I attended two events this past weekend that left me both inspired and impressed.
One was the movie October Baby. Did you hear the news? October Baby had the third highest per-screen average and closed at No. 8 in the nation for its opening weekend. It made the top ten, my friends!!
This despite certain one-star reviews.
I have to say, this movie was even better the second time around. Rachel Hendrix is so very lovely and so heartfelt—a beautiful girl both inside and out—and Jason Burkey (his cutie-pie character, anyway) is everything I hope my boys will be.
In other words, a gentleman. He honors her.
The theater was packed with dozens of people from my church. We laughed for the first hour and cried throughout the second. (Not to worry—it was a good, cleansing cry.) God is so good and He is glorified in this film. Go go go see October Baby.
The second event I attended (you do remember that there were two of them?) was the spring camp-out for our American Heritage Girls troop.
Here are our girls:
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| Photo by Mrs. S. (aka Karin, my friend and fellow AHG leader) |
I went as both a mom and a leader—probably more a leader in this case because, well, it’s Cate and she didn’t really need a mom.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
(Note: We’d just hiked a couple thousand feet in that photo and still were smiling! Go moms go.)
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
(Hint: Going on super fun camp-outs with a bunch of girls her age might have something to do with it.)
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
We went to the Whitewater State Park in southern Minnesota (Hey Nutmeg–does that park sound familiar?!) and were blessed with really beautiful weather. Temps in the 60’s at the end of March? Who’d have thought?
When we later asked the girls what one of their favorite parts of the camp-out was, the answer was pretty much unanimous.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
Geocaching! It’s the cool new trend of 2012.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
…embroider a clothes line for all the wet towels.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
Let it not be said that these girls lack ambition.
We also did various team-building activities. The point of these games is to build unity, of course, but also to make all the slacker grownups laugh.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
They did it in maybe a minute flat.
Then, on Saturday afternoon, we painted t-shirts with the weekend’s theme.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
“PS 119″ stands for Psalm 119. It’s a very long Psalm–long, as in 176 verses–and we used it to talk about the weekend’s theme, which was light. You know…”Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” and other beautiful ideas like that.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
Have I mentioned that I was inspired this weekend? The other AHG leaders were something else–fun, funny and full of faith. I learned a ton from them.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
They, in turn, learned how to grin cheesy grins at the camera from me.
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
Have you ever done freezer-paper stencils before? SO cool, and we owe it all to Mrs. S. (aka Karin when she’s on our side of the cabin) for both designing the t-shirt and cutting out every last freezer-paper stencil.
One per girl + a couple extra for the leaders who simply couldn’t go without = 12 freezer-paper stencils total.
(I did the math.)
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| What good’s a camp t-shirt if you don’t get it signed? (Photo by–you guessed it–Mrs. S.) |
This is Karin, aka Mrs. S:
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| Photo by…I don’t know! Cindy or Karen, maybe? |
(I feel compelled to point out that she’s the one on the right.)
(I must also add that she’s amazing.)
So okay, I should probably wrap things up. I know this post is already WAY too long but how can I not share all these cute pictures?
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
“Cute” being a relative term when it comes to the makeup-less lady holding the platter.
Dessert contests…
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
Co-camping with an awesome AHG troop from Rochester…
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| Photo by Mrs. S. |
And making new friends that will one day be old gold.
Oh, that AHG camp looks like a blast!! Love the cake and the tees!!!
Glad you had fun!!
Oh my goodness that looks like so much fun. I think I first heard about Little Flowers from your blog, so I started a group three years ago. They are wrapping up Wreath 3 and I'm tempted to start up an AHG troop now. But it sounds like so much more effort that I'm not sure I can handle right now. I so wish there was an already established troop nearby.
Looks like everyone enjoyed themselves. What a wonderful experience for your daughter. Thanks for sharing.
Ann
Tell us how much work this would be for a mom to start up. I did three years as a little flowers group leader and i found myself burned out. My husband is scoutmaster of our boys' troop and I'm thinking I should be doing something with my girls. They watch their brothers go camping every month and know they would like to have something like AHG. I just don't want to get in over my head.
To everyone who's thinking about starting an AHG group in their area, I say…pray about it! It is a big time commitment–more time than I thought I had, in fact–but it's paying dividends. The character-building, the growth in virtue, the friendships, the leadership training (both mine and theirs)…
Well, it's been a very good organization for us.
However, I can't say how much work it would be to start up a troop oneself, having never done that before.
A friend of mine from our homeschool co-op is undertaking this, though, (starting a troop in the southern suburbs), and I will keep in touch with her to find out how it's going.
Nice sweatshirt in that hiking photo of you, Margaret!
The weekend looks like it was amazing! God bless you, friend.
~Erica
I'm inspired and impressed as well!! What a fun weekend! I enjoyed the photos–cute tees. I would love to have a group like that in our area and had thought about it once we finish Little Flowers this year. BUT, I'm afraid that the time commitment you mentioned and my lack of time currently, wouldn't work. Will pray on it though.
Looking forward to October Baby. It's not here in our area yet, but it's suppose to get here mid-April. Gotta get to it!
Looks like you had a fun, fun weekend!