Mother's Day Tea and Traditions

When I think about celebrating Mother's Day, the first ideas that come to mind are tea parties and flowers.  Every Mother's Day since becoming a mother myself, we have invited my parents and my in-laws to our house for a special dinner.  In 2009, my mother-in-law asked if we could have a special Garden Fairy Party before the annual dinner.  We immediately starting planning the day, knowing that we spend the majority of our time together planting annuals in the flower beds in front of our house.

a craft for the Brownie Bugs badge

In preparation for the "Butterfly Bash," my daughters helped make pipe cleaner butterflies to be used as decorations.  This is a relatively easy and inexpensive craft that can be modified for kids of all ages.  I believe I may have loosely followed the directions posted here.  My girls were only 2 and 3 years old at the time, so they needed some help with this craft.  They enjoyed experimenting with different color combinations of pipe cleaners the most.  To make the butterfly your own, you can use beads and pom poms, brightly colored pipe cleaners, sparkly pipe cleaners...Many different variations of these butterflies can be found on Pinterest.  The girls also made invitations for their grandparents by drawing butterflies on construction paper and decorating them with markers and glitter glue.

We wanted to serve a light lunch before getting our hands dirty, so my girls helped make finger sandwiches.  Using a butterfly cookie cutter, my older daughter cut the bread.  We spread some with peanut butter and jelly, and others we filled with bacon, cucumber slices, and ranch-flavored cream cheese.  I also made Ina Garten's Cheddar-Dill Scones; however, I used minced rosemary and diced thyme instead of dill.  Again, we used the butterfly cookie cutter when cutting the dough.  The scones were spread with a prepackaged herbed cream cheese.  We also served a fruit salad and pink lemonade--two favorites at our house!

consider for Brownie Bugs and Snacks badges

For dessert, we made butterfly cupcakes using my mother-in-law's favorite Jello Poke Cake recipe.  To make the butterfly, I combined several different ideas I found online.  A quick Pinterest search provides plenty of inspiration.  To make the wings, cut a large marshmallow in half and dip in sanding sugar.  Use pastel-colored M&Ms for the body and a gumdrop for the head. 

Daisies can practice being friendly and helpful.

 

Even when my daughters were much younger, they were able to help properly set the table.  For the "Butterfly Bash," I made simple place cards to set at each seat.  We cut flowers from our yard for the table centerpiece.  

When planning a tea party with Junior Girl Scouts, they can complete the five steps to earn the Social Butterfly badge.  Daisy Girl Scouts can earn the orange petal for being responsible for what I say and do.  They can also earn the yellow petal for being friendly and helpful.

After looking back through pictures in our family scrapbook, I now recall that I helped our girls make special booklets to give to their grandmas during this tea party.  I asked questions such as "What is your favorite thing to do with Grandma?" and "What is your favorite memory with Grandma?"...  I recorded the girls' answers, ending the message with "I love you."  We helped the girls "sign" their names.  Note:  If school-aged children are making this gift, they could fill in the blanks with their answers.  For example, "My favorite thing to do with Grandma is _____________."  These kids may be able to write the questions and responses on their own.  It would be cool to have kids write on a pretty piece of paper from the craft store and put it in a frame for Mom or Grandma.  They could update their responses for future Mother's Day gifts. 

In addition to the booklets, we made butterfly suncatchers for the grandmas.  There are several different varieties available.  In my experience, painting suncatchers is easier for younger kids than decorating suncatchers with baking crystals.  Our family has used both, and we've been pleased with the results.  I would recommend painting suncatchers when when working with Daisy and Brownie troops.  Junior Girl Scout troops may have success filling the spaces of the suncatcher with the baking crystals, but I suggest having additional volunteers available to help.  Depending on the size of your troop, you may consider purchasing additional glass stain paint so the girls aren't all trying to share the same eight pots of paint.  Keeping with the butterfly theme, a mosaic butterfly stepping stone is another great Mother's Day gift idea.  We have helped our daughters make a few stepping stones over the years, but this is not a project I would tackle with our Girl Scout troop regardless of their ages.

When the girls in our troop were in kindergarten, we held a Thinking Day Tea.  When the older girls were Brownies, we had a Mother's Day Tea.  For this occasion, the girls in our troop invited their mothers to a tea party that we scheduled for late afternoon on a weekday in early May.  Badge steps and service projects are usually tied into our events, but this time we planned to give the guests an opportunity to socialize with each other.  Each family was asked to bring something to share whether it be a sweet treat, a savory snack, beverages, or paper products.  An email was sent and the ladies were asked to "Reply All" when they signed up to bring something.  As I mentioned earlier, this is great way for Junior Girl Scouts to earn their Social Butterfly badge.  Brownies can satisfy steps toward the Snacks badge, and Daisies can earn some petals.  It was a super easy event for the leaders and a lot of fun for everyone! 

Just a couple months after that Garden Fairy Party, my mother-in-law Nancy was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of brain cancer.  She fought to the end but lost her heartbreaking battle on April 1, 2011.  Since her passing, Mother's Day has become even more special for our family.  Every May, a few days before the holiday, my husband and I take our girls to a local nursery to buy brightly colored blooms.  We spend Mother's Day planting flowers and mulching the beds, celebrating Nancy's life by taking plenty of time share our favorite memories of her.  Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you for reading.

    "The grass withers, the flower fades,
        but the word of our God will stand forever."
                                                     Isaiah 40:8

Junior Girl Scouts badge: Jeweler

Step 1:  Get to know the tools of the trade.  Visiting a jewelry store is listed as a suggested activity.  Since we had already scheduled an Auntie Anne's field trip at the mall to satisfy a step for the Juniors Simple Meals badge, I contacted Osterman Jewelers to see if one of their associates would be willing to talk with our troop.  They were excited to help.  The girls learned about the 4 C's of diamonds:  color, cut, clarity, and carat weight.  They were permitted to look in a light-directing viewer to see hearts and arrows in a diamond.  They were also shown a tool that allows jewelers to test a diamond's authenticity.  Our girls enjoyed looking at the birthstone jewelry the most.  Mid-January proved to be the perfect time of year to schedule this field trip.  Mall traffic was low, and we were all suffering from a little cabin fever.  
 

Step 2:  Make jewelry with metal.  Our girls made metal washer necklaces.  You can read about that experience here.   

Step 3:  Turn everyday objects into jewelry.  One of the choices listed to satisfy this badge step is to make a bracelet by forming beads out of clay.  I purchased a package of oven-bake clay from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  Our Brownies were working with a co-leader on the Pets badge during this particular meeting, so I knew we would only have six girls making beads.  Prior to the meeting, I cut the clay into six equal pieces and packaged them in baggies for each girl.  

The girls were instructed to make beads for a bracelet.  We told them to be as creative as they could be, and we gave them the majority of the meeting time to work on the beads.  We allowed 30 minutes for baking and cooling the beads.  (The directions on the package suggest baking the beads in the oven at 275 degrees for 15 minutes per 1/4" thickness of clay).  We had various materials available for the girls to use to thread their beads (ribbon, yarn, parachute cord, elastic cord, fishing line, and hemp cord).  These supplies were left over from previous projects, so we did not have to purchase them specifically for this project.   We were impressed with the beads the girls made, that's for sure!

Step 4:  Create jewelry inspired by another culture.  To complete this step, we chose to make macrame bracelets.  At the same time, the Brownies would satisfy Step 5 Enjoy Girl Scout Traditions (Girl Scout Way Badge).  Read our suggestions for this project here.  

Step 5:  Make a sparkling gift.  When all was said and done, we spent a portion of five different meetings making jewelry for the first four steps for this badge.  When the plan for the year was being developed, I had every intention of teaching the girls to make friendship bracelets using embroidery floss.  (I realize these bracelets would not be sparkling).  I now see we are not going to have time to fit this project in this year.  As I considered the alternatives, I focused on the word gift here.  To be honest, this is an occasion when I decided to stretch the badge requirements a bit to meet our needs.  Any of the jewelry made to satisfy the other four badge steps could be given to friends and family members as a gift.  Our troop will not be making an additional piece of jewelry specifically to give to someone special.

Our girls truly enjoyed earning this badge.  These projects are great for a cold or rainy day when you are stuck inside with family and friends.  I hope you are inspired to make some jewelry of your own.  Have fun!  Thank you for reading!

Sample Meeting for Blended Troop of Brownies and Juniors

If you have read this blog in the past, you may recall that this is our first year as a blended troop with Brownies and Juniors.  In the five years I've served as a Girl Scout troop leader, I have often wondered how leaders of blended troops juggle girls of different ages within the same troop?  How did they plan meetings to help satisfy steps for various badges at different levels?  I will admit the planning process can be overwhelming at times even for a troop that is not blended.  It is frustrating and disappointing for both leaders and girls when the plans do not go as anticipated.  In this post, I will outline the agenda for a recent meeting during which our plans did go as anticipated.

Last Wednesday, we decided to make dog toys to donate to a local animal shelter.  We were going to visit the shelter during the second half of our meeting.  The day before our meeting, I discovered we weren't able to visit the shelter because the lobby and bathrooms were being remodeled.  The volunteers at the shelter were unable to accommodate groups and offered to reschedule our visit.  I scrambled to prepare short projects and activities that would fill the 90 minutes we would spend together.  

Once the girls had left the meeting that evening, I decided it actually ended up being, in my opinion, the "perfect meeting."  I thought I would share the agenda here.  

4:15pm   Girls arrive.  
              Kapers assigned.  
              Recite Girl Scout Promise.  
              Sing Girl Scout Law song.
              Share:  Review Troop Rules.  We had a new girl join our troop in 
                         January.  The other leaders and I decided we should review our 
                         troop rules for everyone's benefit.  The girls each had an 
                         opportunity to share one rule for our troop, and we
                         leaders chimed in as well.
               Troop Business:  With Cookie Booth sales coming up in March, our 
                                        Cookie Mom asked the girls to vote on a few 
                                        important details.

4:45pm   Service Project:  T-shirt Dog Toys

5:00pm   Craft:  Metal Washer Necklaces

The Juniors are working on their Jeweler badge.  Step 2 of this badge is "Make Jewelry with Metal."  The Brownies and Juniors made metal washer necklaces during the meeting.  After considering several different ways to decorate the 1.25" diameter washers, I decided we would use scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. There are a million tutorials and blog posts available online, describing how to make washer necklaces. Here's how our girls made their necklaces:

• Prior to the meeting, I grabbed a scrap piece of paper.  I could have easily traced the washer with a pencil on the reverse side of the paper before cutting it out with scissors, but I decided to use my Cricut.  I chose the Simply Sweet cartridge to cut out a 1.25" circle.  I saved the negative part of the paper square for the girls to use as a template during the meeting.  I flipped the circle over, placed the washer on top and lined up the edges, and traced the inside circle onto the paper.  I used a standard hole punch to cut the hole in the middle of the circle.

• During the meeting, the girls chose a patterned piece of paper.  I helped them use the paper template to decide which part of the pattern they would like for their necklaces.  We cut the circles, and the girls cut out the middle hole as described above.

• They used paint brushes to apply Mod Podge to one side of the metal washer.  They covered the washer with the paper circle, making sure to align the edges of the paper with the edges of the washer.  They applied another coat of Mod Podge.  

• I came across some very small letter beads that had been given to me by a family member years ago.  I invited the girls to use these letters on their necklaces.  Some of the girls chose to write "love," "bff," or their names.  We dabbed a little more Mod Podge around each of the letters, hoping they would dry securely.  A hairdryer was used to help with the drying process.  We let the necklaces dry completely as we continued with the meeting.  Before the girls left, we finished their necklaces.  They chose to use a ribbon, yarn, or parachute cord we had remaining from past projects.  We tied a cow hitch (knot) by making a loop in the middle of the ribbon and threading the loop through the middle hole of the washer.  We took the two ends of the ribbon and passed them through the loop, pulling the ends to tighten the hitch on the washer.  The girls were familiar with this knot because they used them when they made macrame bracelets last month. 

5:20pm   Morse Code.
Step 2 for the Junior Detective badge is "Communicate in Code."  My husband and I recently started watching Downton Abbey.  In the first minute of the first episode of the first season, I saw characters using Morse Code to relay the shocking message about the sinking of the Titanic.  Before the meeting, I cued up the clip so the girls could see Morse Code in action.   

One of our co-leaders shared this worksheet she had come across when preparing a homeschool lesson for her daughters:  

http://www.magictreehouse.com/teachersclub/resource_center/pdfs/17-save-our-ship.pdf 

I printed copies of the worksheets.  Our girls used the Morse Code key on the worksheet to decipher the message to the captain of the Titanic.

 

During this portion of the meeting, we had some time to work on a handwriting activity.  Step 4 of the Junior Detective badge is "Try Out Detective Science."  I remembered using a book called Love Your Handwriting by Heidi Swapp when I was into writing titles for my scrapbook pages.  I modified one of Heidi's activities for our girls to work on during this meeting.  The girls played with their handwriting by writing the word trefoil in various ways.  Once they had completed the worksheet, they exchanged papers and examined the similarities and differences in their handwriting.




5:45pm   Braille.  
In this post, I described how our Brownies and Juniors learned about Braille.  During this meeting, they were able to complete some steps for the Brownie Senses badge and the Junior Detectives badge.

6:00pm   Closing.  Our girls love to end the meeting by singing "Make New Friends" and doing the friendship squeeze.

Please note that we don't always incorporate each of these components into every meeting.  It happened to work out this time, so I thought it was worth sharing on this blog.  Thank you for reading!

Christmas Party 2013

Last year the girls in our troop planned their Christmas Party.  We devoted an entire meeting to sharing and voting on ideas.  This year the girls were busy earning badges, and our schedule did not allow for a party planning meeting.  The troop co-leader and I decided to plan the party for them.  We relied on Pinterest for inspiration.  The girls were invited to my house on a Friday night in December.  Due to heavy snow, we rescheduled the party for the following Wednesday during our regular meeting time (early evening).  I must remember that a Wednesday in December worked really well for the girls and all of our families.  

When the girls arrived, they started making Shredded Paper Art.  Each girl chose a piece of construction paper.  I provided paper scraps that has been sitting in our shredder for months.  The girls were instructed to use glue and the paper to make a winter scene.  They could use crayons and markers to add details.  Here are two of my favorites:  

As the girls created their winter scenes, they were called over to the kitchen sink individually to start on a light bulb snowman ornament.  Please check out this post for the details and photos.

At this point in the party, the girls were ready for a snack.  I made Melting Snowman cupcakes, using Cool Whip, half a large marshmallow, half a bite-sized peanut butter cup, and half a mini peanut butter cup to make the snowman and his hat.  I used mini chocolate chips for the eyes and an orange sprinkle for the nose.  I decided to bake a peanut butter cup inside the cupcakes.  The girls seemed to enjoy the surprise when they took a bite!

Once their bellies were full, it was time to start the games.  We started with the Minute-to-Win-It version of Pin the Nose on Rudolph.  I cut 12" lengths of red yarn and tied a piece around a large red pom pom, one for each girl.  We divided the troop into two teams.   We put a dab of Vaseline on their noses.  One girl participated from each team at a time.  She donned the antler headband, and they raced for one minute to see who could get the pom pom to stick on her nose without using her hands. This game is sure to elicit squeals of joy from a grade-school crowd.

We followed this crazy game with a quieter activity.  Each girl was given a 12" piece of foil and four pipe cleaners.  We chose red and green pipe cleaners since this was a Christmas party.  They were instructed to come up with something creative.  They were not allowed to use scissors, glue, crayons, or markers-just the foil and pipe cleaners.  Here are a couple of my favorite creations:

After they had shared their creations, we played the Guess Me Icebreaker Game.  I made labels for characters the girls would most likely know:  Rudolph, Santa, Frosty, Buddy the Elf, Nutcracker, Grinch, Scrooge, and Tiny Tim.  The girls had all played the game Hedbanz, so they were familiar with the rules.

Once everyone discovered the characters, we cleaned up the space.  We had several minutes until the parents were to arrive to pick up the girls, so we played one last game.  A troop favorite--Stack Attack.  This is the cup stacking game we introduced to the girls at the Christmas Party last year. 

This year's party was super fun and relatively inexpensive.  With the exception of the cost of the cupcakes and paint for the light bulb ornament, we had the supplies on hand.  That is my kind of party!  Thanks for reading.

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!...Our Near Sleepover

I have fond memories of sleepovers with my friends once I reached junior high. I loved lying on the floor in my sleeping bag, watching music videos on MTV and talking with my friends about cute boys. When I was younger, though, I was the kid who often cried and asked to go home when it was time to go to sleep.  I remember Girl Scout Camp being especially stressful for me--not only was I not sleeping in my own bed, but I was bunking in an unfamiliar lodge or platform tent.  Our troop is planning our first overnight lodge camping trip for this fall.  The girls in the troop are in first grade, and most of them have never been to a sleepover.  I thought it might be best to invite the girls to my house for a "Near Sleepover" to practice for our big overnight.

Since this was a Pajama Party, we decided this was a fantastic opportunity to participate in a service project.  Our girls and their families went through closets and drawers to find gently-worn pajamas they could donate.  Our troop collected 71 pairs of pajamas that we delivered to Matthew 25 Ministries.   

Girl Scout Law ribbon flip flops

The girls arrived at my house at 6pm.  They were instructed to wear their pajamas and to bring their sleeping bags.  Special stuffed animals and blankets were welcome, of course.  When the girls arrived, they made a friendship pin that they each got to keep.  I had asked the parents to purchase a pair of flip flops the girls could decorate during our party.  These flip flops were available at many stores for around $2 a pair.  Prior to the event, I bought spools of 1/4" ribbon in each of the Daisy Petal colors, including royal blue for the Promise Center.  I cut four 6" pieces of ribbon in every color for each girl and placed them in a plastic baggie.  The girls tied the ribbons in knots onto the flip flops.  I explained that each color ribbon represents the Daisy petals and corresponding component of the Girl Scout Law. 

We surprised the girls with Strawberry Facials.  I pureed the strawberries and milk before the party.  Moments before we were ready to apply the mask, I added the cornstarch.  The girls wore the mask for about 10 minutes, and we continued our program that focused on the dark purple petal (respect myself and others). 



I read the "One-of-a-Kind Body" chapter out of Joy Wilt's You're One-of-a-Kind to the girls which explained that every person's body is unique and special.  Then I read Zink the Zebra  which is a story about a zebra with spots instead of stripes.  It was written by a young named Kelly Weil who was battling cancer.  "Zink questions why she is treated differently by others just because she looks different on the outside."  I came across a Zink the Zebra Leader Guide that proved to be an amazing resource for this program.  Our girls made Zink Storybooks that can be found on pages 21 and 22 in this guide.

After the lesson, the girls made banana boats.  They filled their bananas with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and marshmallows.  We wrapped them in foil and popped them into a 325-degree oven for about 10 min.  Gooey and delicious!

The girls settled into their sleeping bags around 8pm to watch Dolphin Tale.  This movie tells the story of the relationship between a boy and a dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap.  It tied in perfectly with our lesson for the evening.  Parents picked up their daughters around 10pm.  All of the girls were asking when they could come back to stay until morning.  The night was certainly a success!