at first, but as the challenges went on, they started listening more to each other, and figuring out how to solve the problems.

Maybe if everyone sits! No, maybe if everyone lays down! Maybe if we all stand in the corners! 

For the peanut butter pit, the girls had to figure out how to get from one side of the "pit" to the other using these blocks of wood. 

Savannah is excited about the peanut butter. Everyone else, not so much.

Just before lunch the girls each got a plastic piece of half-tube. The goal was to roll a marble from one end to the other, with each girl leaving her place and running to the other end to keep the ball rolling until they could get it into a bucket at the other end of the field.

Here's a video of the process in action:

After lunch we attacked the climbing wall.

Then the highlight of the day: the zip line! WOOOO! We should have spent all day doing this.

It was a super fun time!

Camping!

Camping was tiring freezing awesome! Seriously, we had a lot of fun. The environmental center people assured me the cabin was heated, but their definition of heated was perhaps a little more optimistic than ours. But we kept the fire going throughout the night, and we didn't freeze to death, and the girls seemed to have fun despite the cold.

A competitive game of "Down by the Banks" would take anyone's mind off the cold.

We made fire-starters and built mini fires, then cooked dinner over the fire. S'mores and dough boys were dessert, and most of us had seconds and thirds.

The smoke! Gets in your eyes!

The next morning we hiked all over the place. Hiking was very fun, and the girls made good use of their hiking sticks and earned a hiking badge. Everyone was tired, but everyone had fun!

The intrepid hikers conquer nature!

Alice!

The girls did a great job building a scarecrow. I had my doubts about whether we could get it all done in an hour, but we did! Thank you to the moms who stayed and kept the girls on track. I've taken Alice to the zoo already -- she is proudly on display on scarecrow hill and when we took her in, she was the first one up. So she's right in front, in case you decide to go to the Great Zoo Halloween!

Camping is going to be Friday November 2nd, from about 4 pm until 11 am Saturday morning. Details will be posted soon! Until then, enjoy Alice, the lovely Brownie scarecrow.

Scarecrow!

We have decided to make a scarecrow for the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo Great Halloween. It will be a Brownie scarecrow, of course! The girls have volunteered to bring things in to the next meeting. So, for the Oct. 8th meeting, please bring the following.

Camryn -- Hat

Mia E. -- Wig

Savannah -- Scarf

Chartrice -- Shoes, shirt, sign (the sign needs to be weatherproof)

Cate -- Bracelet, leggings/skirt

Ellie -- Necklace, lots of newspaper

Kaitlynn -- Earrings, paper to make the head

Makayla -- Umbrella, Halloween bucket

Katie G. -- Packing tape

Sophie -- Stapler, safety pins, markers

The scarecrows will be out in the open for about a month, so please don't send anything that you are really attached to. If it rains, the clothes might not come back in good shape. We should be able to return everything though. 

Let me know if you have questions!

Kristin

Time to start up again!

Hello, Brownie parents!

It's nearly time to start up again. I've updated the calendar on the blog so you can see the dates we are meeting (http://troop20048.blogspot.com/p/calendar-2012-2013.html). Basically it's still Monday nights from 6:30 to 7:30, same place as usual. The first meeting is 9/17 and the week after we are having a self-defense class taught by a local tae kwon do instructor. After that it's every 2 weeks with a few exceptions around the holidays.

This year we are going to have the girls do a lot more of the planning, since the meetings are supposed to eventually be girl-led. We're going to brainstorm all the fun things we'd like to do this year and talk about the water Journey we're also going to do, which focuses on learning about water and the environment. (I can see a trip to the Jorgensen Y's pool at some time in the future!)

I'm also planning to take the girls camping the first weekend in November. If you've never seen it, there's a really neat environmental center our near Homestead. We'll be sleeping in the heated cabin (there's a fireplace inside and everything) and learning how to cook and build our own fires outside. We'll be doing that with Lisa's troop (she formed her own troop this year at Whispering Meadows, where her daughters go). 

Please plan on staying for the first meeting to fill out paperwork.

 

See you soon!

Kristin

Brownie/Daisy Day Fun!

Brownie/Daisy Day was a rousing success. We stayed up late at night and ate s'mores, cooked over a fire, and earned a badge in Letterboxing! We're fired up now for camping and I'm thinking of planning another camping trip this fall. Pictures are below!

 The girls get ready for their first station, a hike to find letterboxes.

Taking the troop picture. 

Finding letterboxes... 

Reading clues... 

Playing freeze tag while in our down-time. 

Time to move on! 

On the troll bridge. 

At the wishing tree. 

When your stick falls out, your wish will come true! 

Leaving our mark (stamp) in the book. 

Snake! Not even dead! 

Lunch! 

Making our own stamps. 

These stamps did not work out so good. But we tried. 

Digging for treasure. 

 Ooo! Jewels!

Rings and necklaces! 

Tiaras! 

Gold coins! 

Playing games.

We are getting tired and a little loopy. 

Fierce girls! And one cutie pie.

 

Girls. Enough with the sand, already.

Making singing apples after dinner. 

Many apples fell into the fire. It was still fun though. 

Thank you Miss Amy ^ and Miss Annette for your help with dinner! 

Goodbye Camp McMillen!