House of Estrogen

Halloween Weekend - Everything Else

This post is just a hodge-podge of the rest of our busy weekend.

First, the requisite Halloween attire for the end of the week. Nina, of course, chose to accessorize hers a bit!

 

   

Friday Night was the Fall Festival at the elementary school. It had all the usual suspects - big inflatables, games, crafts, polish sausage, pony rides, popcorn, and a cake walk. There was one new addition this year though, karaoke... really, really LOUD karaoke, like wishing you had hearing aids you could turn off loud. It was cute to see the kids Elise's age up there singing their hearts out to Hanna Montana songs, but seeing the fourth and fifth graders belting out lyrics like, "I kissed a girl just to try it. I hope my boyfriend don't mind it" or "Them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye" was just a bit unsettling. 

   

  

We have attended the fall festival every year since Elise started kindergarten, but somehow we have always missed the "kiss the pig" event. The kids vote on which teachers should kiss the pig. Since Nina's kindergarten teacher was one selected for the honor, we made sure not to miss it this time. When I had heard about this in years past, I pictured a cute little pink pot bellied pig, perhaps Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. I had no idea the teachers had to kiss this humongous grey boar!  If there was ever any doubt as to why it is hard to attact people to teaching, it isn't just the money, it is the fact that they are made to KISS PIGS!  Mrs. S - you go girl! I think I would have called in sick (with swine flu, of course!)

  
 
  
Saturday morning, Elise made bagged lunches for the homeless with her Brownie troop. With all the excess of the weekend, I think this brought some needed perspective in her life. She came home wanting to round up our old coats and shoes to donate. One of her troop leaders was homeless for a time in her life, so she spoke very passionately and emotionally to the girls about what they were doing and why. I think it really resonated with Elise.

Next on the agenda was Nina's end of season soccer party. Nina really had a great time with soccer this season. I hope she'll decide to play again in the spring. Her coach was wonderful!

 

 Finally, just a couple pictures from Nina's last soccer game.

 

  
 Whew! What a weekend... lots of fun, but I'm glad its over!
 
 
  

Yes, 911 Operator, You Heard Correctly. I'm Trapped in a Corn Maze.

I had no idea. None. Really. Who knew a corn maze could be so exhausting? I have no clue how long we were in there, but it was well over an hour. I had serious doubts as to whether we would find our way out before nightfall.

Tonight was Elise's Brownie troop outing to a corn maze. Siblings were invited, but a parent had to accompany any younger siblings. Since Nina wanted to go, that meant I was going too. Really though, it sounded like fun. I was looking forward to the event. I never imagined it involved walking for miles and miles with sweat rolling off every last body part! The girls started out RUNNING through the maze as I scuffled along behind trying to keep up. After a good half hour of that though, they got tired, slowed down, and we walked along together... and walked... and walked... and walked. Apparently the maze is about a mile and a half long, but in looking for the 10 hidden stations where we were supposed to stamp our card, we must have walked every inch of the maze a minimum of 2-3 times. We never did find stations 3 and 5, and that's not from lack of trying! The girls had fun, I think... at least when they weren't complaining about being tired, hot, thirsty, and wanting to find the exit. Fun, yes... we'll just call it fun. As for me, I now have a better understanding of "like a needle in a haystack"... it is kinda like "a Brownie in a corn maze".

 

 

Do those chairs at the edge of the cornfield seem odd to anyone else? 

Field of Dreams

This year, I offered to chaperone Elise's Girl Scout troop on their overnight at the ballpark. It sounded like fun, but as it rained every night in the week leading up to the event, my anticipation turned to anxiety. We had been told by other troops that sleeping under the stars without a tent was the way to go with this event, and that was how our troop did it last year. That's all well and good on a nice night, but throw a little rain in the mix, and we have a problem. After much debate, we decided to just go with our original plan and cross our fingers. It was a risky move, but we got lucky. The rain gods over the stadium were looking out for us that night!

Here are the girls before the game started.

 

And marching in the Girl Scout parade as the players were warming up

 

After the game and fireworks, we set up camp down on the field... first row sleeping bags right in front of the big screen playing Hotel for Dogs.

The Domino's pizza concession stand operator was nice enough to bring down all the pizzas that hadn't sold, so we ended up with a late night pizza party!

It was lights-out at midnight, and this was the scene the next morning just before they blasted the bugle wake up call over the loud speakers followed by a medley of Hannah Montana and High School Musical to get everybody moving. They clearly knew their audience!

 

After a healthy and hearty breakfast of pop-tarts and Froot Loops, we headed home for a nice long nap. It was a fun night in the field of dreams!

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Elise's troop leader sent this picture last night from Girl Scout camp. Look at this and tell me you don't find yourself chanting, "Toga! Toga! Toga!"

Four Hours

Well, there's four hours of my life I'll never get back. Cookie sales officially ended yesterday, and apparently now the real work begins. Who knew? The troop leader and I spent 4 hours tonight crunching numbers, cursing the slow, inefficient online system, calculating money paid and money due, assigning prizes earned, crossing t's, dotting i's, and oh, did I say cursing the slow, inefficient online system already? Seriously, it is Girl Scout cookies for crying out loud! How did this get so complicated?

Girl takes orders. Girl delivers cookies. Girl turns in money. Girl gets nifty patch for her mother to sew on her vest. Why does it take two women, three computers, a cell phone, a calculator, and umpteen spreadsheets to figure that out?  I'm not sure why, but trust me... it did. The girls sold a grand total of 6408 boxes (that's $22K in cookies), and if you count the wrinkles, grey hairs, and pounds I gained through this process, my personal total probably ranks up there with the high sellers.

 

Four hours, many Diet Cokes and brownies later, we hadn't budged. We finally decided to call it a night and start up again tomorrow. The fun never stops.

Are you the Girl Scout Cookie guy?

Proper Cookie Mom etiquette dictates that before picking up additional cookies at the warehouse, you first send out an email to all other Cookie Moms in the area offering to take a troop to troop transfer of cookies instead. While it is certainly easier to just retrieve one big load from the warehouse, this method provides some relief to the poor troop that has sold out of all their Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs and is left with nothing but a dining room full of Thanks-a-Lots and Daisy Go Rounds that aren't budging. Since I needed to pick up cookies yesterday for our booths this weekend, I sent out the requisite email first. The first responder was a Cookie Dad. There aren't too many of those in the world... lots of unofficial Cookie Dads like J.C., but real, true, certified Cookie Dads are a rare breed. He and I agreed on a drop-off time at my office. He mentioned in passing that he works for the cable company and drives a cable truck. As I was driving into work, I came upon a cable truck parked away from any buildings which looked like an odd parking spot for a cable guy who might have been called in for maintenance. I was approaching the truck quickly and couldn't immediately remember the name of the Cookie Dad I was supposed to be meeting a bit later. As I got near the truck, I yelled out, "Hey! Are you the Girl Scout Cookie guy??"  Fortunately, he laughed and said that he was. We conducted the transfer there in the parking lot and both went on our ways. It occurred to me later that had this man NOT been "the Girl Scout Cookie guy", it would have been a very strange question to ask a total stranger... not sure what sort of look or response I might have received in that scenario!

My Favorite Girl Scout Cookie

D-Day

Today was D-Day... Girl Scout cookie delivery day. When you think of Girl Scout cookies, you probably get a vision in your head of a chocolatey Thin Mint, the cute little Brownie who knocked on your door last month to take your order, or perhaps the cookie booth you saw this afternoon in front of Wal-Mart. What you likely aren't picturing is the journey those cookies took to get to your doorstep. This was my first year involved in D-Day, and it was a sight to behold.

I arrived at my assigned time to the designated school parking lot which is the staging area for lining up. Timeslots for each troop are about 3 minutes apart. A steady stream of minivans and SUV's snaked down the road into this parking lot where we were lined up according to troop and time slot. As cookie mom, I was at the head of the line with my other five vehicles behind me. We waited until we were given the green light to proceed to the fire station across the street.

Our parade of minivans then began the procession to the fire station where we were directed to a bay. I got out of my car with my trusty blue card listing my cookie order. I walked through this bay which was wall to wall cookies stacked 10 cases high with the exception of two narrow landing strips through the middle, so I could approve the case counts - 64 Caramel Delights, check. 101 Thin Mints, Check. 45 Peanut Butter Patties, check., and on down the line I went. Once I had approved all 329 cases, all six of our vehicles pulled into the bay. Volunteers quickly got to work, three at each car - two to load, and one inside the van arranging cases. We had six vans completely loaded and ready to go within just a couple minutes.

Next stop, my garage.

Here are the before and after pictures:

 

and a few from unloading

 

 

 

Then the rest of my day was spent counting, re-counting, sorting cookies, and greeting troop members arriving to pick up their orders. It was all a bit overwhelming... streamlined and organized for the most part, with bits of chaos thrown in to keep me on my toes.

So, next time you bite into a Tagalong or find yourself polishing off an entire box of Thin Mints in one sitting, take a moment to think about the journey of the cookies and the poor weary Cookie Mom at the other end of the line.

And if you don't hear from me for a few days, send out a search team. I'm probably buried under two tons of Thin Mints!

Let the Games Begin

I had volunteered last year to serve as the Cookie Mom for Elise's Brownie troop. When I discovered I was pregnant, I backed out of the obligation promising to take on the job this year instead. Everyone agreed that the sleep deprived mother of a one month old was probably not the best choice as a dependable accountant for cookies and money, so they let me off the hook. They held me to my word about this year though, so here I am, the sleep deprived mother of a 13 month old and 7 and 5 year olds attempting to manage cookies, money, donations for Operation Cookie Drop, cookie booths, and my sanity. This weekend was the "easy" weekend... "only" 60 cases (720 boxes) and 6 booths to manage. I survived, but not without an ample serving of stress. In two weeks, 6 minivans packed to the brim will be arriving at my house with 4000+ boxes of cookies. Whose bright idea was this to be Cookie Mom anyway?

Here are pictures of this weekend's cookies - "before and after" the cookie booths:

 

   

4178

4178 - That is the number of boxes of Girl Scout cookies that is going to make my head explode. I have to get our troop's order placed tonight (along with every other cookie mom in the universe) and if the online ordering system locks out my order one more time, I can't be held responsible for the new vocabulary words my girls are going to learn from their mother tonight.