Pizza and a bonfire

It was a wild night with nine high energy girls!
Thank goodness Peyton was there to help.


Attendees were:
Isabel, Ella, Greta, Mia, Lily, Angolina, Traci and two guests
Lexi and Sadie.

We started off by making personal pizzas. And by that I mean, watching the girls put minimal sauce on the dough before adding a mound of cheese. A few chose to add pepperoni but plain cheese won out. I thought we'd get some interesting crust shapes but only Isabel made hers into a heart.

While our pizzas were cooking we headed to the craft table to turn pinecones into various creatures, animals, Christmas trees and feathered ornaments. I had made an owl and a mouse as an example thinking the girls would copy them but they created something unique on their own. 

I should have known better!

Having such a big group made the craft table a bit chaotic but it was neat so see everyone asking for things with a "please" and sharing and helping each other.

Time to eat our pizzas on blankets, picnic style, on the living room floor. Here we talked about how school was going for everyone. We went around the circle and the girls said what their favorite thing about school was. Some mentioned making new friends and then the topic of mean kids came up. We talked about ways to deal with the mean kids, like trying to walk away or saying things like "sorry you feel that way" if they say something that isn't nice. I also told them that if it's a real problem that is making them sad or distracting them from learning, that they need to tell their teacher or their parents.

After our pizza we ate some homemade brownies that Mia brought!

 We were going to stay inside for a little while but the screaming and running made the bonfire outdoors look pretty enticing so we bundled up and laid out some blankets and brought down a bag of marshmallows.

It was just getting dark and it was very chilly so it was really perfect once we got the fire going. The girls were very good about sitting down or standing away from the fire and not running near it.

After we blew out 20 or so marshmallows that started on fire, we got out the flashlights and did some exploring down by the wooded shore of the pond. Then it was time to play hide and seek and a couple of games of kick the can.


After quit a bit of screaming and running, we sat down to tell scary stories by the fire. Peyton broke the scary tension with a story about a family of marshmallows and Lily added her story about a family of gummy bears living in the forest. Then we told a few jokes.

Our time was coming to an end so we headed upstairs and gathered up crafts and danced in the living room until all of the parents arrived.

It was fun to see everyone again and see the girls be so carefree and bonded together as a group.






Our next gathering will be near Halloween.

I'll send the details soon!

Week 9 Last day

I'm so happy that all of the SuperGirls were able to make it for our last Friday together.



Attendees were Greta, Mia, Ella, Nina, Lily, Isabel, Angolina and Traci









We decided to have a free day with not a lot of structure. After doing some painting and coloring at the craft table the girls told me to stay in the kitchen.  A few minutes later I was presented with a big card with an SJ on it for Super Jenny. Peyton helped make the card and typed up the message inside and they each signed their name and added a sticker. What a nice surprise! We had a big SuperGirl group hug after I read the card.

Peyton in a stack of hats and boa

We moved onto picking out a stencil or two for our shrink art. They did the tracing and coloring and Peyton and I did the cutting and it wasn't long before they were in the oven. We had a penguin, some dolphins, flowers, butterflies, flip flops, a cupcake and Lily did an original SpongeBob. Somehow I didn't get a picture of any of them.

Time to dance. I put on some of their favorite songs and out came the cowboy hats, scarves, the boa and a tiara. They had some good moves and danced as a group for one song. There were all kinds of interesting hand movements and dances I'd never heard of, although I did show them my version of the "shopping cart".

The Cupid Shuffle

Silly Faces!

Even though it was pretty hot out they all wanted to play at Deerwood Park. There were a lot of brave girls climbing high and swinging high too. Once we had run around enough to get sweaty we decided to head back to the house and have a water and cool down in the fort.


Our time was coming to an end so we headed outside for some chalk drawing and jump roping.

Then we gathered back on the deck to hand out the SuperGirl books Peyton and I made for everyone. I had the girls come up one by one and the other girls made comments about what qualities that girl had that made her a great SuperGirl. Being kind and nice, sharing and being helpful and a good friend applied to all. Greta got a special shout out for bringing so much fun energy to the group.

It was fun to see them look at their books and compare pictures and say "remember that?".

And so comes the close of SuperGirls Summer 2012. We had a great time and I hope to keep the momentum going by having a pizza party or an after school get together every few weeks throughout the school year.







Thank you for letting your daughter participate and please keep reminding them to be a SuperGirl and...

Be kind, creative, helpful, brave, confident, happy, respectful, truthful and a good friend!

Week 8 Bake and frost

We had some energetic SuperGirls today!

The fearless leaders

Attendees were Angolina, Lily, Nina, Isabel, Greta, Mia and Ella.



We began the day by gathering in front of the computer and looking at the blog to reminisce about all of the fun things we've done this summer.
The girls enjoyed talking about the games we played, like telephone, when were talking about being trustworthy. Or, when we looked at paintings and there were different opinions and we all didn't have to agree.
I told them about the thank you card we got from the staff at Dakota Woodllands and how they were so happy with the bracelets we made for them.

In keeping with our SuperGirl theme of being kind and giving to others, our project today was to bake and decorate sugar cookies to give to a neighbor, a friend or even the mailman.

I had made the dough but the girls rolled it out and did all of cutting out. We had butterflies, flowers, stars and hearts. 

Once we got all of the cookies in the oven (47 in all!) we headed outside for our snack.


First, we sang Happy Birthday to Angolina!

We then talked about how we'd like to spend our last Friday together next week. The unanimous decision was going to Deerwood park, dancing with costumes and making shrinky dinks in flower and animal shapes for our craft.








Then we went back inside to the craft table where they decorated some takeout boxes to put their cookies in. The boxes went from plain ol' cardboard to glittered, painted, feathered and stickered.

Then it was back to the kitchen to get frosting and sprinkling our cookies. Everyone washed their hands and I told them the importance of wiping extra frosting on a paper towel and resisting the urge to lick their fingers. I think they did pretty well but there were no guarantees.

The cookies turned out great! 

They each chose one to eat and we packed up the rest. 

Greta went a little crazy with the frosting

While Peyton and I had the monumental task of cleaning up (really, it looked like a bomb went off) the girls went down in the fort to play. It gets very loud and crazy down there but they have fun and it's good for them to have some free time.


Another fun day and we'll see you for our last SuperGirl Friday next week!

Week 7 The great outdoors

It was a perfect day to have our SuperGirls meet at Blackhawk Park!

Attendees today were: Greta, Isabel, Mia, Ella, Angolina and Traci.

We began with a sit down on some blankets on the grass to talk about our activities for the day. We revisited some of the qualities that a SuperGirl has and one is being helpful. The girls had examples of how they've been helpful recently and Ella mentioned she held the door for people the other day. That's great to hear. I asked the group if they could think of a way we could help out on our nature walk and the answer was "pick up trash!" and to that response was "yuck, we need gloves!".
Luckily, I was prepared and each girl picked out a set of gloves
and I had some trashbags so we were ready to get started.

They sure did have good eyes and found all kinds of little wrappers and pieces of balloon, bottles and other items.
They were eager to help and there were no complaints. Unfortunately we couldn't reach a lot of the trash that was floating in the water near the dock so I may have to return with my long pool net.

 

After our trash collecting was done we went back to the car to get our snacks. I talked to the girls about how fun and easy it is to do little sketches of what you see when you are out in nature. Luckily, I'd packed a notebook and pencils for everyone so we set off on our nature walk. We also had fishing poles in hand. There happened to be a picnic that was being set up with a tropical theme by the shelter and they had a parrot that a lady let the girls pet.

I think a sketch of the bird made it into everyone's notebook.

Off to the dock on a mission to catch a fish or see some turtles. We didn't have success with either, but we had fun trying. The girls are great at sharing and helping each other out.

We walked around the gravel path and they found several "secret paths" to go on, a little bridge to walk under and a hill to climb up and run down. Luckily I didn't need the first aid kit but they were quite the dare devils with Isabel and Greta leading the pack.



 

After quite a bit of walking and sketching there was a group vote to get to the park before our time was up. Some of the girls were feeling tired and started to lag behind but the other SuperGirls were willing to wait and cheer them on until they caught up.  I wouldn't recommend taking a long hike with six girls or you may never reach your destination!

It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

See you next Friday!