A Visit to Dower House

We went on a visit to Dower House.  It's very close to where we meet and we had a great night out doing a walking tour of Corstorphine and then looking at the archives.

If you are local or come on a visit nearby I'd definitely recommend a visit here on a Wednesday morning or Saturday Morning.

Planting Bulbs, Bird Food and Lend a Hand

This week we made bird food for the birds, Except this time we forgot the saucepan, so we had to just soften the lard and mix in the bird seed.  The girls did not like the smell of the lard.

Tawny Owl planted bulbs with the girls.  There seemed to be a lot of soil on the floor after that activity.  They liked decorating the plant pots.

Then they cut out handprints and had to make promises to go on our Brownie Notice Board.  They took a while over this.

We then did campfire songs which they seemed to enjoy as we've not had time recently to fit some in.

We have a local trip out next week.

It's A New Term

Our numbers have dropped with a few moving house.  We've been back a few weeks now.  We've concentrated on the cooks badges this short while and will be doing the seasons badges too.

We may be small in number but a good term is what we have.

We have booked to go to the Panto this year for our christmas outing.

I'm starting to look at my going away scheme too.

I've added some photo's from the girls cooking badge.

The Last Few Weeks of Term

We didn't have brownies one week as my daughter's show was that night.  Tawny Owl was away with work.  Little Owl was still travelling and a few of the brownies had school shows too.

The following week, we made pizza's on baguettes and then did some loom banding and let the girls play before eating the pizzas.  We did have one brownie who kept eating all the ingredients and forgot about her pizza.

The following week we had a Tea Party.  We play some games, then had juice, jelly, cakes and sandwiches.  Then some singing before saying goodbye to one Brownie who has relocated down south.

It was a beautiful evening and such a lovely end to our year.

Roll on August when we all return.

Big Brownie Birthday Stay Away

5 of the brownies took up an offer of a sleepover at Deep Sea World.  

The district we're in all arrived on time but the others coming on the bus got a bit held up.

We played some games to kill the time, then we split into groups that Deep Sea World had put us into before we went on the workshops.  We were in the crabs, we had a waterpool handling session, then a tour in the tunnel meeting the sharks before a snake meet and greet and then a craft.  

We then sang happy birthday to us, before having cake, popcorn and hot chocolate with some fruit. 

Then it was PJ time, brush teeth and then in our units down to the tunnel.  

The tunnel took about an hour to get everyone rolled out and settled then, it took the girls a bit of time to get comfy.  Most were asleep by 1am.  

We did have a brownie go sleep walking.  2 who thought they could tell tales on their brown owl not realising she was standing behind them. 

It was good to share tales with other guiders about other pack holidays and camps and we took some photo's of some sleeping guiders with me photobombing them.  

All in all I had about 2.5 hours sleep before waking.  

In the morning it was pack up, in to uniforms, have breakfast of cereal and bacon rolls, then a chance to shop in the gift shop.  Then it was time to go home with our party bags.

A brilliant experience which I am glad our brownies were able to experience.  And so many thank you's from the girls and the parents.  Those 2 words mean a lot to guiders.

A Surprise

We did a surprise for later in June.  Unfortunately one of the surprises didn't quite work out but as I had bought loom bands, they helped with filling out the night, infact I think 99% of the brownies would have much preferred to have done them all night.  

Risk Factory Visit

We visited the Risk Factory based in Edinburgh.  This is a great educational resource and is mainly used for schools and vulnerable people.  In more recent years they have opened to cub badges and in the last year have designed a brownie programme.

We took part in the pilot last year where we did our fire prevention and road safety.  The girls really benefitted from the sessions.  2 of my friends units went along too, and I accompanied them, so already knew what would happen.  But none the less the home safety and crime prevention badges were easier to do this way in actual senarios.

The girls seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the experience and phoning 999 and taking part, so that should something ever happen, they know what to do.

So another 2 badges this term.

Healthy Heart Badge and Agility

We've spent 2 weeks doing our Healthy Heart Badge and Agility Badges.  Because we are low in number but high in ratio's to the help we have, we have been able to give a good amount of time to the girls to allow them to do the 2  badges.  They've worked hard and done well.  

Was interesting to see how well some of them can hula hoop and skip and we spent time using our under arms and over arms throws.  

It was very interesting to see what they considered healthy to eat and what they consider is the best way to keep your heart healthy.  We also spent time talking about when you take medication and food allergies.  It was interesting to hear from the girls who do have food allergies, as to how it affects them and what they need to take or do if they do eat it.

A New Term

It's a new term...

Our first week back saw a Pow Wow.  The girls liked the idea of a tea party to finish the term.  In all the craziness of parties, it's funny how they want party games and old fashioned tea parties.  

We also decided to do Pizza Making and some sporty things.  We've managed to do the Healthy Heart Badge.  We're doing Agility next.  I've adapted it slightly to include all our unit including those who have mobility problems.  

We're having another trip to The Risk Factory too, where we will do Crime Prevention and Home Safety badges too.  

We're having to close one week because we have no leaders.  Unfortunately our real lives dictate our presence elsewhere and after a discussion, we didn't want to leave other guiders with the girls.  

So it's a short but busy term.

Spring Break

We're having a bit of a long holiday due to all the brownies being at different schools with different holidays.

Plans for next term is Agility Badge and Healthy Heart Badge to sort of talk about keeping fit and the Commonwealth Games.

Then we have some other weeks to fill too.

So roll on next week and being back to brownies.

Easter Fun Night

The Senior Section Unit of our Division came along to brownies.  They organised handmade invitations for the girls to come along and bring a friend to Grow Guiding.  

We had 6 friends come along which was pretty good and a couple of parents asking if there were spaces for after Easter which is good. 

Tawny Owl was travelling with work, but having The Senior Section unit meant we had a lot more help.  

They played some games, organised an Easter Egg hunt, did some colouring.  The girls did a great job.  The funniest moment was when I said the people dressed as rabbits or dressed in Turquoise were in charge and one Brownie went "Nooooo not Rabbits!" and another announced "But they don't speak our language!" 

The Senior Section did a fab job.  Quite a good few future guiders in there.  

We're finished for the term as some schools are on holiday from today.  So a bit of a longer break but I can guarantee my guiding hat will still be on.

A Surprise

We did a surprise last week.  It was a quiet week as all our Young Leaders were unable to come, a couple of the girls were unable to come too.  But we got on with the surprise.  We also agreed to play Jungle on Fire for the first time in a few weeks.  It wasn't an exciting meeting but it was enjoyable to sit with the girls and just chat.  We made a card for one YL who was poorly and another one who's grandad passed away.  

The Senior Section are coming along for our next meeting to run it.  Quite looking forward to it.

Star Quest Evening

Our county were running a Star Quest at the National Museum of Scotland.  

Lothian buses were fantastic.  They provided each unit with free transport and allowed us day savers to get there.  Our unit went on a very early bus.  Tawny Owl and I arrived rather early at the bus stop so we nipped into the Carvery for a hot drink before we met the Brownies and bumped into our sort of finished Division Commissioner and my daughter's Rainbow Leader.  They caught their bus and we had our tea and hot chcolate before meeting the girls.

2 were outside when we came out so some banter with the mums about us needing dutch courage.  Having all the girls and our YL.  We jumped on the bus where we should have met Little Owl.  But Little Owl wasn't there.  Turned out she had just missed a bus, and our bus was a late earlier one.  But fortunately she managed to meet us in town. 

We took the girls to McDonald's for their tea.  But not before Tawny Owl was chatting up the bus driver.  Poor guy must have been thinking all sorts!  Anyway we got seated in the food court and got the orders and Little Owl appeared.  Tawny Owl and I were good and got a baked potato.  

Then we walked 1219 steps up the bridges to the museum.  We were a bit early with being there at 6pm.  But they showed us right in.  We found a space, got our registrations and got sorted.  The girls were waving as friends went past.  We were meeting friends and aquaintences.

Each of the girls got a bookmark type thing and we had to go and find the stars and get a letter from each star to make a word.  I bet you can guess it made BROWNIES.  

We went along to the silent disco.  Met someone I've worked with, my neighbour who hadn't realised I was back in Guiding and many girls from our shared pack holidays who all called me Daffodil.  

Then we were guided upstairs for a craft activity.  A lovely mask in the shape of a star then they decorated it with stars.  

Then we returned to the trail.  Bumped into more friends on the way round and we had some fun at the exhibits.

Then it was pick up the snacks and drinks and find somewhere to eat them and watch the entertainment of drumming, dancing and acrobatics.   Then a big campfire with everyone.  The whole of the museum singing Brownie Bells was just emotionally beautiful.  Then it was time to be called to get our coats and party bags and heading for our buses.  We tried a sing song on our bus and realised the other unit wasn't interested in joining us, so we sang our wee hearts out instead!  

It took me til 1am to settle as I was buzzing from such a fabulous night.  

Happy Birthday Brownies!

No Electricity Night

Our night in the dark started with us doing the register, handing out glow sticks for the girls to wear. Then the young leaders ran GLOW Stick bowling. It seemed to be popular. Then we moved on to writing stories by torchlight. Then we had the campfire where we toasted vegetarian marshmallows and sang some songs. We missed out some of our activities so we would run another one as we ran out of time.

Pancake Day

Tonight we did some team work games. Then some new songs. Before starting some advertise brownies posters. Then what we all had been waiting for Pancakes!!!!!

We were short on numbers this week, so we split up the sixes and did a mixed group for the team games.

Thinking Day

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I've been non stop at work since I last posted. 

Anyway, a few days after Thinking Day, we celebrated it at Brownies.

Thinking Day started with the girls thinking about what they want to be when they were older. Then they acted it out and the others had to guess what it was. Then they coloured in some thinking day colouring sheets and made a card for 67th Brownies in Newcastle

Our FaceTime failed but we made a video and sent it to them and they sent one back. We read the story of thinking day and watched the video.

A card arrived from the brownies in Newcastle too.  They received ours too.  

My friend and I did laugh at the difference in our units.  Ours were just off the walls with excitement while hers were all working beautifully and seemed pretty calm.  Sort of goes with both our personalities the way our units were hehe.  

Valentines Day

We decided to do a wee bit of a LOVE week.  

I spent last Saturday making salt dough, cutting out heart shapes and then baking them for about 3 hours.

The girls then used paint to paint them and we lifted our ban on glitter.  The ban will return as it took us another while to clean it up.  Tawny Owl found some pipe cleaners so we used these as I'd forgotten to buy ribbon.

The girls then made their valentines cards.  I'd made one out of love hearts of different sizes to make an owl.  But some of their creations were much more superior to mine!  

We're on holiday for a week and then we will be doing Thinking Day.

Circus Skills Workshop

Val introduced herself from Aviatricks and started with a Traffic Light Game to do with circus tricks. 

then started with some balancing of feathers. The girls were taught how to hold them and where to concentrate on. I was impressed at how many girls were able to balance the feathers so easily.

We moved on to plates and how to balance and 3 ways of spinning them. At one point we had to walk with the plates and balance on one leg.  I felt like I should be Mary Poppins.

We then moved on to spinning sticks which looked easy but was quite hard.  Trying to get the balancing from your sticks to a partner's sticks was very tricky. 

The next stage was some juggling with scarves. That was very hard.

 Bouncing on a Lobo Ball (don't do this if you have weak pelvic muscles), hula hooping and Diabolo spinning.

The final part of the night was some acrobatic moves. We ran slightly late but the girls all appeared to have fun, everyone participated and have all achieved their circus skills badge! Well done girls!

I can fully recommend Aviatricks for anyone in the Edinburgh and Lothians area.

Chinese New Year

We were supposed to do some Chinese New Year and some Burns.  But we made dragons which took longer than anticipated.  The girls had strips of paper to decorate and then we made them into a concertina effect and glued 2 lollipop sticks, 1 on each end and then the girls drew a dragon head.  They were very effective and good.

They played chinese whispers while we set up.  One brownie announced "I don't like chinese whispers, so we'll play Chinese Jungle on Fire!"  She didn't get her way.  After the dragons we got chopsticks and Malteasers and set up 2 tables and the girls had to take the chopsticks and carry the malteasers across to the other table.  I loved the way they took the time to help each other and work as a team.  As we had 10 brownies and unequal sixes, we decided just to have 2 random teams.

They got to eat the malteasers and some shortbread, before Rainbow Owl, one of our young leaders, taught them a few new songs which she had learned at a camp for The Senior Section.  The girls are loving what she has been teaching them.  Herman the worm is another favourite that they now ask for every week.

This week we have a Circus Skills Workshop for the Circus Skills badge coming along.  We're very excited about this and can't wait!

Starting the Big Brownie Birthday Challenge

Last week I forgot to return our toadstool.  It's still sat in my living room looking at me.  Will I remember to return it this week?

Last week the girls played Red River.  Then we did the "Talk for 1 minute!" Most of the girls could have talked for hours.  But my couple of brownies who are very shy needed a wee bit support and did really well. My heart was bursting with pride.  It was such a big obstacle for them and they managed really well.

Then we sang some songs and played some more games.

This week we are combining Burns with Chinese New Year.  Looking forward to it.

Big Brownie Birthday

We returned to Brownies last week and our focus is the Big Brownie Birthday.  The girls got to choose which activities they wanted to do.  Not surprised that water rafting and climbing came up from them as I said it would but unfortunately most things they chose we need a higher ratio for or it leaves some girls out for various reasons.  We will do some other ones instead.

We have a star quest as part of the challenge and we will be going to a County Event in March.  We can't wait.  So we decorated the stars and Tawny Owl hand delivered them.

We have become low in numbers and worked together as a group.  But it shows that some girls spend too much time mucking about that they don't get things done.

New Sixers were appointed with some very happy girls.  Seconders will be considered in due course.