Mother's Day

28/03/19

This evening we did some Mother's Day activities. All the girls were making cards which they could give to their Mum or someone else if they had already made a card at school. We provided 4 colours of card (left over from when I made my wedding invites!) along with some patterned and plain paper. For our example, we stuck a sheet of the patterned paper to the front and then cut out hearts in plain paper to stick on top. We gave the girls free reign to do whatever they wanted.

We also took a group at a time into the kitchen to make some coconut ice. We have made this lots of times before and it is nice and easy to do without having access to much equipment. We used to make is with sweetened condensed milk but then we had a girl who was dairy free and couldn't have it. We bought her some coconut milk to mkae hers with and all the girls said it tasted better so this time we just used coconut milk. We used the following proportions which made about 30 balls:

• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup desicated coconut
• 2 cups (approx) icing sugar

Once all the girls had washed their hands, I got 2 girls to help with the pouring out of the milk and coconut and then we passed the bowl round for the girls to add in a spoonful of icing sugar and give it a mix. When it was nearly done, I also added a splash of pink food colouring. It got quite hard to mix towards the end so the leaders had to step in and help. Once they had finished mixing, they were given some mini paper cases and shown how to take a small amount of mix and roll it gently to make a ball. The church we meet in had been giving away some old plates which Brown Owl had picked up so each girl was given a plate with her name on to put their paper cases on. Once they were done, we covered the plate in clingfilm to keep all the paper cases on the plate! Most girls ended up with 6 paper cases each. It was quite hard work being in the kitchen and having to get through 4 groups of girls in just under an hour! If we did it again, we wold have 2 bowls on the go - one with girls mixing the icing sugar in and the other with the girls making the balls and putting them on the plates. We very nearly ended up overrunning and one of the leaders was cleaning up while we did the Brownie circle at the end..! Once we had dismissed the girls, they went to pick up all their belongings and then came to collect their plate, having been warned that if they dropped them, they would almost certainly break. Luckily we didn't have any accidents in the hall!

This was a chaotic evening, but I do enjoy letting the girls do something that some of them don't get a chance to do at home.