It was great!

The only way the weekend could have been better was if the Good Fairy had flown over the site in her helicopter, happily sprinkling hundred dollar bills over us. I was only about an hour later getting up there then I had planned. Alyssa and I arrived about one. I drive an Expedition (yeah, I know, but it's paid for and the insurance is cheap... even with gas as high as it is, I still drive for about 200 a month.)

The back of the truck was crammed full of supplies and groceries for the weekend. Lyssa helped me unload, and it took us a good 20 minutes to carry everything in. I spent about two hours unpacking, putting groceries away, doing a little mini-inventory to make sure I'd remembered everything, organizing the packets for our trail hunt and making sure all the little details were in place.

I stuck some chicken pieces in the oven to bake when I first arrived, and by the time I was ready to go out and hide the trail stuff, my food was ready. I took time out to eat, and when the next two girls arrived with a mom, went out and hid the packets on the trail. The weather was mostly good, we had a bit of overcast and a very fine mist during the first half of the day on Saturday, but it really didn't even wet the ground. It was a teeny bit chilly on the back deck of the lodge where we did the tie dyeing, but in my personal opinion, that beats the hell out of frying in hot sun while trying to work. The girls did the Caper Chart on Friday night. I let them know that I would not be available to cook or clean up until Saturday night, since I had stuff to help with/do all day on Saturday.

They assigned tasks to everyone, and no one complained. There were people to cook every meal and people to clean up after. There were four moms there, and four group meals to prepare, which worked quite well. (Why they call chores "capers" I don't know. The girls know it means chores. It's not like you're sneaking up on them, fooling them into helping out. "Hey Cindy. Wanna do CAPERS?!" "SURE!! Hey. Wait. Isn't that just another word for chores? Are you trying to put one over on me?")

People arrived until about 8:30 Friday night. I had no formal activities planned, but thanks to some anonymous donor, an old piano now resides in the main room of the lodge. We were treated to several repetitive bits and pieces of music for the evening. Chopsticks, anyone?

:)

I mixed the dyes for Saturday in the kitchen after posting moms near the door to keep the girls out. I'm extremely careful about wearing a mask and not flinging dye powders around, but it's not good to breathe the dust, and I did not want any accidents.

We did breakfast on Saturday (Pancakes and fruit) and then started our morning activity.

Tie dye!

One of the girls (one of the only two whose moms were not able to attend) brought ten things to dye. Her mom had emailed me and asked me earlier in the week if she could bring a little dress and hat for her little sister and dye it. I said that there would be plenty of adult hands and lots of supplies and that it would not be a problem. I guess she took that to mean that her daughter could bring as many things as she wanted. :D It really wasn't a problem except that it took quite awhile for her to complete the dyeing. It was actually sort of funny. We didn't have room at the tables for everyone to work, so only four people at a time could dye. I helped her with a couple projects, then had her go play awhile so other people could use her spot. After everyone was done, I had her come back out and finish. As each project was completed, it was sealed into a large ziploc bag and labeled with the person's name. I printed up an instruction sheet for rinsing and washing. The dye needs to stay on wet fabric for 24 to 48 hours for maximum color retention, so everyone took their projects home still rubber banded and wet.

When she finally finished her stuff as lunch was being served, she had a whole paper grocery bag full of ziploc bags to take home! I had a little giggle yesterday afternoon when I was rinsing the dye out of the three things I made. It took me about half an hour to rinse them. Whoever had to help her with hers is probably still rinsing this morning.

::snicker::

The trail event Saturday afternoon was successful, too. My daughter and one other girl are just not all that excited about doing crafts, so they just sort of hung out with the rest of us during that time. Everyone else seemed to enjoy solving the codes and completing the tasks.

This is a picture of the nut that didn't fall far from the tree. I'd LOVE to show you a campfire picture of all the girls, but can't.
::sigh::

I'll settle for showing you my favorite girl... who is NO LONGER IN BRACES!!

(Photos tomorrow, I hope.)




















I supervised cooking on Saturday night, but when I returned to the kitchen after dinner to help with cleanup, one of my girls told me to get out.

"You've done enough for us today," she said. "So go sit down and relax, we can handle this."

She did not have to tell me twice.

Campfire Saturday night was perfect. It wasn't cold out, but it wasn't too warm, either. The girls toasted marshmallows and made S'mores, sang camp songs (I hardly had to lead any!) and enjoyed themselves.

During campfire, the grandparents of one of the girls arrived to pick her up. She had decided that she wanted to go home that evening.

I've never been a leader who tries to jolly a kid out of going home. I think it's disrespectful to the child to do so.

I make sure to inform parents who are dropping off and not able to stay that, "If your child wants to go home at three a.m., you will get a phone call at three a.m."

This particular girl is one of the younger members of the troop, and has had some anxiety issues, too. There was no question about sending her home. With her really huge bag of tie dyed items.

:::snicker:::

We decided that in a couple weeks, we're going to get together at a local park for a picnic. Everyone will wear the stuff they dyed, and we'll get a group photo or two. I'll hand out the pictures from the year and upload the picnic photos to Snapfish for everyone to order as they wish.