The Encampment in Arantxa's words.

Arantxa was super excited about her first big Girl Scout adventure. Most of the older girls would be camping for the weekend. Her Daisies troop (K'ers and 1st graders) would be there "just" for the whole day. Each girl had to prepare and pack her own bag, and since they'd be there for the day, the packing list was not that short.

Here she is, all set and ready to go!

They met at 7:45, after wisely deciding as a group that they would have breakfast at home. They called us to know when to pick them up, if the girls were doing OK, they'd stay until the campfire. Pablo picked her up at 10;45 pm!!!!

Since she is SO much into writing, I provided her with a little notebook and pencil. She barely had any time to sit, but she managed to write a couple of pages. Here they go:

ARANTA'S ENCAMPMENT RECOUNT WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

We wached a movie! evrione in my group was exided. it was Lady and the Tramp. There were Maeny things befor it started. we saw maeny wonderful plaeces on the way. We went on a scavenge hunt then we ate and washd dishes but a splinter Got in my hand. after that we suiched (switched) bubidd (buddies). on the (scavenger) hunt we saw Deer.

Her writing is becoming much more fluid and her spelling has improved a ton in the last couple of weeks. She, however, has not internalized the capitalization after periods... Her school, as far as I can tell, stressed writing as communication in Kindergarten.

After that, she started dictating the rest. The funny part was that she kept reminding me to "add a period there".

For the scavenger hunt, which was in and around a big river as big (wide) as our house, we had to go around. There were plastic animal plates with duct tape on them. There were activities to do. We had to use nature or our voices to do them. The last thing we had to do was to (make up and) tell a circus cheer to the Juniors who had set it up. The circus cheer was:

We are green Daisies

and we are trapeze artists

with a tah-rah-tah- tah!

Go Girl Scouts!

Then we got beads. After that, we made necklaces, anklets, bracelets, or key chains out of the beads. Then we were able to move to the next station. It was not a tent but I like to call it a tent. (since she was dictating I did not get a chance to ask for clarification, maybe just the canopy?).

We made dog toys to donate to little puppies. We braided cloth ribbons together to make a toy. There were knots on each end of the toy.

At the cooking station, we made hot dogs. Some of the ovens (stoves?) burned but the ovens were just old cardboard boxes with aluminum paper and they hot coal inside them. Some girls in my troop thought that they were cooking coals, but instead they were just setting them up. Everything we made, we ate. We also made popcorn and lemonade.

To make popcorn, you have to put a big pot and fill it with tiny kernels to the top. Then put aluminum paper on top and press it down. Then you start shaking it up for a long time you shake. Then you stop, take out the aluminum paper and you have popcorn!

After that we made wish sticks. The older girl scouts explained to us that wish sticks make wishes come true.

How to make a wish stick.

- First you grab a bunch of sticks (no matter the size) and tie them together.

- Then you throw them into a campfire and the wishes come true.

How they work:

- Is a different question though, sticks go to the wish gods.

- Depending on what they think is good for you, some come true. Sometimes none comes true.

- For example, if you wish you will not eat candies for a month (maybe better a week we suggested), it comes true.

After making wish stick, we went to the bathroom and then went to the campfire.

At the campfire all the troops had a little skit of a song that they shared with the rest of the Girl Scouts.

When it was our turn we sang a song. We got special lights and bracelets to wear ((those glow in the dark kind..)). We went over to the campfire, we dropped our wish sticks and sang our song. then we curtsied (sp?) and bowed.

When Pablo picked her up, she was asleep in her car seat. He transferred her to Lorena's car seat and buckled her in. She did not blink. She went then to the driving mom's car to remove her car seat; when he opened the trunk to put the car seat it, she woke up. She told Pablo, "I thought I was sitting next to the other girls...".

One of her favorite parts was the swapping. Here she is wearing her troop hat with her swaps. All the girls brought little things they had made, and they all swapped with each other.

Yes, she is a bit sunburned. They applied sunscreen in the AM and one other time. She also has the remnants of some of her face painting. She was quite proud of what she painted and that was another of her favorite parts.

Since they had 2 meals there, they had to bring their own dishes. After the meal, they washed their own in basins with soap water, water for rinsing, then bleached water. They put them back in their mesh "dunk bags" and they hung those to dry. I liked the dunk bag concept which was new to me.