Daisies Christmas Party

What a bunch! These girls are so cute, so fun, and so giggly!! That's all they do is giggle for two hours. Our holiday party was a huge hit! The girls each had a $5 limit for the gift exchange which they were very excited for. We did a quick review of left and right and determined that they could also play the Wright Family Exchange game that the Juniors did. We had to help a little when things started to get crazy with the left, right, left, left, right but if they didn't have that down before they arrived they've got it now!
Everyone shared what they received and thanked each other (also very cute!). We then started our snow people. All the girls love to paint so this was a hit. While the paint dried we had snacks while watching a quick version of Frosty the Snowman. Then it was back to the craft table to put the finishing touches on our snow people.
Merry Christmas Daisy Girls!

Such a sweet little group! It is so neat seeing Lindy and Paige with some of the girls they were Daisies with and how they have become such good friends over the years. Not only does Girl Scouts teach wonderful values but its such a great way for girls to bond and form friendships. Everyone is included and everyone is friends, be a sister to every Girl Scout!

When Lindy and Paige were Daisies I made these ornaments for all the girls in the troop. Its so nice to have Junior girls to help me out with things like this! Lindy took care of putting all the coats of white paint on these wooden flowers. The girls names are on the front with the year on the back in "Daisy Blue". I love having my ornament from my Brownie leader and its so special to think about all the fun I had way back when I was in Girl Scouts.

Flower Pot Snow People Craft

For our Junior and Daisy Girl Scout craft we did these adorable Snowmen (or girls, babies etc). They turned out so cute and I was able to adapt it for both the younger and older girls, just did a bit more prep for the little ones.
A flower pot turned upside down with a wooden ball hot glued to the top made the body. We cut infant socks near the top, turned them up a little to create the hat (you need one sock per snowman for this part). We tied a piece of ribbon around the middle of the hat and then snipped the ends with scissors to "fringe" the top. The left over sock was used to make the scarf. The girls then chose 2 buttons to hot glue on and then painted on their faces.
I am so glad that I have 3 of these to decorate for the winter, I just love them!

Girl Scout Christmas Party

The Junior Girls love to have parties! They also love tradition and like to do the same activities for the holidays which I think is very cute. So going with tradition we had our annual cookie exchange and $5 gift exchange.
For the gift exchange game we played a fun game with the story of the Wright Family at Christmas time. There are various versions on the Internet. Each girl starts with the gift they brought, I read the story and each time the word right or left is said the girls pass the gifts in that direction. It gets a little silly and crazy but we all had a ball. The gift you are holding at the end is the one you open and keep. It is so neat to see what the girls come up with! I am always amazed at what they can do with $5. They are one creative bunch and I love to see how some of them make their gifts, how cool is that?! Lots of sewing this year with bags and snowmen, girly accessories, decorations, and crafty items were all big hits.
Faith's uncle recently deployed to Afghanistan so we made Christmas cards for his unit. We also made an adorable snowman craft (coming in another post) for the girls to count for a holiday decoration in the Art in the Home badge.
 Merry Christmas Juniors!

Rebekah and her new jewelery box.

Mia and her new handmade snowman decoration.

These two Faith's are hilarious! Last year Faith D. got Faith P.'s gift in a name drawing. Then she got it again when we randomly traded gifts. Faith sewed the bag that she gave Faith.

 Filling their cookie bags. What wonderful treats they all made!

 AnnMarie and Anna

 Each year I give the girls an ornament, this year was green (for the junior sash color) with their names on one side and the year on the other. These remind me of an ornament hanging on my tree. A red ball with my name in glitter and the year 1978, from my Brownie leader.

Hats, Mittens, & Food Oh My!

What a huge haul we had from donations at our Santa party! We hit an all time high! Over 100 food items, the Pickerington Food Pantry was very grateful. The final count was 68 mittens and gloves, 38 hats, and 3 scarves. By the end of the party the entry to our office was totally blocked. We literally had to jump over bags and boxes filled with goodies.
Paige and I delivered the mittens to City Hall for their mitten tree which will be distributed next week. The tree was pretty full, there was no way all of ours would even fit,  so we tried to make them look festive under the tree. What an awesome experience for all the kids. We are so appreciative of those who donate and make our collection a success. Our kids are so proud to take everything in. All of the kids work hard to clean the house, bake, and help get ready in general. It is truly a family effort, one that has become a beloved tradition for all of us. Taking the food and mittens in is really a great treat for them to see their work pay off.
Thanks so much to all who donated! We have helped to brighten someones Christmas a little bit.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Santa was here! What a wonderful day we all had with Santa. Friends from all areas of our life came to spend the afternoon with us and the jolly man. The kids were more excited than ever, they love to bake and get ready and I had more help than ever with baking this year. I spent many hours with all of them, up to our elbows in dough or in Ethan's case, peanut butter. We have never made so many buckeyes!

Many special treats this year! Our cousins came from Chicago, that was a big treat! Friends we had not seen in such a long time and BJ and Grandpa braved the crowd to come for the first time.
What was a great day turned into a wonderful evening. The after party was a very special evening with friends and family having pizza, wine, cookies, and great conversation. Couldn't have been a more perfect day!
Thank you Santa for stopping by! We love your visit! Have a wonderful Christmas, The Millers.

 Nancy's precious Janna was here for her first visit with Santa. She is a sweetheart!

Glad that the Girl Scouts were not too big to give me a picture with Santa. These were the only girls I could round up at the time but there were more running around!

The Dixon clan with one more on the way tomorrow!! Good luck Leigh!

If you don't go to Santa, Santa comes to you as BJ and Whitney found out!

Paige and Santa

The beautiful Hoser ladies - so glad you could join us, we had a great time with you!

 The dance girls!

 More dance girls showing their stuff to Santa!

 Paige and Grace

 Gloria and her "kids" Bill and Cyndi

 The only little one REALLY unhappy to see Santa was Lydia.

 Owen and Santa

 The Co-op crew!

 Santa and Julia. Julia ran right up to Santa and hopped on his lap. She is such a doll!

 We wish you a Merry Christmas!

 Mom and the Sisters!

The adorable Snider girls!

Merry Christmas love from both of us.

Tooth Fairy Box

I barely had this done for Erin's second tooth to fall out but I was determined to have something cute for her tooth fairy! I had looked for something that would fit under her pillow and was girly. I found a couple of cute things but never exactly what I wanted. Until I hit some scrapbooking blogs and found converted Altoids tins into magically cute Tooth Fairy boxes!
A little poem, lots of ribbon, cute paper, sparkles, and we had a little girls favorite place to put her teeth.

 A tiny envelope inside holds the tooth. I think they were Martha Stewart envelopes for tags but they work great for teeth too!

Lots of princess paper with glitter cover all the edges and sides of the box. The inside is velvety paper to cushion the precious little teeth.

Eagle Feather

Kyle was selected last February to attend Eagle Feather, National Youth Leadership Training Camp, this past summer. He spent a week in July at camp gaining leadership skills that he could bring back to use in his Boy Scout troop and in other areas of life.

He had a great time and learned many new skills. Most he had to put into place upon his return. He had 100 days to implement his goals within this troop and patrol. Upon completion he was signed off and submitted his final paperwork.

On Sunday he, along with 46 other boys from all over the Council area (Central, Southern Ohio, part of Kentucky) received their bolo tie award at the ceremony. Bill and I were very proud, of course!

Nice job Kyle, I know you will continue to be a great leader.

Cynthia is part of a Venture Crew which is a scouting program for both boys and girls. She went to a similar camp this summer as well and received her award last weekend! She and a friend were there helping out and cheering Kyle on.

Feeling a Little Safer...

since we have a Black Belt in the house! Kyle passed his Black Belt test today. Four years in the making and his goal from the beginning and he made it! We are all so happy for him. He has worked so hard, many hours of practice, classes, and other prep for today. The belts are 1/2 red and 1/2 black because technically you are a junior black belt until you are 16 years old. Nothing changes with the forms, kicks etc. but they will not allow anyone under 16 to go through the prep for Black Belt. It requires 3 days of fasting and 12 hours of meditation. Kyle still had to do these but in an abbreviated version, 24 hours fasting and 5 hours of meditation. That was long enough for a 14 year old and some kids are even younger, just not safe to have them fasting longer than that. So in 2 years he goes through it again to get the belt and then if he chooses (which knowing Kyle he probably will!) he can then proceed to higher degrees of Black Belt.

Anyway, its nice to know that should I need protection, he can kick someones butt! Makes me feel better when Bill is not around!

Seriously Kyle, we are super proud of you! This took tons of determination and hard work and Dad and I couldn't be more proud of you. Great Job!

Eyes on the board to break.

Board #2 to break:

The Grand Master presents all the belts, puts them on and hugs each student.

Belt presentation

Kyle and Master Meadows, his teacher for all four years. Fabulous guy!