Girl Scout Camp

This weekend was the Spring Girl Scout camping weekend for our Service Unit. We went to Ft. Churchill campground (outside of Carson City) and spent Saturday - Sunday camping with other troops from our area.  It was a busy weekend, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves and it was great for all of the "little" girls to hang out with other / older Girl Scouts.

I was so proud of Morgan during the trip. She overcame her shyness and participated in a troop skit (she played the snake) in front of everyone at camp and sang along with the group songs; she also approached older girls and leaders with questions, etc. An older girl from our "big sister" troop gave her a SWAP pin and she went over later on to thank her (all by herself!). :-)  

These may seem little things - but they are BIG victories where she is concerned. 

She was also VERY helpful - she hammered in most of our tent stakes, and also carried a bunch of stuff back to the car at pack up. Plus I was fortunate that she was one of the girls not negatively impacted by the vault toilets. Some had never seen one before, and REALLY disliked them. I guess we can just add it to one of their first experiences of "roughing it".  Plus I kind of want to give them credit toward their courageous and strong petal. ha ha ha

Graduation - The After Party

Morgan's graduation night = dinner at BJs, a new watch and some funds for the future, and her face on a cake!!! :-)

Graduation Day

The 2010 Graduates...

The Friends in Cap and Gown...

The Graduating Girl Scouts (75% of the troop...)

The friends and teacher.....

94 Revolutions

Today is not only Morgan's graduation but also Grandma / Great-Grandma's Birthday!!!

Happy Happy Birthday - here's to the next revolution.

The ceremony....

The outfit...

The ceremony...

The Graduate...

The Best Friend...

The Reception...

... and then a big class swimming party - followed by the "family after party"... more pictures to come. :-) Her award that she received above was for "best author / illustrator". As her teacher said, give her a pen and paper and she will create something amazing.

Graduation Preparation...

Tomorrow is graduation day; tonight has been prep for the big event. Morgan is SO excited - she woke up this morning and said "last day of school and tomorrow I GRADUATE!!!".  The theme - Luau, so Mama's been working with her limited sewing skills to create some special shoes and hair adornment. 

We picked out her dress on Saturday and since it was not particularly "Hawaiian" or Luau"ish" I decided some accessory additions could do the trick. We took some plain flip flops, a hair pin, and  a dollar store lei to create the added flair.  Here's your preview - full account of the days events to come tomorrow.

This picture below is dedicated to "Grandma Carol". We pre-curled her hair tonight and after she had all of her rollers in she looked in the mirror and with a big smile she said - I look like Grandma Carol.  :-)

For the love of electric...

Do you ever catch yourself really excited over the littlest things - I find myself constantly in this state. Last night my excitement was courtesy of Jimi Hendrix & the electric guitar. Why?

Yesterday evening we watched the movie "The Tooth Fairy" - which actually turned out to be pretty cute. In any event, in the movie there is a little boy who LOVES to play electric guitar and is dang good at it too. Morgan was mesmerized from the word go. To this point she has had her little acoustic stella 6-string that she plays around with, but never has she touched or seen for that matter an electric guitar.

She asked to watch a scene where the boy plays over and over... AND Then... to seek out more of this phenomenal music. So I played Jimi for her and then we moved on to some acoustic friends like Dave Matthews (who is phenomenal) and some slightly obscure but still insanely talented Decemberists...

I was in heaven - because frankly I LOVE music. I kind of always thought everyone LOVED music - but have come to find some like it, some may even love it, but it's a smaller group of those who LOVE it. And, I was way excited to share it with her (although I think she is still in debate over the Decemberists - ah well, in time my dear child - in time).

If she keeps on course you all may very well see Morgan playing a guitar (style TBD) in the future - she is determined to take lessons, but we have to wait. Chatted with a friend and he says - 8 or up. Before that their fingers are not developed enough to work with the guitar - so keep on developing fingers, in the mean time we'll keep the flame lit and the auditory senses filled.