Girl Scout Back Yard Camping Adventure....

Wow.  My weekend was a blur....  I hosted the girls' Daisy/Brownie troop at my house for a backyard camp out.  Sounds simple, right?  Ha!  I had no idea how hard it would be to keep 16 little girls focused and happy for that long.  It was CRAZY!  Thank God I had help!  I think that if I hadn't waited until the last minute to try to prepare, things would have gone smoother...  but that would be just too simple.  :)  I have GOT to work on my organization skills...   Hahaha!  I did attempt to clean up my backyard for the event, and I did make the fire pit, and I did have a general idea of how the "meeting" should go... But I didn't write out anything down,  I even lost the shopping list that V and I made for food!  I ran into Kroger in a panic at 11 am on Sat, with no list and frantically loaded my cart with food (the meeting started at 1pm)...  I, forgot drinks and s'more ingredients (S'mores are the most important part!!!!), and I had to call V and ask her to get those.  It was crazy.   We still had to send someone out on another trip during the meeting to get more food....  Grocery shopping is NOT my thing. Hahaha!  The other thing that I forgot to do, was get someone to bring a camera... mine has bitten the dust after being dropped in the sand one too many times.... That would be the fourth camera I have destroyed in the last year.... Sheesh... So not many photos this time... :(

I was way more stressed than I thought I would be... I don't know how teachers do it everyday.  Trying to get the attention of that many children is NOT easy!  Thankfully some of the other mothers were actually teachers, and knew how to handle it... Sheesh.  I'm not sure I'm leader material.  I can come up with the ideas for trips and meetings, but my actual leadership skills are not good.

I don't like speaking in front of groups--- even groups of children.   In fact, I don't like speaking period.  It's funny I can talk someone's ear off when I'm on the phone, but in face to face situations, I am not the best at keeping conversation up... unless I start rambling... then I usually say too much, or say the wrong thing!  That's what always gets me into trouble... diarrhea of the mouth. Hahaha!  I think some of my friends are beginning to think I really am a nut.  But, as I've said before...  I have never attempted to even imply that I am sane.  At least I recognize it.... :)

Anyway, the girls had a great time I think!  About six girls stayed over all night.  Every one slept the entire night in the tent.  I was very happy about that!  No one freaked out, and they all fell asleep by 11:30ish.  V, M, and I stayed up and gossiped around the fire until about 1am... It was actually really nice, and funny!  I will say that  sleeping out there was not the most comfortable experience... I was too lazy to get a pillow from the house, so I had sleep on my stomach with my neck all jacked up...  Yesterday I paid for it... my ENTIRE body ached...  I am definitely not the young, fit woman I once was!  Hahaha!

All in all, I think it was a good experience for the girls.  Next time, however, I would rather do it at somebody elses house! Ha! Now back to cleaning up...