Fall Campout and Bridging Ceremony

What a gorgeous weekend for a campout at the Black Bear Cabin!  We were nervous about what the weather was going to do, but it all turned out beautifully!

We started things off by having our bridging ceremony first.  Bella, Ayla and Aspen will be moving on from our troop, and we will miss them, but its been a lot of fun!  

Then we set up tents, and the kids immediately began to play in the river!

At night the girls enjoyed light sabers, throwing glowing foam swords and playing zombie and ghost games.  We also enjoyed s'mores, songs and music by the fire.   The kids went to sleep much earlier than we expected, so the moms stayed up late and enjoyed some cozy time by the fire!  We did not have any visitors from the raccoon this time around, but we were concerned about bears (with all the car damage lately), so we kept watch pretty late!  All was quiet though, and it was a peaceful night!

 Good Morning Girls!

Early to bed...early to rise!  ugh!  :)  The girls ran around playing while we got breakfast ready...they jumped around on the trampoline, played on the rope swing, and most of them couldn't get in the river fast enough, no matter how chilly the morning air was!

 That's okay though...breakfast by the fire helped warm them back up!

Then it was off to more river fun!

 Some of us headed down to the island for some climbing...

 While others continued to enjoy the sunshine on the river!

What a great time!!!

 Girls RULE!!!

July Ride n Swim ~

 On Thursday we had a Ride n' Swim at Western Ridge with our troop.  Summer is difficult to plan any adventures, as the kids are on vacation all over the place, so we weren't sure if we would be able to put this together, but we finally managed it and the kids had a great time!  We didn't get to do this last year, so the girls were very excited to do it this year!  Our first group of riders were Serenity, Jordyn, Kit Kat, Kelsey and me.

 They dont allow you to take photos during the ride (as a rider),  so you'll just have to trust me that the ride was beautiful!  Wild flowers all over the place...lovely terrain, and of course a few stubborn horses.  My horse, Thor, thought he had to eat every 2 minutes, and Serenitys horse Daisy, was having gas issues (and yes, I was stuck behind her horse)   :)

 Jordyn enjoyed some quality time with Cajun, while the next group of kids suited up for the ride!

 Marina, Oriana, Ellie and her brother Henry rode with Ms. Angie for the second round.  Marina was very excited to get started!

 And as they were heading off on their adventure, Marina gave me this thumbs up to let me know she was good to go!  Have fun guys!

 While kids were riding, we had a couple of parents at the pool so that the kids could enjoy pool time as well....hence, the ride n swim :)

 The clouds rolled in and it cooled off a bit, but the kids didn't seem to mind....blue lips and all!  We had a few siblings join us for the pool, and the kids played for hours.

 For lunch we enjoyed pizza, and as the afternoon cooled off, we called it a day!  What a great time we all had!  Thank you for a fabulous time as always Western Ridge....you guys ROCK!

April Meeting ~

 The April meeting is our last meeting of the school year, due to a field trip being scheduled the same day as our meeting next month, so it was fun, but bittersweet.  Sharon and I have decided to split the troop next year, and we will take the Juniors (4th and 5th grade), and Karianne (who has been helping us at meetings all year), will take the Daisy/Brownie aged kids (K-3rd).  Our troop of 18 girls, has become too large for us to work with, and we want to start doing some more mature crafts and field trips with our daughters age group, so we thought this would be a great time to do that.  It is really difficult to find drivers for 18 kids, but 8-9 girls would be so much more manageable.  We will still do some fun things together with the younger troop, but we are excited to try some new things with a smaller, older group.

Anyways, since we wont meet next month, we thought it would be fun to make our Mother's Day gifts this month instead...so if you are a mom and have a daughter in our troop, please look away now!  :)

 We purchased these little wooden plaques from Joanns, and the girls got to paint them anyway they wanted for their moms.  The creativity and uniqueness of each plaque was wonderful, and the girls really seemed to get into the craft too!

 When the plaques were dried, we added a hook eye and cording to hang it with.  We sure hope the moms enjoy their colorful gifts!

Happy Early Mother's Day!!!