Thursday Threads

Each week I will post my outfits! I'm currently using a capsule wardrobe. I just started my fall capsule and hope to try new outfits!

*Don't mind the children, pets, dirty mirror, or junk in the photo. This is real life :)*

I've started filling in my brows. I can't believe how much it's changed the look of my face. I don't wear a lot of make up, but I really enjoy this look!

I'm really sad this photo is blurry! This is probably my favorite outfit.

You probably noticed I practically live in my denim shorts. It's been so hot here lately that I can't wear pant. I love these shorts but I'm ready to put them away for the year.


The Pleated Poppy

Girl Scout Meeting #4

We split apart by levels again at this meeting. I like having the daisies separate because the curriculum is very different. I know you can combine it with the older levels, but there's something special about the petals and the flower friends. I keep the brownies and juniors together. We only have two juniors and so far they've only both been at one meeting at the same time. One junior is completely new to scouts, so it's good for her to follow along with the brownies. 

Snack/Dance Party

Pledge

Promise

We  then split into levels

DAISY

Honest and Fair

Read Lupe's story

Lupe the Lupine is the first of the flower friends. We will read each story based on the petals. The leader then goes through the talking prompts with the girls

Pick Three Games

The girls were asked to pick three games. They were to take turns and be fair. They chose, "duck, duck, goose", "red light, green light", and "Simon says". 

Candy Game

The girls were asked to empty a bag of candy and divide it evenly among  themselves.  They were  then allowed to eat it.

Coloring Book

The daisies ended their meeting by coloring the Lupe page!

BROWNIE/JUNIOR

Brownie Ring

The girls were to complete the Family Star activity for homework. We went around the circle and talked about what was special about each family member. 

Brownie Quest - Agent of Change

Page 52 and 33

I asked Story why the girls didn't work in the book. I know they do book work at school so I couldn't figure out what was different. She said the teacher goes through it with them, she doesn't just tell them to turn to a page and complete it. I tried that and it worked great! We went through the questions with them and they really enjoyed it.

Team Building - Loop the Hoop

This was a really fun activity. The girls divided into two circles. They were to pass a hula hoop from girl to girl without letting go of each other's hands. They thought this was awesome! 

Blindfold Game

The girls broke into three groups of four. They took turns being blindfolded and had their team lead them without touching.

Homework 

We decided to send more of the book work home and focus on the activities at the meetings. The brownies were told to complete page 54, talk about Cambell's house and page 55, Healthy Living Activity. The juniors were told to complete pages 34-35 and also 45-63. The juniors have a lot more book work, but that just seems to go with the grade level. They seem to like it, so that's good!

Girl Scout Meeting #3

All levels came together for our third meeting. We did an Investiture/Rededication Ceremony. It was the first time our troop held this event. My first year as leader was a mess. I didn't really know what I was doing and barely scraped by. Second year I was heavily pregnant and went on maternity leave for a few weeks. Third years the charm!

Because we are a multi level troop I broke the ceremony into parts. We didn't have snack or dance party this meeting because we had a pizza party at the end!

Pledge/Promise

Daisy Flower Ring Ceremony

I looked on Pinterest - because, duh - for daisy investiture ideas. Honestly, I couldn't find a lot for that level. I did however see a neat idea for a daisy flower ring. It goes to a dead link so I kind of made it up to fit our troop. I took a hula hoop and taped faux flowers to it. The girls took turns stepping through the flower ring. I then handed them certificates!

Brownie Pond Ceremony

Now, there's a ton on Pinterest for a brownie investiture! I decided to do the brownie pond. This one is just a photo with no link. I started by reading "The Brownie Story". The girls enjoyed listening but seemed to get bored about half way through. Finley, my two year old, decided to get everyone's attention. We were all sitting in a circle and she stood in the middle and loudly started singing, "We Are The Champions" by Queen. The girls, and parents, thought it was hilarious! It took several minutes to settle everyone back down. When I started reading again, they were paying attention. 

Girls too turns walking around the "pond" while the group chanted the rhyme. We have fourteen brownies, so this took a little bit of time! We had originally planned on holding a junior candle ceremony too, but I couldn't find flameless candles in time. Totally my failure. We have two juniors so they just did the brownie pond too. 

Refreshments

I invited the parents to attend but kept the event informal. We meet right after school so it's difficult for some parents to get there after work. We had pizza and drinks! 

The end of our last meeting was a bit chaotic with collecting dues, handing out papers, and parents turning in forms. We started a new system that seems to be working so far. I'll take photos and explain more about it in a few weeks. I want to make sure its successful.

Thursday Threads

Welcome to the first addition of Thursday Threads! Each week I will post my outfits! I'm currently using a capsule wardrobe. I just started my fall capsule and hope to try new outfits!

*Don't mind the children, pets, dirty mirror, or junk in the photo. This is real life :)*

Linked to The Pleated Poppy

Girl Scout Meeting #2

We split apart into level groups for this meeting. The daisies focused on learning the girl scout promise and what it means to be a girl scout. The brownies and juniors were combined today. We started The Brownie Quest and Agent Of Change journey series. The journeys seem to be better structured for these levels. I'm not a fan of the daisy journeys. 

Snack/Dance Party

Pledge

Promise

Brownie Circle

I actually completely forgot about the brownie circle for this meeting. Our snack time was a bit off so it kind of threw me.

At this point we split into our separate groups

DAISY

Girl Scout Promise Activity

The girls cut out a hand print and glued it into the right position for the girl scout sign. They also cout out the promise and glued it too.

Flower Activity

They were to color a daisy flower that had all the petal named

Letter Writing Activity

We asked the girls to write a letter to themselves about their first week or year as a girl scout. 

Coloring Book

Each daisy has a coloring book. It has a page for each petal friend. They will end each meeting with the coloring book.

BROWNIE/JUNIOR

Brownie - Design A Patch Step 1 & 2

We started the meeting by brainstorming on a skill we could learn. The girls shouted out a lot of really great ideas. Some of my favorites were tree tapping and Latin. They narrowed it down and decided to learn how to speak in a foreign language. They couldn't decide which language though. I think they'll probably be tasked with picking whichever language they'd like and then learning ten words.

Ball Toss

The girls stood in a circle and tossed the ball. If the ball was thrown to you, you were to say a special skill that is unique to you. My Co-Leader wrote down each girl and skill on a star. 

Brownie Quest - Agent of Change

Discovering Me page 49 and 13

This didn't go as well as I'd have hoped. The girls had a hard time understanding what to do. I don't think they really grasped the concept. Hopefully it'll work out better next time.

Search

I scattered individual lines of the girl scout law. The girls were supposed to put them in order. They didn't like this activity very much. I wouldn't do it again.

Brownie Quest - Agent of Change 

Discovering Values page 50 and 27

Again, the girls didn't quite grasp what they were supposed to do. I'm worried that the journeys will get a bit boring and tedious. Hopefully I can keep it fun.

Friendship Circle

We didn't get around to doing this again. I really hope we can get to it at the next meeting.

The girls were sent home with the "Making A Family Star" activity. 

This meeting wasn't the best. We're going to tweak a few things in hopes that it goes better next week! Next week we will have an Investiture Ceremony. This will be the first time we've held one!

Girl Scout Meeting #1

A new school year means the start of girl scouts! I kind of fell off the grid last year with these posts. I had a good excuse though! Oliver was a newborn and fall product sale was in full swing. I really hope to keep up with it this year!

We're doing things a little bit different this year. Majority of our troop bridged to brownies!! This year we added in kindergarten and first grade daisies along with fourth grade juniors. Our troop went from twelve to twenty-three! Whew! It's going to be a fun year. Stressful, but fun.

Meeting #1 - Intro

For this meeting we kept all levels together. Most of the meetings will be separated by level. We've got a lot of really wonderful parent volunteers who are willing to help out with all levels. We have a couple girls coming from other schools so I added in an extra half hour at the beginning of the meeting to allow them time to arrive. We fill this time with snack and dance party! I made a CD with age appropriate, girl empowering songs. We meet on Fridays right after school. This gives the girls a chance to burn off some energy and mingle.

Pledge

Promise

Brownie Ring

Introductions

The girls introduced themselves and said something that made them special. They then paired off and we learned how to do the girl scout handshake.

Photo Time

Each year I take a photo of each girl at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year I give them all personalized photo albums. We're trying to be better this year at taking photos. 

Kaper Chart Activity

Each girl was given a clothes pin to decorate. We will use it for our Kapers. Haven't gotten that off the ground yet, but I'm trying!

Friendship Circle

Ideally I'd like to end each meeting with a friendship circle. We just had our second meeting and haven't done it yet. 

This meeting was followed by a brief parent meeting. We changed a lot of the structure of the group and I needed to fill parents in on what was different and what to expect. 

I'm really excited for this year! It has the potential to be great! 

Be Perfectly Imperfect - An earring review

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by the lovely Tiffany Climer of Be Perfectly Imperfect to review a pair of custom earrings! I was honored that she wanted me to review her product! This is my first product review and I'm excited about the opportunity!

Tiffany and I emailed back and forth about her products. She asked a lot of questions and helped me determine my style and palate. She has several different styles to choose from with endless color combinations! And she's constantly adding new product! She had a lot of bright, fun earrings on her Etsy site. I don't wear a lot of bright colors so we picked out muted, neutral colors. She can also customize the hardware. I wear more silver to go with my wedding band so that's what I chose! I chose the fringe earrings in silver, navy, and olive. 

via

She shipped my order and just a few days later, I had these beauties in my ears! I'm the worst at remembering to wear jewelry of any kind. I don't wear anything other than my wedding ring. I wore these for a family birthday party and promptly forgot I was wearing them! That's a huge deal for me. I don't want to mess with something that's distracting or heavy. I don't have time for uncomfortable jewelry!

I've worn them a handful of times since then and every time they're comfortable! And they match with all of my clothing! I started my very first capsule wardrobe this season. I promise to do a few posts about it later! 

Anyway! I didn't get a ton of photos from the week. Purely for selfish reasons. I had several bad hair days! Haha! But, I was able to take a few more photos.

I'd recommend Tiffany's shop to anyone and everyone! She has so much to choose from and if you don't see your perfect pair, she will help you create them! She's expanding her brand and has recently added leather braided bracelets! She also just added the cutest new pair of earrings today. They're a new design and I think they're so cool!

Be sure to check out her Etsy shop as well as her Instagram! 

I was given a pair of earrings to review. All opinions are my own.

Oliver Grant :: Four and Five Months Old

Weight/Length

Baby boy had a check up this month. He now weighs 14 pounds and is 24 inches long! He had a major growth spurt.

Sleep

He is no longer sleeping through the night... We had a good run, but now we're up every two hours. He takes good naps throughout the day, so we're not exhausted.

Eating

This boy is hungry! He is a solid nurser and is not a happy camper if he has to wait. He nurses every two hours round the clock. We were given the OK to start cereal but I've decided against it.

Diapers

Still in 2's and Pamper's Swaddlers. They seem to be working the best for us right now. I'll probably move him to 3's next month.

Clothing

He's in 3 month clothing almost completely now. Some 3-6 fit but I'm not quite ready to get all of them out.

Mood

He's still a bit fussy and seems to have tummy issues sometimes. He spits up like a champ and is so quiet when he does it! He's super cuddly wants to look at you at all times. 

LOVES

talking

smiling 

giggling

grasping at toys

cuddling

DOESN'T LOVE

tummy time

being scared

What I Want To Remember

The way he gets so excited to take his shirt off

How hard he laughs in the bath

The sweet smell of his breath

How hard he pulls my hair

All the grunts

Weight/Length

He didn't seem to get a whole lot bigger this month. I think he's probably around 15 pounds and maybe 24.5 inches.

Sleep

He is still waking every two hours on average. Some nights we'll get a four hour stretch, but it rare. Luckily, he nurses and then goes back to sleep. But, he's a good napper! He'll sleep for about two hours, two or three times a day.

Eating

He is nursing about every three hours, for twenty minutes at a time! He seems satisfied so I'm holding off on the solids a bit longer. 

Diapers

I moved him to size 3 in Luv's. They seems to be working just fine!

Clothing

Ol' Thunder Thighs has moved to 6 month clothing! And a few of those are already too small! He still has a few 3-6 month that fit but he kind of skipped that size all together. 

Mood

What a sweet boy! He loves to smile and coo. Overall he's really happy, calm, and sweet.

LOVES

being naked

diaper changes

playing with toys

putting everything in his mouth

bath time with Finley

cuddling

DOESN'T LOVE

being alone for too long

teething

tummy time

What I Want To Remember