Brownies

A few months ago, Abbie became a Brownie. I was initially torn about this because I didn't want to have to deal with cookie sales. However, the organizers convinced me that cookie sales would be a non-issue (not!) and that the girls would learn all sorts of great stuff.

So far, she has earned her badge for learning the Girl Scout way, and they are starting work today on their first aide badge. In a couple of weeks they will take a trip to a local fire station to complete the requirements for that badge.

They basically have one meeting a month (at school) and then one outing a month. In December, they sang carols at a retirement home, and in January they went to a wildlife exhibit at the Stockshow. There were some live animals to touch and also opportunities to shoot BB guns and bows and arrows (much to my chagrin). But, it was a good opportunity to sport her western wear, so that was fun.

(a few of the girls with a live corn snake)

As for Abbie's other activities, her after school sports continue, as does violin. We will be participating in the Trophy Festival again this year (http://our-first-baby.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html). Abbie will be playing Allegro this time, which I am looking forward to because it is one of my favorite pieces that she plays. Also, her constant reading continues. She has been really into the Harry Potter series and I think she has probably read the whole thing at least ten times by now. She has also been reading the Percy Jackson series that she got for Christmas and is starting to get more into that. I read some of it with her and it does tend to unfold slowly, so I told her to just be patient with it. She is also in an online book club that is reading a Lemony Snicket book. We'll see how that goes - the reading is a breeze, but it'll be good for her to also practice writing about it.