Girl Scouts

Lauren's been wanting to join the Girl Scout troop at her school for a while now.  It started up last year, and the mom of one of Lauren's best friends is one of the troop leader.  Since Lauren's friend is in it Lauren wanted to participate all through last year.  We never got involved last school year, but this school year, I let Lauren join.  Since she's in 2nd grade now, that means she joined as a Brownie.

I can see now why we didn't join last year.  It's not that joining the girl scouts is bad or anything, it's just that it's really busy.  Lauren's had one activity after another with the girl scout troop and November was no exception.

She started the month by going out on a nature hike and scavenger hunt with the troop at Alum Rock park the first weekend in November.  The park was nice and secluded one that I hadn't been to before.  A stream runs through the park, but the water has a heavy sulphur concentration.  The girls had a scavenger hunt to find things that were of different colors, shapes, and textures.  After the walk, they put together a canvas board with some of their discoveries as an art project.

The second weekend in November was Veteran's Day, which happened to land on a Sunday this year.  That meant the girl scout troop was able to participate in San Jose's annual Veteran's Day parade, and Lauren was able to march in the girl scout contingency.  It was beautiful day for a parade, and the girls seemed to enjoy the attention they were getting marching in the parade.  Afterwards we went to Peggy Sue's in downtown for a quick lunch.

On top of that, on Thursday after the Veteran's Day parade, the girl scouts had an outing to Santa Clara City Hall to get a tour and explanation of government processes.  Since I was in Las Vegas for the week for work, Lauris took Lauren to this most recent outing.

For each of these events Lauren is earning a badge to add to her Brownie vest and she's enjoying the company of the girls in the scouts, especially her best friend, Sydney.