Girl Scout Week

 This past week was Girl Scout Week.  Girl Scout Birthday is March 12th and this year the Scouts turned 101.  It just so happened that Celee's troop had an activity planned for that day.  It didn't really have anything to do with the birthday, but it was nice to do something with other scouts on that day.  It also helped that Gwyn and Lyla got to go too.  Celee's troop went to a wonderful grocery store here called Wegman's.  This store is like a cross between a Whole Foods and a Publix to me.  Heavier on the Publix side, but that's about the best way I can think to descibe it.  Anyway, the girls learned about healthy food choices.  I must brag that when asked what each girl had for breakfast, one of my girls had the most healthy answer of the group with oatmeal.  They also got to assemble some healthy foods to try.  I think the only "new" thing on the menu was spaghetti squash for my girls.  They technically have had it before, but none of them remembered it.  They also re-learned to make Monkey Toast.  I don't think we ever called it that, but it is toast with some kind of nut butter and bananas on it.  Gwyn has made it almost everyday since!

Wednesday we met some friends to play in the park.  It was just too chilly though.  We gave up when I got the call to pick Celee up from the elementary school.  It was her last day of testing.  They made it through wonderfully!  I really am so proud of them.  And very thankful to the ladies in the office at Padonia Elementary who were so very welcoming to my girls and made their testing days go so smoothly.  We won't get results until the end of the summer, but the girls feel good about how they did and anything that helps build their confidence outside of what I can do make me happy too.  So to celebrate the end of testing, we went to our friends' house to play and by mid-day it was warm enough that the kids all got to play outside again anyway.

 The girls and I decided to go out to eat for further celebration.  It doesn't take a lot to convince me.  "It's a Tuesday! Let's celebrate!"  So we ate at Jason's Deli, which was very good, then we went to the Dollar Store and bought some plates to decorate.  We've been wanting some more plates, and I kept looking at a craft idea on Pinterest using sharpies and dollar store plates so we tried it.  The girls really enjoyed drawing on the plates.  It was neat because you can erase it if you make a mistake and then when you get it how you like it, you bake it and it's permanent.  We each got a plate (Jason has still got to do his) and now we can eat more than one meal without having to run the dishwasher.  Heaven forbid that we would have to wash plates by hand.  :)  Oh and i guess I was feeling crafty because I decided to make a bleach t-shirt.  I think it came out pretty good.  I did drop some bleach to the side of the picture so now there's this weird blob east of Meridian, but I think if anyone asks I'll just say that must be Birmingham.
**Plate update:  The wonderful pictures they drew on the plates lasted through 3 dishwasher cycles and then started to fade away.  We are back to almost white plates again.  :(  Jason was concerned that it was coming off on our food, but I'm pretty sure it is only in the dishwasher.  So much for that Pinterest project.**

   Saturday was the World Thinking Day Celebration here.  Lyla's troop was representing Poland.  Celee's troop was representing England.  And Gwyn's troop was representing Japan.  Each girl had a turn at their troop's table answering questions about their country.  Then each girl got to travel around to all the tables learning about all the countries.  Afterwards everyone got to sample food from each country for lunch.  Each troop also prepared a song or dance to represent their country to perform for the audience.  Lyla's troop danced a traditional Polish dance.  Celee's troop danced to the Beatles while dressed as Royal guards or princesses.  And Gwyn's troop sang a Japanese children's song.  All the troops did a great job and it was fun to watch all the different takes each troop had for their performances.  To top it all off, there was a giant swap at the end.  My girls brought their swaps from previous events as well, so they ended up getting to swap for several more of the country swaps than they would have.

Sunday was St.Patrick's Day.  Somehow I neglected to take a picture of anything that day.  Celee and Lyla decked out in as much green as they could find to wear to church.  They were very adamant that no one have an excuse to pinch them.  Gwyn felt like she could get by with a minimum of green.  We had some sort-of Irish food.  I made scones for breakfast, which I think is more English than Irish but oh well.  We had green waffles for lunch.  We had roast (no corned beef for us), potatoes and cabbage for dinner.  I even made a green souffle for dessert.  We had gone swimming in the afternoon, so we were all tired and decided to watch a movie for the rest of the evening.  I voted for the Secret of Kells, but I was voted out so we watched The Two Towers.  Again, not exactly Irish, but Middle Earth has some Celtic-ness about it right?  :)