A Taste of Camping

Today we took our Brownies, Daisies and Juniors to our local Girl Scout camp.  It is about an hour from home so it is a nice place to go for a day trip.  We try to take the younger girls up there in the fall and in the spring for day trips, and we camp either there or at our other council camp in the spring.

We had everyone bring a bag lunch, and troops brought s'more fixings.  We drove up to the camp and allowed the girls to play on the playground for a while before lunch.  We had the older girls lead the younger ones in singing The Adams Family Grace (We thank the Lord for giving, the things we need for living.  The food, the fun, the friendship, the Girl Scout Family)-with da na na nas added in to the tune of the theme song of the Adams Family. 

After lunch we had the girls gather some wood.  We then gathered at the fire circle and built a fire.  I have a speech I've been giving for years.  We talk about the three different kinds of wood (tinder, kindling and fuel) and the fact that fires need air.  We let all the girls add wood to our fire before it is lit.  We then talk abou matches being tools, and only being dangerous if mis-used.  I compare them to pencils--no one wants me to poke them in the eye with a pencil but they use them safely daily.  Each girl gets a chance to light a match, and for the first time ever, the fire actually got lit during this exercise (someone put pine straw on the fire, which I don't usually do until the kids have all had their turn to light a match).  Once everyone had lit a match, we allowed the kids to each add another stick to the fire.  Following that, we got out the roasting forks and marshmallows.  Once we were done with the marshmallows we talked about how to extinguish the fire and everyone got to sprinkle it with water.  

There is a small river that runs through the camp and the girls always love playing in it.  It was in the high 70's this afternoon, and sunny.  The water was a little nippy but the girls didn't seem to mind.  

We sent a lot of tired girls home tonight!