Ponca State Park -- Here We Come!!

May 29, 2009:
***Camping at Ponca State Park!!
Tent camping, horseback riding, hiking, nature
crafts, campfire songs, games...
and tons ofGIRL SCOUT FUN!!!!!

We will leave from the church parking lot at 5:30PM. Please plan on arriving between 5:00-5:30pm to get the girls organized into cars with their camping gear. Please pick up your girl scouts in this church parking lot on Saturday, May 30th @ 2:30PM. Parent or guardian must sign permission slip before girl scout can attend this trip. Also plan on pre-registering for the 4th grade year when you drop them off Friday night. All forms are pre-filled out, you will just need to sign and pay the registration fee of $12.00 (the fee has increased this year from $10 to $12).

Camping List:

Sleeping Bag (pillow if wanted)
Sturdy Shoes -- tennis shoes (NO flip-flops!)
**We will be hiking and horseback riding.
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Water Bottle
Flashlight
Change of comfortable clothes**Do not send nice outfits - we will get dirty!Towel
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Soap

Itinerary for our Camping trip:

Friday, May 29th:
5:30pm - Leave Sioux City for Ponca
6:00 pm - Set up tents and camp; Go over rules & boundaries
7:00pm - Start campfire
7:30pm - Cook dinner;Clean up
8:30pm - Scavenger Hunt; List of nature "stuff" to find!!
9:00pm - Campfire; Songs, games, skits, S'mores and pies!
10:30pm - Pajamas, brush teeth, etc.
11:00pm - "Quiet Time"
12:00am - Lights Out!!

Saturday, May 30th:
8:00am - Breakfast and Pack up campsite
9:30am - Group 1 - Horseback riding; Group 2 - Bird Feeders
10:45am - Group 1 - Bird Feeders; Group 2 - Horseback riding
12:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm - Nature Hike
2:00pm -- Head back to Sioux City
2:30pm -- Arrive at church to be picked up!!

Any questions, please call Gay @ 712-389-5370

May 15 - Court of Awards

First of all, thank you to all the girls for being very well-behaved during this ceremony!! We really appreciated it!! I won't go into a lot of details since most of you parents were there, but this event is the culmination of everything we've done and accomplished throughout the year. As a troop this year, we earned six Try-It badges, participated in two community service projects, went swimming, stayed up all night at the mall, sold nuts and cookies, took part in holiday events, etc. etc. The list goes on but the most important thing was that we had FUN!

During the ceremony, we had 17 girls "bridge" over to Junior Girl Scouts! (Fifteen of them were at the ceremony -- two were unable to attend.) We are quite proud of our large group!! We hope the girls are looking forward to more fun and exciting adventures as Juniors!

Here are some more pics from that evening:

May 7 - Last "Brownie" Meeting!

Tonight was our last night meeting together as Brownies... when we meet again for the Court of Awards Ceremony, we will "bridging" over to Junior Girl Scouts!!

As you know from previous posts, we have been working on sewing jean bags to earn our last Try-It badge. Tonight we finished those bags up by decorating them with patches, jewels, pompoms, and even paint! Every single one of them turned out BEAUTIFUL!!

Once we finished the jean bags, we started on our donation bags for the American Cancer Society. A big THANK YOU to all of you that donated items for this worthy community service project! We decorated bags with markers, putting little cheerful pictures and sayings on them, then filled the bags with the donations! Everyone decorated a bag and was able to choose five items to be placed in the bag. We had so much stuff that we decorated extra bags to make sure everything was donated!!! The bags were taken down to the June E. Nylen Cancer Center downtown and were very much appreciated!! Congratulations to the girls for a job well done!

Last Two Events of the Season!!

May 15, 2009:
***Court of Awards Ceremony -- 6:30 PM
Grace United Methodist Church (Morningside College)
This is a time to celebrate our troop's accomplishments!
Girls should be wearing their vest and dress nicely!
Please arrive by 5:30-5:45PM for pictures! Tricia
Gallardo will be taking pictures... prices are $2.00
for a 5X7 or $5.00 for an 8X10. Payment of cash or
check must be made at the time of pictures.
Refreshments will be served after the ceremony.


May 29, 2009:
***Camping at Ponca State Park!!
Tent camping, horseback riding, hiking, nature
crafts, campfire songs, games... and tons of
GIRL SCOUT FUN!!!!!
We will leave from the church parking lot at 5:30PM.
Please pick up your girl scouts in this church parking
lot on Saturday, May 30th @ 2:30PM. Parent or
guardian must sign permission slip before girl scout
can attend this trip.

Camping List:
Sleeping Bag (pillow if wanted)
Sturdy Shoes -- tennis shoes (NO flip-flops!)
**We will be hiking and horseback riding.
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Water Bottle
Flashlight
Change of comfortable clothes
**Do not send nice outfits - we will get dirty!
Towel
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Soap

Thank you all for an awesome year!!!
Gay Parker, Troop Leader
Please call if you have any questions!
712-389-5370

April 23 -- Sewing Our Jean Purse/Bags

Tonight we started our second sewing project... jean purses. Each girl had to bring a pair of jeans for this one! We started by having each girl cut the legs off her jeans. With the help of our volunteers (Abbie's grandma and Sam's grandma!) each girl got a seam sewn across the jeans where the legs were cut off. Next, each girl had to take one of the cut off legs and cut it in half, fold it in half lengthwise,then our wonderful volunteers sewed these pieces. The rest of the work was for the girls. They had to turn their "legs" right side out because now it was about to become the handle of their purse. Once they did this, they had to hand stitch their handle to their purse!! Many of the girls are still working on this! Once they have the handle sewn on, the bags are ready to be decorated with the many patches and decorations we have provided! Some girls got done with the whole project in this meeting, but some girls still need to decorate their purses. Some pictures are posted below:

April 18 -- Swimming at the Siouxland Y!!

What has twenty-eight arms and legs and swims all over????!! It's the fourteen girls from Troop 273!!! This night was such a blast!! The girls swam in the shallow water, played in the fountains and sprinklers, went down the slides, and even went into the deeper lap pool to swim laps and play water basketball! Snacks and drinks were served midway through the evening and then it was back to more swimming until we had to get out and get ready before parents started showing up! Posted below is a picture of all the girls in our troop that attended - they are standing on one of the slides in the water!

April 9 -- More Sewing...

Tonight we finished sewing our bean bags that we started at our last meeting. Because there were three adults and 14+ girl scouts, I was unable to get any pictures! Sorry!! Our hands were kept busy threading needles, cutting string, tying knots, getting out knots, etc. etc.!!! It was really fun to watch the girls learn how to use a needle and thread and see how much better they were sewing by the time they finished their project!! We will be working on jean bags/purses at our next meeting and we will get pictures... Promise!!