Insta-Friday

Another week done with means that we are another week closer to the end of school, and even better than that, another week closer to leaving for San Diego.  The next two weeks are going to be pretty crazy around here.  We have graduation and end of the year parties... plus packing and stuff.  Bring on the good times.

Saturday night's family dinner at our campsite.  Savannah and I were both pretty happy to see Ryder.  We miss that little guy when he's not around.

This next picture is absolutely precious.  Savannah and her BFF Olivia fell asleep holding hands.  I love that they make each other fell safe and happy.  So thankful that Savannah and Olivia met this year.    So thankful that Olivia has really cool parents.  Hopefully these girls have years of hanging out ahead of them.

Tuesday night we went to the Rangers game with some of Eric's coworkers.  They were all in town for a training/meeting and Eric being Eric made sure to schedule in a Ranger game for all of them to attend.  Not a shocker.  It was a good time... the kids were better than normal.  They are always good at games, but the stars aligned and they were picture perfect.  At one point Ryder went and sat on Eric's boss' lap for quite a while.  He never does that with strangers.  I don't know what was up with them... but I'll take it.

I just can't seem to fight off the Texan inside of her.  Boots at a baseball game, really???  Yes, really.  This little girl insisted.

This is what the day after staying out until 10pm at a baseball game looks like.  Sleepy cranky totally worn out little guy.

Adventures In Girl Scout Camping: Day Two

Now that we know the girls are totally comfortable and capable of spending the night at a campground without parents, further camping trips will be planned for an entire weekend.  For this trip the girls arrived Saturday at 10am and left Sunday at 1pm.  So we had a little more than a 24 hour period to squeeze in everything we wanted to.  Next time I would love for them to arrive Friday late afternoon/evening and maybe stay an hour or two later on Sunday.  That way we would have plenty of time to do all the activities we wanted.  Sunday (day two) was pretty full.  The girls woke up at around 7am... they got dressed, ate breakfast, and then packed up their belongings.  We did a morning craft and a science experiment as our first activities of the day.  For their craft the girls gathered sticks and other items they wanted to hang from them so that we could make a nature wind chime.  For science they broke up into teams and dug holes big enough for plastic bottles to fit in and then made volcanoes.  They had a blast with that.

Their completed wind chimes.  They turned out way cuter than I expected.  Savannah's has been hanging on our back porch since we got home.

Savannah and another girl working together to attach things to their wind chimes.  Gotta love teamwork.

Savannah and her buddy Jaley.  These two also play softball together.  

After craft/science time we had a snack and then headed out to meet the park ranger for a guided hike.  This was my favorite part of our Sunday.  Our guide was awesome... she had so much knowledge to share about the wildlife and plant life at Cedar Hill.  The girls (and the adults) were in total awe of her.  She was pretty fantastic.

Throughout the tour our guide would stop and pull teaching props out of her backpack.  We kept joking around and calling it the Mary Poppins bag because it wasn't that big and she was pulling out a never ending supply of stuff.  The girls loved the animal skins/furs that she pulled out for them to feel.  She had a coyote, bobcat, opossum, rabbit, fox, and two others I can't remember stuffed in her bag.  They were pretty awesome.

Last picture of the trip... the girls with their camping patches.  They more than earned them.  So proud of these girls and how well they did away from their parents and how well they listened to us and how well they worked together.  I would take this bunch camping again in a heartbeat.

Adventures In Girl Scout Camping : Day One

Our troop's weekend camping trip is now officially in the books.  It was an insane amount of work, but totally worth it in the end.  The girls had a fantastic time... they were very expressive of how much fun they had and the girls that I have seen at Savannah's school this week have already asked me if I will take them camping again.  Does it get any better than that?  I think not.  Most of these girls had never gone camping before, some of them had never even been hiking or done anything outdoorsy like that.  So my number one goal for this trip was to give them several different camping "traditional" camping experiences so they could see how much fun camping can be.  Goal number two... for these girls to see that camping can be done without daddy or other males.  The Girl Scouts theme for the 2013 year is "Girls Can Do Anything"... I am a huge believer of this sentiment.  I wanted to make sure that our chaperones were moms (or other women), that the girls saw us moms setting tents up, starting fires, cooking food, leading hikes, and all that good stuff.  I love that the patch they earned at the end of the trip says "Camp Like A Girl" on it.  Our troop totally rocked the camping like a girl thing.  We had a great time, and if I'm being honest, we looked good doing it!

The girls thought the tents were the BEST thing ever.  They were immediately obsessed and excited about the idea of getting to sleep in the tent.  Our entire troop (minus one girl who had to leave) successfully slept the whole night with no issues in tents.  This is a huge deal for a group of six year olds who haven't spent many nights (if any) away from their parents.

My favorite activity the first day was the nature scavenger hunt that we planned for the girls.  We split them up into three teams... each girl had a bag and a list of twenty things to find.   They had two hours to go and explore and find the things on their list.  First team to meet back at the campsite with each girls' list complete would be the winner.  My little team of girls had a blast finding everything on the list.  They were all so enthusiastic about each thing they found and placed in their bag.  

Savannah's BFF Olivia joined our troop a few months back.  Savannah and her are the sweetest little girls... they worked together on the scavenger hunt and helped each other do things.  It was so awesome to see real friendship like that.

I would have to say that the girls' second favorite thing (behind the tents, of course) about our camping trip would have to be the bug catchers that I brought for them.  They picked up bugs for hours and hours.  At one point I had to take the bug catchers away from them just to get their attention.  Who would have thought that ten little girls would be so crazy for bugs.

After we were done with the scavenger hunt we took a quick break, ate a snack, and then headed out to hear a park ranger speak about the reptiles that lived at the park we were staying at.  I was so impressed with Cedar Hill State Park and the numerous FREE educational programs they offered to us.  The ranger even had a snake that the girls were able to pet.  Awesome.

When we got back to the campsite parents began showing up for family dinner.  Since a lot of the parents were so hesitant about letting their daughter go camping without them, we offered up a time for them to come up and eat dinner with us, scope out our camping situation, and then leave.  The girls roasted hotdogs over the campfire... which they thought was pretty dang cool.

Once the parents were all gone we busted out the good stuff.  S'mores!!  It's not camping if you don;t roast a marshmallow.

After S'mores we sat around the campfire and went around the circle telling our highs and lows of the day... then we told a few stories, read a couple camping books, and then headed off to our tents for night night.

The group shot from the weekend... me and my co-leader, our two chaperones, and our ten awesome little girls.  Seriously a good day.