Create*Bloom*Grow

Growing through life creatively…

Category Archives: Girl Scouts

Posts showing what I’ve done with my Girl Scout troop


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100% Not Irish

I know they say that, “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day”, but I am not so sure. I grew up going to Catholic school. Generally, at Catholic schools (especially back in the 70’s and 80’s) there are a lot of Irish and a lot of Italians. I am a quarter Italian and 0% Irish. I often felt fairly out of place not being 50% or 100% one of those 2 nationalities. Today is the day that I am reminded I am 100% NOT Irish.

I love the enthusiasm. I tend to be pretty spirited about whatever I am doing, but have found that I just can’t quite pull off much for St. Patrick’s Day. I always wear green and we eat the requisite meal. I am happy my kids are past the leprechaun trap stage as that was a special kind of torture for me.

At any rate, I am thrilled to be invited by much-more-Irish-than-me friends to their house for dinner. I was asked to bring dessert, so in the spirit of my Lenten crafting challenge, I had fun with it. I started yesterday and am done by noon today which is huge for me as I am the “Queen of Procrastination”. I did Thin Mint Truffles and Minty Mini Cupcakes.

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These are the Thin Mint Truffles. Throw a box of Thin Mints in the Cuisinart and combine with a block of cream cheese. Roll balls and dip in chocolate. What is not to like? This is probably a good time to mention that while I am fairly crafty with a lot of things, cake pops (or anything rolled and dipped) are not my strong point. I doubt anyone is going to complain!

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Next up the Minty Mini Cupcakes. Homemade double chocolate mini cupcakes topped with fluffy mint butter cream. They are topped with pieces of Andes mints which did not come out of the bag quite as pretty as I imagined them.

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I bought these at Walmart before Christmas and they never ended up in any of my Christmas cookies. I think they will be quite tasty and I look forward to using them again soon.

I hope all of you have a wonderful St. Patty’s Day however much Irish you are!

 


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Too Much of a Good Thing?

‘Tis the Season – No, we have not rewound the calendar to December.  It’s Girl Scout Cookie Season.  Happy days….

I’ve been a Girl Scout leader since my daughter who is now in 6th grade was in 1st grade.  We have had many adventures, but some of our favorite revolve around selling cookies.  Can’t help it – I was raised in a retail family and I like to sell.  My daughter has the same genes.

We did realize early on that it is super-important to stay organized (you wanted how many boxes?) and to show our gratitude to her customers.  We discovered early that a very personal way to do this is by creating a 4″x6″ card in my digital scrapbook program.  I’ve been using Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories.  Sadly, with the closing of CM, you can no longer get this fantastic program, but there are others out there that you can use.  I use my digi scrap program for MANY things that have nothing to do with scrapbooking.

I print out a bunch of these cards as photos at the beginning of the season and we are ready to go.  We have done a number of fun cards over the years.  They often involve a photo of her and the cookies in some way, shape or form.  This year she opted for no photo, but we came up with something very “tweeny”.

Cookie TY Blank

The ones I print for her actually have a note of thanks at the bottom and her name, but I’ve posted one that you can actually use yourself!

I’d love to hear what other Girl Scouts do.  Happy Cookie Sales!


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Onward and Upward Junior Girl Scouts

After 2 fun-filled years, it is time for my Junior Girl Scout troop to bridge over to being a Cadette.  I looked through the many options for bridging ceremonies and then adapted one to suit my needs.  Much of the wording came from a ceremony posted online by the Girl Scout’s of Wisconsin Southeast organization.  It was originally a candle ceremony, but with 18 girls in my troop that just feels like playing with way too much fire.  We were also planning to hold the ceremony outside which could be frustrating to deal with the wind.  You would need to adjust the distribution of speaking parts to the number of girls/leaders in your troop.

We had hoped to set up a better “rainbow bridge” but this was the best we could do with the wind.

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Bridging Ceremony for Girl Scout Juniors

Leader #1:  The girls are now going to do a sand ceremony.  They will pour small amounts of different colors into a small jar that they can take home as a keepsake of the following important tenants of the Girl Scout Law:

Girl#1         I will do my best to be…

Girl #2        Purple represents being honest and fair

Girl #3        A Girl Scout works honestly and keeps her promise.  She is fair in all she does and to all those she meets.

Girl #4        Blue represents being friendly and helpful.

Girl #5        A Girl Scout is amiable and loyal to her friends.  She helps others wherever and whenever she can.

Girl #6        Green represents considerate and caring.

Girl #7        A Girl Scout works well with others and looks out for the well-being of those around her.

Girl #8        Orange represents courageous and strong.

Girl #9        A Girl Scout attempts new tasks and braves new endeavors.  She is confident and self-assured in her actions.

Girl #10      Red represents being responsible for what I say and do.

Girl #11      A Girl Scout readily admits her strengths and weaknesses and is aware of the consequences of her actions.

Girl #12      Yellow represents respect for myself and others.

Girl #13      A Girl Scout acts with integrity.  She directs her thoughts and deeds to encompass her own beliefs and to be sensitive to those around her.

Leader #1   Although we are out of colors of the rainbow, Girl Scouts have additional attributes that we would like to share.

Girl #14      A Girl Scout respects authority.

Girl #15      She understands the sense of regard for another’s position.

Girl #16      A Girl Scout uses resources wisely.

Girl #17      She uses her materials, money, time, and energy with care as not to waste the Earth or her own resources.

Girl #18      A Girl Scout makes the world a better place.

Leader #2   She strives to clean, conserve and enrich the world around her.

Leader #1   She believes it is important to leave a place better than she found it.

Leader #2   And last, but certainly not least, a Girl Scout should always…

All               Be a sister to every Girl Scout.

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Materials Used:

  • Craft Sand in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue & Purple
  • Small glass jars with lids (These are actually wedding favor jars from Party City)
  • Sharpie (to put names on the bottom BEFORE you fill them)
  • Funnels
  • Plastic Spoons

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Test your jars out ahead of time to see how much they hold.  You can do this by seeing how many spoon fulls of the same color it takes to fill the jar.  Use the same color so that the sand can be dumped back and reused.  Depending on the size of your jar, your needs will vary.  I was able to advise the girls that they could use 2 level spoons of each color to get the desired amount to fill the bottle.  They had a lot of fun making these and had a nice little reminder of the exciting step they were taking in Scouting!