Soda/Tin can pot

DIY pots are easy, cheap, and give you a LOT of options.  Plastic bottles are great for terrariums, but if it's something you plan on transplanting later, I do not recommend it.  If you do plan on transplanting it later on, there's a couple routes you can go.

Newspaper pots are great for things like vegetables that you will be putting in the garden.  Like peat pots, simply get the paper wet and break it up a little when it's time to stick it in the garden.  The newspaper can also be a handy dandy little fertilizer (not the best though, but it's safe at least).

Tin can pots are something easy to do that can be used over and over again.  There's a few things you need to do for the prep of this project.  Make sure there are no jagged edges on the inside of the can- sometimes when you take off the lid, a small piece is left behind that can cut you.  You can take that off by using small metal cutting scissors (I recommend the ones you can find in the jewelry section of a craft store) or a metal file.  The next thing you need to do is poke a few small holes in the bottom for drainage.  There's a few ways to do this, but however you do it, just be careful.

Soda can pots (pictured above) are similar to the tin can pots, but require a little more prep.  As you can see from the photo, I used some metal cutting scissors to take off the top of the can.  I cleaned up the edges a little and then covered it with some snazzy red duct tape.  I also poked some holes in the bottom of the can for drainage.

When it comes down to it though, you can use just about anything as a recycled pot.  I've seen pots made out of kitchen pots, coffee mugs, bowls, a toolbox (I wish I took a photo of that one, it was awesome!), and many others.  Just remember, if you use something that you can't make drainage holes in, don't over water your plants and look out for rotting from sitting water.  Also, don't forget to re-pot your plant when it out grows its pot, otherwise you will kill your plant.

One last note- if you make a pot out of a soda can, be careful when you cut the top off.  Small metal shards that fall are hard to find, and it's easy to cut yourself if you're not being careful (I should know, I'm like the queen of clumsy).  And, the cute duct tape can be found all over now a days (Target, Walmart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby and more).

Lots of great links!

As a leader, I am constantly looking for new ideas.  Sadly, our local library is not the best place to look.  For me, the next best resource is the good ole' internet, and boy, are there a lot!

I do keep up a Pintrest page for many of the sites we've used as inspiration.  For those of you who are not familiar with Pintrest, in order to post a link, the page needs to have a photo you can attach to it.  This is a list of sites we've used as inspiration that do not have photos for us to tack in Pintrest (will edit this list as I go along, since I keep finding more):

http://darkroomwebdesign.com/GirlScouts/GirlScoutGames.htm  This site has a LOT of amazing games that are perfect to do with our girls.

http://gsleaders.org/files/daisysong.htm  This is one of several sites that we pulled our songs from.

http://gskentuckytraining.org/daisy016a.htm  This great little gem has some terrific ideas on learning the GS law

http://www.scoutingweb.com/ScoutingWeb/SubPages/DaisyInvestitures.htm  We pulled most of our ideas for our investiture from this site.

http://www.kidslist.uc.edu/kidslist/gs/neil/cerem_003.html#heading_6  This site has several ceremony ideas listed.

http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/SubPages/DaisyScoutSongs.htm  Another site with some great songs.

http://www.girlscoutsem.org/mm/files/LTGSL-Daisy.pdf  An amazing resource for activities relating back to the GS law.

http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/SubPages/YearDaisyScouts.htm A rough idea of a year's plan for Daisies

http://www.epilogsys.com/ScoutingWeb/SubPages/GSJepdy.htm GS Jeopardy (could be really fun for older girls too)

http://www.epilogsys.com/scoutingweb/SubPages/JLKimG.htm   A few games relating to JGL, very easy and fun

http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/games.aspx A ton of great games to play with any age scout

http://darkroomwebdesign.com/GirlScouts/GirlScoutGames.htm  More great games

http://www.nccoastalpines.org/BPWC/Documents/YEAR%20OF%20DAISY%20GIRL%20SCOUTS%20_2_.pdf Another awesome how-to-planning guide

http://www.girlscoutsofpaloalto.org/files/leaders/Daisy/Daisy_1st_4_Meetings.pdf   And another great meeting planner guide

http://www.gsnc.org/resource_room/swap_howto.asp   A basic how-to for SWAPs

More coming as we go!  Hope these help!

Spring Prep, redux

With a newly formed troop, I have had to re-shift my focus on planning out our spring schedule.  I have a bit of a hidden agenda though.  Not that long ago, I found out that I would be attending the Girl's World Forum this summer that will be tackling the eight Millennium Development Goals in Girl Scouting.  If you take a look at the eight goals and the UN's reports on their status, you'll see that it's some pretty serious stuff.  However, the MDG's also play into a special badge, the Global Action Awareness badge.  The best part, if you take a look on the Girl Scout website, you'll see that it has steps on how to earn this badge for every level, including for Daisies.  It gets better- most of these tie right in with the Daisy petals.

We have a lot of new girls coming into the troop, so we're kind of starting over.  We do have a few who have been in since the fall, so this obviously is not new to them.  Meeting one will be an introduction for the new girls.  Meeting two will be a good refresher for our "old" girls since we plan on making a collage about the GS promise and law (I might regret later on letting them use modge podge and tissue paper!).

Meeting three is when we will finally dive into the MDG's and Global Awareness badge.  We're going to learn about environmental stability and recycling, which falls right into saving the planet and end hunger and poverty.  Now you ask, how??  Simple!  We're planting mini-gardens in recycled cans.  Before you do this, make sure you have metal cutting scissors (I'll post a how to with photos later).

That is being followed up with a lesson in one of the financial literacy leaves and a trip to a local farmer's market.  This then plays into meeting four, which is more about the two above MDG's and plays a little into helping children survive.  We're going to cook with what the girls buy at the farmer's market, since obviously our gardens won't be ready in a week. This will also be a good healthy eating lesson, and plays into all the MDG's which relate to nutrition, survival and education.

The next few meetings are along the same lines- tie in an MDG and portion of the Global Action Awareness badge in with a Daisy petal, and keep up with using as many recycled materials as possible (I'm trying to find something else to do with those toilet paper rolls).  We probably won't get in all 10 points by the end of the school year, but we might meet a few times over the summer, and it's easy enough to finish this up in the fall.  We're still planning on resuming our journeys in the fall and continuing work on the petals.

Mixed in with all that will be an attempt at some fun time.  We're hoping that our last meeting of the school year can be something fun like an indoor camp fire (not real obviously).  It's been a while since I made a faux fire, so I think I need to hop in Pintrest to research the easier/cheaper ones before I destroy my crafts stash. However, next up on the list is inventorying the craft room again to see what all I have.

Centennial Bridging and Sunrise Ceremony

I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the town we live in, BUT, we live roughly one and half hours away from the birthplace, so that does have a huge advantage.  As you all know, we just celebrated the 100th birthday of the Girl Scouts, and as such, my daughter, Mother and I were all able to go to the Centennial Bridging and Sunrise Ceremony.  I volunteered during the bridging, so I got very few photos (my Mother took a few of my daughter).  I did get a few good ones during the Sunrise Ceremony though, so enjoy!

Sorry the photo is so blurry, it's the best photo I was able to get of the bridge.  This was the ceremonial bridge the girls made that was up in Forsyth park.

It's a little hard to make out, but one of the Girl Scouts in the front is holding the Eternal Flame of Friendship!

Who else thinks the uniforms of the past was a wonderful idea?!

This photo is something amazing.  The woman on the right, with the hat, is Margaret Skene, the CEO of Historic Georgia. The two ladies to her left are women who were in the first black Girl Scout troop back in the 40s.  It goes with out saying, those woman are a part of history!

It's sunrise, gotta have taps!

Welcome second century!

Not the best photo (sorry), but that would be our wonderful CEO, Anna Maria Chavez.

Sing along time!

And now, for the Eternal Flame!

My cute kiddo gave me the flame.

And there you have it- 100 years of Girl Scouting!


Backing up to the Bridging.... there were literally people from all over!  I met people from Ohio, California, Texas (not including my Mother who flew in), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida and more!  The Boy Scouts can poke fun at us all they want, but their centennial got nothin' on ours!

Next Year's prep, take 2!

For those of you who follow this blog, I'm sure all of you have figured out by now that I have a very "type A" personality.  It can be annoying to some, but when it comes to planning out things for kids, it has its benefits.  After re-reading my list of "challenges," I got to work!

My eighth challenge that I listed was finding a new co-leader, as our troop will be splitting up after our first graders bridge this year.  That challenge, thankfully, I have completed.  The best part, it's a friend who's daughter will be one of our new Daisy's next year.  I've known her for almost six years now, and I am so thankful that she will be my new co-leader!

My first challenge that I tasked myself with was coming up with activities for the petals next year that are different than this year's.  So far, I have the SWAP project and Flat Juliette to start us out.  Also to work with will be our two journeys, Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden, and Between the Earth an Sky.  Meeting two, we plan on diving right into the petal "be a sister to every Girl Scout," by knocking out our SWAPs.  Meeting three we plan on diving into Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden.  This seems like the perfect way to start out the year, as this book truly introduces the girls to Girl Scouting.  That also leads us into our fourth meeting.  Our fourth meeting, tentatively, will involve planting a garden at the school we meet at.  We're working on getting our materials donated for this project.  No decision has been made yet, so fingers crossed!  The next few meetings we're still working on, however, we did come up with a terrific idea on what to do for Founder's Day.  While looking through some of the free books Kindle has to offer, I stumbled upon the Girl Scout handbook from 1925.  That gave us the idea to come up with a way to earn a badge from this handbook or any other "old" handbook.  

Challenge number ten obviously goes hand in hand with our meeting plans.  It has been trying to work this in, but we're getting it, slowly.  The Discover portion seems to be easy for the Daisy aged girls.  Planting and caring for a garden is one of the many ways they can discover.  Connect has been presenting us with a small challenge, but as we look closer into Between the Earth and Sky, we have realized that this journey is perfect for this.  Take Action is iffy right now.  There are portions that we are able to incorporate here and there, but others we're trying to figure out how to show this to our girls.  More importantly, trying to incorporate the leadership skills for this age of scouts is difficult.  Luckily, we have all summer to work on challenger ten.

Backing up to challenge seven, that SWAP project.  Somehow, with very little effort, it's managed to work itself out.  I do have a partner in crime, and she has been wonderful (I know you read my blog Heather, so again, thanks for your help, it is invaluable!!!).  We're slowly getting more people who are interested.  We do have some international troops who want to participate, and that is completely awesome, on so many levels!  I am so looking forward to kicking this off next year.  My new Co and I have a few cute, and cheap ideas we're looking into for our SWAP.  This past weekend, at the Centennial Bridging and Sunrise Ceremony, my daughter collected quite a few cute SWAPs that have given me lots of new ideas.  I think this week I will sit down and look at them.

Looking at challenge two again, working in our journey books, has obviously provided us with a lot of good material.  As I said before, Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden is absolutely perfect as an introduction to scouting.  After reading the book and the accompanying leaders guide, I felt like I had very little work to do.  The leaders guide was an excellent compass for planning out our meetings.  At this very moment, I have not finished reading Between the Earth and Sky, as I had to exchange it for a working copy (my original copy was printed upside down and backwards, but thankfully I was able to exchange it for a good copy).  In what I did read so far, I have picked up on two themes- travelling and feelings.  A good friend of mine was telling me a little about the journey she's doing with her junior troop.  They've been doing a bit with feelings, and have created a safe space within their meetings by having a "secret clubhouse."  Knowing that we're going to touch on this, with our second journey, I realized that it would be imperative for us to create a similar safe place.  This is something we'll have to get into later.

Ok, so what exactly have I been babbling about this whole time, and will do in another post?  Preparedness.  This amazing article sums most of it up.  It is important to prepare ahead of time to make sure that your troop is getting everything they can out of scouting, and to keep everything together in an orderly fashion.

And now, for my next set of challenges, starting up a new troop sooner, rather than later.... as in next month.  Fingers crossed!

Meeting Nineteen

Guess what today was?!  Our first official meeting where we earned one of our petals!!  If you don't know me, then you don't know that I'm the adult who really does clap and jump up and down when we do exciting things like this (yes, I can be annoying like that).  Today, we worked on the petal honest and fair.

First up though, to start out our meeting, we talked about Thinking Day.  Though it was yesterday and we already had our fair, we still wanted to touch on it.  So, how do you bring Thinking Day down to the level of a kindergartner and first grader?  Tell them what they would be called as Girl Guides in other countries of course!    Seriously, I'm a little jealous of other guides because they have some of the cutest names!  If we lived in Canada, my daughter would be a spark.  I mean how stinkin' cute is that?!  If she lived in England, she would be a Rainbow.  Obviously, Daisies are named for our amazing founder, but I can't help but envy guides in other countries.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed it though.  Some of them were a bit perplexed by being called a Bulbul or Beaver Guide, but Sunflower seemed to also be a hit.

Our discussion was followed by the reading of Lupe's Story from the Daisy Girl Guide's book.  On a more local version of Thinking Day, I asked where Lupine's were from (I might have gotten it wrong, but I said they were from Texas, since most of them could relate to Lupe looking a but like Bluebonnets).  In the story, Lupe's friends all wanted to play different games, and so they did, which worked out perfectly for us.

Our first activity was Duck, Duck, Goose.  I happen to have a handy dandy game book.  It was written/geared towards Girl Scouts too, so was perfect us, especially because it had the rules.  To keep the girls "honest," we asked them to explain the rules, and then began playing.  A few turns in, we pointed out the "wrong" things they had been doing and read the rules, so we could keep it "fair."  Between that, I threw in my own little twist.  When I got goosed, instead of saying duck, duck, I started saying the names of fruits, vegetables and farm animals.  They all though it was funny, and didn't realize it wasn't "fair" until I pointed it out.  Our rule book also told us that we all had to be sitting cross-legged.  To be fair, we told the girls wearing skirts and dresses they could sit on the knees.  It was interesting.  Each turn, if one girl was not being "fair," we asked her to be "honest" and own up to her mistake.  It was also a lesson in humility, but those smart cookies caught on fast.

For our second activity, we took a water break.  I know what your thinking, what the heck does this have to do with being honest and fair?!  Everything!!!  We had some Dixie cups left over from Thinking Day.  I made a batch of Gatorade with my husband's stash of Gatorade powder and threw the two things in my bag.  I asked all of the girls to line.  One by one I gave them each a cup.  As I gave them a cup, I asked them to then go to the end of the line.  They all kept their order, so it my next point of being honest was a bit moot.  From there, I then poured Gatorade for them.  After I poured, I asked them to go to the end of the line, but not to drink any yet.  Here's the twist- some of them got a trickle while others got their cups filled.  It didn't take them very long to figure it out, and they called me out on my unfairness.  I let the girls with filled cups gulp it down and had the girls with very little come get more.

Up next was Mother May I?  Just like with duck, duck, goose, we talked about the rules and then started playing.  The girls had to be honest about how many steps or hops they took, and if they weren't being fair, they had to go back to the starting line.  Once we had all had a go, we busted out the rule book and did the same thing to keep us all honest and fair.

Overall, I think our first petal went well.  Even before we presented them with our game choices, they asked to play Red Rover, yet again.  I'm beginning to regret playing that during Meeting Three since it keeps coming back to haunt us.

Next Year's prep, take 1!

As you already know, I've put Flat Juliette into the works as a tool for our first meeting next year. That's only one meeting, which leaves me with a LOT of work left to do. This year we worked out of 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers For Animals! And the Daisy Guide book. Our Daisy troop next year will have a lot of new girls since most of this year's troop are bridging to Brownies. I have a lot of things to keep in mind!

Challenge number 1- attempting to plan activities around the petals, but ones that are different from this year's activities

Challenge number 2- incorporating in the journey books Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden and Between the Earth and Sky

Challenge number 3- planning new/different field trips

Challenge number 4- keeping our budget as low as possible by incorporating more recycled crafts into our meeting plans

Challenge number 5- collecting donations of said recycled materials

Challenge number 6- considering a "journey day" where our new Daisies can have the opportunity to work on 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers For Animals! Which in turn will earn them the Journey Summit pin

Challenge number 7- organizing a massive SWAP project

Challenge number 8- finding a new co-leader

Challenge number 9- planning projects that can turn into future projects (ie: turning the SWAP project in to pen pals, and turning a school flower garden into an on going thing)

Challenge number 10- incorporating more of the new Girl Scout mantras into our "lesson" planning

It's a lot to digest and comprehend, especially when dealing with a bunch of 6 year olds!  Thankfully, I have plenty of time to work on this.

SWAP project

In my planning for year 2, one of my biggest challenge has been coming up with things that are different from everything we did this year.  Yes, we only have a few girls not bridging, but if I do anything remotely similar to what we did this year, I will catch flack from them!!  We recently received our first SWAP package from a troop out of state (I can not wait to give it to our girls!!).  After a little research time trying to come up with more ideas on what we can do next year, I found one line on Making Friends that really stuck with me- "Girls earn their violet petal for reaching out to swap with other girl scouts."  Why didn't I think of that earlier?!


Going back to my fab Pintrest board, I "met" a leader from another state and we got to talking (like me, she's already planning for year 2).  Some people see Thinking Day as one element to "being a sister to every Girl Scout."  Yes, it is, but you're only "thinking" about them and not truly connecting with them.  SWAPing actually connects you with Girl Scouts, with a tangible item.  For a Daisy, this is simple, and absolutely perfect!  But, doing it with just one troop would be too easy.  So, why not do it with, oh say, one a month, in different states?    That way, not only are you reaching out to many Girl Scouts, but you're also teaching your girls that Girl Scouts are everywhere doing the same things we're doing.


Now, for my shameless plug, please help us out and join in!  Join our 2012-2013 SWAP project!  We are trying to get at least 10 troops in different states, and are really hoping to find Girl Guides in other countries.

Thinking Day fair!

I am one pooped out leader.  How my own daughter is still running around is beyond me (I'm the one that had coffee this morning!).  Our service unit Thinking Day fair, though, was fun and packed!  Apart from our country of Greece, we had other troops there representing the Bahamas, USA, Canada, Austria, Cambodia, Iceland, Mexico, France, United Kingdom, Botswana, Madagascar, Portugal and a few others I have already forgotten (now would be a good time to get out my camera).  After looking around at everything, I must admit that I am biased.  I think our girls did an AMAZING job on our posters.  Granted, we did give them the pictures to put on there, and we the leaders cooked the food, but in the end, it was all them, crookedness and all!  Even after I got a chance to look around, I almost felt like we could have done more, but with Daisies, there's only so much you can expect them to do.

Speaking of food, I've been asked to share our recipes.  And, while we're on the subject of food, you'll have to excuse my very narcissistic statement that is about to proceed this statement- we had the best food there, hands down (I'm a chef, I'm allowed to think that).  We made chicken souvlaki with tzatziki and pita, and baklava.  Even the adults were coming back for seconds!  My own daughter stole some of the food off of our show plates (she's a piggy though, so that doesn't count).  My husband, on the other hand, might have committed a mutiny within our house had we not brought him back any baklava.  Thankfully, we had a minuscule amount left for him, so he was a happy camper too.

Chicken Souvlaki

Ingredients:
2, boneless-skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 t chopped garlic
1 t oregano
3/4 c olive oil
2 T lemon juice

Directions:
1.  In a bag or container, combine chicken, garlic, oregano and olive oil.
2.  Let marinate 2-4 hours.  Do not over marinate!!
3.  Pre-heat a saute pan over medium heat.
4.  Add lemon juice to pan.
5.  Cook chicken until chicken is done (approximately 10 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken).  **Do not add any oil mixture that was left over from marinating.
6.  Let chicken sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
7.  Serve with tzatziki and pita.  Can also be served with cherry tomatoes and onions to make a plate.


Tzatziki

Ingredients:
1,  32 oz container plain yogurt  *can be substituted for plain Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, diced finely (chopped) *can be substituted for English cucumber
1 T chopped garlic
1 T oregano
1 T mint
2 T lemon juice
1 t ground black pepper
1 t sea salt

1.  Combine all ingredients and mix.
2.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving (over night is better)


Baklava

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds walnuts, chopped (chop by hand to avoid releasing of natural oil)
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 package phyllo dough
1 pound unsalted butter, melted
For sauce:
3 C water
3 C sugar
1 3/4 c honey
1 t lemon juice
2 t vanilla extract

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.
2.  Mix chopped walnuts and pumpkin pie spice until blended, set aside.
3.  Line the bottom of a 9x13 Pyrex or ceramic dish with butter.
4.  Place one sheet of phyllo on butter.
5.  Brush the sheet of phyllo with butter.
6.  Place another sheet of phyllo dough and brush butter on top of it.
7.  Repeat this until there are 8 sheets of dough with butter between.  (the dough will be a little too big for the dish, it's ok!).
8.  Place half of the walnut mix onto your buttered pyhllo dough and evenly spread.
9.  Repeat the phyllo and butter process using 4 sheets this time.
10.  Spread remaining walnuts over new layer or phyllo.
11.  Again, create a layer of 8 pieces of phyllo with butter.
12.  Spread remaining butter on top of the final/top phyllo layer (if done properly, you won't have a lot left).
13.  Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into bite sized pieces.  (you will need to periodically wipe your knife off to avoid sticking problems).  ****Yes, you need to do this now!  This is so that the sauce you will add later on can soak in.
14.  Bake baklava for 40-50 minutes, until top is honey brown.
15.  While baklava is baking, combine sugar and water in a 6 qt. stock pot (medium-large) on high heat.
16.  Bring water and sugar to a boil.
17.  Once liquid looks clear (sugar has dissolved), reduce to low heat and stir in honey, vanilla extract and lemon juice.
18.  Simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  (sauce will not completely thicken, that's ok!)
19.  When baklava is removed from oven, immediately add sauce (distribute evenly).
20.  Let sit for at least one hour before serving.
21.  Baklava can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks, and can be frozen for up to 6 months.

So, take all the food we made, estimating 200 people (kids and parents, maybe siblings too), and try hunching over a tiny table trying to get it in little Dixie cups for sampling.  We were lucky and had our fearless leader's husband there to help us out.  While we dished it all out, our fearless leader gave out our "stamps" and SWAPS.  It seemed to work for us, so all the more power to us.  Still, I'm tired and my back aches, but, it was worth it!

Meeting Eighteen

Today, one of the things we worked on was the pin My Promise- My Faith.  Before meeting 18, we sent home a short worksheet with the girls to help us out with this meeting.  Realizing that religion is a sensitive issue for some, the note that we sent home with this worksheet recognized this and gave the parents the option to opt out of this activity.  We asked the following questions:

What religion do you practice?
What specials days does your religion observe?
What do those days represent?
What makes your religion so special?
Is there anything else you want to share with us?

Most of the girls forgot to bring the sheet back with them, but we still had a nice discussion about it.  We tried to bring up the major religions, but did not have time for them all.  We touched on Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Church of England (I'm pretty sure the girls think King Henry VIII was a you-know-what after we explained that hodge podge), Protestants, Lutherans, Judaism, Catholicism and a few others I have surely forgotten by now.  Our discussion started out as what are some religious holidays you celebrate?  We then had to clarify the difference between "American" holidays and religious holidays.  One kid asked if black Friday was a holiday and everyone thought Thanksgiving was religious based.  There was a good bit of confusion when we got into explaining the small differences between all the religions and holidays, but they seemed to understand the overall lesson/point- we're lucky to live in a country where we are free to practice our religions, all of them believe in God in one way or another, and most religions teach people to be kind, loving and accepting.

Next up on the agenda was working on the safety pin.  We started out with stranger danger and did some role playing.  We had an awesome parent and an aunt come help us out with this, and the girls seemed to enjoy the role playing too.  When we got to stranger danger, we let them all yell it out just so they knew what to do, and we told them this was one of the few times they had permission to scream at the top of their lungs.  We closed out stranger danger by calling them up one by one and asked them what they would do in certain situations, ie: a stranger asks to come to their house for candy, asks you to help find their dog, asks you to go take a ride with them, ect.

I have to pause for a moment to tell you about one special little girl.  For the purpose of this blog, we'll call her Daisy today.  When Daisy first came to us at the beginning of the year, just getting her to whisper into our ears was a task, and we could barely hear her whisper!  Little by little, Daisy began to come out of her shell.  Now, she'll openly talk to us all.  Granted, she still is soft spoken, but considering what she was like back in September, this is a big deal!  Daisy is also, hands down, one of the smartest kids I have ever met.  There are days where she makes me feel like my two college degrees are worthless.  One day, this kid is going to do big things- she is going to be famous for that little brain of hers!  Well, when we called Daisy up for her turn, our fearless leader, recognizing her vast intelligence, gave her a bit of a hard question that ended with, what would you do if that stranger tried to take you?  As serious as can be, with a stone face, she told us she would kill him!  Everyone started laughing, and Daisy was not too pleased with that.  We were thrown off because we assumed she'd give us the same answer the other girls had been giving us- kick and scream, and yell stranger danger.  Even when we were roll playing and I pretended to grab her, she kicked me and started screaming!  It took us all a moment to come to our senses after that little shock, but we told her no, we don't kill people, but in this situation, you have permission to do bad things like hitting the stranger.   Later on, I was telling a friend about this who was a leader herself for a few years, and she made a good point.  If anyone ever tried to kidnap Daisy, and she actually did kill them, any sane judge who she was brought before might applaud her.  So, today's lesson learned- you really do have to watch out for the quiet ones!

Once we finished stranger danger, we did stop, drop and roll.  Most of the girls knew of the concept, but some of them had never seen it demonstrated.  Guess who got to roll around on the floor first to show them?    Ok, it wasn't that bad, but then we let them all do it and that was chaos for about 30 seconds.  Next lesson learned- do this in a big space.  Normally, we meet in our school gym, but it wasn't available for the day, so we were in a small classroom.  There were a few bumps, but nothing major, thank goodness!  We did also touch on a few things, like things to do while selling at cookie booths and going door to door.  The blondie in me forgot one of the most basic things- look before crossing- and you bet we will mention that at our next meeting!

As for what's up next, we have our Service Unit Thinking Day fair this weekend (yes, it's a little early, it was a scheduling thing for us), Mardis Gras parade in town, and the arrival of GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!  Seriously, if my little brother calls me one more time to ask if the cookies have come yet, I might send his box out last.  For a grown man, he can sure be impatient!  But, the lure of the famous cookies can do that to any sane person!