Girl Scout Camp

This past Saturday, I took Addy & her Girl Scout troop to camp for the day.

We left Sienna around 7:15 & arrived at Camp Wind-e-mere around 8:00 which gave the girls some time to trade SWAPS with girls from other troops before opening ceremonies. (SWAPS stands for Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere & they are little trinkets that the girls make & trade with other girl scouts.) Addy had lots of fun trading SWAPS & her favorite was a balloon with a happy face drawn on it.

Around 8:45, we walked over to the flag circle for the opening ceremony.

After that, we had a couple hours before our first session started so we went for a hike & explored the campgrounds. 

This is some of our troop standing atop Chigger Hill during our hike.

Since Addy & her troop are all first year Daisies, we did not spend the night at camp. But a lot of older troops did. So during our hike, we stopped at several campsites & the other girl scouts let our troop come in & see their sleeping quarters. So they got to see inside of some tepees, flats, and tents. And here is Addy sitting in one of those tents.

After our hike, we ate lunch & then waited for our first session to start.

Our first session was a service project & it was to pick up brush along the trail to Chigger Hill. All the girls were given a pair of gardening gloves to wear. Addy got a pair of sticky orange gloves. 

She said they made her a tree frog & tried to use them to climb a tree. (It did not work by the way.)

As you can see from the pictures, Addy did great during the service project. She was very engaged & seemed to really enjoy picking up the sticks & helping out. I was so proud of her!

Once the girls had filled the wagon with sticks from the trail, the leader of the service project pulled it over to a big open area & our girls then separated the sticks by size. They sticks were to be used to make campfires later that night.

After the girls completed their service project, we moved on to the next session which was learning how to build a fire. The volunteer taught the girls about the different kinds of sticks used in a fire; kindling, tender & logs. Then she had the girls go search Chigger Hill & see if they could find some of each.

This log was so big that it took 3 girls to carry it!

After collecting wood, the girls were shown how to make an "A" with the wood as a base & taught the rest of the basics for building a fire.

Our 3rd session for the day was Addy's favorite! It was lead by this lady, Chickadoo Suz.

Chickadoo Suz had chickens

and the girls were able to pet them.

And then they made a chicken out of a pinecone & fake feathers.

Addy had her 'C' that day & C is for chicken! How perfect was that!

Here's Addy's finished chicken. As always, my little artist did a super job!

The last session of the day was to play games & sing songs. There were bubbles

and hula hoops

and empty cookie boxes to use as building blocks that they could play with. 

And since it was the last session, Addy & her troop got to stomp on all the boxes & flatten them. Here they are waiting til the count of 3.

And here they are stomping!

And then they learned a few camp songs. 

Addy and the rest of our girls were all pretty exhausted after a long day at camp, so we didn't make them go to the bridging ceremony, especially since they were are not bridging this year! So instead, we let them play a few games with an older troop for the last hour of the day. Here they are playing a game called 'Little Sally Walker.' Addy participated for a little bit & then she came & sat in my lap & drew pictures on some paper I had.

And here is a final picture of our troop, Daisy Troop 3124. What an awesome bunch of girls!

Addy was really upset when we left camp. (She was exhausted & she really didn't eat anything for lunch, just snacks throughout the day and I'm sure both of these added to her crankiness.) She was insistent that we stay and make s'mores & sleep in a tent. 

Hopefully next year baby girl, hopefully next year!