Gingerbread Carousel

This has definitely been a weekend for making memories! I'm sure our little girls---and our mamas who attended ;) will be talking about this event for years to come!

This was our first official troop campout and was held at Camp Whispering Pines in Garrison, TX. The theme this year was the Nutcracker. Our girls learned about outdoor cooking, made crafts, hiked, and some of us even got to sleep overnight in cabins--and we had a very special visitor!  

A huge thanks to all the moms who came out for the day and those that stayed overnight--you guys are amazing!  You all saved the day for everyone attending the camp. 

The opening ceremony.

Making crafts--foam gingerbread houses.  

Sophia gets to help make the brownies!

Sweet friends:  Donnariah and Nevaeh!

Natalie and Allison!

Lauren, Tiera, and Isabel!



Jaqueline and Araceli!



Ryleigh and her snowman!



Jolette, Sohpia, and Caitlyn!

This craft was REALLY messy!  People smelled cinnamon for miles around!

Our angel ornaments

A hiking we will go...

We heard a version of the Nutcracker at a rest point in our hike.

How cute are these girls????  We have the CUTEST TROOP EVER!

In the cabin...getting ready for bed...

Nat ready for bed...

Tiera singing for us in the cabin...

When what to our wondering eyes should appear?

Here's Santa with every girl in my cabin except...

Little Miss Tiera who just could not wake up enough to greet Santa...she is, however, resting her head on the stuffed animal his elves gave her!

Here are the girls (well, we had 2 who had difficulty waking up...they were just too tired...even for Santa!)  from both cabins with our late night surprise guests! 

Here's the patch we all earned for the event...plus, try-its, petals and other fun patches!

Brownie Magic!

Yesterday could not have been a more perfect day for our girls to experience a little Brownie Magic!  It was a beautiful crisp fall day at Camp Whispering Pines in Garrison, Texas.  We met at the corner of the NPL and Java Jacks bright and early and headed out to camp.  All in all, 11 of our 16 Brownies got to have a very magical first outing at camp!

( a little side note...these pics were taken with hubby's camera--bleh!)

Here we are. We have arrived!

We had a few minutes for SWAPS while I got the troop checked in at the Lodge.

And then it was time for our Opening Ceremony.

a skit was performed by a group of Juniors for us based on the Brownie tale. 

....I looked in the mirror and saw...MYSELF!

Our first break out session was with the Green Starlettes.

And Ms. Sonja loved the old books in the cabin--this Little Women was published in the early 40's!  No worries, I was a good role model and left it where I found it.  ;)

We then went back to the lodge for a little science magic.  We learned about the 3 states of water:  liquid, solid, and gas.  We watched some experiements, checked it out ourselves and even had a few extra minutes to SWAP again.

after science it was time for lunch---yippee!  Tummies had started growling during Green Starlettes...and that was just the mamas!  We were all ready to EAT! We took up the biggest table in the place.  :)

another quick group shot...

Cool nature bracelets were made from recycled water bottles, duck tape, and our cool nature hike treasures. 

after lunch we had just enough time for a potty break (the girls were NOT impressed with the camp "flushies") and pictures. 

Luckily, after lunch it was time for our Nature Hike.  We had quite a work out, especially since the powers that be forgot to mention that our information had the wrong location printed on it.  We had a pre-hike before our hike!

down, down, down the hill

pose for pics!

looking for items to use on our nature bracelets...

and the walk back up the hill!

Making our super-cool nature bracelets out of recycled water bottle, duct tape, and our hiking treasures.