Ella has her first official Girl Scout meeting this week, she’s starting at the Daisy rank (Kindergarten – 1st grade). The uniform showed up last week and I was very relieved to see that the patches were iron-on. I was never in scouting, partially because I grew up in a neighborhood of boys and wanted to be a Boy Scout. I thought they looked cool and got to use a lot more weaponry than the Girl Scouts…cookie selling vs. shooting guns…seriously. However, Chelsey was in Girl Scouts and actually enjoyed herself the few years she was in it. We also learned that cookie selling is quite addictive/competitive. Chelsey earned her 100+ badge because I brought the cookie forms to my freshman college dorm...it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Ella’s group met a couple of weeks ago informally to do paperwork. We met at a local restaurant that has a playscape. The girls were there, but so was half the town’s kids. Ella was having none of it. It was loud and crazy. She was pretty sure that every meeting was going to be like that. Once I explained that her future meetings would only be with a few girls in a room at a church, she was visibly relieved. Since that meeting, our troop has split into two other groups, due to differences in opinion on when we should meet, and our troop was pretty large. We’re opting to meet afterschool at a nearby church, and really excited to get started. Our leaders look to be great.
Before the big meeting, we had to get Ella’s vest ready for duty. On Saturday, Ella and I spread out our various patches and pins, and thanks to the internets, I figured out where to place all of these little accessories.
Ella modeled the vest so I could eye where the patches should go, without placing them too high or low. Ella was nervous I was going to iron them while she was wearing the vest…I may not have been a Girl Scout, but I’m not that hopeless. Lily looks on with yearning, but kept her cool while Ella got all of the attention, though has tried to convince me that she’s in 1st grade, and thereby eligible for scouting.
Rather than let Ella watch from the sidelines, I decided she should get involved with this patch thing. I was a little nervous to let her use the hot iron, but I then had to internally shake myself back into the reality that a few generations ago, my five year old would have been attending to babies and cooking while I worked in the field, been working at a shop with her small nimble fingers or down in a coal mine…she was perfectly capable of swooshing an iron back and forth a few times. And she was. Ella took great care and pride in ironing her patches on, with a lot of help.
Ella was excited to model the finished product. We hung it up near the door in waiting for our next meeting, I see Ella stop to admire it frequently as she passes it. Here’s to the confidence that Girl Scouts has already inspired, before our first meeting.
Remember this face when cookie time comes…
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