Girl Scouts World Thinking Day 2016

Happy World Thinking Day!

This year's theme for Girl Scouts World Thinking day is:  Connect.

We decided to use the theme to connect to other cultures.

We have a few girls in our troop that are Chinese.  We asked them, along with their parents, to share a little of their culture with the troop.  Since we just celebrated the Chinese New Year, the girls (and their Moms) gave us a little history of the Chinese New Year with a story.  Each girl prepared a little speech and the Moms had a little slide show of pictures for us.

I found it interesting that it's two week celebration.  The first week, everyone has off.  The celebrations continue into the second week. How fun!  This is the Year of the Monkey.  So, if you are born in this year, it's your lucky year.  I'm a Monkey, so, I'm pretty excited.  Oh, and I'm supposed to wear red (lucky color).

The girls then painted a picture of a cherry blossom tree.

What a great way to Connect!

Something New

Whenever I bring home something new, it gets noticed by the kids immediately.

I bought some drinking glasses last week.  I bought them because I liked them and because we had three glasses break in one week.  As each child came into the kitchen (alone), they immediately saw the glasses and said,

"We got new glasses?  Why did we get new glasses?"

Like it's against the law for us to get anything new to use.

"What's wrong with the old glasses?"

"Where did you get them?"

"How much were they?"

After explaining that we have had our glasses for eighteen years and that three glasses broke within the last week and that we are keeping the old glasses...Oh, and that I bought the "new" ones at the thrift store....  they were still a little skeptical.

"Why is Mom buying something new?"

"What's wrong with the old stuff?"

"Is the world coming to an end?"

Yes.  All of this from my children who don't seem to notice the big mess of dirty dishes that they leave for me in and around the kitchen sink.

Musings

Nick, upon seeing the bottle of vitamins, that he has been secretly hinting at for the last week, sitting on the kitchen counter:

 "I see Costco is still a thing."

Musings

Nick has a subtle way of telling me that he needs something.

Nick:  Mom, is Costco still around?

That translates to:  I'm out of vitamins.

The Dog

I think I have created a monster.

I love dogs.

I love dogs that want to be around people.  I mean, why have a dog if he/she doesn't want to hang out with you and your family, right?

Pippen is a people dog.  He loves to be around us.  He's very excited when we come home.  He has to know exactly where we are in the house.

Wait.

Correction.

He has to know where I am in the house.

OK, but, he does like to be by everyone in the family (especially if I'm there).

I recently noticed that he needs company when he eats.  When he was a puppy, I stayed with him so he wouldn't bother Newton (or try to eat Newton's food).  As time went on, I realized he liked company.  Now with Newton gone, I see that he won't stay and finish his food if I leave the room.  I don't normally worry about this, but, I don't want him to eat while no one is home and then have an accident on the carpet.

I can see my brother, Steve, telling me that I got what I deserve.  When I was younger, I used to feed our dog one piece of dog food at a time.  Taking each piece from the bowl and placing it in front of him.  In my defense, our dog, Sheddy, loved it.  Steve told me I was spoiling him and that Sheddy would expect to eat that way all of the time.  I eventually stopped.  It probably took Sheddy awhile to adjust to having to eat out of the bowl by himself.

I guess eventually Pippen will learn to eat by himself.

Now, opening doors and searching the house for me?  I don't think that will stop.

Valentine's Day Book Marks

Every year I have had my children make their Valentine's Day cards for their classmates.  I helped out quite a bit with the boys.  I cut out hearts and had them write the child's name and Happy Valentines Day and then sign them.  I think Nick stopped handing them out in fourth grade and Alex was in fifth grade.

It's been a lot different with Bella.  She shares my love for Valentine's Day.  She really gets into the card making and adding stickers, glitter and hearts.

This year she decided to make book marks and give them out as Valentine's Day cards.  We used red, pink and purple paper we had on hand, along with some festive Valentine papers.   Bella added ribbon and washi tape.  And, of course, her favorite new addition this year, a hedgehog stamp.  We didn't go too crazy with the book marks for the boys.  We stuck with a red book mark and red/white striped paper.  Not sure if a boy would want a book mark with pink and lots of frilly hearts :)  The girls have the pink or purple book marks with a little more hearts on them.

These book marks are pretty easy to make.   If you pre-cut everything for younger children, all they have to do is glue them together.

Valentine's Day Cards for Seniors

Every year our Girl Scout Troop makes Valentine's Day cards for the seniors.  The girls look forward to this tradition.  It's a happy occasion, with the girls putting their best effort and a lot of love into the making of each card.  There is talking, laughing and singing that goes along with the card making, too.

Once at the Assisted Living we visit, the girls set out to deliver all of their handmade cards.  Some of the residents get two or three cards.  The Seniors are always happy to see the girls and end up hanging out in the lobby so they can watch the girls in action.

Once all of the cards are passed out, we break out our song books and start singing.  This year we added a few cute Valentine songs to our repertoire.  Some of the residents knew a couple of our songs (The Brownie Smile Song and Make New Friends) and sang along with us.

A good time was had by all.

In fact, the director asked the girls to come back for a craft day with the Seniors!