Ready for Halloween

Is it just me or does October seem like it is almost as long as March this year? And don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the fall, so I'd prefer October last as long as possible, but it seems as though we should have already celebrated Halloween! I don't know if I am feeling this way because I decorated for Halloween and brought out the Halloween videos at the end of September (probably), or if it's because I'm itching to get out my Thanksgiving swag out to put up in place of my black spider lights... And some of our relatives from Long Island are planning to come out for Thanksgiving -- I'm already looking at recipes and thinking about decorating and fun crafts for the kids. Of course we'll probably make our traditional Pilgrim Hat Cookies, but I'd like to find another fun activity for the kids, too!

So for now we are anxiously awaiting Halloween and enjoying this beautiful autumn season!

Girl Scout Leader Supply Kit

So as I mentioned, I'm totally immersed in Girl Scouts right now, and I love it! We are having our second meeting tomorrow afternoon. The first meeting was at my house, because our troop was so new that we had not received confirmation for a meeting site. Now we are all approved to meet at one of the nearby elementary schools -- which is great -- they have a large "all-purpose room" (cafe-gym-atorium, is what my sister-in-law Susan calls them -- you know, lunch, gym and assemblies all occur in one place!), bathrooms, playground -- perfect! And, it's free! But, since it is not at my house where I am prepared for all sorts of activities and emergencies, I decided to make a travel kit for my Girl Scout supplies. I grabbed an empty Rubbermaid tub from the basement (practically everything we own is in Rubbermaid tubs in the basement -- my husband's record collection, mementos of my children's early years, pictures, clothes, holiday decorations, china...) and I gathered some things from around the house. We also stopped at the dollar store and I picked up a few other things that I might need. Here's what I have so far:

- paper towels
- plastic bags
- band-aids (I need to get a first aid kit)
- hand sanitizer
- scissors, tape, glue sticks, crayons
- pipe cleaners
- wooden craft sticks
- acrylic paints, paint brushes, paper plates for "palettes"
- wipes (I LOVE wipes -- my kids are both out of diapers, I will never stop buying wipes...)
- construction paper
- scrap paper
- coloring pages
- yarn
- brown paper lunch bags
- napkins

I need a couple more things from the store tomorrow -- I thought I would grab a box of small paper cups to keep in there for snack time. To help save the troop some money (and my co-leader and myself), we are going to have a sign-up sheet for snack. This way one person won't be in charge of it for the whole year, and as we learned from doing this in preschool, the kids seem to enjoy getting to have their own choice of what they want to share with their friends.

I also have to organize my binder -- I learned in training that I need to carry the girls' health forms with me to meetings, field trips, etc. I bought a binder to keep all of those forms in, my training info, a copy of the handbook (I'm buying one, but it's on back-order until December!), attendance forms, meeting schedule, etc. (Ask anyone I work with -- I am the binder queen of America -- love them...)

Trying to stay organized and being prepared will probably go a long way to helping me be a good leader. And, having everything in one place will make it easy to leave my kit in the back of my van and I'll be all ready for my Girl Scout meetings.

Girl Scouts - Cookie Crazy!

I'm still here! It's been a busy month and our home has been taken over - by Girl Scouts! My 10-year-old is a Junior and she has been involved in Girl Scouts for four years now. She loves being a Girl Scout, as I did when I was a girl. So, now that my littlest girl is in kindergarten and old enough to join a Daisy Girl Scout troop, I decided to start a troop for her! My friend Kristin and my brother-in-law Mark are both teasing me mercilessly for doing this after listening to me say I'd never sign up for anything after doing the preschool family events for the past two years. Well, let's see -- Girl Scout leader, check. Troop Cookie Manager for this year's cookie sale, um, check... Went to a Service Unit meeting last night and actually felt my volunteering arm starting to twitch when they put up the list of open positions -- like, "100 Year Anniversary Chair" and a few others... Seriously, it may be time for an intervention... But, I truly have some wonderful memories of being a Girl Scout when I was growing up -- I learned a lot, I tried tons of new things, made lots of friends and gained confidence in myself. I would love for my daughters and the girls in my troop to have some of those same experiences. And, I get to do all of this with my girls -- my youngest who is in the troop, and my eldest who will be helping out and earning her Junior Aide badge in the process. Now that makes it all worthwhile!