Sometimes Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

"My troop is going to ________; which Badge or Journey could we earn?"  This question, or one very similar, is one of those most frequently asked on leader Facebook pages.  If it is worth doing, surely the girls can earn something by doing it, right?

Last week my troop did something that was very worthwhile and which earned them...nothing (ok I did buy a fun patch, but no Badge or Journey requirements were ticked, as least that I know).  What did we do?  We had a pajama party.

At our first meeting I asked the girls for some ideas of things they wanted to do this year.  I have first grade Daisies and third grade Brownies, and they all attend different schools.  One of my Daisies said "a sleepover" and all the girls quickly jumped on that bandwagon.  I told them that we couldn't do that--the council won't let us have events at people's houses and the church won't let me have a sleepover on campus.  However, I told them we could do a pajama party--everything they would do at a sleepover, except they would go home to sleep.


The wanted nail polish, slime and a pillow fight.  I said ok. I bought nail polish and glue (I had contact lens solution from the last time we made slime, and I had baking soda).  I planned to have them play outside for a while, then do some painting (paint is always popular), eat, then put on a movie and paint the girls' nails.

When I got there to set up, I realized that neither of the air conditioners in the building was working, and the TV/VCR didn't work well, but I hoped it would cool down after dark and the movie was visible.

The building we use has a covered patio with picnic tables, and behind it is a large play field.  The troops in our parish have a community toy box with balls, jump ropes, chalk, a parachute, Frisbees and a Twister game.  I put the box on the patio and  I bought some bubbles and put them out and told the girls to go play. They did. I have a couple of new girls, one of whom is rather shy.  At first she hung back, but by the end of the night, she was playing with a group of girls.

Our parish has a Girl Scout closet and when we buy supplies that aren't used up at a meeting, they end up there.  We have lots of paint and lots of random leftovers from other painting projects so I brought a bunch of them out and each girl got to pick an object and paint it.  Then we washed hands and had pizza and fruit.

When it was time to make slime, I had a the girls sit down in small groups rather than all at once.  They learned that too much baking soda gives you flubber rather than slime, and that you can make it slimier by adding more glue.  I sent the slime home in old film canisters (yup, from the GS closet).

The girls finished the evening just playing some more.  The room was just too hot to use and I promised we'd paint nails another day.

My guess is that at the end of the year when I ask the girls what their favorite even of the year was, this one will make the list.  Given that my troop has a core of five girls who were in the same kindergarten and who have been with me since kindergarten, along with four other Brownies and six Daisies who are from different schools, this evening of fun and the chance to play together was really good for them.  They were able to include all the girls who wanted to be included and were able to play without much direction from me.  Overall I consider the evening a great success, even if we didn't earn anything.