Day 2: Girl Scout Camp....Hollywood STARS

It sure was tough getting Isabella and Giselle MOTIVATED for camp this morning.  After 9 ½ attempts and over an hour later, I was finally able to get them out of bed.  We came downstairs, ate breakfast and then they literally wrapped themselves up in blankets and laid on the kitchen floor until it was time to leave for camp.

Off to camp we went and once we got all set up, I noticed all of our campers were not so bright eyed and bushy tailed today either.  Everyone was tired, and it was only day 2.  Looks like the heat got to all of us yesterday.

After opening ceremony, our main goal today was teaching the girls how to cook lunch.  Most of our girls are entering 2^nd grade so because of our age group, we were assigned to make and cook in a cardboard BOX OVEN.  They called it “SIMPLE BOX OVEN CONSTRUCTION AND COOKING.”  There is nothing SIMPLE about assembling a cardboard box oven or cooking in it.  There were no instruction manuals on how to create this.  I went to training however, take everything you think you know about cooking over a fire or charcoals and throw it out the window because it doesn’t apply in the Girl Scout world.   SAFETY FIRST! I knew this was going to take some time, so we started on this by 9 a.m.  Good thing we did, because start to finish, it was well almost 3 hours.

To make our open top box oven, we cut off the flaps of the cardboard box so that the box had four straight sides and bottom. The bottom of the box is the top of the oven.  Then, we covered the box inside COMPLETELY with foil, placing the shiny side out. To use our oven, we placed the pan with food to be baked on a footed grill over the lit charcoal briquets. The grill was raised about ten inches above the charcoal and then you place your cardboard oven over the food and charcoal.

We chose our meal yesterday and it was grilled cheese sandwiches and smores cones.  Each camper got to assemble their sandwich, their smores cone and help create our cooking source.  I was surprised to learn that more than half of the girls had never camped, cooked outside and/or helped their mother or father create a meal in the kitchen.  They had a BLASTY with food preparation, cooking, eating and clean up.  AND they earned a special patch today for all of their hard work! 

After lunch, we went on another hike through the woods to identify more bugs and poison ivy.  Today, we hiked 3 miles.  Once we got back, the girls got in a circle and traded SWAPS.  Girl Scouts often make small tokens of friendship to exchange with the Girl Scouts they meet while traveling. These little gifts are called ”SWAPS,” which stands for “Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere.”  Afterwards, they pinned them on their hats.  I loved all of their creativity with the SWAPS.  HOW FUN!  Isabella loved all the different SWAPS she received from her new friends.

And there was the day!  Yet again, time flew by!  Once we cleaned up for the day we had about 40 minutes left and the other Unit leader and I were fresh out of ideas on what to do for the remaining time.  We had about 11 gallons of water left, so we told the girls to fill their water bottles and have a water fight by squirting one another.  BEST IDEA ever and what a time filler : )  Everyone got SOAKED and you should have seen the big SMILES and the relief of cooling off!  Don’t worry, we gave their girls time to dry off before their parents picked them up!

Giselle enjoyed her Pixie group today.  They got to sing songs, make a homemade microphone and swim in a little baby pool.  I had tried to sneak away today to take some pictures of her and her group, however they are all the way in the back of the woods (we are in the front) and I just couldn’t get away.

After camp, I took Isabella and Giselle to McDonalds for a happy meal.  They deserved it after 2 days of roughing it in the woods all day!  Both girls ate and are asleep and it is 6 p.m.  I think it is safe to say they had a great day and wore themselves out at Girl Scout Camp!