Winter Holiday Party!

Every year we finish up our Brownies meetings for the year around the second week of December. The winter season is so, so busy with family events, school concerts and preparing for a variety of holiday celebrations. 

Last year we tried something different. Instead of having a party just for the girls we decided to have a parent/child event where our families could come in and see just what Brownies is all about. We also took this oppertunity to rifle through the craft cupboard and see what we could make and do for limited purchasing. We've been talking to the girls about the importance of buying only what we need, but more importantly using what we already have. 

We started off the meeting with our opening song. The girls loved sharing with their parents everything they had learned so far about their opening, fairy song and circles. After that we split into patrols and had everyone start at one of three different stations. 

This year we had several stations for the girl's and their parents to enjoy. The first was making some sweet treats - snow-flower cupcakes. This awesome idea was shared with me by my guider friend Nikki. If you cut marshmallows diagonally and stick the stick side in coloured sprinkle-sugar you are able to create a marshmallow petal. If you slowly work these around the edge of a frosted cupcake in circles you get rows and rows of petals which eventually look like a marshmallow flowers. We specifically used blue, white, purple and pink sugar to give the cupcakes a winter/frozen feel to them. 

The second station that was set up was building winter houses. I was gifted these amazing winter felt kits from another guider last summer (Thanks Michelle Gilcrest!) and I knew we just ahd to use them at the holiday party. My girls LOVE using the glue guns so I know it was going to be a hit.


The last station was where the girls created fleece winter hats and scarves to donate to our local women's shelter. A HUGE thanks to snowy owl who prepped all of these in advance so the girls could easily cut, tie and put together without doing too much sewing. In the end of an hour the girls created 15 hats and 20 scarves to donate. I took them over to the shelter later that week and in January we received a lovely letter thanking the unit for their efforts. The hats and scarves were given out around the Christmas holiday and all were well received. 

We finished off the party with a few songs and our group closing. What a wonderful way to finish off the fall guiding term. 

UK Pen Pals

Last year our group decided to complete the Brownie Pen Pals interest badge. Since I'm a member of a few UK Girl Guiding Facebook pages I thought it would be great to find some pen pals to do a swap. In no time at all we had three units lined up for a swap. My unit made crafts, sent pictures and badges - they were really excited. 

Unfortunately, weeks then months passed and we heard nothing back from our pen pals. I tried to contact these units on Facebook and although they confirmed that they had received our packages they never ended up sending things back to us. My girls were really disappointed and I was frustrated as well. 

In the summer I posted the story onto one of these Facebook pages to see if there was any other way to contact these groups. I was then overwhelmed by the response of people who wanted to send us something to make up for these other units. 

We ended up receiving letters and parcels from 8 different groups containing all sorts of things from letters and photos of their groups to guiding teddy bears and UK badges for our girls to earn. I was simply overwhelmed by these guiders generosity. 

Since there was so much sent to us (8 groups after all) we split up the goodies between the girls from last year and our current group. Our current girls wrote back to these new pen pals and will be doing some of the challenge badges that they sent us. Our girls from last year got a lovely package of badges in the mail from the groups that wrote back. 

I'm so glad to know that the guiding sisterhood extends near, far and overseas and that we truly have friends where ever we go. A HUGE thank you to the UK Girl Guide groups that wrote back to us. We are so thankful that this story had a happy ending. 

Key to I Can - Cooking and Tool Skills

We're heading into December now and working to finish up our program area - Key to I Can. The girls have been super eager to try their hand at cooking and some wanted to work with tools so we thought we'd do a meeting that incorporated both. 

We decided that alongside the Key to I can we wanted to do the "Mouse around the House" challenge from Alberta. This challenge focuses on basic home skills, things like setting a table, cooking and woodworking - very "traditional" brownie skills. 

For this meeting Tanwy Owl took over the "tinkering" section of programming. She went over all sort of different tools with the girls and talked about their uses. Then using our fancy colour-changing unicorn night lights from camp she showed the girls how to change batteries using a screwdriver to remove the base plates. Also, bring the crafty leader that she is Tawny Owl taught the girls about different kinds of simple circuits taking apart and putting back together the night lights entirely. 

While half of the girls worked with tools, I did pizza and s'mores making with the other group.  The girls loved learning how to use the can opener and cut up all of the toppings for their pizza. Leader Tip: Before you put your girl's pizzas in the over have them take a picture with their creation. Then you can (hopefully) match up the pizza with its owner when it's finished cooking. 

After the pizza was done it was time to set the table. The 2nd year girls learned how to do this last year when we completed the "Girl Guides Gateway to our Past" challenge so happily took the lead to show the younger girls what to do. Once the table was set it was time to eat. 

The Girls Loved this meeting and were so happy to go home with some new badges for their sash and camp blanket. 

Brownies Enrollment - 2017

One of my favourite events in the fall is our annual Enrolment ceremony. Its so exciting to see the girls work so hard to learn everything Brownie. They take a lot of pride in their uniforms and sashes, knowing their Promise, Motto & Law and being a part of a fairy circle. 

This year we did a lot of work to prepare for the Enrolment Ceremony. The girls created lanterns for decorations and we created a whole introduction/setting up of the toadstool for the second year girls to get more involved. 

We were all ready to invite parents into our meeting space for the ceremony when there was a big issue. The church had double booked our space by accident and it appeared that the other group couldn't be moved into another space. The girls were a little worried about the ceremony and what was going to happen next but we assured them that Brownies are flexible and we would still have a great time. 

Cue the move across the hall to the church's storage room. Big enough for a very cozy Enrolment, our girls moved over and set up all of our props and chairs for our ceremony. In about 10 minutes things were back to normal and after a quick run through we were ready for family and friends. 

The girls did a wonderful job and were so proud of themselves. So happy to be a leader with this amazing group!

Emergency Preparedness

The second program key we are working on this year is the "Key to I Can". We decided to cover a large chunk of first aid and emergency preparedness tonight - covering what is and what is not an emergency. 




We had a great discussion with the girls, played some emergency preparedness running games and finished off with a plasticine craft about natural disasters. Below are some of the girls Emergency Preparedness artwork!

Its Halloween and time for a Party! We do a joint Sparks/Brownies Halloween celebration every year and its always a blast. This year we decorated pillowcases for collecting candy, made monster pop-puppets and played all sorts of games for candy prizes. 

We finished off with a potluck reception and treats were had by all. Happy Halloween everyone!

Brownies Visit Mountain Equipment Co-op!

Every year as a unit we complete several interest badges in addition to the program keys. Typically the girls get to choose which interest badges they want to complete together and then my co-leaders and I pick a few more to round out the other badges we are doing. Now that its my 5th year leading a Brownie group I've pretty much done every interest badge with my girls. There are however a few that have always been tricky to accomplish as they require going somewhere specific. 

In early October I got a call that our meeting space wouldn't be available that week due to a large church function. I was worried we would have to cancel as its often hard to find a meeting space - especially in a time crunch. Luckily with come quick thinking and a great community partnership led to the perfect idea. A Trip to Mountain Equipment Co-Op!

When I called up our local MEC store and asked if i could bring a bunch of rowdy 7 & 8 year olds to run around their store for an hour and a half I wasn't sure what the were going to say. The gentleman I spoke to was AMAZING and said not only that the girls could come to tour the store but what programming did he want them to provide? I sent him the requirements for the "Go Camping" interest badge and he said not to worry he would plan something awesome for the girls. 


When we got to the store we were greeted with this happy sign. We chatted with the girls about using our best manners in public and that since the store was still open for shoppers that we would need to be mindful of our voice volume. The first thing we did was meet with Graeme our MEC Liaison who answered any and all the girls had about camping equipment and gear. Afterwards he handed out a group scavenger hunt which had the girls tour the store and find out information about different products they might use while tent camping. 


We went around the store in small groups - taking pictures of the fun camping gadgets and equipment that were available to purchase. The girls learned a lot about what was things were waterproof and why it was so important to stay warm and dry when being outside. 

All of the Brownies loved the "tiny things" you could take camping with you. Collapsable water bottles, tiny flashlights, etc. were all super exciting to the girls. 

After the scavenger hunt we came back to the MEC community room and got to learn about tents! The staff at MEC provided 2 tents for the girls to practice setting up. We learned about where is best to pitch tents, about tent poles and most important - the waterproof rainfly. The girls LOVED setting up and playing in the tents. Truly a highlight of the trip!


Thank you SO MUCH Mountain Equipment Co-Op! We had a FANTASTIC TIME!