Amazing Race Party (Ashley turned 14)

Ashley and her Friends at her Amazing Race Party. First stop was at the Dollar Store on Cypress street where they had to put the same amount of hair rubber bands and barrettes that they purchased. They were too worried about how stupid they looked so they didn't do any funky hair styles. Sorry for my finger in the picture. HaHa Oops.

Next stop was Tinseltown where they had to pose like movie stars for 5 minutes out front. Check out their movie star glasses, rings, and feather boa. Rule was once they put it on they had to wear it for the remainder of the game. I thought they would balk at it, but they enjoyed it so much they even requested to go back to Tinseltown when all of their friends were going to be hanging out. Needless to say by that time I was highly embarassed myself so I stayed in the car and watched them strut around dressed up.

This is Ashley's favorite pose as you can tell.

These are 2 of her friends. They were such good sports with the game. They even said they were going to wear these things on the bus Monday. We'll see. Who wants to bet me a coke that that doesn't happen?

This is them posing for 5 minutes as movie stars. They don't look much like movie stars, but I wasn't being picky at least they posed for 5 minutes.

After the movies we were off to Starbucks in the mall where they had to count all of the letters on the menu. They invented a game in the car on the way. Ashley & Kaitlyn were a team b/c they were on one side of the car and Morgan & Emily were the other side of the car team. They waved at cars on the road & here are their points they came up with:

Wave: 5 points Nod: 3 points Honk: 100 pts

I tried to walk away from them at the mall b/c they kept the points going in the mall. They said hi and waved at every person we passed. Amazingly everyone said hi back. I guess people are friendly after all. They caught on that I was embarrassed and proceeded to hug on me as we walked to the gumball machines. Ughhhhhhh. I'm not used to public humiliation like they are I guess. Once they got to the gumball machine's their challenge was to find a yellow gumball. I gave each girl $3.00 in quarters and each person that found a yellow gumball had to dance untill all girls had found one. Ashley unfortuanatley found one one her first quarter and had to dance for a while until her friends joined her. She enjoyed it though. This is a picture of her dancing below:

This is all of them dancing. Kaitlyn (Ashley's best friend) decided it was a good idea to smear cake in Ashley's face so Ash's other friends held her down and they all smeared cake on her. It ended in a cake fight in my living room. You can imagine what I was thinking as I watched them have a blast. It wasn't hard to clean up. Sydney our Chiuiaua (spp?) ate the remainder that was on the floor. Ashley was just upset that she had to wash her hair again.

I forgot to mention the "Relay 4 Life". If you haven't been there before I highly recommend going. They have tons of stuff for kids to do. It reminded me of a very large carnival with free bouncy things for the kids. There were 2 bouncy things, 1 blow up train for the the smaller kids to crawl through, and 1 of the larger blow up obstacle courses for larger kids to go through, face painting at several booths, hair spray painting, temporary tattoos, food gallore, go fish game, basketball, blow up baseball (which was Jarrett's fav), duck game, throw the ball in the buckets game, throw sandbags through the holes game (which Jarrett also loved), a unique train that circled the track (which was closed down by the time I convinced Jarrett to ride. He was a little afraid for some reason.), a make shift jail that I threatened to pay to put Ashley in there (you could pay $2.00 and they would lock up whomever for a certain amount of time. I mainly saw kids in there. HaHa), silent auctions (which I won one Yeah!!!!), raffles gallore (which I didn't win), bingo, cake walks, food, food, and more food. We started out helping other Girl Scouts make the luminaries and then we decided to stay. I am not one that likes to be the center of attention so I wasn't going to let anyone know I was a survivor also, but Ashley bugged me to death about it so I decided to go buy a survivor T-shirt. When I got over there I was told they were free for survivors and they gave me a packet of inspirational stuff along with a T-shirt. They asked all survivors to come on the track and say their name, what kind of cancer they beat, and how long they have been a survivor. I got sick at my stomach when I realized I would be the only one not up there and that would make more attention on me than if I just went up there with all of the survivors so I joined Marti (my mom's friend's daughter). When I said my name and how long Ashley said she cheered very loudly. I also saw Mrs. Darinda from Girl Scouts. She cheered me on too. I just don't like attention. I saw Sarah & Allen who I am currently reading their caringbridge pages and are praying for. I also saw The Raborn's. We stayed for the luminarie ceremony. I bought luminaries in Memory of my grandfather Noah Nugent & aunt Juanita Baskin. Jarrett was so funny during the luminarie ceremony. The man speaking said that they were going to turn the lights off and Jarrett (who I thought wasn't paying attention to the ceremony b/c her was playing with his prizes) turned to me and said "I don't want the lights off". When they did turn them off he snuggled closer to me and continue to play. He was great until we started to pray and then he decided he wanted to talk to me. He kept saying "I want the lights back on" over and over. and then he asked if he could take his glow necklace home. Evertime he would see my head bowed he'd bow his head and then start talking to me. We left about 11:15. We had so much fun we will attend every year. I feel it is a great reason to spend money. It is for a great cause. I lost $18 b/c it fell out of my pocket, but I just said as long as whoever picked it up spends it there I don't mind. Ashley & I are also going to attend the Shake 4 Jake this year. We haven't gone yet, but I also feel it is another good cause.

Tonight is the Relay for Life. We are helping there. I'm not sure what they will have us help with, but we will do it great Girl Scout spirit. Ashley and I will be there with whoever from our troop that would like to help out and earn a community service patch. I don't have any funny stories from my kids from yesterday b/c I was too busy to notice anything funny. I did have a minor meltdown last night that I guess got my husband's attention b/c he and Ashley helped me look all in Brooke's room for her clothes. I was trying to pack Brooke for her dad's and all she had was 3 T-shirts in her closet and no other shirts to be found. And I had just washed her clothes this week. We searched and found alot under her bed, in her entertainment center, in her toy boxes, and in a toy dresser. I had to rewash all of it and now she has tons of clothes. I don' t ask my children to do any chores except for hanging up their own clothes and clean their room occassionally. I don't feel that is too much. I guess I should probably start upping their resonsibilities around the house. Ashley does help me clean when we have a girl scout event. She is real good about that. And she also babysits without hesitation. Well I better go for now. I probably won't post this weekend b/c my computer is too slow.

Brooke & Mrs. Sherry (LeAnn's mom and a great girl scout mom.)

LeAnn getting her face painted at the Girl Scout Celebration Convention in Alexandria. We had a blast. I can't wait until next year. There was so much for the girl's to do and they all really enjoyed it. They also came away with alot of cool swaps and patches from other areas. Cool!!!

Thank you LeAnn for my gorgeous tulips, candle, and funny card. My favorite color is purple. You made my day. Thank you so much.

(Sorry I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture. )

This is what I made Brooke's friend Rachel for her B-day party. Brooke picked out the colors, ribbon, & wood flowers & butterflies.

Guess what? My guesstament about Brooke was right. I went to set out Jarrett's teacher appreciation buckets out and noticed the candy missing out of one. Guess who ate it? I wasn't happy at all. It was too late for me to make a run to the store so I put a box of Girl Scout cookies in it instead. Brooke makes me stress!!!!!!

I was off yesterday and had fun playing with Jarrett and his frog we found. I even got him to hold it. I am trying to get him not scared of bugs and frogs and boy stuff. Last night my hubby came in and said that the frog's wife was here to get him, and sure enough we went outside and there was a frog the same side by the back door. I asked Jarrett if our Daddy frog could go with the mommy frog to see his baby's. He said yes and watched them hop away together, but afterwards he kept saying "I very sad". He was sad b/c he wanted to keep his frog. I told him we'd find another one again.

This is my favorite show. I was very dissapointed when the voted Sharron off, but I guess I now have to go for Ryan. I don't like Adam at all. We'll see finale is Sunday night.

Girl scout news. The cookie bowl party is only for girl's who have sold more than 500 boxes of cookies. Sorry. I didn't know this. Brooke got invited b/c she sold 750 boxes. She can't go b/c she has to go to her Dad's house. Poor Brooke. He feels her watchin her little brothers baseball game is more important. He doesn't realize that she wants to play ball and watching Gabe play might upset her b/c she can't play due to our custody arrangement. I will definitely put her in ball next year and he'll just have to work around it. She was very upset this year, but didn't let me know until after the deadline so I couldn't put her in it.

First I'd like to thank Kailey's grandmother Liz, Lexi's grandmother Kay, and Emily's mom Jennifer for giving me permission to post pictures and their names on the blog. I really do enjoy my girl scouts so much. It is very nice to know your child's friends and their parents and grandparents. We aren't from this area so I haven't had much of a chance to meet alot of my children's friends and their parents. I am throwing Ashley a suprise Amazing Race party Saturday and I debated on who to invite since I haven't met her school friends yet. I finally haven't decided whether to invite girl's from our old girl scout troop or her school friends that I haven't met yet. I probably should invite the school friends so I can meet them. Kaitlyn her best best friend has dancing and won't be their until late. She will spend the night with us. Just her b/c last year we mixed the 2 schools and that was a big mistake. They fought all night long and Kaitlyn went home early. I will be getting the clues ready tomarrow since I'm off work. Hopefully some of you all will be at Tinseltown or the mall saturday night and can catch a glimpse of them doing the funny stunts. Also we will be at Brookshire's on Cypress St. & the dollar store. I will take lots of funny pictures of Ashley so you all can see her having a blast. She loves the Amazing Race and will be extremely suprised when she realizes she is having a suprise b-day party.

Oh guess what my dramatic Brooke did last night? I was on the phone and she came and told me she was giving her teacher Mrs. Collins a diet snack bar for teacher appreciation week. (PS No Mrs. Collin's doesn't need it!!!) I said no, but didn't have time to explain since I was on the phone. She kept arguing with me and finally I gave her the it is definitley a NO look and she quit. Well this morning something told me to check her back pack. Thank goodness I did. I caught it just in time, but I hope she didn't put it back in her back pack after I left for work. If she did I'll write Mrs. Collin's a not explaining everything tomarrow. I'm sure she got lots of funny things this week from her kids at school.

And another funny thing that happened was: I left Ashley home from school yesterday b/c she threw-up and was complaining with her stomach hurting. I was super busy at work and called to check on her after work. Guess what she ate for lunch? Anyone guess pizza & ice cream?

Girl Scout update: COOKIE BOWL party Saturday April 26th @ Bayou Bowl. 1:00pm. call Monroe office to RSVP 325-2691. Kappa Delta Sorority is hosting this party.

May meeting will be a MOM's NIGHT OUT meeting. Mom's only. We will go out to eat (dutch) and get to know each other more along with talk about what you all thinks your daughter's would be interested in doing next year as activities. Friday night May 16th Olive Garden @6:30pm. Please call me or email me to let me know you are coming so I'll know how many to reserve the table for. Ashley and My parents

Emily, Kailey, & Brooke at our Booth Sale!!!!

Brooke and Jarrett building their Bear's from Christmas. Santa left them gift cards and it took us till March to find a weekend to go to Shreveport. We love the Chocolate covered strawberries and my favorite is the butter finger Caramel apple at the Chocolate Crocodile. We can't go to the board walk without getting one.

This is how dramatic my Brooke is. She shows you her feelings in every way. That is not always a good thing. But it can be quite entertaining. This is her getting her Easter Basket this year.

This is Brooke's Girl Scout folder. Parents please don't forget to check your daughter's folders. There are always several treats & prizes in there. I also put their badges and important girl scout papers. Brooke's folder stays full b/c I leave her stuff in their after every meeting. I give her her treats and prizes and leave the badges in their until I can iron them on her sash.

These are just some of the badges the girl's have earned this year during Girl Scouts. They earned the Animal Try-It by visiting the Zoo in Alexandria, Caring & Sharing Try-It at the meeting we learned about diversity before we went to the Convention in Alexandria, Cookie Booth sale when they attended a booth sale, Pines to the Gulf badge by attending the Celebration Convention in Alexandria, also Brooke earned the Super Cookie badge b/c she sold over 550 boxes of cookies. Way to go Brooke!!!! I also made the girl's name tags for anytime we go anywhere. I has my name and phone number on the back in case of an emergency. At alot of girl scout events people will ask them what troop they are in and if they get separated from anyone. I know Brooke probably couldn't tell you so I put it on their name tags.

I'm sorry about the pictures from the Princess Party not looking great. My hubby took my camera to the dirt track race and my display hasn't worked since. I might take it to Sear's this afternoon after work. I bought an extended warranty b/c I am rough on my cameras. I hope they can fix it or give me a new one bc/ not being able to see what you are taking a picture of is rough. That is the main reason I bought a digital one. I also have to try to find something to put in place of the glass on my coffee table b/c my hubby (again) sat on one side and broke it. I wasn't happy. I need to find something before my pampered chef party on May 8th. It looks bad. You know what his suggestion was? "Buy a new one". I'm sure all of you are wondering why not. That one was a new one. It also matches my living room suit and dining room suit. Ahhhh!!!! That is such a bummer:(

P.S. If anyone wants to come to my Pampered Chef party please email me and I'll give you directions. Jennifer is going to do Power cooking and fix 4 meals in 45 minutes. She will give 2 away as door prizes. I choose chicken as the main meat b/c ground beef still makes me sick ever since I was pregnant with Jarrett. Well I better go. Talk to you all more later. Brandi

Princess Pudding Yummmmm!!!!

"Kiss the Frog" game The girl's loved it! and scored some lipstick too
Just some of the table decorations. That is Brooke in the background. I have to get permission to post the other pics b/c they include the other girls. Sorry

My hubby & the kids enjoyed "Earth Day" at the Zoo yesterday. Brooke & Ashley played the Safari Game and earned the Earth day Patch. I have included a picture of it and the pin Brooke made. They had a blast!!! Jarrett was a little intimidated by the amount of perople so he stayed in his stroller and just took in the sites. His favorite animal was the hippo, which suprised me b/c last time it scared him when it opened his mouth and made noise. Brooke got to feed the giraffe and the worker kept saying over and over to her "Go Wash your hands". My hubby commented on that. I told my nonmedical hubby about animals can spread ecoli and kids can die from it. I made sure to tell him about that so he will be ure they wash there hands next time. I don't think he made her b/c he didn't see the importance. To him she just feed the giraffe a cracker and that isn't a messy thing. When I got home last night from date night with my hubby I asked Jarrett about the Zoo and what animals he saw. He gets kind of annoyed at my questions, but that is practically the only way to have a conversation with a 3 yr old. When I asked him what kind of animals he saw he said "Zoo animals Mommm" in an annoyed tone. He doesn't call me Mommy or Momma he calls me Mom which sounds so cute. He does call my hubby Daddy, Ashley Ashee, and Brooke Brookie.

As for future girl scout plans I'm not sure what we are doing as a troop meeting this upcoming month. I wanted to plan a day at the camp day with an older troop, but ball season is posing to be a problem with that. Our older girl troop wants to wait until Sept or Oct for that.

April 22nd Leader Aprreciation Day

April 26th 5:45pm- till whenever you would like to leave. "Relay for Life" We will be helping. Please wear your troop Tie-Dye T-shirt and meet me out front at the Ouachita Parish High School Football Stadium.

May 2nd or 3rd Mother-Daughter Campout $15.00 per Mom & Daughter Team & $5.00 per each additional girl. You don't have to spend the night. Deadline is April 25th to the Girl Scout office. This is not a troop event. See me or the Girl Scout office for additional info.

May 6th 6:30pm Strategy Cafe at the main branch of the Library on Stubbs. This is a parent event only. This is an event where you can come meet the new girl scout staff and voice any complaints or suggestions.

May 23rd 6pm-8pm Awards Reception at First United Methodist Church on Loop road. Please let me know if you plan to attend by May 1st so I can let the office know how many to plan for. It is free. I will let anyone that is receiving an award know. I'm pretty sure Brooke will be receiving one for the amount of cookies she sold and I will get my next year of service pin. Last year I received 4 awards, I don't know about this year.

"Cookie Skate '08" Being Planned. This will be a skating event where the girl's will be honored by their peers for their cookie sale accomplishments. We will have troop skates, games, family & little kid appropriate music, and much much more. Prizes will be awarded. We will have a BLAST!!! I'll let you know more later.

Daycamp: June 16-20 8:30-4:30pm at the Sterlington Camp. $50.00 per girl. Brochures will be mailed out shortly.

Sept 13th Gymboree at the Zoo

Sept 26th Mall Lockin- My favorite event.

Brooke won 3rd place for her Girl Scout egg school project.

See you all soon!!!!

Mrs. Brandi

Princess Party Update :)

I don't have much time so I'll real quickly update and then post pics tomarrow. The party went great!!!! I had 7 girl's attend. We played kiss the Frog, Pass the Frog, made princess hat swaps that were too cute (Thanks Sherry), made prices wands, ate a 3 course meal, and got to watch a little bit of Princess Diaries 2 on TV until all the parents came to pick everyone up. Also cookie prizes came in and the girl's were super excited to finally get their prizes. For all parents in case I forgot to mention the Star Night Lights are being tested for lead so we'll get them when Girl Scout's proves they are safe or they'll replace them with another cool toy like it. My older daughter Ashley did a tremendous job entertaining the girl's with the crafts and games while I cooked. She makes my job 100% easier as a leader. I also appreciated the help from a few of my greatly appreciated moms: Jennifer, Sherry. & Crystle. I love the adult time just as much as the girl time. Maybe I'll plan a mom's night out for all of us and Ashley and several other older girl scouts can babysit for us. For those of you that don't know Ashley has taken her RedCross Babysitting class and she has helped me with both of my older children so she is great with kids if anyone needs a babysitter. I'll share some funny stories from last night tomarrow. Tonight is date night for me and my hubby so I better go decide what movie to see. Thanks for all of your help with the pics I really appreciate it. And also thanks for welcoming to the blogging world. Brandi

Princess Party update :)

Tomarrow night is our "Princess Party" for Girl Scouts. I can't wait. I have to go home and get the cups decorated, grocery shop, clean my house, and buy teacher appreciation gifts for next week. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while I have been sick. I didn't get out of bed all weekend and went to the Doctor Thursday and Monday. I'm getting better now. I think our menu for the Princess Party is going to be apple slices, cheese, and grapes as the appetizer, ceasar salad, corn, & fish for the main course, with pudding and whip cream in plastic decorated wine glasses for dessert. If anyone doesn't like any of the food they will learn how to politely not eat it. This will work toward our manners badge along with our Imagination badge. I also can't forget my GS (Girl Scout) service unit meeting at peking at 6pm. I am one of the leaders and have to speak infront of the group. I don't do this very well. I have always had stage fright. My speech class in college was a nightmare. Torrrrrture!!!!!!! I can speak to my GS's, but I still get shy infront of a bunch of parents. I am getting used to Sherry & Jennifer, but it was hard at first. I also have to get our games ready and our crafts ready. We will be playing "Kiss the Frog" where I put lipstick on each girl and they are blindfolded and they have to kiss a frog poster. We will also play "Pass the Frog" where we play hot potatoe with a play frog. We will make princess wands and crowns. I can't wait to take lots of pictures. I hope to get permission to post some from parents aas they drop off their girl's. If some say no I'll take some of Brooke and whoever says yes for you all to see. I am going to try to post some pics today to test it out. These will be of easter and random pics.

This is my first blog ever so please bare with me I learn the ropes. I am putting together this blog so my girl scouts and their parents can have a lasting memory of all of our fun memories together. And also so they can get to know me a little better. I always feel so rushed at our meetings and don't really get to talk very much to the majority of the parents. Plus I feel that they need to get to know me so someday we can have a Girl Scout sleepover at my house. I would want to know the person taking care of my children so I am trying to make it easier on you all. I just love children. I would have had more, but my health and other issues made me stop at 3 so I get my children fix by hanging out with my children's friends and the Girl Scouts. I also at one time wanted to be a teacher so by being a Girl Scout leader is how I accomplish that in my eyes and heart. I will have to get permission before I write any of my Girl Scout's names on here or post pictures of them from each parent. Until them I will try to invent funny nicknames if I want to talk about a Girl Scout event that was a blast. So here we go>>>>>

Right now the Girl Scout office has just got started with everyone in their new job position and the fun begins!!!! I have a new "News Letter" that has tins of fun things planned. I will list the calendar below this post for any of my Girl's that want to know about any fun things coming up. You can email, call me, or post a question if you see anything you want to know more info about. I am having a blast planning our "Princess Party". I won't spill any details until after the party so the girls can be really suprised. Girl's be checking your mail boxes next week for your formal invitations. They are soooooooo cute. Let's just say there will be Frogs, Fancy food, jewels, lipstick, and lots more. Be sure to wear your fanciest dress or a dress up costume. Whichever you prefer. Brooke is wearing her Blue Cinderella costume with a dress up crown and some gloves she got from McDonald's in the Happy Meal last week that matches. I can't wait to take lots of pics. I scrapbook and have been waiting impatiently to use my Disney Princess paper and embelishments. HaHa. If you could see my scrapbook room you'd laugh. I can't even find the table right now. I hope to have time in the near future to clean it and organize it again. Also in the Girl Scout world I have been nominated as one of the Service Unit Leader's from my area. I will share this load with a friend. We will be heading up the service unit meetings and plan events just for our girl's in our immediate area. I am in the process of planning a skating party for either May or June. I want to award our girl's for their hard work selling cookies and give them something to look forward to next year as they set a goal and achieve it and be rewarded for it by their peers. I love cutesy (spp?) stuff so I can't wait to make cute name tags with colorful fringe around it saying how many cookies they sold so the girl's can be proud of their hard work. Last year my oldest daughter sold a little over 900 boxes and my middle child sold around 300 boxes. That means I had to deliver 1200 boxes myself along with head up several booth sales and I was also troop cookie mom and had to keep up with all of the troop's cookies and money. That to me was a job I would want my girl's to be honored for. I don't want to be honored I want to see their eyes shine as they are acknowledged. I love seeing them proud of themselves. Brooke gets that sparkle in her eye and can't get the smile off her face. It is sooooo cute. Ashley is at the age where she acts embarrassed, but you know inside she is loving it. Well I better go for now. Talk to Ya Later. Brandi