The girls woke up at about 7 this morning. I was first up, once again, and went in to see them as I did yesterday. It was one of the girls' birthdays today and a group of them were having a mini party for her in one of the bottom bunks with some jammy dodgers! I went down to the kitchen to get a drink and then one of the YLs woke up too and came into the girls room with me to help entertain them. The cooks surfaced pretty quickly this morning and made breakfast. It was the same as yesterday, although we ran out of cereals and some girls had to share a small box between them but no one seemed to mind.
Once we'd eaten, we did some more activities, in three groups once again. One six was was making paper aeroplanes, one six was writing invisible messages with lemon juice and the third group were doing more detective work.
The aeroplanes were from Baker Ross. The planes themselves were made from polystyrene and covered in paper so the girls could colour them in with felt tips or pencils. A couple of them were peeling a little bit but that was easily fixed with a little bit of prit-stick. The girls all seemed to enjoy colouring them in and then throwing them around the living room and down the corridor (with permission because it was raining outside). They actually flew much better than I thought they would; some of them were getting some distance on them and they were testing the different shaped one to find which went the furthest!
The second group were in the craft room with the YLs, writing messages on paper with lemon juice. We then had loads of pieces of paper lying around the house as they had to be dry so they looked blank before you heated them to reveal the message. Unfortunately, I don't believe they worked terribly well as I never saw one after heating.
The final group were working on more of the detective activities. Again, a full post is coming shortly (it should be the one after this one) but the girls were doing footprints and maps in this session.
We then had some cakes that one of the YLs had brought with her (they were amazing!) and then the girls went back and carried on with anything they hadn't finished (mostly owls and paper aeroplanes) as well as the last two parts to the detective work; chromatography and pets. While the girls were doing this, the YLs all did the scrapbook for this year. Each year someone fills in a double page spread in the scrapbook for the house and the girls really enjoy looking through the old books and finding all the times we've been here (every year since 2002 now!).
Several of the girls then asked if they could make bead geckos; a staple craft for our unit since an ex-YL introduced them way back when I was a Brownie! Brown Owl got out the beads and most of the girls sat on the floor in the lounge, making them. Most of the older girls know how to make them and they were teaching the younger ones so we didn't actually need to do anything!
Three girls also asked if they could go outside and so I went and sat on the bench by the door and watched them run around for 5 minutes until they decided that actually, it was a bit cold and they were going to go inside again.
We had to do a speedy tidy because lunch was suddenly ready and the girls were so engrossed in gecko making that no-one had set the table. Lunch was roast chicken, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing (for those who wanted), carrots, broccoli, sweetcorn, and gravy. Hardly any of the girls had stuffing but that was fine with the Leaders! We encouraged the girls to eat at least one of their vegetables - we knew that it would be too complicated to try and send out plates specific to each girl (I know I hate broccoli but I was sat next to a YL who does so I swapped it for some of her sweetcorn) so everyone got everything on their plate. They then had jelly and ice cream for pudding. The girls got really excited because the jelly was 3 layers: red, orange and green all in one bowl! They could choose if they wanted one, the other or both. When everyone was done eating, the cooks announced that they'd made far too much jelly and that anyone who wanted could have some more. They bought out another giant bowl that hadn't even been started and several girls (including two YLs) got out spoons and started eating it from the bowl!
After lunch, the girls all went to their rooms to pack their bags ready to go home while a couple of the YLs set up the tuck shop again. I left the girl to it for a bit and then went in to make sure things were neat. One of the girls was in tears because another Leader had told her that she had to put her sleeping bag in a bag but it didn't have one and her Dad was just going to carry it. I reassured her that it was fine; I think it was just tiredness that caused her to get upset about it. Another girl then came up to me and told me she couldn't find her purse and she wanted to buy something from the tuck shop when it was her sixes turn. I helped her look in her bag and around her bed but we couldn't find it anywhere. I could see she was getting close to tears so I went had had a quiet word with Brown Owl who said that she could buy something and we would write it down as a IOU for her to pay next week at Brownies if she couldn't find her purse by the end of the day. She cheered up immediately and forgot all about it.
After the tuck shop, we gathered all the girls in the lounge for the final part of the weekend - souvenirs! Each girl gets a resin bear from the Girlguiding shop and a badge to say they've stayed at Campwood House. Some years we;ve given out stickers for completing various crafts and helping out around the house but this year we didn't so we pulled names out of a hat to see who got to choose their bear first (instead of it being the girl with the most stickers). The Leaders all got a present too, as a thank you. We sang Brownie Bells and then I went out to let the parents know they could come in and collect their girls. We ask them to wait in their cars until we are completely done because it would get too chaotic with girls wanting to hug their parents while we finish off and parents milling around in the house. Once we open the door, all hell breaks loose for a while as parents carry bags around and try and fit them out the door while other girls and their parents are trying to get in to pick up stuff! Eventually, all the girls had gone and it was left to us to clean up and pack away our stuff.
We have a check list which means we don't have to think too hard about it, we can just follow the list so I got the hoover out and started on the girls' bedroom which always takes the longest. I had to lie down by each bed and make sure there were no sweets or wrappers under there as the hoover can't reach all the way under. I found quite a few, including a sweet I thought was an M&M but it turned out to be wet and sticky - not very pleasant... We found quite a few clothes left on radiators and drying racks as we were tidying but luckily all of them were named so they can be handed back at next weeks meeting. Finally, we locked up and left for this year.
It was a really enjoyable pack holiday, if a little tiring as per usual! The girls all seemed to enjoy themselves and we didn't have any massive falling outs (always a worry with 15 tired girls in one house for a weekend). It was also really nice to see how much the girls had missed me and I'd only been away for 3 weeks - I dread to think what the reception will be when I go back for Christmas and have been gone for 9 more weeks! Once again, it brought back good memories of people I haven't seen in years and people I will sadly never see again but they are all happy ones and I hope I have created some lasting memories for this group of girls - after all, that is why I do this. Bring on next year!
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