First Aid

During the school holidays the girls had the opportunity to attend a St John's First Aid course. As it was the day before some party prep I had going on, they went with their lovely Guide leader and her daughter.

Both girls really enjoyed the course. They have told me loads and loads of things that they learnt and better yet remembered!

They learnt how to give mouth to mouth on a dummy and at one stage they had to practice making an emergency call on a phone.

Apparently The Fashionista reported to the person on the phone (her partner and BFF, who happens also to be the Guide Leader's daughter) that her mother (me!) had finally been driven to trying to kill her dad so an ambulance had better come quickly. Her partner in turn, reported to her, that the ambulance needed to come as her mother had jumped off a cliff due to the high stress she was under. Apparently the girls were in hysterical laughter over their calls to each other ... goodness knows what the lady taking the course thought of the pair of them. Those two are hysterically funny when they get together and Mrs E was amused on the way home in the car, to hear the pair of them discussing their colour scheme, etc for when they went flatting together when they were old enough.

It is so empowering for children to know what to do in a medical emergency, even if, hopefully the need never arises for them to put into use what they know. I'd really recommend getting along to one of these courses, at only $20 a head it was well worth it.

ANZAC Day 2014

The girls marched in yet another ANZAC Parade this year. Agent Smelly was particularly excited because it was her first time marching as an actual Guide. She so loves being in the older group.

 

 

Behind the girls are the wooden poppys that were made this year and placed in various public areas around town. Don't they look fabulous?

Aotearoa Region GirlGuides

This term we had a lot of things planned, a month of holidays with the Papa, down the bach (where we can still homeschool early in the mornings or in the afternoons when it's too hot for the beach), and then a month over in Melbourne, Australia with my folks, whilst the poor Papa stayed behind to look after the livestock.

Sitting out on the bach deck playing cards in summer.

 

As the girls love their GirlGuides and I didn't fancy paying for a full term for the couple of weeks that they could attend, I transferred them to Aotearea Region GirlGuides (formerly Lones in NZ). Aotearoa Region is a section of Guiding for girls who cannot make a weekly unit meeting due to location, the unit currently being full, it's simply it's not on the right night, no transport and so on. Essentially it's like doing GirlGuides by correspondence.

By the way, the word Aotearoa means 'Land of the Long White Cloud' which is what the Maori's called New Zealand way before the before Pakeha (Europeans) settled here.




Working on some badge work



Making  "Biscuit (Ginger) bread Houses"

 



Making and blowing bubbles

The participants work on their badges at home, they receive either a pack at the beginning of the term, to work on throughout the term, as does the Guide age level, or if they were a Brownie they'd receive a badge to work on every fortnight from one of the Brownie AR leaders (I am one of AR Brownie Leader although on leave until May). The leaders touch base via email or sometimes phone the girls to see how they are doing.

Each AR GirlGuide is assigned to a nearby unit and whenever there is a camp, special activity, or special day, etc. they also receive invites to participate with that group so they are still having new experiences and participating with groups at special events.




Selling GirlGuide biscuits with the local GG unit, in 2014

Whilst they have enjoyed their AR packs, they have very much missed catching up with their friends at the local unit but, what a great opportunity for them to try something new and yet being able to continue working on their badges in their spare time. No "I'm bored, what can I do?" is ever heard around here!

Many other countries also offer a similar alternative to AR Guides (could still be called Lones in your country) so if your child simply can't make one more evening out, or there's no unit (troop) in your area, etc. look into it. The girls still get to go on camps and attend all kinds of fun stuff and earn badges at the same time.



Oh No or is it Oh Yay, GirlGuide Biscuit time again!

Well it's that time of year again. We have lots and lots of yummy GirlGuide Biscuits to sell to fund raise for our GirlGuide unit.

Now if I am being very truthful I have not really enjoyed selling biscuits in the past. I am not sure why, I suppose it's because it was my job to try and ensure all the families mucked in and did their share and quite honestly in the early years it seemed as though I spent thrice as much time selling the darn things as anyone else as there always those families who are "too busy" or "I have no-one to sell them too". Also because the girls were so young it came down to The Papa and I doing all the selling. We had no other clubs we belonged to, and no family close to sell them to, nor could we sell them at our school, cause we homeschool. We ended up doing a lot of stalls to get rid of them. It was a bit of a choir if I am honest.

These days whilst I don't exactly jump for joy when the selling time comes around, I don't mind it so much. We have some great parents who get in and do their share which makes life a lot easier but, something else has happened which is more important. Both my girls simply LOVE selling them! They don't mind knocking on peoples doors, whilst I wait at the front gate (imagine a pack horse that's me all loaded up) as they are quite confident to ask people to purchase them. They are equally good at working out how much is owed and what change to give back and they just love manning a table outside our local dairy (milk bar/corner store) and selling to the locals. I think they'd like to hold their own stalls down the street if I let them and if we lived in town I know for certain they'd have a lemonade stand or similar.

 

(an old pic from March 2010)

Their joy and delight and yes even pride at how well they manage selling these biscuits ("no, mum we can do it, you just sit there") is amazing and I find that I quite enjoy watching them plying their trade amongst the people passing by. They have learnt to say thank you for the support and also how to take a "no thanks" from some people and not to take it to heart but to try again next time. So it is a valuable learning experience for them.

They have developed their own little system. they say hello or good morning as people pass us when they walk into the store but they don't try to sell them then. As the people leave the store they will then ask them if they would care to support their unit by purchasing a packet or two of biscuits and most people just automatically will walk out of our wee 4 Square (mini mart) and walk straight over to buy a pack or two.

We have quite an older aged township, with the local retirement near the shops, so lots of the elderly will stop for a morning chat or donate money even if they are diabetic and can't eat the biscuits. We have even had an elderly gentleman purchase a packet only to hand them back to the girls to eat them for him as he wasn't allowed to. The girls love the elderly men as they can't seem to resist purchasing off them and always have the sweetest chats with them about what they do at Guides or comment on their badges. The elderly really engage with them. I have met some lovely people myself who remember back when they sat outside stalls or went door to door selling Guide biscuits with their daughters. I can see on their faces how precious those memories are and how they would switch places with me in a heartbeat to go back to that time.

So not only do the children learn some valuable lessons selling Guide Biscuits but this Mama has seen first hand that her girls are maturing and developing some great life skills and learnt that one day I will be looking back and remembering those mornings selling biscuits with both my beautiful girls with much fondness (and a slightly thicker waist, yes they are that good!).

The ever useful Sit-upon

What is a sit-upon? For the uninitiated -- in Guiding, it is a very handy and useful insulated and (usually) waterproof pad, often homemade, used to protect the user's bottom from the cold and damp while "sitting upon" the ground.

I was fortunate enough to pick some cushion type ones up from a store closing down a few years back which the girls use, alternating with a piece of tarp that they stays in their backpacks for places where it would be a nuisance to carry the cushions.

They were just plain cushions so today I pulled out some fabric paints and told the girls to decorate them so they are unidentifiable. I keep meaning to write their names on them but you know how it is.

The Fashionista decided to do all the Guide emblems on hers (green cushion) so of course to her disgust her little sister followed suit.  The Mama had to help Agent Smelly a bit though. She did the Pippin apple and Brownie sun and with a marker I drew Gidget Guide and the Ranger's Woozle and left her to go over them with her fabric pens.

They are going to put their names and their units across the other side of the cushions but have to wait for this side to dry.

They are pretty pleased with them. The Papa and I also have them, so I may even get them to decorate ours, although I am not sure the Papa will want Guiding emblems on his! Maybe something sports related ...

Guides on Parade

Our little town holds a Christmas parade every year. The main street (co-incidentally name Main Street) is closed off and the residents gather along the street and watch the local entrants. It really is very cute, with the local groups like rugby, creches, retirement village, churches etc all participating and it is extremely festive and friendly.

They also have a few carnival rides set up, sausage sizzle and a band or two for when the parade finishes. Lollies and ice blocks are handed out to the kids and Santa comes to visit on the back of our towns antique fire engine. 

This year one of the guiding parents organised a float for us to participate. The kids love going in the parade but we leaders are usually too exhausted by the end of the year to bother, so if a parent isn't interested in organising it then we usually give it a miss. This year I actually had a parent respond to my email asking if anyone was interested in doing it, so that was pretty pleasing.

Here are our girls going so slowly (so slow it was funny; people walked past us faster) down the road to join onto the end of the parade. Our theme was Guiding is Fun with a tent, fake camp fire, trees, etc set up on the truck. The girls either had fishing rods that they made or marshmallows on the ends of toasting sticks. The feedback that we had from the crowd was that they just loved the girls with their rods and marshmallows and singing.

 

 

"Dad please go away and stop taking our photos!"

 

 

 

The 20 or so girls (we could have lost one or two along the way) were all singing Guiding songs as we drove along the parade.

 

There was actually a fair bit of work that went into it but it was great PR for the unit and the girls really enjoyed themselves.

Rudolph Christmas Craft

I had the girls make these at our Christmas GirlGuide breakup.

All you do is press your thumb into some brown paint and then onto a bauble. Once the thumbprint dries, draw with a sharpie, or paint, a red nose onto the middle of the print and two black dots for eyes and a couple of antlers. You can fit 3 or 4 around the bauble.


These are so simple yet despite this we still had quite a few mistakes made by the girls in our group. One girl covered her ball in fingerprints, another two pressed so hard they broke their balls and another couple of girls kept slipping their thumbs across the balls so that I had to keep wiping them and getting them to do them again. I might point out that the older girls were making more mistakes than the littlies too ... lol

Walk In Another Girl's Shoes

We have been working on a badge, called Walk in another Girl's Shoes at Guides. It is a badge that requires the girls to think of how and what it is like to have an obviously disability (like blind, paralysis, etc) or simply to be a little different. We try to get them to realise how hard it for people and also how to show some compassion and thoughtfulness towards them.

This week we had a visitor who is a double amputee, who brought along some his wheelchairs for the girls to try out. He had them wheel across the floor and then pick themselves up without putting their feet on the floor, and sitting on a bench or chair. Agent Smelly just had a rather nasty cut around her toes (dry skin) which we had to keep covered in order to stop dirt getting into it.
 

We also had them go into the kitchen and see how hard it would be for them to try and bake or stir a pot on the stove top or even get to the sink in a wheelchair to get a glass of water. They realised how hard it would be to do so many things that they take for granted. We also had them go around the den and see if it was accommodating to people in wheelchairs and guess what, it isn't. We have a couple of steps into the toilets, so that could be quite difficult.

All ages and levels really enjoyed the session. They were very enthusiastic and did quite well in the tasks assigned to them.

It was sort of a special Guiding Day for me as I also resigned from being a Guide Leader today. I will hang around for another term but only in a helpers (or trainers) capacity. I have been a leader for nearly six years and during that time I have taken three different levels and also run a Guide Club and shifted Dens. Agent Smelly was only 2 when I took on the position. I simply feel that I am becoming very tired and that I really need a bit of a break before I start to resent the time it takes. It is a great organisation and you can really see how the Girls who have been in Guides for a while have blossomed, so in no way is my stepping back a reflection on the organisation as I wholeheartedly endorse it for young girls. It's just my time to do something else whilst the girls attend without me. I may actually have time for a haircut or to even read a book for pleasure ... ahhh bliss.

Oh No Agent Smelly's arm in a Sling?

The Papa had been out in the garden for some time and when he finally came in he was met with the site of  his baby girl's arm all wrapped up and in a sling. Poor fella nearly had a heart attack and quickly wanted to know what had happened to her.

She immediately started to look woeful and sad but before she could start to say what happened she burst into delighted giggles. She hadn't actually done anything to her arm but had earnt her First Aid badge during the term at Brownies and was simply practising what she'd learnt.

She really is a minx although I must say she certainly knows how to make a good sling!

A CAMPFIRE SINGALONG

Tonight we held an end of term campfire night with our GirlGuide unit.

We were extremelly lucky as rain had been predicted so, up until the last moment, we weren't sure as to whether we'd have to hold it indoors with a fake flame or could go ahead and hold it outdoors. The rain held off although it was a little breezy at times. We made sure the girls were well wrapped in jackets and camp blankets and headed down to one of the paddocks down beside out den.

We only had a small fire as we didn't want to be waiting around for ages while it died away as we had supper prepared inside. 


Many years back I spent a night out with the Navajo Indians, in Monument Valley, I think it was. We had a campfire and singalong with the Native Americans and they jokingly said that they called big fires "white man fires" as white men tended to have huge campfires when all that was needed was a small amount of wood. I think those Navajo would have been very proud of our fire tonight.


We sang quite a few songs and considering many of the songs were new to most of the girls they did really well. We also had Pippins (ages 5 and 6) join us, so keeping up with reading any songs is nigh on impossible due to the speed so we endeavoured to keep the songs simple. We sang "Campfires Burning", "Bumblebee", "There was a Crocodile", "My Bonnie", "Edelweiss", "Cuddly Koalas", "On Top of Spaghetti" and "I met a Bear", I'm a little hunk of tin", just to name a few. My personal favourite is Ging Gang Gooley.  Do you have a favourite camp song? My girls and I often find ourselves just singing a camp song throughout the day. One will start and then before we know it the three of us are singing away. The Papa finds it very amusing when he walks in on us singing away.


It was a really good night, it went really smoothly and I am pretty sure the girls all enjoyed the experience.

Spring is Sprung

Today I attended a Pippinic. A pippinic for those not in the know (how could one possibly not know though) is a picnic event held every two for Pippins and Pippins are GirlGuides aged between 5 and 6 and the cutest wee little girls ever. Their motto is Pippins care, Pippins share with other children everywhere and I am a Pippin Leader.


I started in GirlGuides over 5 years ago as a Pippin leader then somehow managed to get roped into taking Brownies (the 7-9 1/2 year olds) and then the next level up, the Guides. Thankfully we now have other leaders who have taken over those two section, so I am back to taking the sweet little Pippins, despite my own girls being in the older sections.


Anyway we set out for Paeroa today and my own girls had to come along because their dad was working. It worked out quite well as the three wee Pippins who went for the day were initially too scared to let go of their parents hands. My three pippins were split up into different groups (the sapphire, ruby and gold fairies,). Throughout the morning the girls in their respective groups move from activity to activity. I handed one pippin over to each of my daughters and I stayed with the third little poppet til she was settled and it worked out perfectly. They had a great day; it was a fairy theme and they got to make necklaces, wands, fairy skirts and so on. They sat at toadstool tables (I so want one!) with stools that had simply been cut from a log. After they ate the lunch that was provided, they were entertained by a magician. Then a couple of big group games before we finished for the day around 2.00pm.

After that  my girls and I popped into the Paeroa township. We did some shopping at their quaint supermarket (it's a big chain supermarket but they have gutted 3 shops and made one big supermarket so it's a bit of a laugh, as you feel like you keep entering different areas.


We then had a quick look along the main street of Paeroa. Paeroa is where the "World famous in New Zealand" drink L&P (Lemon and Paeroa) comes from. L&P was traditionally made by combining lemon juice with carbonated mineral water that was sourced from the local spring water.This soda drink is uniquely Kiwi but sadly these days is manufactured by Coca-cola on the same lines as the other beverages that they make. There is still a L&P cafe there as well as the giant L&P bottle.

The best thing about Paeroa is that it is the mecca of antique shops in New Zealand. Oh how I wish had been able to spend the day there. It's only 45 minutes away so I think I will venture out there again one day, and maybe just take The Fashionista (Agent Smelly would get a little bored after a while). The girls and I wandered through a few shops. I was shocked to see the prices on some of the items. I had just sold some educational games this past week for $10-$15 a box that they had retailing in the shop for $45. I was so horrified.


The Fashionista tried to talk me into getting her an old clerks desk, dream on princess, that's $300 I don't have!  It was a quick trip but I did manage to grab a couple of Enid Blyton books that had been missing from a series I had been collecting as a child. They were $6 each which I thought a little steep but, in the next shop I went into, the same books were $25 each ... so then I was a little happier. The girls really enjoyed pointing out some things that they recognised and we discussed how things worked in the "olden days". At nearly 45 I recognised far too many things from my own childhood. Agent Smelly was absolutely taken with those phone's that you had to dial by putting your finger in a hole and spinning the dial around to the number. She had to give it a go ringing our number and thought it hysterical ... I really did feel a bit antique then! Don't you think it's funny their reaction to things we grew up with as the norm?


I could have gone through more shops but Agent Smelly convinced me to leave. Yup she whined and whined and I finally admitted defeat. I must admit that in her defence it had been a really long and busy day and she was dead tired. She reclined her seat back in the car and had a wee cat nap on the way home. Even The Fashionista was quiet on the road home.


So a lovely Saturday spent with my beautiful girls and some of my sweet Pippins at the Pippinic.

A Visit to Guides in Melbourne, Australia

Agent Smelly had to write an article for our local Guide magazine to earn one of her badges, so instead of me blogging about the same subject I decided to use her article ...

OUR VISIT TO GUIDES VICTORIA

On the last week of last term my sister, The Fashionista, who is a Guide and I, were in Melbourne, Australia on holidays. Mum arranged for us to go visit a nearby Guide Unit. We met up with the Faulkner Junior Guides (Brownies are now called Junior Guides in Australia) for a campfire along with another Junior Guide group from Brunswick.

First we played a couple of games and then we sat around the campfire and sang some songs. We had to hold it indoors because it was really, really windy in Melbourne that night.

The leaders made us some hot chocolate and we toasted marshmallows over a candle.

 

Then we looked at each other’s uniforms and they asked us lots of questions about Guides in NZ. They also gave us some SWAPS to bring back to our Guides and we gave them some that my sister’s patrol had made.

We made lots of new friends and we hope to visit them again.  See if you can spot my sister (who blends in a bit in her blue Guide top) and me in my easy to find pink brownie top!

Agent Smelly
TK Brownies

Before we left for Guides I took a picture of the girls in their uniforms with their Gramps and Grandma.


Both girls had an enjoyable time with the Victorian Junior Guides and do hope to catch up with them again on another visit.

Girl Guide Biscuits

Today we spent a couple of hours selling the last of our unit's GirlGuide biscuits, down at the local 4 Square (that's a general store in NZ for my international friends).

Both girls really enjoy selling them to people and the people in our wee town are really lovely so it's always a nice time for them.

The Fashionista has noted that the men are the best to sell to, as they are often generous and don't seem to be able to say "No" to little girls when they ask if they'd like to buy biscuits. Not silly that one!

SWAPS, Kiwi Style

As patrol leader of her Guide troop, The Fashionista had to take patrol time this week.  One of the clauses in her book suggested making something for a girl to give away at an international event she was attending.

Thus, she decided to have her unit make SWAPS.  SWAPS stands for Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere or Share With A Pal and are a wee homemade item that usually represents the person giving them, or their unit or even the event, that ythey can pin to their hat (or vest, etc.).

So with the help of her brilliant mother ... ahem, she came up with these very Kiwi SWAPS.

She took some little brown pom poms, cut out some beaks and feet from gold felt and glued them onto the pom poms. She also glued on some plastic, twirly eyes and a pin to the back of the pom poms.

Some of the finished results that the patrol made, are very funny as the placement of the eyes really gives these little fellas a distinct personality.

You also usually pin a wee tag to the SWAP which tells your patrol number and name. The girls didn't add these as they thought the person who would be taking them overseas might like to do that.

Science Week; Day 4

Today Agent Smelly did her final experiment in order to earn her badge. I think both girls played with this for over a week, they just love ...

"SLIME"!

You will need

• bowl
• cornflour
• water
• food colouring (optional, but highly recommended!)

1. Pour some cornflour into a mixing bowl.

2. Stir in small amounts of water until the cornflour has become a very thick paste.

3. To make the slime the colour of your choice, thoroughly stir about five drops of food colouring into the mixture.

• Stir your slime REALLY slowly. This shouldn't be hard to do.
• Stir your slime REALLY fast. This should be almost impossible.
• Now punch your slime REALLY hard and fast. It should feel like you're punching a solid.

Cornflour slime is a special type of fluid that doesn't follow the usual rules of fluid behaviour. When a pressure is applied to slime, it becomes thicker. At a certain point the slime actually seems to lose its flow and behave like a solid.

You can keep your slime mixture covered in a fridge for several days. If the cornflour settles, just stir it to make it work again.

Science Week; Day 3

Today was a bit of "Harry Potter" day ... magic potions and invisible ink.


"Magic Potion"

You will need
cauldron (medium sized container)
water
vinegar
baking soda

1. Place 2 tablespoons of water in the container and stir in a tablespoon of baking soda until it dissolves.

2. Have 2 tablespoons on vinegar ready in a separate cup and then pour it into the container all at once and watch what happens.

I then explained that what appeared to be one reaction was actually two, happening in quick succession. The acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the sodium bicarbonate (in the baking soda) to form carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is unstable, and it immediately falls apart into carbon dioxide and water. The bubbles they could see from the reaction came from the carbon dioxide escaping from the leftover solution.

This is such a simple and popular experiment but still my girls nearly 8 and 10 were excited at the outcome. A reminder to me to still do experiments that they may have already performed when they were younger as they tend to understand and notice more as they get older.


"Invisible Ink"

You will need

• lemon juice from a lemon
• toothpick or small stick
• piece of plain paper
• iron

1. Squeeze the juice out of a lemon onto a saucer.

2. Dip your toothpick (or small stick) into the juice and use it to write a secret message on a piece of paper. When the "ink" is dry the words disappear.

3. To see the message again, all you do is iron the paper. I closely supervised the girls with the iron so would recommend an adult do this bit if your child is not familiar with an iron.

I was not allowed to photograph their messages as they were "secret"!

Science Week; Day 2

Today we worked on the following experiments;


"Ice Cube"

You will need

• an ice cube
• paper towel
• a piece of string
• salt

Place the ice cube on a paper towel and your piece of string across it. Make sure there is equal string on both sides. Now sprinkle the salt over the string where it touches the ice.

Wait a few minutes and then you should be able to lift the ice cube holding each side of the string only.

When you sprinkle salt on to the ice cube the salt molecules dissolve and join the water molecules thus changing the water’s rate of freezing. The rate of melting is now much faster than freezing hence causing the ice to melt. However, to be able to restore equilibrium, the water’s freezing point drops causing the ice to freeze out of the salt water. The salt starts to crystallize and ice refreezes around the string. This causes the ice cube to stick to the ends of the thread enabling you to pick it up just by lifting the string!

Sadly neither girl  could get this to work. It was a good opportunity to discuss why. We think we may have used too much salt which formed a barrier between the string and ice cube.


One of the experiments in the Brownie book was to make "Hokey Pokey" (honeycomb) which worked out well as Tuesdays are our home economics / baking days. Nothing like doing two subjects at a time!

We grabbed a random recipe off the internet and made some Hokey Pokey. Both girls were fascinated to see it "sizzle" (Agent Smelly's description).

I explained that the acid in the baking soda reacted with the liquid which causes gases which made the bubbles and the item to fizz. I really don't think they cared ... there was hokey pokey to be eaten!

Science Week, Our First Day

The girls both love doing experiments but sadly when I am in a hurry they often get set aside to do later and sometimes that never happens. This week I decided to concentrate on doing a simple experiment or two a day.

I noticed there was a Brownie patch called "Science Wizz" in Agent Smelly's Brownie book so we decided to do those experiments so she could earn herself a Brownie patch.


The first experiment we did was called "The Magic Balloon".

You will need

• a glass bottle
• a balloon with the thick rubber ring cut off the neck
• water
• large bowl or saucepan to stand the bottle in
• ice cubes (optional but the greater the temperature difference between the hot and cold water the better the experiment will work)

   
1. Fill a glass bottle with hot tap water and let it sit for a couple of minutes before tipping it outand then quickly stretch the neck of the balloon over the bottle; check out the concentration on those faces.

Place bottle in the bowl of cold (iced) water and wait and wait.

What happens to the balloon when you stand the bottle in the cold water?

 

It gets sucked into the bottle. Success! 

Why did this happen? Well when hot water is added to the empty bottle it begins to heat the glass. After the bottle is emptied, the warm glass heats the air inside of it. The heat causes the air molecules inside the bottle to move more rapidly and pushes them further apart from each other. The air in the bottle expands and inflates the balloon. When the bottle is placed into the bowl of cold water, the air inside the bottle is cooled. This causes the air molecules to move slower and closer together. The air contracts and causes the outside air to rush in. This pulls the balloon inside the bottle and inflates it. Ours didn't really inflate that well but the girls were happy with watching it get sucked into the bottle.


Next we did "Pepper Away".

You will need

• pepper
• a bowl filled with water
• toothpicks
• dishwashing liquid

1. Sprinkle some pepper into a bowl with water in it. Most of the pepper will float on the water. Dip a toothpick into the water and you will see nothing happens.

 

 

2. Dip a toothpick into some dishwashing liquid then dip the toothpick into the water again and voila! In the wods of Agent Smelly the pepper "retreated from the toothpicks. (They were in the middle, they just moved them to the sides to see the pepper move again).

 

When you add detergent to the water the surface tension of the water is lowered. Water normally blulges up a bit, but when the water flattens because of the detergent, the pepper that is floating on the top of the water is carried to the outside of the bowl as though by magic.

Fashionista and Mama's First Guide Camp

The Fashionista has been dying to get along to her first "real" Guide camp and finally the time had come. The little madam was just so excited at getting the chance to sleep in a tent. The Mama, not so excited ... in fact dreading the experience. I spent 3 months nearly 15 years ago travelling around the United States and camping out in a tent and swore I would never do it again. Great when you are only nine but in your naughty forties, the aches and pains and cold start to effect you.

So in early November, 4 girls (including the Fashionista) and another leader from Te Kauwhata along with myself joined up with another couple of Guide groups on their camp at Schlaepfer Park Scout Camp, Pukekohe.

These are just some of the tents set up for the 36 girls and 8 leaders.

The Fashionista (far right) and 3 of her unit members on the first night.

Getting ready for bed

The Fashionista larking around in her Guide uniform at a memorial at the camp grounds

The little one seemed to have a good time and it was a good experience for her, although a little much at times for someone so young and on their first outdoors experience. We were with a couple of Guide groups who had camped many times before so this one was a bit of a jump in with our boots on.

At least she now has stopped asking me about going on a camp ...

Halloween 2011

This year we held a Halloween evening at Guides. We keep this light hearted and simply have lots of old fashioned games, like a three legged race, ring toss, sack race, etc. Throw in some games involving lollies and face painting and you have a good old fashioned fun evening for the girls.

The Fashionista went as a farm girl

The overalls are a size 3, which she used to wear as a toddler. If she removed the gumboots you would see that they essentially finish around the top of the gumboot line.  The hobby horse was given to the girls years ago by an elderly gentleman in a supermarket car park - he told me they were very cute, went to his boot and came back with it for them. Wasn't that sweet of him. 

Agent Smelly in her cheerleading outfit

Agent Smelly received outfit this a couple of Christmas' ago and wears it quite often. She often fronts up to "school" in it. Although some days I am met by a princess, fairy or mermaid. When she was five and having just started "big girl" swimming lessons, she used to come to the table to do her schoolwork dressed in her togs, goggles and swim cap. I looked forward to her little outfits as I never knew how she was going to turn up.  She still does it occasionally but back then it was most days.