Summer fun, take one!

We may live in a small town, but thankfully, we have things to do in the surrounding areas.  There's a lot of cool things in Jacksonville, we have the amazing Jeykll Island, beautiful St. Simons, Savannah is just North of us, plus there are some active troops within our area as well.  Just last week, our Service Unit did there day camp. Unfortunately, my daughter and I could not make it, but I heard from others in our troop that they had a blast.  Next week, we'll be participating in a day camp for a Service Unit just North of us (me helping, the kiddo having all the fun or course).

MOCA Jacksonville is an amazing little museum.  For starters, it's taking part in the Blue Star Museums this summer (which means its free for the military this summer).  MOCA is also free for families on Sundays, AND, they have entire kids floor.  Score 1 for a family field trip!

Going back to our small town.... thankfully, the military base here has a few things to offer, including a bowling alley!  Another great thing for us.  We just found out that they do a cool little thing for this kids, but we can't afford it this summer (maybe next?).  It's basically a behind the scenes tour with some fun stuff.  This summer, we're just going to go bowling one afternoon (since it's under $2!).  Score 2 for a family field trip!

Up next, the beach.  Might as well, I mean we live less than 20 minutes away from some amazing beaches in Fernandina and Amelia!  Score 3 for a family field trip!

So that's several fun things we've got on the agenda so far, plus one exciting thing.... the Games Go Global badge.  With the Olympics just around the corner, what better to do at the end of July?!  We're trying to get some of our friends to come do it with us (the more the merrier, right?).  The plan right now is to have several activities for the girls to do within each category of the patch.  The requirements are on the lax side, so it does gives us some wiggle room.  The basic mechanics have us organizing a small activity in 3 areas- stadium, temple and theater.  The stadium events are physical challenges, the temple events are thinking challenges and the theater events are arts based.  There is one big thing though- there are no winners and losers.  The concept is to bring every one together to emphasize team spirit and pride.  As soon as I finish the details of this one, I'll make a whole post for you all.  Oh, so that brings our score up to 4!

To close out our summer, our service unit is sponsoring an evening at the local splash park.  It's taking place shortly before school starts, so it seems like the perfect way to end everyone's summer.  Plus, we can bring our family and our admission is much cheaper than their normal price.  Score 5... I think we have a summer win for us!

Flat Juliette

Yes, it's not even February yet, but I am already planning for next year and this summer. I've always loved the concept of Flat Stanley. Seriously, mad props to whomever initially came up with the idea.

I got to thinking, did a Google search, and found out there is in fact a Flat Juliette. How amazing is that?! There's several of them floating around in different forms for various projects. I thought, why not do something similar for our girls this summer? Lots of us travel or do cool things over the summer, and this would be the perfect way to keep scouting going through the summer, and make an awesome first meeting next year!

First up, supplies.  The Colorado Girl Scouts have the templates on their blog, yay! Body Uniform  It's two pieces, but to make it easier, you can put the two together ahead of time like so to make it simple.  You should also think contact paper, or another way to laminate it.  I'm thinking about printing it on card stock just to save a few bucks.

My plan right now is to have the girls color/decorate them before our last meeting  so that I can take them home and laminate them.  Then I'll send them home after our last meeting with instructions on what to do.  Since we have kindergartners and first graders in our current troop, we will sadly have to split the troop up next year.  Since I'll be holding a parent's meeting in March, I am planning on taking the Flat Juliette's with me to the meeting to give our new girls something to do while us parent's talk, and so they won't be left out during our first meeting.

Even if the girls only go to the pool all summer, or if they travel somewhere exotic, they'll have a fun way of chronicling their summer, Girl Scout style!  Plus, this activity just planned out half a meeting for me, which made my life easy.