A Trip To Paris

Anna was fortunate enough to go on a trip to Paris with her friend from church, Jolie Fox.  Here is a group photo of everyone that went on the trip.  More info to come.

Happy 170th Birthday Relief Society!

On March 17th, 1842 The Relief Society was the first women's organization and it was organized as a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tonight was the Woodridge 1st Ward's Relief Society Birthday Dinner to celebrate the occasion. Since it was near St. Patrick's Day, the party had a St. Patrick's Day theme. There was a lot of green everywhere and rainbow colors, too. It was beautiful.

The meal was centered around an Irish theme as well. They served corned beef and cabbage, sheperd's pie, Irish soda bread, salad, and birthday cakes for dessert. There was such a variety of cakes. I didn't try them all, but I did try a small bit of many of them.

They offered babysitting for those women who needed to bring their children. Initially I didn't sign my children up to be watched because Clinton would be home. I found out last night that he would be helping with a YM campout Friday night and Saturday morning. (There's nothing like being surprised.)

Unfortunately, the YM weren't able to get the campground site, so they did camping stuff at the church, came home to sleep, and will reunite tomorrow morning at 9:00am to do other stuff. The kids had a lot of fun at church. They made crafts, had snacks, played with toys, and watched movies. I'm sure they had a lot more fun than if they stayed at home.

Happy 100th Birthday Girl Scouts!

Today, the Girl Scouts organization turned 100 years old. Anna's Girl Scout Troop #17 is participating in a Promise Circle at Meadowview Elementary school with a ton of other girl scouts (over 180).

Since Girl Scouts began in 1912, all of the girl scouts everywhere were to hold a special birthday celebration and at 7:12pm (19:12), they held hands in a Promise Circle, recited the GS law & oath, and sang a song (at least my daughter's group sang a song).

Throughout the night, the girls played games, did crafts, had refreshments, had raffle drawings, made treat bags, and even had their picture taken with a person who portrayed Juliette Low (the founder of Girl Scouts).

Anna has been in Girl Scouts since Kindergarten. She loves it! The number of girls in her troop has varied at times. Right now, her troop is small. I don't know if they only have eight girls in it, but only eight girls were there. Her troop starts from the person to the left of Anna (if you're looking at the picture) to the girl on the far right side of the door. I don't know who the first girl is (I'll have to ask Anna), but from left to right, of the girls in her troop, it is the girl in the jacket, Anna, Gaby Anderson, Stephanie Bielawa, Annamarie Hyer, Katie Whiteman, Lily Kraus, and Vanessa DeMarchi.

Emma really enjoyed Girl Scouts, too, and was in it until last year. Her leader was no longer going to be the leader, I didn't want to volunteer, and the person who decided to be the leader could meet on Sundays. We decided not to have Emma participate in it because of the day their meetings would be held. I know she would still love to be in it, but she is a social girl without participating with them in Girl Scouts. Maybe Emma will be able to join in the future if the day changes for their meetings.

A great big thanks to all of my girls' leaders for the time, effort, patience, and love that they put into working with these girls, especially mine.

My Girls Are Too Young To Be So Into "Studs"

I knew there would come a day when my girls would be into "studs", but I never thought it would be so soon. Today, Anna & Emma got rid of their original "studs" and got some new "studs". Anna is 10 and Emma is only 8, but luckily, it's not boys yet. On July 7, 2011 Anna got her ears re-pierced and Emma got her ears pierced for the first time. I told them when they were young that they didn't have to get their ears pierced, but if they wanted to, they would have to wait until they turned 8. So, on Anna's 8th birthday, she got her ears pierced. As time went on, her ears were not taken care of as well, and so, we couldn't get an earring into one of her ears. She eventually stopped wearing earrings. For Emma, once she turned 8, she wasn't sure if she wanted to have it done or not, so she decided to wait. A few days later, she decided to have it done, but we were either too busy or kept forgetting to get it done. Finally, we did it. Anna decided to get her ears re-pierced when Emma had hers done. They were both so excited to pick out their "studs" for piercing and additional "studs" they could use later. I think they needed to keep their original "studs" in for six weeks and then some sort of "stud" in their ear up to six months, but I figured keeping their original "studs" in that whole time wouldn't hurt, so that's what we did. They knew they could change their "studs" around Justin's birthday and today was the day they decided to do it. They were real excited about choosing other "studs" today and I'm so glad it wasn't boys.