A Walk Down Girl Scout Memory Lane

Louisa has been a proud Girl Scout for four years now. She started as a Daisy in kindergarten, served three years as a Brownie, and last Thursday we had the honor of watching our little birdie bridge to Junior Girl Scouts. The big difference between a Brownie and a Junior, besides the uniform being green instead of brown, is the maturity level. Junior Girl Scouts have typically been through 3 or 4 years of Girl Scouts. They know what to expect and what is expected of them. But what I'm most excited about is all the trips that Louisa will get to take. With Brownies she's been camping and roller skating and on volunteering trips and to the movies and tons of other stuff. But with Juniors Louisa will get to do much more camping, go to museums and national monuments, explore factories and see what makes America so great, as well as learn life skills. Her new scout leader is very active and we're excited to be a part of this new, more grown up troop.

I was a little sad at first because I was always hoping to be a scout leader or at least a co-leader. When I asked if I could help out next year because only 3 girls out of our troop are bridging up to Juniors, I was told that the Junior scout leader is very established and has been leading for many years. No, decades! She's been around for almost 3 decades. With a small sadness in my heart, I realize that it's best if Louisa goes with someone who has been doing this for a long time. Also, that she can be with a scout leader who can devote a lot of time to being very active with the troop and take them on a lot of trips. Now that so many days have passed since Louisa bridged, I realize that I'm excited for this opportunity for her.

Here is a walk down that old Girl Scout Memory Lane, but I don't have any Daisy pictures available. Those were my pre-digital days, and therefore the photographs are buried somewhere in the bottom of a big plastic tub and I just didn't have the energy to dig them out. Now might be a good time to start scrapping all of this for her, though. Before I forget too much of it!

{This is Louisa's first Awards Ceremony as a first year Brownie in 2004. She had ballet class right before Brownies, so she always had to wear her ballet leotard during meetings.}

{Louisa has marched in a total of about 6 parades between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This was Memorial Day 2005. Louisa's the one sporting the cool purple sunglasses!}

{May 2005, Louisa and I went on our first camping trip with Brownies. I am about 7 months pregnant with Hunter at the time. We had a blast and earned a lot of badges on this trip. I'm very grateful I got to tag a long!}

{In the summer of 2005, Louisa's Brownie leader rented them a garden plot in the local community gardens. The girls spent the summer working in the garden. They donated more than half of what they grew and they brought home a lot of yummy veggies to eat! Louisa is in the middle and the other two girls are the leader's twins, our very good friends who we miss a lot since we've moved, Caitlin and Ashley.}

{Perhaps one of the funnest trips we've taken to date is the trip to Libby Lu last spring. The girls worked hard selling cookies and their goal was a trip to Libby Lu in Milwaukee's Mayfair Mall. They all got make-overs, got to dress up, and then dance and have a lot of fun. Although, what Louisa gets to do this year with her new troop with the money they earned selling Girl Scout cookies will probably top Libby Lu, it was a blast and another trip that I'm so lucky I got to go on.}

{Last summer, separate from her regular troop, Louisa played Girl Scout softball. I was the head coach. My memoirs are listed here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. Ok, you don't really have to read them, I just like bragging about how I coached the team to First Place!}

{Now we fast forward to this year. Third year Brownies. We moved to the army base in the end of November. I called in December to locate a new troop for us. They finally called us back in the middle of January. Just in time for cookie sales. Go figure. But, because of those cookie sales, Louisa gets to go spend the night at the Johnson Space Center in Houston so it was totally worth it. Here's my little birdie bridging last Thursday. She flew up, earned her wings, and is now officially a Junior Girl Scout. She's very proud of herself and all the hard work she's done.

Scouting is definitely her "thing".}