Leah's a Daisy!

I was never a Girl Scout, so I've always had a fuzzy impression of what they're about. I know they're into good citizenship and all, but I had also heard that they were trying to keep up with the modernity of the times so I imagined them giving badges for painting nails and watching the entire High School Musical trilogy. I'm also a little annoyed with selling hydrogenated oil and sugar to fundraise. (No! That doesn't sound like you, Mel...)

But when an opportunity arose for Leah to join the local Daisy group, I figured it would be a good social experience that she would absolutely eat up.

Through the year they will learn the following Girl Scout Promise and Law:

On my honor, I will try:

To serve God and my country,

To help people at all times,

And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

I will do my best to be

honest and fair,

friendly and helpful,

considerate and caring,

courageous and strong,

and responsible for what I say and do

and to respect myself and others,

respect authority,

use resources wisely,

make the world a better place,

and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

So I figure we can't go wrong with that.

(And they have changed their cookie recipes to include less than 1% hydrogenated oils, so they get a badge for effort.)

I'm sure you can tell by her posture that Leah is quite a compliant Daisy. She already knew a few of the girls including her friend from church, Charlotte.

They had a ceremony where each girl got to light a candle and they all sang the song, "Make new friends, keep the old. One is silver and the other gold."

She's been singing it around the house for days.

At the end of each meeting, they cross their arms, hold hands, and get a squeeze traveling around the circle.

Look at that sweet face! Pretty as a Daisy.

(But her mother needs to improve her ironing skills as Leah pointed out the the Girl Scout insignia on her tunic is already coming off.)

A Fall Festival

This fall, we finally made it to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm for their Market Fair - an 18th century farm festival.

It's a working farm complete with a variety of animals.

They had delicious and authentic fare

and fun activities for the kids.

Our friend, Jeff, hobbies as a blacksmith and puts on the 18th century garb to show his skills.

Purveyors sell their wares like this lady and her husband who create beautiful pewter items.

And these girls are making corn-silk dolls.

They have lots of volunteers who enjoy dressing up in the traditional clothing and playing the part of a colonial citizen.

It was really fun to travel back in time and be outside on such a beautiful autumn day.

Happy Fall!

Stuff we've been doing lately...

So consistent blog posting is not my gifting - what can I say?

So here's some of the random things we've been doing...

Leah collected chestnuts at Lincoln Park and we roasted them together.

Our dear friend, Karen, and John share the same birthday, so we celebrated with dinner and dessert.

Karen got John this dinosaur floor puzzle...

...and this is where Noelle had to be when they were putting it together.

We made our own (very sad looking) dollhouse out of cardboard and paints. (I believe we will be buying the kids a dollhouse for Christmas...)

Luke made a fun house for the kids out of the cardboard from our new kitchen doors order. (Our kitchen is still under construction, but we're inching closer to the finish line.)

John asked me to take a picture of him in all his "baseball gear."

"Thanks for reading, everybody!"