Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Happy Anniversary!
Here is a link to the Flickr page where I am putting the still images from their celebration.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/tlcbull/74kGg5
E1 created a lovely slide show for them, which can be seen at the link below.
https://youtu.be/3YobgV4m03c
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Better Late Than Never
I FINALLY FINISHED IT!
"It" being the photo album from our trip to France in 2008. Yes. 2008!!!!If you want to see it, you can take a gander here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/tlcbull/FpV91o
Monday, June 18, 2018
Camporee 2018 was Literally Smoking!
Yahoo! I made it through Camporee 2018. The theme was the Amazing Girl Race and I was fortunately able to help on the committee. Even though it was very tiring, I LOVED every second of it! Since I was a volunteer, and helping to run the camp, I was not able to travel with my troop, but they still came and had a great time. I was also able to see my niece and SIL as they participated with their own troop.
In order to get things ready for 800 campers, I went to the camp on Wednesday to help with preparations.We sorted T-shirts, sorted program supplies for each activity, prepared activities for the race portion, practiced our campfire skits and songs, and helped to prepare 1000 S'mores!
In order to serve that many people, we prepared the S'mores and wrapped them in foil, then put them on trays to go into the oven. The industrial size of it all meant we could cook 20 trays with 40 S'mores per tray or 800 S'mores at one time! Then when it was time to give them out, we just passed them down the line and BOOM campfire deliciousness!
Eventually a fire official came up to camp to tell us they were working on getting us a "window of opportunity" and he advised us to load our cars, assign seat assignments, and be as ready to go as we can. Then he would send some one up to escort us out. We all had to leave together and we would have to leave quickly. So we cleaned up camp, loaded our cars, and waited for the signal. Finally around 9:30 p.m. we were told to load up and we headed out.
In order to get things ready for 800 campers, I went to the camp on Wednesday to help with preparations.We sorted T-shirts, sorted program supplies for each activity, prepared activities for the race portion, practiced our campfire skits and songs, and helped to prepare 1000 S'mores!
In order to serve that many people, we prepared the S'mores and wrapped them in foil, then put them on trays to go into the oven. The industrial size of it all meant we could cook 20 trays with 40 S'mores per tray or 800 S'mores at one time! Then when it was time to give them out, we just passed them down the line and BOOM campfire deliciousness!
Thursday morning came early and we helped to settle all of the campers into their designated sections of the meadow. We helped to unload cars and I was assigned to help direct traffic as we got everyone to where they needed to be.
Later in the afternoon, we opened camp with a flag ceremony. We had some of the Girl Scouts of Utah Executive Officers present the colors by riding in on the Trefoil horses. They rode up to the breezeway, then gave the color guard the flag. It was a bit different from back in the day when we used to be able to ride straight up to the flag pole and present the colors directly from horseback, but it was still pretty cool.
Then it was time for SWAPS!
Friday, we mostly conducted different learning workshops. I taught fire building. I don't have any photos of that yet, but I hope to get some soon. We also had a rockin' dance party.
Saturday morning was our Amazing Girl Race. Girls had to go to stations for G=go-getter, I=innovator R=risk taker L=Leader where they had to complete some real life style scenarios having to do with each category. For example in the innovator section they had to figure out how to pitch a tent that had lost a tent pole.
Before we knew it, it was time to go home. Check out for Troops was on Saturday between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. We did our best to help load cars and get troops out of camp as soon as we could. I had been helping to sort program supplies from 3-4 ish, but we finished early and headed up to the meadow to help load cars. Around 4:30 we got an Emergency alert over the radio to get everyone out of the meadow and down to the parking lot ASAP! So we left the cars we were loading, dropped everything, and headed down the hill. Once we got the lot, we could see the flames on the hillside near the camp.
We loaded kids into as many cars as we could find, trying to keep troops together and send them down the mountain. Unfortunately only a few of them made it out before the fire department stopped all traffic because the fire trucks were blocking the very narrow road. So they turned the cars around and sent them back up to camp. We tried to receive them as happily as we could, and gave them water bottles, fresh fruits, gold fish crackers etc. Camp staff began singing songs, and we brought out games and tried to keep everyone happy while the Administrators tried to figure out what was going on. We were told that we may have to shelter in place for another night, so camp staff threw together a meal of hot dog bun pizza from left over kitchen supplies.
It was like a parade! Fire fighting trucks lined the road as we came through, and waved to us as we high-fived them and thanked them through the windows of our cars.
I pulled into my driveway at 12:30 am. exhausted but ever so grateful for those who worked so hard.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Troop 2033 Yearbook
I love being a Girl Scout Leader. I love watching teeny tiny little girls who try so hard not to cry at their first meeting grow and develop so they are leading the show by the end of the year. I love seeing the teenagers be able to do things that their peers don't usually do, like count back change, apply proper first aid, and sing hundreds of silly songs. Everyone knows I also love taking pictures, so taking pictures of my Girl Scouts seems like a logical thing for me to do. I also love making photo albums. I have made one each year that I have been the leader of this Troop. If you love these things, too, you can visit our newest yearbook by clicking here:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/tlcbull/51qVju
Monday, November 6, 2017
Slimeology
For Halloween, my nephew and his wonderful parents threw a Halloween party for his school class. They had a spooky forest, fun games, yummy treats, and they even made SLIME. The kids had a fantastic time, but the recipe we used for the slime just didn't work out like we thought it should. The concoction we made ended up feeling like rubber, and was still fun, but wasn't really the ooey gooey SLIME we were expecting, so I set out to discover why. I began researching slime recipes on the World Wide Web, and discovered there are as many recipes for slime as their are stars in the sky. So, I picked a few that looked promising and gave them a try. This is what I learned:
1. No matter what the recipe, you can expect for it not to work out the way you think it will. I learned that small changes lead to big results. Things like white glue vs clear glue make a huge difference. If you are using water in a recipe, the temperature of the water can change the result. Liquid food coloring vs food coloring gel, borax vs liquid starch, adding paint or glitter, the time you spend stirring, the temperature in the room, all can lead to a different result. So, don't get hung up on trying to make the recipe of choice EXACTLY like it shows in whatever you tube video you find, because it just won't happen. Expect the unexpected and you will be fine.
2. Kids don't care if the recipe works or not. It truly doesn't matter to the kids of the slime bonds the way you were expecting, because what they love about the slime is the process. Yes, the slime is fun to play with, but my girl scout helpers loved dumping an entire bottle of glue into a bowl. They loved stirring in food coloring, and squishing the slime in their fingers. Getting messy was the best!
3. Don't be afraid to "Tweak" the recipe to make it work for you. NONE of the original recipes I found gave me the result that I wanted, so I played around with the ingredient amounts. I used hot water vs cold water. I stirred for different lengths of time. In total, while preparing for my girl scouts to make 3 different types of slime for a scout activity, I made over 15 test batches to assure I had a good feel for what I was doing. I was finally able to get a fairly consistent result, and used those recipes for the girls. However, as I learned from lesson one, I anticipated correctly that sizing up the recipes to make a lot of slime in one batch wouldn't exactly give me the result I was expecting. Learning also from lesson two, the girls didn't notice and/or didn't care, and had a fantastic time anyway.
The recipes that I found worked best for me (after tweaking a bit) are:
1. Galaxy Slime From Two-Da-Loo This is a link to the original recipe. Basically the only thing I changed was to start with half of the bottle of glue, then add the rest after adding the starch. The original recipe worked very well though. The biggest change is when I used white school glue to obtain the white slime. The original recipe did not work AT ALL with white school glue. I found I needed a lot more starch to get the same result with the white glue.
3. Glow in the Dark Flubber from Steve Spangler Science
Printable Slime Recipes
1. No matter what the recipe, you can expect for it not to work out the way you think it will. I learned that small changes lead to big results. Things like white glue vs clear glue make a huge difference. If you are using water in a recipe, the temperature of the water can change the result. Liquid food coloring vs food coloring gel, borax vs liquid starch, adding paint or glitter, the time you spend stirring, the temperature in the room, all can lead to a different result. So, don't get hung up on trying to make the recipe of choice EXACTLY like it shows in whatever you tube video you find, because it just won't happen. Expect the unexpected and you will be fine.
2. Kids don't care if the recipe works or not. It truly doesn't matter to the kids of the slime bonds the way you were expecting, because what they love about the slime is the process. Yes, the slime is fun to play with, but my girl scout helpers loved dumping an entire bottle of glue into a bowl. They loved stirring in food coloring, and squishing the slime in their fingers. Getting messy was the best!
3. Don't be afraid to "Tweak" the recipe to make it work for you. NONE of the original recipes I found gave me the result that I wanted, so I played around with the ingredient amounts. I used hot water vs cold water. I stirred for different lengths of time. In total, while preparing for my girl scouts to make 3 different types of slime for a scout activity, I made over 15 test batches to assure I had a good feel for what I was doing. I was finally able to get a fairly consistent result, and used those recipes for the girls. However, as I learned from lesson one, I anticipated correctly that sizing up the recipes to make a lot of slime in one batch wouldn't exactly give me the result I was expecting. Learning also from lesson two, the girls didn't notice and/or didn't care, and had a fantastic time anyway.
The recipes that I found worked best for me (after tweaking a bit) are:
1. Galaxy Slime From Two-Da-Loo This is a link to the original recipe. Basically the only thing I changed was to start with half of the bottle of glue, then add the rest after adding the starch. The original recipe worked very well though. The biggest change is when I used white school glue to obtain the white slime. The original recipe did not work AT ALL with white school glue. I found I needed a lot more starch to get the same result with the white glue.
· 8 oz bottle clear glue
· Food coloring
· Fine glitter in a variety of colors
· 1/2 cup Liquid starch
Measure 1/2 cup of clear glue into a bowl. Stir in food coloring. Stir in glitter. Add 1/2 cup liquid starch. Stir well. Quickly add the rest of the glue bottle. Work with hands to mix well.
*NOTE* To get full galaxy effect make smaller batches of black, turquoise, violet, and white/silver then mix them all together.
For white Galaxy slime:
· 8 oz bottle white school glue
· Fine glitter
· 3 tablespoons Glow in dark paint (optional)
· 2 cups liquid starch
Measure 1/2 cup white glue into a bowl. Stir in glitter. Add glow in dark paint if desired.
Slowly start adding starch until desired consistency. Work with hands to mix thoroughly.
The original recipe called for
- 1/2 cup clear glue ( I ended up using a full 8 oz)
- 1/2 cup water (I removed)
- 1/2 cup liquid starch
- Spooky elelments
Each time I tried this recipe, I could not get a consistent oozy ball like I saw in the video. So, I removed the water, and added more glue...which basically left me with the same recipe as the galaxy slime above. What I did learn though, is that in this recipe TIME can be a factor. For example, when making the galaxy slime, if you mix the extra glue in right away, it gives you a very smooth gooey slime. However, if you give the starch a lot of time to settle in, and work it until it looks like gooey pumpkin guts, then add the extra glue, it forms a more rubbery, yet still slimy compound VERY much like the slime you can buy in the toy stores. Then the spooky elements squished right in.
My final recipe:
· 8 oz bottle clear glue
· Food coloring
· 1/2 cup liquid starch
· Spooky elements like Spiders or plastic eye balls
Measure 1/2 cup of clear glue into a bowl. Stir in food coloring. Slowly add 1/2 cup liquid starch. Stir with hands until mixture resembles stringy pumpkin guts, then add the rest of the glue bottle. Mix in spooky elements.
3. Glow in the Dark Flubber from Steve Spangler Science
· 1 cup tap water + 1 TBSP Borax dissolved in a small bowl
· 1/2 cup white glue + 1/2 cup water
· 3 tablespoons glow in the dark craft paint
· Food coloring (optional)
Dissolve Borax in 1 cup water and set aside. In a separate bowl mix glue and water, add glow in the dark paint, and food coloring, if desired. Gradually add the borax solution into the paint solution, (our test product only required about 1/2 of the Borax solution). Work with hands to mix thoroughly.
We found that adding food coloring was fun and made it more exciting in the day light, but it GLOWS so much brighter in the dark without the food coloring added. This one was BY FAR the favorite of my girl scout helpers. The flubber is a floppy oozy concoction that will not stretch (it breaks when you try to pull it apart) but if you just let it "ooze" it will melt right through your fingers.
Well, there you have it, my oozy gooey thoughts of the day. I hope this inspires you to slime it up, and please feel free to use my printable recipes in the link below. If you try them out, I would love to hear how they worked for you.
Printable Slime Recipes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)