Texlake 2.0

Girl Scout Camp!  It was Erin and Halle's turn to join in on the fun and they were so excited.  Me and my other fearless leaders came up with the idea of giving the kids "camp names" just for fun and to keep the mystery of who is in which cabin alive.  They got to open their camp clues the day before we left and solved a code to find out their camp name.

Erin's camp name is Flying Cookie, Halle is Twirly Goose and Lia was Dizzy Frog.  They thought these names were so silly and were interested in knowing what they would be for. 

We left Friday afternoon, ate dinner with Beth and Ashley and their kids and then headed to camp!  It was pretty difficult at first because it was pitch black when we arrived and we accidentally adopted a cabin that was not ours...  So - we had to do a switcharoo and then we were good to go.  The kids' camp names were listed on a sign on the door that they got to find when they arrived.  They were giggling about all the different silly names.

The first night was spent getting settled and we also gathered all the girls to make a troop banner to hang outside.  We hung christmas lights on the cabins to identify in the pitch black which were ours.  They danced, twirled, sang songs, played games, did art projects and generally just enjoyed each other's company all evening.

For our banner, the girls each tied on strips of fabric on a twine.

The finished product was so cute!

 We all retreated back to our cabins for a little down time and then lights out!

Not gonna lie, it was a long night - mostly just a series of naps rather than actual sleep.  Happy when the morning came!  12 people in one cabin creates lots of weird noises at night.  Bring on the coffee!!

Kids vs Adults way of thinking.  Love this picture.

After a wing it breakfast (had to improvise b/c the camp didn't feed us breakfast like we expected- granola bars, goldfish and cereal for the WIN) we set out making our swaps and doing our craft activity.  By this point, we unfortunately had two kiddos leave due to unexpected illness and we were all on guard for any other signs of illness from other kids... 

The kids did GREAT!  It was really neat to see how well they all mesh together and since we have a larger group, if one kid was not interested in doing a particular thing, there were other kids engaged in something different.  They got along well, were generally kind and needed little adult intervention.  It was pretty phenomenal to be honest.  I loved watching the girls interact with kids outside their normal playmates.

The troops make little trinkets to exchange with other troops called "swaps" - we made little campfires from sticks and pipe cleaners.

The brownie girls

The daisy girls

Everyone!

 The first event hosted by the girl scout staff was a craft activity.  This was probably my low point for the trip as far as the camp hosted stuff goes.  Showed them how to make a bag out of a tshirt by cutting off certain areas, but then said they weren't allowed to use the scissors and to have an adult help.  WHAT?  Not a great craft if they aren't actually allowed to do it...  LAME

We made the best of it and then headed on.  The brownies were able to do archery so Lia set off with her group to do that.  I stayed with my daisy girls to go on a hike and plant a letterbox.  They each had a list of things to look for along the way which kept them all pretty happy for the entire hike.

The camp doesn't have any letterboxes to find. so we planted our own called "Dreamchaser" (because we are actively chasing our dreams, not just catching them!!) and the girls had fun finding a good hiding place for it.

 At first, Lia wasn't too thrilled about the idea of archery and wanted to do letterboxing with me, but once she realized that it was shooting a bow and arrow, she was ALL IN.  Apparently was one of the only few that hit the target!  Go girl!

We reconvened for lunch in the dining hall (thankful that they had food for us!) and took some cutie pictures of the girls in front of the lake.

Tie dye shirts were so cute!!  I love how they looked like a little hippie gang. 

We had some time to kill before our fishing time slot so the kids were able to wander around, play, catch bugs and build houses for them.  Probably a highlight of their trip...  lol

Erin impressed everyone with catching this lizard!  Which was the main attraction for the next 30 minutes.  Poor lizard.

Onward to fishing!!

To be perfectly honest, I was expecting fishing to be a big dull dud of an experience.  My expectation was that we would leave after 20 minutes of catching nothing.  I was WAY WRONG.  These fish love hot dogs and kids were catching fish after fish.  It was crazy. 

Beth was amazing at catching these fish and helped any kiddo who had not caught one yet.  Pretty sure Beth assisted in the catching of about 15 fish...

 Lia watched everything Beth did and once she figured out what to do, there was no stopping her.  I think she ended up catching 10 fish in an hour.

Erin did great and caught 5 fish all on her own!!

Halle got a little frustrated with the entire process because the fish kept stealing her bait instead of getting hooked.  BUT she finally got one and then caught 3 more after that!

One of my favorite things was one of the girls saying that she didn't actually catch her fish - Ms Beth caught it for her.  Which Beth responded with "um, I didn't catch any fish today, the person who reels it in and pulls it out of the water is the person who caught it.  I caught zero fish today."  Made that little girl's day.  Big smile.  So sweet. 

After fishing, we headed back to the cabins and had some much needed down time before dinner.  The kids were happily playing and the adults circled up the chairs and had a chance to just SIT.  Lovely. 

After dinner we set up the kids with fun glowing accessories and headed to the campfire!

The fire was fun, but it was also quite cold.  To keep that many people warm, we needed a fire about 3x the size...  The kids had their fun s'mores and then petered out pretty quickly.  We decided to head back a bit early to get to bed.

The kids were in bed and asleep by 8.  A small miracle when camping in a cabin with 12 people...  :)  The adults in my cabin (me, Beth, Ashley and Amanda) stayed up and played cards before heading to bed (because there is no reason to make the night last any longer than necessary...).  I did sleep better on night 2, but still not fabulous especially when a flashlight and books hit the ground at 3am and you think a kid has fallen from the bunk.  Takes awhile to calm down after that adrenaline rush...

The next day was spent packing up and cleaning.  The girls had hot chocolate and were actually really great helpers in getting things packed up.  I realized that it should not take me longer as the only mom of 3 kids, we should be done first!!  (We weren't done first but at least people weren't waiting for us!!). 

In the morning, we passed out badges, certificates, buttons and little wood ornament things that Todd and I made.  They each had their own camp name on them as a souvenir.

 Overall, it was a great time.  I loved spending time with the girls and making it a fun experience for the entire troop was an enjoyable thing for me.  I love the creative stuff, the planning and the things that will make it memorable for them.  We learned some things that we would do differently next time, but live and learn!  For a weekend trip away from home with 21 girls in 1st and 2nd grade, I'd call this a smashing success.