Pack Holiday 2019 - Friday

04/10/19

I returned to my old unit to help Mum with her pack holiday this year along with my husband. The theme for this years pack holiday was Civil Engineering and we did the 'AMEY Guiding Girls Into Engineering' Challenge badge (unfortunately not available any more). Me and my other half were in charge of running the activities as he is a Civil Engineer, Mum and the other leader cooked, and we had 1 more leader and a DofE student to help out.

On the Friday night, we all arrived earlier than the girls to the house we stay in so that we could set up posters, activities, and the food. We also had to pitch a tent outside for my husband as Girlguiding rules are that men must have separate sleeping arrangements when on an overnight stay with Girlguiding members.All the leaders also had a quick microwave meal for dinner so we had the energy for what was to come!

The girls all arrived at around 6:30 and hurriedly found themselves a bunk to share with their friend. It was absolute chaos for half an hour and the newer parents faces were a picture when they were helping their daughters bring in their stuff and set up their beds! Once the parents had all gone, we sat the girls all down and explained all the rules to them, such as not leaving the house wihout an adult, not leaving the paths in the woods, and not running down the corridors, especially past the kitchen door.

Then it was time for the first activity - a wide game that my husband had created. The aim was to teach the girls what a typical day in the life of a civil engineer was. He had bought a load of his work PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) - high-vis jackets and trousers, hard hats, safety specs, and gloves and we split the girls into their three sixes. We also had one leader with each six who had a torch so the girls could see what they were doing as, by this time, it was dark. The girls started in their 'office' with a design for a shape, made up of several flags that they had to mark and the distances between them. One at a time, they had to run up to the middle, the 'locker room' where the PPE was, put all the items on, pick up a flag and a tape measure, and then run to the 'site' where there was one flag already placed. They had to measure out where their flag needed to go, and put it in the ground before running back to the 'locker room' to take off the PPE and then returning to the 'office' for the next girls to have a turn. We explained to them that this is what my husband spends a lot of his time going between his office and site to set out the next thing which the workers are going to build. He then went and measured each of the sixes creations and awarded the winner to the most accurate design who finished quickest - his explanation being that if you do it wrong in the real world then you have to repeat yourself which loses more time. The girls got quite into the game, although they did need some help using the tape measure - we had kept the measurements to 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m but some of them couldn't even manage that. A few girls complained that it was too dark and they were a bit cold (they were all wearing coats) until he explained that he can sometimes be doing this at 2 in the morning! I'm not sure if we impressed them or put them off with that comment!

After we had finished the wide game, which took a bit longer than we anticipated, the girls all went in for a snack tea. They should all have eaten a proper dinner before they came but we make a few pizzas so they can warm back up after being outside in the dark. We also made the place name cards which we use to jumble up all the girls at the table each time we eat. They then had some hot chocolate and mini marshmallows before going and changing into their pyjamas and brushing their teeth ready for bed. They took a very long time to settle, but that usually happens as they are excited and there are a lot of them in one room. Brown Owl went in a few times to get them to settle down and clam the girls who were a bit homesick and they eventually fell asleep just after midnight.

It was a good first evening to pack holiday this year, and the girls seemed to enjoy the game my husband had created.

Pack Holiday 2018 - Sunday

07/10/18

This morning the girls got up slightly later than they did yesterday. We had the same for breakfast as we did yesterday and, once they had done their duties and inspection, they got their coats on ready to go to the river. One of the girls said she felt a bit sick so Brown Owl stayed with her and we all set off with the rest of the girls. Brown Owl managed to persuade her that a walk outside might make her feel better so they started by walking to the end of the drive and surprisingly she felt fine so they followed us a few minutes behind. The walk there was fairly uneventful although we did get a lot of giggles from the girls when all the cycling groups that went past actually replied to the girls when they said hello!! Luckily for us the river wasn't too deep when we got there so we drew some boundaries, laid down the rules (no splashing or pushing or you get out), and let the girls in. A few people walked past and commented on how nice it was to see the girls enjoying themselves outside. After a while, we got the girls to get out and dry off. We then set off back to the house. For once, I ended up at the front of the group (I usually end up with the slow walkers at the back!) and we were walking along having a nice chat. Two of the leaders set off ahead of us on their own to make sure lunch was started before we got back (we had enough adults to cover our ratios like that!). Shortly after they had gone, one of the girls from further back appeared next to me saying she really needed a wee and what should she do. I told her she would have to wait as there weren't any toilets nearby and she spent the rest of the walk back constantly telling me how much she needed to wee! She kept asking if she could run ahead because she knew the way and I kept saying no because then she would be without an adult. As we got closer to the house, her walk turned more and more into a waddle/dance! We then got to the back of the house and I told her she could run from there to the toilet and she was off like a rocket! We came round the corner and the front door was flapping in the wind slightly and she was nowhere to be seen! She reappeared a few minutes later looking much happier.

The girls all got back and changed out of any damp clothes they were wearing and then sat down for a very late lunch - spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread. It went down an absolute treat - the girls all ate in silence, finished everything that was on their plate, and many went back for seconds! Definitely more of a hit than the chicken nuggets and fish fingers with chips that we used to do!

After lunch there was only really enough time to pack up their bags (and shove sleeping bags into miniscule bags) and then do a speedy tuck shop before counting up the points. The girl with the most points gets to choose her keep-sake first (this year we had a selection of different games and things from the shop Tiger). We gave out badges and leaders presents and then let all the parents in to collect their daughters. There was absolute bedlam for a bit and then, just like that, they were all gone for another year.

We stayed for another hour cleaning the whole house and then we went home for a much need sleep! This year was a slightly odd one in that our whole timetable got tipped on its head by the rain on Saturday but it went well regardless. We didn't manage to finish either of the badges we were doing, but we can do the last few bits at meetings later in the term. And the girls enjoyed themselves which is the main reason we do this, even if it does take it out of all the leaders.

Pack Holiday 2018 - Saturday

06/10/18

The girls were up fairly early this morning - 6:30 by the other leaders' accounts! I popped out to wake up my other half in his tent while the girls got dressed and then we had breakfast - cereals followed by eggy bread, bacon, and toast. Once we were done eating, the girls all had duties to do - the Hostess six cleared everything off the table, the Cook six went and helped the leaders dry up the dishes, and the Health six wiped the tables, swept under the table and checked the toilets had loo roll and were clean. Once they had all finished, they had a short amount of time to tidy their beds and then it was inspection time. We introduced an extra sticker for the neatest bed (which we didn't tell them about) and surprised even ourselves with the girl we gave it to - she's usually a bit messy and scatty but she had really made an effort making her bed! We made her day by giving her the second sticker.

Once we were done with inspection, we started our first set of activities. One group made book folding hedgehogs (and decorated them with glitter glue and googly eyes), another made bookmarks and the third made posters to advertise the Brownie Olympics we are holding tomorrow. I sat with the girls making bookmarks and chatted with them. The girls started off in their sixes doing one of the three activities but could then move round once they had finished the one they were on (the only bottleneck was the number of seats to do the book folding).

Our original plan for the weekend was for the girls to make a packed lunch (a clause for the Healthy Heart badge) and then walk to the river to eat it but the weather was so miserable that we decided not to eat outside. The girls each made their packed lunch and then we had a picnic on the living room floor instead! Each lunch had a sandwich (cheese, ham, jam, or marmite), a packet of crisps, a selection of fruit/veg (cucumber sticks, grapes, baby tomatoes, bananas, and apples), and a small cake (mini choc chip muffin or chocolate mini roll). The girls really enjoyed being allowed to sit on the floor and eat, and it was interesting to see what groups they formed too.

We then decided that we would postpone our river walk until tomorrow as the weather was meant to get nicer so we set up the tuck shop. We had a selection of various things from Trading which we sold, along with some sweets (they could have 2 each) and some other small trinket like items. The girls enjoy choosing things to spend their £5 on, although this year the parents hadn't listened when we asked for small change and we had to write a few IOUs and pay them back at the end of the shop, when we had some change!

We then did a few more of the crafty things, which we had planned to do tomorrow. This time, we had one six at a time designing a mascot for their sixes sport from random craft things we found in the cupboard and wanted to get rid of! The other sixes could choose to either make a poster about healthy/unhealthy food (or halfy if you're a Brownie!!) using various foody magazines we had collected or colour in a pattern only uing 3 colours. Annoyingly, a pattern can always be coloured in using no more than 4 colours but the Artist badge syllabus specified 3 so I improvised by not colouring in some sections to make it work! The girls really enjoyed this activity, and spent ages deliberating over what colours to pick (we had some really nice combinations) and then working out what parts to colour in to make pretty patterns. Mine came out fairly well, I think.

We also had some entertaining choices for the healthy/unhealthy posters, including a bottle of whiskey on the healthy side and a phone on the unhealthy side (admitted correct but not a food!).

The girls doing their mascots also had a great time - they had been given free reign over all the craft things we could find, including some big pots of glitter. We had some interesting designs and a few disagreements over what it was they wanted to make. Our YL stepped in and persuaded them to all make a part of their mascot and then combine it at the end to make a whole thing.

When the girls had finished all their craft, they had to write a song about smoking to perform at the campfire, as one of the clauses for the Healthy Heart badge. We then had dinner - the roast we would have had tomorrow but everything is all topsy turvey now! The girls seemed to enjoy it, alhtough not as much as they have done in previous years - they thought the chicken was a bit dry this year.

While the girls were doing their duties, me, our YL and my other half went outside to sort out the campfire. Unfortunately, because it had rained all night, a lot of the wood was damp. We found a few pieces which were dry and then we dragged out the bag of cardboard that hadn't been used yesterday, and was still dry too. We set up a small fire and the girls all came out to watch it be lit and then we sang a couple of songs:

• Campfire's Burning
• Cecil is my Caterpillar
• Oh You'll Never Get to Heaven

The girls also performed their smoking songs - we had 3 very different styles of song and all were equally as impressive for a quickly thrown together song! We then bought out our surprise of the end of the campfire - magic dust that changes the colour of the flames! We had double checked that it was safe for an outside fire and the only thing we couldn't do was cook over them but we had forgotten the skewers for the marshmallows so that didn't matter. We were about to sing another song while the fire burned green and blue but a massive gust of wind came and blew sparks into the bushes and the girls all ran inside screaming! The three of us who were in charge stayed outside watching the pretty colours while looking for a torch that got dropped in the panic and then spread out the embers so they didn't catch again.

The girls then had hot chocolate and got ready for bed. We told them they could read quietly for a bit and then left them to it. We then spent some time chatting in the living room and then decided to go to bed. We realised we hadn't heard a single peep from them and the lights had been turned off. There was absolute silence from in their room! Success!! We had a great nights sleep ready for tomorrow, with absolutely no interruptions - I guess that's one of the bonuses of taking a fairly young group of girls.

Pack Holiday 2018 - Friday

05/10/18

It's that time of year again - pack holiday weekend! I've done the same thing this year as previous ones, and split my blogs into the 3 days which will be published on Wednesday and Friday this week, and Monday next week with the usual Monday post coming on Wednesday instead. Be prepared for some long posts too - sorry not sorry! The theme of this pac holiday was the Olympics - the girls voted to do the Artist and the Healthy Heart badges and that was the only way we could think of to combine the two!

This pack holiday we went to the same place as usual, Campwood House in Macaroni Woods near Eastleach. All of the leaders arrived at around 4:30 and started setting up. We stuck up all of the posters, organised the craft room, put away the food, and had our dinner. While we were eating dinner, the doorbell went. Brown Owl sent me to answer it and said "if it's your other half let him in, otherwise tell them to go away for a bit, they're too early". I opened the door and it was our Young Leader, much earlier than we had anticipated. I let her in and shouted down the corridor that it was her and Brown Owl shouted back "oh yeah, you can let her in too!".

At about 6:10, the first of the Brownies started arriving. A lot of them haven't been before and so the parents were all wandering around and seeing what it was like. Quite a few of them got a bit confused as to where to park too and just drove slowly around the house until we flagged them down and pointed out the parking area under the trees. Surprisingly this year, none of the parents were late - we often have one or two who get lost and are really late. We did have one say that her phone had taken her to a pub called Macaroni in Cirencester and she thought she was going to be late but then they found us. Just as the last Brownie arrived, my other half showed up too, having come stright from work. He is a Beaver Leader and came to help us out as an extra pair of hands. I helped him set up his tent as the light was quickly fading while Brown Owl did the welcome for the girls and gave out booklets and told them all the safety info

• Don't go outside without an adult
• Don't go in the leaders rooms
• Don't touch the fire in the living room (not that we light it!)
• Don't trip over the tent guy ropes, 
• And most importantly for this year, keep the bedroom door closed while you're getting dressed as we have a man here this year and we often have a few girls who run around in their undies (or nothing...) while getting dressed...

Once they had done that, we set up the first activity of the weekend for them - Olympic Village Building. We had bought loads of cardboard and plastic recycling which we piled up outside, having set up some lights. We also gave each six a roll of packing tape. They were then given two pictures of athletes from their sixes sport (Horse Riding, Gymnastics, Swimming) and then had to build a village for the athletes which would be judged on style and also how well it survived the elements. The girls really went to town on their designs, we had full on swimming pools, changing rooms, stables, and more! We took a short break in the middle of making to have a supper of hot dogs. We then gave them a 5 minute warning (which sent them into panic mode!) and then stopped them. We went round each group and rated their design out of 10. We then tested their resilience by squirting them with a water pistol (one of the ones you can pressurise) and then tipped a bit of a bucket of water over them. The girls extracted their athletes from their village and we rated them based on how dry their people were. One six managed to have one completely dry athlete and the other two sixes' athletes were completely drenched and one of them somehow ended up getting ripped in half! We then gave out stickers for their charts - 3 for the winning six, 2 for second, and 1 for last place. The girls really seemed to enjoy doing this, and we were very impressed with their ingenuity - my other half had done it with his Beavers building castles and said our Brownies were much more creative than his Beavers!

The girls then got ready for bed and had hot chocolate before all disappearing into their bedroom. We leaders sat in the living room and chatted for a while before deciding we were tired too. Brown Owl and I got ready for bed, lay down, closed our eyes, and... heard crying coming down the corridor! One of the other leaders was still up but Brown Owl went to investigate too and there were two girls who were tired and feeling a bit ill. They had a drink of water and we settled them again but by then a lot of other girls had woken up and started talking. Brown Owl gave it a bit of time to settle down but it didn't so she went in and told them to shut up and go to sleep. She came back to bed and we both fell asleep. We both vaguely remember waking up and hearing one of the other leaders going in and saying "Brownies, I am not impressed" and we found out in the morning that it was 2:30 and the two leaders in the room closer to the girls hadn't slept much at all before then!

It has been a fairly straighforward start to pack holiday this year, here's hoping the rest of the weekend goes smoothly too!

Pack Holiday 2015 - Day 1

09/10/15

Today was the first day of Pack Holiday! Our theme is Superheroes, and the sixes are called 'Bat Girl', 'Wonder Woman' and 'Hulk'. This year we took 17 girls and 11 leaders (5 Adults, 3 YLs, 2 Guides and an extra Leader's daughter), so we were full to capacity!

We arrived at about 4:30 to set up. We put up all the posters that the girls had made and sorted out all the food. A couple of us then did some school work before the girls arrived, to get some of it out of the way.

The girls arrived at 6pm. Unusually, most of the girls arrived just before then, as they had travelled in convoy as a large group of friends. We only had a couple who were later than that, and no-one got hopelessly lost, which is pretty easy to do since the house is in the middle of some woods!

We got the girls settled in their beds and then started hinting to the parents that now would be a good time to leave. We had one of our newer girls who, once her mum had walked out of the door, started crying. Her mum came back in to comfort her, which possibly wasn't the best idea in the world. It transpired that her torch didn't work and the one mum had offered her instead wasn't good enough for her. I went and got my torch, because I knew I was unlikely to need it, since I have one on my phone too. This made her happy and we could finally start the evening as planned.

We did the usual safety talk about wearing slippers indoors and not running etc, and then gave out the booklets to the girls with some activities that they could do if they were bored, including a colouring page, a wordsearch, a page for all the girls to sign, and a space to write a diary of the weekend, if they wish to do their Brownie Holiday badge, as this is the only part they won't cover just by staying for the whole weekend.

We had a dinner of hot dogs, and the girls made name labels to put on the table. We always make name labels and then, for each meal, we shuffle them up and put them out randomly so that girls are sat next to someone different each meal.

Finally, we let the girls get ready for bed and attempted to get them to go to sleep. They were all really excited though, as usual, so took a long time to settle down. We had a couple who came out of their room because they were feeling unwell (probably the amount of sweets they had eaten!) and the girl who has my torch got a little homesick at one point. When the majority of us leaders went to bed at about 10:30, the girls were still talking a bit, and Brown Owl had to go in and tell them that enough was enough and go to sleep. After that, they were significantly quieter, and went to sleep!

Detective Pack Holiday Activities

This post is about our pack holiday and the activities we did surrounding our theme: detectives.

During the weekend, the girls were working in their sixes to solve a mystery - which leader had stolen the cookies from the cookie jar on the Friday night. There were six activities for them to do over the weekend which would eventually lead to them being able to deduce which leader it was. The activities were cookie testing, fingerprint analysis, footprint analysis, map reading, chromatography on inks, and pets. Below are full descriptions of what they had to do for each one. The girls all had a table in their booklet with all the leaders names down the side and the 6 activities across the top so they could mark in their predictions after each activity.

Cookie Testing

Each six was given a bag containing some cookie chunks which supposedly were found at the scene of the crime and 3 different types of cookie - white choc chip, milk choc chip, and Rolo. They could look at and taste all 3 options and the evidence to decide which flavour it was. They also had a sheet which told them what cookies each Leader preferred so they could put crosses in the relevant box.

Fingerprint Analysis

All the leaders had provided fingerprints for the girls to look at. Brown Owl then gave them 5 which had been found at the scene of the crime for them to match up. Some of them were quite obvious as they were noticeably larger or smaller than the rest but some of them were quite hard for the girls to match up, although they all had fun trying.We then gave them the fingerprint paint so they could look at their own fingerprints and try and work out of they had arches, whorls, loops or a combination or all three. They all enjoyed that too, although a few of them did get a bit carried away and started doing whole hand prints and making pictures from their fingerprints so we had to put a stop to it.

Footprint Analysis

One of the YLs had gone round school and taken rubbings of some of her friend's shoes. The girls were then given a few that had been found 'around the house' and they had to compare them to all the leaders ones to decide who had been in the area. They managed this quite quickly - it was far easier than the fingerprints.

Map Reading

The girls were given a map of the area surrounding the house which had a few points marked on it. Each point had the name of a person and the time they were seen there. The girls had been told that the cookies had been stolen between 5 and 6pm and they could then deduce from the times on the map who was around when the cookies had been stolen.

Chromatography with Ink

The girls were told that some ink had been found at the scene of the crime. They were given some pieces of paper with spots of each leaders favourite ink on them. They then held the bottom of the strip in some water. The water was soaked up through the paper and carries the ink with it, separating it out into its separate colours. Brown Owl had chosen a pen which separated nicely into pink, yellow and blue (technically magenta, yellow and cyan) as the evidence pen and then a couple of the leaders had the same pen, some had a permanent pen (which doesn't separate at all) and some had other pens that only split into two colours. Some of the girls were really good at getting it to work but some others held it too deep in the water and got the whole thing wet, ruining the effect. One six had ruined one of theirs but had somehow done two of another one with the same pen so Brown Owl slyly changed the name on the paper before calling them over and saying she thought they'd missed one! They didn't seem to realise what she'd done and dutifully put a cross in the corresponding box.

Pets

The final activity involved pets. The girls were given a sheet which had 5 different 'animals' on (they were really weird alien creatures) and another one with an identification key on. They could then follow the key to find out the name of the animal that had been seen in the woods around the time of the theft, and thus which leader had been around (as all the Leaders had a different named pet). They found this very easy too. 

At the end of the weekend, each six announced who they thought had stolen the cookies. It had been planned that, during the weekend there could be a few possibilities but at the end there would only be one person who had ticks (or crosses) across the board. That person was Cruella de Vil - one of the YLs who had come up with the idea in the first place - which we thought was fitting. All the sixes had got the correct answer.

I thought it was a good idea to do a theme like this where we could have something ongoing during the weekend, as it made the girls feel more engaged and made them feel special as they were investigating the leaders.

Pack Holiday 2014 - Sunday

 12/10/14
The girls woke up at about 7 this morning. I was first up, once again, and went in to see them as I did yesterday. It was one of the girls' birthdays today and a group of them were having a mini party for her in one of the bottom bunks with some jammy dodgers! I went down to the kitchen to get a drink and then one of the YLs woke up too and came into the girls room with me to help entertain them. The cooks surfaced pretty quickly this morning and made breakfast. It was the same as yesterday, although we ran out of cereals and some girls had to share a small box between them but no one seemed to mind. 

Once we'd eaten, we did some more activities, in three groups once again. One six was was making paper aeroplanes, one six was writing invisible messages with lemon juice and the third group were doing more detective work.

The aeroplanes were from Baker Ross. The planes themselves were made from polystyrene and covered in paper so the girls could colour them in with felt tips or pencils. A couple of them were peeling a little bit but that was easily fixed with a little bit of prit-stick. The girls all seemed to enjoy colouring them in and then throwing them around the living room and down the corridor (with permission because it was raining outside). They actually flew much better than I thought they would; some of them were getting some distance on them and they were testing the different shaped one to find which went the furthest!

The second group were in the craft room with the YLs, writing messages on paper with lemon juice. We then had loads of pieces of paper lying around the house as they had to be dry so they looked blank before you heated them to reveal the message. Unfortunately, I don't believe they worked terribly well as I never saw one after heating.

The final group were working on more of the detective activities. Again, a full post is coming shortly (it should be the one after this one) but the girls were doing footprints and maps in this session.

We then had some cakes that one of the YLs had brought with her (they were amazing!) and then the girls went back and carried on with anything they hadn't finished (mostly owls and paper aeroplanes) as well as the last two parts to the detective work; chromatography and pets. While the girls were doing this, the YLs all did the scrapbook for this year. Each year someone fills in a double page spread in the scrapbook for the house and the girls really enjoy looking through the old books and finding all the times we've been here (every year since 2002 now!).

Several of the girls then asked if they could make bead geckos; a staple craft for our unit since an ex-YL introduced them way back when I was a Brownie! Brown Owl got out the beads and most of the girls sat on the floor in the lounge, making them. Most of the older girls know how to make them and they were teaching the younger ones so we didn't actually need to do anything!

Three girls also asked if they could go outside and so I went and sat on the bench by the door and watched them run around for 5 minutes until they decided that actually, it was a bit cold and they were going to go inside again.

We had to do a speedy tidy because lunch was suddenly ready and the girls were so engrossed in gecko making that no-one had set the table. Lunch was roast chicken, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing (for those who wanted), carrots, broccoli, sweetcorn, and gravy. Hardly any of the girls had stuffing but that was fine with the Leaders! We encouraged the girls to eat at least one of their vegetables - we knew that it would be too complicated to try and send out plates specific to each girl (I know I hate broccoli but I was sat next to a YL who does so I swapped it for some of her sweetcorn) so everyone got everything on their plate. They then had jelly and ice cream for pudding. The girls got really excited because the jelly was 3 layers: red, orange and green all in one bowl! They could choose if they wanted one, the other or both. When everyone was done eating, the cooks announced that they'd made far too much jelly and that anyone who wanted could have some more. They bought out another giant bowl that hadn't even been started and several girls (including two YLs) got out spoons and started eating it from the bowl!

After lunch, the girls all went to their rooms to pack their bags ready to go home while a couple of the YLs set up the tuck shop again. I left the girl to it for a bit and then went in to make sure things were neat. One of the girls was in tears because another Leader had told her that she had to put her sleeping bag in a bag but it didn't have one and her Dad was just going to carry it. I reassured her that it was fine; I think it was just tiredness that caused her to get upset about it. Another girl then came up to me and told me she couldn't find her purse and she wanted to buy something from the tuck shop when it was her sixes turn. I helped her look in her bag and around her bed but we couldn't find it anywhere. I could see she was getting close to tears so I went had had a quiet word with Brown Owl who said that she could buy something and we would write it down as a IOU for her to pay next week at Brownies if she couldn't find her purse by the end of the day. She cheered up immediately and forgot all about it. 

After the tuck shop, we gathered all the girls in the lounge for the final part of the weekend - souvenirs! Each girl gets a resin bear from the Girlguiding shop and a badge to say they've stayed at Campwood House. Some years we;ve given out stickers for completing various crafts and helping out around the house but this year we didn't so we pulled names out of a hat to see who got to choose their bear first (instead of it being the girl with the most stickers). The Leaders all got a present too, as a thank you. We sang Brownie Bells and then I went out to let the parents know they could come in and collect their girls. We ask them to wait in their cars until we are completely done because it would get too chaotic with girls wanting to hug their parents while we finish off and parents milling around in the house. Once we open the door, all hell breaks loose for a while as parents carry bags around and try and fit them out the door while other girls and their parents are trying to get in to pick up stuff! Eventually, all the girls had gone and it was left to us to clean up and pack away our stuff. 

We have a check list which means we don't have to think too hard about it, we can just follow the list so I got the hoover out and started on the girls' bedroom which always takes the longest. I had to lie down by each bed and make sure there were no sweets or wrappers under there as the hoover can't reach all the way under. I found quite a few, including a sweet I thought was an M&M but it turned out to be wet and sticky - not very pleasant... We found quite a few clothes left on radiators and drying racks as we were tidying but luckily all of them were named so they can be handed back at next weeks meeting. Finally, we locked up and left for this year.

It was a really enjoyable pack holiday, if a little tiring as per usual! The girls all seemed to enjoy themselves and we didn't have any massive falling outs (always a worry with 15 tired girls in one house for a weekend). It was also really nice to see how much the girls had missed me and I'd only been away for 3 weeks - I dread to think what the reception will be when I go back for Christmas and have been gone for 9 more weeks! Once again, it brought back good memories of people I haven't seen in years and people I will sadly never see again but they are all happy ones and I hope I have created some lasting memories for this group of girls - after all, that is why I do this. Bring on next year!

Camp Fire Songs

Here are the songs we sang on pack holiday (which we would have sung round the campfire if it wasn't so wet!). They can be sung to pretty much any tune you like! You can also see them all, along with other songs we sing regularly, here.


Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar:

All girls: [Name of a Brownie] stole the cookie from the cookie jar!  
Girl: Who me?!  
All girls: Yes you!  
Girl: Couldn't have been!  
All girls: Then who?  
Girl: [names another Brownie]

Repeat until all the Brownies have had a chance-the last one 'stole the cookie'.

Cecil is my Caterpillar:

One of our unit's favourites! It's generally spoken although you could make up a tune if you wanted to.

Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've eaten all the leaves in [insert small local area such as the name of the town], that's what I've done!'

Repeat, increasing the size of 'Cecil' gradually along with the area of leaves he's eaten. In our unit it usually goes something along the lines of campsite -> town -> county -> UK -> Europe -> world -> universe.

Final verse:

Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart again)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've been sick!'   

If I were not here in this room:

If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a washer woman I would be:
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
[move hands back and forth as if washing clothes then peg onto a line]

If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a market boy I would be:
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound,
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound.
[hands round mouth and sung in Cockney accent]
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
 
Other verses include:
Bus conductor: Any more fares please, any more fares please, pass down the line. Ting! [winding motion with one hand then pull ticket out machine]
Secretary: Typing letters, typing letters, sitting on the bosses knee, ooh! [typing on keyboard then cross one leg over for 'ooh']
Doctor: Bandaging up the cuts and bruises, pulling the appendix out; plop [wrapping bandage around hand then pulling something up and dropping it]

For each verse, sing back through all previous verses too (gets harder the longer the song goes on but you can have as many verses as you like!)

Last verse:

If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room I don't know what I'd be!

Hole at the Bottom of the Sea:

There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea.

There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale, there's a whale,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.

There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea, 
There's a tail, there's a tail,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.

There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea, 
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,  
There's a bone, there's a bone,
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.

There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea, 
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,  
There's a nerve, there's a nerve,
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.

Actions for each thing:
Hole: Arms make circle in front of you
Bottom: Point down
Sea: Draw waves in air
Whale: Arms out as wide as possible
Tail: Hands together and wiggle
Bone: Hold out first finger
Nerve: Arms above head and wiggle body

As you are singing, get slowly faster and faster through each verse - it makes it far more entertaining trying to pair up the correct actions!
My Ship Sailed From China:

My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea,
All laden with presents for you and for me,
They gave me a fan, 
Just imagine my bliss,
When I found myself going like this, like this, like this, like this

Each repeat wave another body part - we do right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg, head
Last verse say 'like this' once and slump forwards

Pack Holiday 2014 - Friday

10/10/14

It's pack holiday time again! This year was a little more logistically challenging since I'm at university but we still managed it. Dad picked me up after my last lecture and we drove up to the pack holiday house (same place as last year). We arrived at 6:30, just as the last few parents were leaving. I managed to get out of the car unnoticed but was promptly attacked as I walked into the house, laden with my stuff, as the girls realised I was there! I finally extracted myself from them to go and say hi to Brown Owl and the other leaders.

Once all the parents had left, we sat the girls down and ran through the rough plan for the weekend and the rules (don't run down the corridor, don't go in certain rooms and don't go outside without a Guider, pretty much) before having a small dinner of pizza. There were vegetarian, ham and pineapple, and pepperoni pizzas which were left on the table for the girls to help themselves to. They should have eaten something before they came so this was just a quick snack to keep them going until bedtime. None of the girls seemed to like the vegetarian one (which was OK with us leaders who were treating this as our dinner because we hadn't had time to eat) and lots of them picked the pineapple off the ham and pineapple one but they all ate some and no one complained massively.

When they were done, we went outside to do some Morse Code in the dark as our theme for this pack holiday is detectives and, when we did this in the meeting place, it was quite hard to tell if the torch was flashing or not. We split the girls into their sixes and then split the sixes in half. Each half had a Leader and a copy of the Morse code alphabet. The groups then took it in turns to send messages to each other. The idea was that they would send the whole message and then the other group would say what they had seen but it turned into the groups sending each letter until the other group had yelled back the correct letter. They also ended up yelling 'space' at each other because they couldn't figure out how to send it! There was a wide variety of random words sent by other groups but the one I was with actually had a mini conversation:
Group 1 - How are you?
Group 2 - Good thanks, you?
Group 1 - Great, thank you
Group 2 - That's amazing!

We then came back inside and the girls had hot chocolate while they made their name cards for the table. Every meal we have, we muddle the names up so the girls aren't sitting by the same people each meal. They then went and got ready for bed. Once they were all changed, we left the light on for 15 minutes as some of them wanted to read. We had a bit of a fight over that as, when we had left the room, some of the girls turned off the lights because they wanted to read with their torches and other girls got upset because they didn't have a torch so couldn't read. We compromised by turning the light back on and telling the girls who wanted to use their torches that they could just put a blanket or sleeping bag over their head. They then all got really excited about doing that and everything calmed down again!

All us Young Leaders chilled out in the lounge with an iPod and played 'Who Am I?' (using the app where you hold the iPod up to your head). It got quite rowdy at one point and we had to shut the door so we wouldn't wake the girls but most of them were still up anyway! We finally went to bed about midnight and the girls were all still up. When we got up the next morning, we found that they'd been so loud that Brown Owl had to get out of bed and had confiscated their torches! She always says that she doesn't mind them talking a little after lights out (they're excited to be away after all) but if she has to get up once she's gone to bed then there'll be trouble. It looks like this is set to be a chaotic weekend!

Pack Holiday 2013 - Sunday

29/9/13

We were woken at 7:30 this morning by the girls so I got out of bed and went into their room to try and keep them quiet for a little longer so that the adults could wake up. Most of them were fine until one girl went into the toilet and came running back out shouting about a daddy long legs which was in there! I ended up having to go and get a glass and a piece of paper to get it out because they were refusing to go near the bathroom with it in there... After a while Snowy came up and said that all the adults were awake, they just hadn't left their room so we let the girls go down to the living room as long as they were quiet. All the ones who went down there ended up reading some of the really old Brownie Annuals which are on a bookcase in there which was a bit unexpected as none of them had brought a book with them (as far as I'm aware) and I've heard quite a few of them say how much they dislike reading in the past... I'm not complaining though, it was nice to see loads of them sat quietly reading; it reminded me of my pack holidays when I was a Brownie.

Eventually the adults got up and started to make breakfast, which was the same as yesterday. I ended up helping in the kitchen for most of the time which meant that, by the time I sat down to eat, there was only the one sausage for me not the two I'd been promised. I didn't really mind because I quite enjoy helping out the cooks by co-ordinating the girls who come to take the food through to the table (it gets too complicated for the cooks to try and do it while they're serving the food and they are always grateful for the extra pair of hands) and I know there will be more food during the day.

The craft for this morning was owl 'cushions' which were more like mini stuffed toys because they were quite small... They were pre-cut out and had holes punched in them to make it easier for the girls to sew them. They worked quite well as they were fairly easy although Snowy hadn't trialled it beforehand (second nature to Mum and I) so she didn't know that you also needed glue (for the feet) or that starting below the ear wasn't a good idea because it made it quite hard to sew it up once you had stuffed it... I know that I have to let her make these mistakes and learn from them but I find it quite hard to comprehend not trying out a craft before giving it to the girls because it's pretty much been drummed into me from the beginning. Some of the girls were getting quite frustrated with theirs which I think was a combination of them being very tired and them finding it quite complicated, especially after they had stuffed it. Snowy ended up having the leave the room at one point because one girl was continually crying because it wasn't going how she wanted it to! Eventually all the girls finished though and they all thought that the owls were cute.

We then had elevenses, basically a drink and cake/biscuit/fruit to keep them going. I was surprised at the number of girls who chose to have fruit as well as their cake; when I was their age, my parents struggled to get me to eat fruit and veg (I'm much better now, although there are still a fair few things I can't stand)...

Once they had finished one of the sixes was tasked with finding a couple of hymns that the other girls would know and a prayer for our mini church service which we have every Sunday morning. I don't really know why or when it started but we've always done it since before I was a Brownie! Most of the girls go to the same school and therefore know the same songs for the most part. I went to the same school as them and the songs they learn haven't changed much so I know most of them too. The prayer they chose was a prayer we used to say before lunch when I was in the infants (age 5-7) and I was surprised (and pleased) that I could still remember the words! After the brief service, we sang Happy Birthday to one of the girls because she turned 9 today. All the girls had signed a card for her last night too which Snowy gave to her as well. She seemed happy that we hadn't forgotten, particularly as she had been crying earlier because she couldn't see her Dad for her whole birthday.

Then we had a cooked lunch. We had roast chicken with potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, veg and gravy which went down really well with the girls, who almost all finished every mouthful! We had a small glitch at the beginning though because the two plates with no gravy on had gone missing... The cooks said that they had definitely sent those two out first but no one knows what happened to them because not only did they never made it to their intended recipients, they never made it to the table! They decided that they must have come back to the kitchen but I don't remember any plate coming back and I was in there the whole time... I suppose we'll never know what happened to them but the two girls who didn't want gravy were given food from other plates which hadn't touched any gravy and everyone tucked in happily. Once they had finished, I went back to the kitchen to help serve pudding, jelly and ice cream. We had a small mishap when one of the girls was sick (she thinks it was because she ate too quickly because she didn't want to be last to finish again) but we managed to get all the food out without losing any this time!

After lunch, the girls had rest hour again where they were supposed to be packing all their stuff away, ready to go home. This went well, for the most part, although several girls complained that they had lost things. Most of them showed up while other girls were packing but a couple of things had to be located under beds and other people's stuff. Mum suspects malicious intent but we can't be sure and no harm was done so we just left it be. We then had our tuck shop and then it was time to go home. We had a quick circle where all the leaders were given thank you presents and the girls got a badge to say they had been to Macaroni Woods, their toymaker badge (everything we did this weekend counted towards it) and a Brownie bear ornament as a memento.

Finally, at 4pm, we let the parents in to take the girls home. All the girls were very pleased to see their parents again but also sad to leave, as they are every year. After everyone had gone, us leaders were left to tidy up and pick up any lost property (surprisingly we only had an odd sock which was claimed by one of the cooks as being her daughter's). We finally left around 5:30 and went home ourselves. I was absolutely shattered and pretty much had some food, a bath and went to bed!

This year's pack holiday, while being slightly different because Snowy was running it, was still thoroughly enjoyable, as usual! As much as we complain about it, I think all the leaders actually really enjoy it because it lets us get closer to some of the girls as they always seem to open up a bit and talk about more during a meal or walk than they can during an hour and half's meeting. It also brings back really good memories for me from the many other pack holidays I have been on over the years from basic ones of the building to more specific ones about old friends I haven't seen in years... All in all, a very good weekend!

Pack Holiday 2013 - Saturday

28/9/13

The girls woke up at around 7:30 this morning, already hungry! However, because they had kept the leaders up until nearly midnight last night, the adults were all still in bed! The 3 Young Leaders, me included, crawled out of bed at around 8 to try and entertain them quietly while the adults woke up! Finally the pleas of the girls became too great and they got up to make breakfast. 

Breakfast was cereals for those who wanted it, followed by eggy bread or toast with a sausage. The waitresses laid the table and the girls had all sat down and were tucking into their cereals and I was in the kitchen, helping to make the eggy bread and toast, when the fire alarm went off. It always goes off when you make eggy bread because the pans are covered in old fat which smokes a lot. Usually, if we know that it was definitely the cooks, we ignore it (as much as you can ignore a high pitched, insistent beeping!) but, because Snowy Owl is doing her test we used it as an opportunity for a full fire drill. We got all the girls outside (amidst complaints that their slippers were getting wet from the grass) and assembled under the tree, as we had told them to do and then did a register. Once we had explained that a real fire wouldn't wait until they were wearing sensible shoes and that they should just leave and had also told them that, because we knew it was a false alarm, the cooks had stayed inside to make sure we didn't cause an actual fire by leaving the food in the cooker, we went back inside to enjoy our breakfast!

After breakfast, the girls were set the task of writing a short play with puppets that they would be making over the course of the day. The three plays were very different; one group did Despicable Me 3, another group did Minions Meet One Direction and the third group did their own version of Romeo and Juliet, involving two frogs who met in a toilet as the title characters..! There were a couple of arguments over who was going to play what character and what the script was going to be but then everything settled down and the scripts all came together. They had a short break and then set about making the backdrop for their play. The were given paper and pens and could create what ever they wanted to be held up during their play. It went OK but some of the girls were getting bored pretty quickly because you only needed a couple of people to do it, not the whole six. If we were running it as a normal pack holiday, we would have had some back up crafts to hand for these moments but Snowy Owl hadn't thought of that so they had nothing to do.

Lunch was sandwiches, crisps and fruit which the girls thoroughly enjoyed, with the majority of them eating their crusts too! After lunch we always have what we call 'rest hour'. All the girls have an hour where they must stay in their room and be fairly quiet. We don't force them to be silent, it's just a time for them to have a break from everyone else if they want and chill out for a bit, without us watching over them all the time! It also gives us leaders a bit of a break, which I used to do a bit more homework (as studious as I seem, this isn't a normal occurrence, it just happened that I quite liked the look of the sheet we had to do...). The other Young Leaders set up our tuck shop. We sell the girls little trinkets that they can keep as a memory of pack holiday. Usually we have some badges, pencils and notebooks as well as the ever popular handmade bead geckos and sweets! We always limit them to 3 sweets so they don't get too hyper although this year Snowy Owl had bought some melody pops which are basically lollies in the shape of whistles which make a rather horrible noise when blown incorrectly (and an irritating one when blown correctly, as proved by one of our Young Leaders..!)! We let in one six at a time so that we didn't get too crowded and we take the opportunity to improve their money skills by asking them to work out how much change they are owed.

After that came the highlight of camp for most girls - always the most talked about afterwards and the first thing new girls hear about camp before their first one anyway - the walk to Eastleach and the River Leach! It is around 1.5 miles from the house to the river and we always have complaints about how far it is, usually before we've even left the woods! This year was no different with a continuous stream of complaints and threats to not walk any further but we all made it to the river eventually. We were confronted by a swan and her young where we would normally have got in so we went a bit further upstream. The two Young Leaders went in first to establish where it was too deep for the girls and then we let them all in! They had all brought wellie boots and all of them got in. In previous years we've always had one or two who'll be apprehensive or won't want to go in (which is fine - we don't force them to and I was one of the ones who never went in) but this year all of them went in with no hesitation! They enjoyed around 20 minutes of walking up and down between the two marks the Young Leaders had decided on and us leaders stood along the bank laughing at them and talking to a few curious members of the public who were walked past. Finally we got them all out and went through several more minutes of wellie emptying and shoe changing (for those who'd thought ahead enough to bring dry shoes and socks) and started the walk back! We always have more complaints on the way back as the girls who didn't bring dry shoes start to regret not doing so when their wellies start to rub and a lot of the girls start to get tired too. I walked back with two girls, one holding each hand, and we had a nice conversation but, somehow, we ended up bringing up the rear. The girls at the back are always the ones who complain the most because they're the most tired and this year was no different... One of the girls swung between being really happy and informing us of all the antics her imaginary friend Mr Frank was getting up to and crying because she was "too tired to walk any further"..! At one point she sat down and started crying in the middle of the road (country lane which was very quiet) and refused to walk any further, although she got up and carried on when I told her that, if she didn't want to walk any more, we would pick her up next year on our walk! 2 minutes later she was in fits of giggles because Mr Frank had run into a field of sheep and was sat on top of one..! We made it back to the house in one piece and then we had the usual trouble of getting the wellies off the feet of some of the girls. When the wellies have a bit of water in them, they become really difficult to remove and sometimes require a leader holding the girl around the middle and another leader pulling the wellie off! The girls found this hilarious but we eventually got all th girls back inside for a quick change of clothes and a dry off before making their puppets for their plays. 

Each girl was given a wooden spoon and loads of foam, wool and pipe cleaners as well as a tonne of glue and sticky tape! They could use whatever they wanted, however they wanted, to make their character. As usual, we had some tears as some girls took other girls' comments to heart (always happens when you have a group of tired, young girls all in one place for any length of time) but it was quickly resolved. Some of the puppets were a little dubious (as it always is with Brownies) but some of the others were actually quite imaginative! The testers showed up while the girls were in full swing and had a look round the house and asked a few questions. One of the testers was another Brownie guider from our district so we had a good old catch up too! The girls were quite excited about their visit and all wanted to run down and say hello as soon as the doorbell went but we managed to persuade them to stay in the craft room until they came down to see them. 

Next came dinner, meatballs and pasta followed by choc ices for the girls and cheesecake for the leaders. The two testers joined us for the meal so we had to squeeze two extra chairs around our already cramped table! We split them up, as we do with all the leaders, so they could talk to the girls. The leader from our district ended up sat opposite me and near to Snowy so she had some civilised conversation as well as being able to talk to the girls but the other tester somehow ended up sat between two of the most vocal girls in our unit! The poor woman had non stop, totally irrelevant conversation for the whole meal but I think she dealt with it OK...

After dinner, the testers left and we had our campfire. The two Young Leaders took a few girls outside before it started getting dark to collect wood and then they went out after dinner to pile it all up ready to light. We then got all the girls outside and sat down before we explained about our jar of ashes (we always tip on some ashes from the previous years' campfire so that our new one has some of the memories of all the previous ones in it) and then lit the fire. We had a few problems getting it going but, once it had caught, it was quite impressive! The wind caught it a few times which scared the girls but we still managed to sing several of the girls favourite songs around it, including 3 Blind Jellyfish, Who Stole The Cookie?, Cecil is my Caterpillar, 3 Little Angels, Tra La La, and Campfire's Burning (lyrics to all follow in another post!). We finished off by making s'mores over the embers which always goes down well with the girls!

Finally they all went back inside and had hot chocolate. The 3 Young Leaders left the adults in charge and stayed outside. We wanted to test the theory that acorns and conkers explode when put in a fire but we didn't think it would be safe with the girls outside too! It turns out that acorns are a bit pathetic because they just make slight popping noises but conkers are quite spectacular as the other two found out when one of them exploded unexpectedly! I had moved away from the campfire a bit and was heading back inside when there was a loud pop from behind me and the two other Young Leaders came running back inside shouting that they had been hit by flying conker! When they got inside they found that it was only a little bit of soot and no harm had been done but most of the girls found it utterly hilarious (as did I, if I'm honest)!

We eventually got the girls to get ready for bed and then we had the same battle as last night where they wouldn't shut up and go to sleep! Us 3 Young Leaders ended up getting into bed around 11 and the girls were still making noise. We heard Brown Owl go into their room and tell them that she was going to bed and did not want to be disturbed until the morning and thought that we would finally be able to sleep but, no, 5 minutes later there was a frantic knocking on our door and 2 girls saying that a friend felt sick but they didn't want to wake up Brown Owl because they were scared to. She wasn't actually asleep at that point and heard too so she dealt with it (the girl was fine, just over tired) and we finally got to sleep after a very busy day!

---
Making s'mores:

•  Put a marshmallow on a wooden skewer and heat it up in the embers of a campfire until it begins to melt (I personally like mine to have caught on fire so the outside it burnt to a crisp and the middle is warm and squidgy but this isn't a good idea with a lot of girls)
• Spread chocolate spread on 2 digestive biscuits (or alternatively use chocolate digestives)
•  Squash your marshmallow between the two biscuits
• Eat and enjoy!

Pack Holiday 2013 - Friday

27/9/13

Dad picked me up from school and we drove across to pack holiday. We got there at around 4:30, a few minutes after Mum had got there. We unloaded all the stuff from both cars and then Snowy Owl and the two cooks (parents who help out regularly) arrived. We put up the posters and sorted out all of our things. We go to Campwood House in Macaroni Woods near Eastleach which is a converted WW2 house in the middle of some private woodland. It's owned by the Guide Association and has been refurbished a lot since we first went there in 2002! There is a fully functioning kitchen (complete with dishwasher which we don't use!), a living room/dining room with a long table in and a craft room for all the messy stuff! There is also a guider's room with 4 regular beds, a first aid room with another bed (and a really creepy looking knitted doll!), a small room with 3 bunk beds which we use as a Young Leader's room, two connected rooms containing 9 bunk beds where the girls 'sleep' and 3 bathrooms (with showers and a bath),  It really is a very well equipped little building (hence why we've gone back for 12 consecutive years!).

I then sat on the sofa and did some of my homework before the girls started arriving at 6. It is always quite chaotic when the girls arrive and their parents settle them in because the rooms are quite small but, once they've all left, we can get started. Amazingly, no one got lost getting here for the first time in years! It's quite out of the way and, if you miss the turning, it can be quite hard to get back to it so usually we have at least one girl who is late arriving.

We started off with the house rules and gave out the badges and a little booklet including spaces for them to write a diary (if they want their Brownie Holiday badge) and some little puzzles for them to do in any spare time. Then we had some food! We always get the girls to do duties while they're on pack holiday which we've split up into cook (help prepare food), waitress (lay and clean the table) and health (dry up and clean toilets) and the sixes rotate through the different ones during the course of the weekend. The waitresses put out knives and forks and the place cards made yesterday and then we served pizza. We put it out on trays in the middle of the table for the girls to help themselves to as they should have eaten before they arrived anyway. It was rather entertaining as the cooks didn't realise how spicy the pepperoni pizza was so lots of the girls had a slice and then were complaining about how hot it was!

After the food we launched straight into the first activity. Each six was given a black bin bag, a white bin bag, a newspaper and some sticky tape and was tasked with making an outfit for one girl in their six. They were actually quite imaginative with their ideas - one six made a zebra print boob-tube and handbag from theirs! We then did a cat walk down the main corridor in the house. All the girls stood at one end except the model and one other girl who was describing what they were wearing to everyone. I was surprised at how much they seemed to know about how cat walks work and what is usually said on them! I didn't expect a group of primary school students to know that much about them - I certainly didn't when I was their age! Then there was an absolute mess to tidy up - there were bin bags everywhere! The girls did a really good job at cleaning up quickly though and the whole room was spotless again in 10 minutes!

After that, the girls were all allowed a hot chocolate before bed and then went to go and change into their pyjamas. In theory, then they would have all got into bed and fallen straight asleep but when do things ever go to plan! The girls were running around their bedrooms even after lights out, shouting, flashing torches around and planning their midnight feast! The leaders took it in turn to go in and tell them to go to sleep which, as usual, culminated in Mum sitting in the room until the majority of them had fallen asleep! I had a headache so I'd already gone to bed about half an hour after their lights were turned out (about 9:30) but I couldn't get to sleep until around 10:30...

I don't really mind though because I know that it will always happen (I was one of the 'culprits' when I was a Brownie!) and I know that this weekend I won't get much sleep but the enjoyment the girls get from it will make up for it!