K1 Speed

Our Girl Scout Troop was planning a weekend camping trip but we got rained out! So, at the last minute, we had to plan something to do to make up for it, so the girls voted on indoor go-karts. It was really fun! We ordered pizza and had ginormous Costco cupcakes and had a party! The girls had fun, Riley and David came so Riley could race too, and Regan came in 3rd place from her whole troop. Riley came in 2nd in his race. It was a neat place, we will have to go back sometime this summer, good way to beat the heat!

Girl Scout Photo Shoot

Our Girl Scout troop did a photo shoot to celebrate another year together. The theme this year was "Girl Scouts are SUPER Girls!" And so each girl wore her Girl Scout uniform, and another outfit of something she is active in, sports, band, etc. We had Roller Girls, Volleyball, Karate, Flute, Trumpet, etc. Regan wore her church shirt since that's about the only other thing we are in right now! She is a Super Girl though because she works with the babies! Not many people love to do that as much as Regan.

So here are a few pictures from the photo shoot. The bonus was, siblings could jump in on the action too, so I bribed Riley and told him that would be my Mother's Day present if he would come, and SMILE for just a few pics. They turned out pretty good, so I'm glad he did.

Awards and More Awards!!

Man, we have some great kids. I know I'm biased, but really, when half of spring is spent going to awards ceremonies, it's hard not to be a little proud!!  First was Riley's HHS MCJROTC Awards Ceremony. Yes, that's a mouthful! He was awarded ribbons for Arts and Academics, Athletics, and Physical Fitness Achievement. We were very proud, and it was an incredible awards ceremony. This is only Hendrickson's 4th year to have an ROTC program, and the awards these kids received, it was amazing to see. They have some very dedicated, motivated kids at this school.

Next up was Regan's Girl Scouts of Central Texas awards. This was for everyone in our council area, which is most of Texas. Regan was a top seller, so she got an award and her picture taken with the CEO of Girl Scouts! She also got to pick up her big prize, her Kindle! She was most excited about that.

Then it was Regan's Girl Scout local service unit awards. She was the 4th highest cookie seller in our service unit, so she got a cute little cookie booth trophy.

Riley also got a few more ribbons for Sea Cadets, and Regan got a few more awards at school, so they have been pretty busy.

Juan in a Million

This is one of our favorite places to eat breakfast! And, I had a Groupon that was about to expire, AND we got to beat the SXSW crowds, and celebrate the (near) end of cookie season.

We always get the "Don Juan" and Riley has never before finished it, even though he always talks smack about how he can eat 2 or 3 of them if he wanted. Well, he finally was able to finish one, but it looks like he's about to hurl it up!

So after breakfast, Regan and I headed back out to finish up our cookie selling!

Marathon Selling!

Regan has almost always sold over 1000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. The first year we didn't, but every year after that we have. She loves being a "top seller" and getting recognized at the awards ceremony at the end of the year, and of course, all the prizes that go with being a 1000+ seller! Well, she's been wanting to UP that goal for a while now, and I've been dragging my feet. I get tired of people thinking I'm MAKING her do all these booths, poor child! But this year, we have a different baker so we got some different cookies, and I thought this might be a good year to try a higher goal.

Well, then we had all the bad weather and they canceled a lot of our good booths, and I didn't think we would make it. THEN, they extended the sale by 2 weeks, and I said, "Let's go for it!" Well, not the 2000 she was WANTING!! But, we are so close now to hitting 1500!!

But of course, that includes a few days of marathon cookie selling! We spent the day bouncing back and forth between Walmart booths with other crazy cookie friends! I actually think the 8 hours of booths was harder on me than on her, since I was coming down with a cold. And our last booth, from 6-8, the birds attacked and I got pooped on a couple of times, but so did the table and our boxes, and everything, it was SO gross! Thankfully our partner had some wet wipes so we were able to clean everything off. Overall, it was a pretty "crappy" booth :)

So here is Regan and her friend Natalie at the beginning of the sale, and Regan and Marillah at the end.

Bling Your Booth!

Our Girl Scout Council is having a competition to "Bling Your Booth"! So Regan and her friend Marillah decided to get together and bling our booth! The only problem was it was SO COLD! And we had a busy day with early booths, and Saturday church now, so the booth we were at was 8-10pm! It was so late, and we were so cold! But the girls did great, we had signs and super-hero capes and tiaras and pink hair chalk and Mardi Gras beads, and all kinds of glitter! Not to mention gloves and scarves and ear wraps and puffy coats! And cake pops!!

And to top it all off, they still managed to sell 40 boxes. Way to go girls!

Cold Selling!

It's been SO cold lately, and we've missed a lot of booths due to bad weather, so we are really trying to make up the time. We did a booth after school, and it was SO COLD! We couldn't feel our nose or fingers about halfway in. And the bad part was, we only sold 11 boxes! We had a really cute customer though. Although, this is NOT the "Cookies for the Troops" program!

Daisy Training

Part of being a Cadette this year, means Regan is now allowed to help train the Daisy's to sell cookies! Each Daisy can only sell at a booth for 1 hour, so they don't get a lot of time to learn, but they are so cute, and you get to sell a lot more when people want to buy from the cute little ones. Regan was a great helper, and she gets to add this to her community service log!

Annual Decorating of the Gingerbread!

Our Girl Scout troop has been doing this for years now, one of our leader's church hosts a Gingerbread House decorating event, and we've gone for 5 or 6 years. Our whole troop goes, and it's a nice fun family event. But, they made some changes this year and the houses were much smaller, and the icing was WAY runnier! And the kids just weren't as into it as before (growing up, they need to stop that!) So, Regan sat with her friends and they decorated their houses while Riley and David goofed off. It was still fun, but a little sad that it will be our last year to do it.

And Regan boxed her house up before I got a picture of it, and then it didn't quite make the ride home too well. It kind of tilted and some of the roof fell off. So, these are the only pictures I got.

Veteran's Day Parade/We Are Girls

It's been a bit of a "divide and conquer" weekend. One of our Girl Scout leaders had something come up, so they asked me to take her place at the "We Are Girls" Conference today. Riley had a fundraising hike for ROTC but he also had a parade for Sea Cadets, and he's color guard, so he really HAD to be there for the parade. We did raise money for ROTC, but he went to the parade. David met them out there so he could take pictures for me.

So Regan and I headed out with the troop bright and early this morning, and the keynote speaker was a young lady that was on the Olympic Boxing team. She was pretty inspiring, and it was neat to see a girl do so well in such a male dominated sport. Then we had several breakout sessions, but it was pretty unorganized and we weren't able to get into the sessions we really wanted, but overall, it wasn't too bad. We all got to wear our new troop shirts, and they were cute!

And then David went out to Cedar Park for the Parade and he said Riley did great. He look so dog-gone handsome in his dress blues! AND, I got to use my sewing machine again right before he left for drill, he got a 3 stripe instead of a 2 stripe (I don't know what that means except it's a rank up) so I got to sew the new patch on, and being a small sleeve, I think I did pretty good!

So we have about an hour of down time before we head off for our small group. We are now entering the "busy season" of our lives! From here till Christmas, it seems like it's just non-stop activities!

Regan's 'Role Model' she said, "My mom, she's nice, careing and loves me!" Aww!

Sewing Practice

I bought a sewing machine off Craigslist a few months ago, mainly to sew patches on things. Well, I learned through trial and error how to thread the needle and bobbin, and so, to practice, I sewed all the leftover patches on Regan's Junior Girl Scout vest. She's not a Junior anymore, and all I had at the time was olive green thread for Riley's Sea Cadet uniform. So, I practiced and got all the patches on, then went and bought clear thread. Then I sewed all her patches on her NEW Cadette vest. I can't believe she's a Cadette! She found her old Daisy and Brownie vests and tried them on, and it was too funny, they are so tiny now!

Anyway, here's the front, I need to get a picture of the back now with all our Arkansas trip patches on, it's already getting full!

Schlitterbahn

Regan won 2 free Schlitterbahn tickets for selling so many Girl Scout cookies earlier this year. Well, it's been so crazy this summer, we never had a chance to use them! Riley got to go twice this summer, and Regan hadn't been able to go, so I promised her a girl's day where we would just take off and go the last weekend they were open. Riley and David were supposed to go to Brady Lake for a Sea Cadets/Young Marine's joint training campout weekend thing, and there was NO WAY on earth we were going to be able to drag Regan out there after we were so bored last year! So, it was going to be a great weekend to go.

Well, it rained a lot, so much so that Riley's event was canceled at the last minute, which worked out well for me so I didn't have to worry about what to do with Hunter. And then, come to find out, Regan's friend Marillah, who also sold more than 1000 cookies and won the Schlitterbahn tickets too, also planned on going to Schlitterbahn the same day! So we met up with them, and Amie and I got to chill a little and hang out in the wave pool while the girls got to ride every little thing they wanted to ride! It was the perfect day to go, there were not many people there and the lines were very short.

After we left, we went to dinner in New Braunfels, and got home late, and very worn out. But Regan enjoyed her girls day and loved Schlitterbahn. It had been so long since we had been, she didn't even remember ever going there!

Pictures!

Prepare for an onslaught of pictures from the Arkansas trip!

This is the Crater of Diamonds State Park:

Crater of Diamonds State Park

Garvan Woodland Gardens, and the chapel where Regan wants to get married!

Garvan Woodland Gardens

Downtown Hot Springs Walking Tour:

Hot Springs, AR

The Haunted Tour (wooooo woooooo)

Haunted Hot Springs Tour

Heifer Village Tour:

Heifer Village

Willow Springs Water Park:

Willow Springs

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Theme park:

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls

Random Pictures of The Radford Girl Scout House:

Radford House

The Trip down and back:

The TRIP