A Trip

A couple of weekends ago my co-leader, her husband and I took all of our Girl Scouts and one brother to the San Diego Zoo for the annual Girl Scout Cookie Kick Off.  It was a lot of fun and our girls had a great time.  However, it was smokin hot that day.  I know I should not be one to complain since some people are buried in snow and having negative temperatures but seriously people, at one point we were sitting on metal seats with the sun blazing down and I was sweating, it was gross sweating.  I think I might stop there, I just had a bowl of some delicious oatmeal and just the thought of sweaty skin makes me sick.....any who, we had a great time.  We sat on the metal seats for the kick off show where all my girls gave me a group hug for being a cool troop leader (I tried not to cry) and then sat some more for more show.

See that sweet face front and center?  It was her birthday that day and she chose to spend it with us, how cool is she?!!!!!  after we did the show, we were able to take off on our own and see all the animals.  Eventually we were able to stop and have a quick photo shoot......we may or may not have kicked some kids off f this thing and there may or may not have been a creepy lady standing next to me asking if she can take pictures of all my girls too, why?!!!!

all in all it was a fantastic day and since it is cookie season, make sure you keep your eye out at your grocery stores and in your neighborhood.  Girl Scouts work very hard and are very excited when it comes to cookies and I know when you buy a box, it means the world to them!!!!

Controversial?

Yesterday my co-leader, her husband and myself, took all of our Girl Scouts to the San Diego Zoo.  It was cookie kick-off day and we were excited to start the season and see some animals.  When you do any sort of Girl Scout event, we always like to have our girls wear their uniform.  Recently the Girls Scouts on Camp Pendleton made some shirts, simple t-shirts so that people would know what service unit our girls are from.  Just as if you make tie dye shirts, it is just something to show off our pride of being Camp Pendleton Girl Scouts.  The shirts are camouflaged and in bright pink on the front, it says Camp Pendleton Girl Scouts.  We have always had people thank us and smile at our girls, knowing that they sacrifice their time with one or both of their parents.  However, yesterday was completely different.  I had noticed that people were looking, I assumed because #1, we were all matching and #2, they wanted to see what was on our shirts.  It was then that my co-leaders husband pointed out that people were saying things like "did you see those shirts?!!!"  and "how could they have their girls wear shirts like that?!"  I think I even heard once "those shirts are inappropriate", really?  I understand that people are against the war and don't support what our military is doing overseas, but do you really think that our girls should not be supporting their own parents who are the fighters in that war?  I am not telling my children or anybody elses what to think, all they know is that they love their moms and dads and they live on Camp Pendleton and they are proud of where they are.  Even if they grow up not supporting war, I am 100% certain they will still support their parents. When did wearing camo become so controversial?  If we lived on a farm and had farming parents, we probably would have cow print shirts, it was not about being pro-war and parading our children around the zoo to support the cause, we were there to have a good time.  And to be honest, they are children, they are children who are already self conscious and staring and making comments about what they are wearing isn't going to help them.  So, if you live near us and happen to see any of the girls wearing their shirts, just smile.  And if you are offended, please just look the other way.

UPDATE: As I was writing this, one of my dear friends was finding out that one fo her sons friends had just lost his dad who was serving in Afghanistan.  Someones dad people.  Not just a soldier fighting a war, a father and a husband who will never come home.

Trip

Today my Girl Scout trip took a trip down to our local fire station here on base.  The girls try to do a service project every year for Christmas.  Last year we brought toys to the kids at CHOC hospital and this year, they decided to bake cookies and bring them as a thank you to our men who help us out in the emergencies that seem to come into our lives.  They came over a couple of nights ago and baked and baked and baked.....seriously, we made a ton of cookies!  And today, we got to deliver those goodies.  Not only did we get to meet the amazing fire fighters, we got to see the truck, sit in the truck, they even sounded the lights and sirens for us!!  The girls had a blast!!!!!!!

What A Weekend!

On Friday, my Girl Scout co-leader Amanda and myself took 7 fun filled girls up the mountain for some camping.  The trip started out on a crazy, not so fun note when on Thursday night Amanda was looking for rocks to take to camp (for our rock painting of course) and her ankle slipped and snapped leading her to have a cast put on it and being on crutches.  Cast and crutches just don't mix with mountains and camping.  Then of course I still had that nasty cough that just wouldn't go away.  I was not contagious, don't worry, but it was there and it was driving me crazy.  So, mix that in with dry dusty mountain air and I felt like I was breathing with a 10 pound rock on my chest.  It was good times all around.  Actually, it was a whole lotta fun.  The girls were stoked to see bunk beds in their cabins and deer hopping around the lodge.  we had a dance party, time to play princesses in our cabin, hikes, challenge courses, rock painting, shirt making, swimming and bonfires filled with s'mores.  Cass didn't do so well the night of the bonfire.  Camera flashes kept going off and that eventually put her Epilepsy in full swing and we headed back to the cabin.  Other than that small blip on the radar, a good time was had by all.  I do grumble thinking of going on trips like these, thinking of what a relaxing weekend I could have had and all the things I could have done here at home.  But, when i think of all the great memories that were made and that hopefully as the girls grow older they will remember all of the fun times we had and things we learned, that right there makes me want to take them out every single weekend.

American Girls

Today Amanda and I took our girls to the American Girl store in Los Angeles to celebrate the amazing job they did during cookie season.  And not just in Los Angeles, the store was in The Grove.  I don't know how many people are TMZ watchers but I am and Cass sits next to me quite a bit so she knows all about The Grove.  I think from seeing it so much on TMZ, she assumed it was going to be filled with nothing but celebrities, and not just any celebrities....Hannah Montana!!  Her reasoning?  Hannah Montana lives in Los Angeles, therefore she shops The Grove all the time so we have to see her!!!  It only added to the excitement of the day so we went with it :) 

The Grove ended up being a really nice shopping mall!!!!!  It was all outdoors, had a cobblestone walk and fountains, it was a nice place to walk around!!!  But we didn't want to just walk around, we were on a mission. 

Isn't it a nice building?  I think I was more excited because the last one we went to was in Chicago and it was right off a busy street, don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun but this one seemed nicer from the outside.  The girls were stoked from the second we walked in.

We needed to check-in for lunch so they knew not to give away our spot so we quickly ushered our girls to the nearest elevator.  While we were waiting we discovered the magical world known as personal shopping.  I thought that only happened in high end stores and for millionaires or celebrities!!  Near the elevator there was a separate room that occupied desks and dressing rooms filled with little girls and their personal shoppers for the day.  Luckily the girls were on a "whats coming next" high so we didn't get to hear "wheres my personal shopper, why I am not as lucky as that little girl dressed in the Louis Vuitton frilly dress who has 20 gazillion boxes of things?"  Can I get an amen for girls being grateful?!  We checked into the reservation desk and had some time on our hands so we did some window shopping.  It was actually pretty neat.  They have a whole section with a museum type feel of each girl and the time period they are from.  We even met a girl who worked there who was herself a former Girl Scout so she took to our girls and gave them a personal tour of all the girls and all about their stories.  Then it was time to dine.  We walked through black and white double doors into our perfect lunch cafe.

The decor was simple but having it black, pink and white made it super girly and fun.  I think I want to do Cassie's room in those colors now.

The table had these cute pink sunflowers in a watering can, along with a small black pinstripe box filled with conversation starters.  Can I add that on the way home my sweet daughter leaned into her friend next to her and in a not so whispering voice uttered "look, I stole one of these" (holding up one of the convo starter cards, which were for sale in the store actually so totally not something they wanted you to take).  Good job on showing my lacking parenting skills.  However, I could swear we have had the no stealing convo, I guess not enough.  Anyways, back to our great day.

My favorite decor were these mirrors.  They lined one side of the cafe and I love them!!!  I want to make some!!!!!  After oooohing and awwwing, the girls sat down for their lunch.

If they didn't bring their own doll, they were allowed to borrow one, along with its own highchair so you can sit next to your new friend of course.  The meal consisted of yummy little cinnamon rolls as soon as we sat down as well as drinks (pink lemonade of course). 

Our appetizer was fruit kabobs, veggie sticks and pretzel bites with honey mustard and ranch for dipping.

My lunch was a spinach and sauteed mushroom burger.  Some others a salad, pizza and chicken fingers, yumm!!!!!!

For dessert everyone a chocolate mousse/oreo cookie crumb flower pot, a cookie and some cake.  It was so cute!!!  Even some of the girls who had fruit with their lunch found it cut into hearts and stars, they really know how to make little girls happy!!!!!!  After we ate we walked around The Grove and found the trolley.  After much begging and pleading, we climbed aboard and sat on the upper deck.

It took us through the whole mall until it ended up at the world famous Farmers Market.

I think I may need to make a trip just for that place!!!!!  On our trip back to the other side of the mall, our lovely trolley driver got the girls all sorts of excited.  He had been telling us jokes over his microphone and updating the men folk on who was winning in the World Cup so far.  Then we heard, "ladies and gentlemen, we may have a Justin Beiber sighting".  What?!!!  Where?!!!!  We informed the girls it was just a kid who resembled him, otherwise we would have heard a million girls screaming and the trolley would probably have come to a screeching halt.  But mister trolley man, never say such things around six 8 year olds who love the Beib and have had their heart set on seeing a celebrity.  I think the hearts were thumping for a good minute or so.  All in all, we had a great day.  The sun was shining and our girls got to relax and enjoy themselves after pounding the streets selling calorie filled goodness.  They have already made plans for next years trip.  I feel like a proud momma times 6 :)