Girl Scout International Fair

Last night the local Girl Scouts put on an International Fair for each other in celebration of World Thinking Day. The troops who signed up created a display booth and then presented the country they were assigned. Our combination Daisy/Brownie troop worked on Spain and were super excited. Isabella and Ava are in this troop. Sophia got to go too because some of the girls in the troop couldn't make it. Sophia is a Brownie (just in a different troop). It was a long Friday night though.

We carpooled 17 girls in 5 cars in the rain. We drove through the drive through's and stuffed food down them before we got to the middle school where things were happening. This being our first year participating we didn't know what to expect or how long this would be. I originally planned to not feed the girls until after the event (thinking this would be a one hour thing) but boy am I glad I made the last second decision to swing through Wendy's on my way there. Unfortunately, some of the troop members were late getting to the meet up school and got left behind and the leader had to swing back through to get them. I feel bad for them because I was supossed to wait at first but then was told not to wait because I didn't have any room in my car anyway.

There were between 100-200 girls in attendance. Most were Brownie/Daisy age. There were some Juniors and some Seniors. We met at 5pm, arrived at 5:30pm and the event started at 6pm. At 7:30pm our little Daisy's started getting tired and over stimulated. By 8pm some of our Brownies were hitting the wall (Ubaydi children go to be like clock work at 7:30pm EVERY night. So you can just imagine). At 8:45pm the whole troop just sat down on the ground and waited for the closing ceremonies. They were all so tired. At 9pm it was over and we were released. I dropped my crew off at 9:20 and my kiddos were in bed by 9:30pm.

Overall it was a great experience for our girls in the troop. They got to meet other Girl Scout Sisters and they learned about many countries around the world and what Girl Scouting in those countries means.

Many of the girls were eager to tell the "tourists" about their country and that really was the point. To get them to open up and have fun.

PS: Some of the adults involved in Isabella and Ava's troop have wondered why I have a 3rd daughter in another troop instead of having all 3 in the same super troop. Last night after 15 minutes one mom approached me and said, "I know now WHY you keep them in seperate troops". Isabella's attitude completely changes when her sister Sophia is in her group. Isabella is threatened by Sophia and starts being mean to her sister. After last night it is confirmed that even though it's more work for me to have them in seperate troops it's the best thing for both of them to grow as Girl Scouts and as people. Sibling rivalry has just reared it's head in this house. This year, now that Sophia is in full-day school (1st grade) Isabella has really started feeling threatened by Sophia's sucesses. I really need to work on this with Isabella.