PACK 104 FIELD TRIP

Our Pack Leaders planned a fun day at the Ocean Adventures Marine Park down in Gulfport, Mississippi as their final summer activity before school starts. It required a very early start, so we had some sweetly napping kids for the majority of the drive down there:

We started with a presentation (death by PowerPoint...) and a group activity, and then we spread out into Den groups to explore the park! There were multiple ray pools, a parakeet house, a bird show, a dolphin show, a museum, and a touch pool with surrounding terrarium exhibits. It's a small park, but they pack a lot in and we felt that it was all well kept and done nicely.

William, James, and Derrick (our Arrow of Light Den):

(Apparently Cora was still tired on the way home... after a stop for a heavy, and early, dinner at the Abita Brew Pub!)

GIRL SCOUT FIELD TRIP

This afternoon we took Troop 3315 to the Old Courthouse Museum. It was actually my first time ever to visit the museum. The kids seemed to enjoy it - we downloaded the Scavenger Hunt from their website in order to give them some direction. They split themselves into their own groups, and the Troop leaders and parent volunteers made sure every group had at least one adult to supervise. We spent about an hour there, then walked over to the Sheriff's office to donated some cookies to our local heroes (and then drove by the Emergency Call Center with a few of the girls on our way home to deliver the last of our donation cookies).

James jumped in with Joye and Kristiana, and I led the group with Joye's dad. Cora, of course, went with Cara Beth, Anna Paiten, Autumn, and Katie (and I think Sarah and Jessica led their group).

CUB SCOUT FIELD TRIP

James' Webelo Den took a field trip to a local recording studio tonight as part of their music badge. We ALL learned a lot (the entire family attended because we knew it would be cool) and had so much fun seeing how all the equipment works. The studio owner showed us how he edits songs and the kids (and adults...) were cracking up when he tweaked the vocalist's voice to be super high or super low (or extra fast or extra slow). Cora took lots of notes because she'll "need to know this stuff" when her "band" (her and Cara Beth) are older.

Each kid had a chance to try out one of his recording booths too, and while Cora was ridiculously (and uncharacteristically) shy, it was the highlight of the experience for her!

GIRLS SCOUTS' VNMP HIKING FIELD TRIP

The Brownie co-lead (Sarah!) and I took the Daisies and Brownies (and quite a few of their parents and grandparents) on a short hike at the military park this afternoon. We watched the movie at the Visitor Center first, explored the Illinois Memorial, then did a downhill trek through the woods (and walked back up the road to our cars). The girls seemed to really enjoy it and most of them agreed that we should do a longer hike some Saturday morning (when it's a little warmer!)

My front of the pack crew that kept me on my toes during the hike:

(Cora, Olivia, Anna Paiten, and Cara Beth)

Sunset group photo back in front of the Illinois Memorial:

3RD GRADE GATES FIELD TRIP: AG MUSEUM

The 3rd grade GATES classes have been learning about pioneering and got to take a trip to the Ag Museum (where there is also an old timey downtown replica complete with shops and actors). I'm friends with a few of the moms that attended as chaperones, so I received photos throughout the day. Clearly Cora had a great time outside of school with her friends!

(Julia, Olivia, Cora, Cara Beth, Presley, Anna Paiten, MacKenzie, and Grace)