Girl Scouts End of Year Field Day

Before I get all gushy about how much Elisa loved Girl Scouts or how I was the best troop mother, let me just say it like it was. It was a struggle all year long. For both of us. I was glad to have her enrolled after hearing the Daisies were full last spring. But then once it started up, it seemed like Elisa was doing her usual and not showing a ton of interest. Plus for whatever lame reason, I could never really keep track of which alternate Saturday mornings were ours. And then there was the whole idea of being up and out the door by 8:45 a.m. to make it there on time. Yes, there were a lot of obstacles for this mother-daughter duo. But we persevered. She made it to not one, but TWO, sleepovers. We hit several museums and I was amazed when she pimped those cookies out to her teachers and most of the administrative staff at AOC. Elisa really stepped up to the plate with that and I was genuinely proud of her. Then of course I had to explain why she wasn't going to earn an iPad with her sales (those are for the kids who must run a cookie factory on the side), and it seemed like she was losing interest in going to the meetings. We skipped a few. We never brought snacks. It wasn't the kind of involvement I had pictured for either of us, yet I felt like maybe the reward would come next year when she would do more camping type activities and find her groove with so many girls who aren't from her school. I really questioned whether or not it was a good idea to push her towards sticking it out. But little by little she showed more curiosity and when I let her check out the FB pics from the Brownies recent camping trip, Elisa seemed to be sold. She wanted to do another year. So we re-upped and made it to the end of the year field day two weekends ago to celebrate and play. Elisa and her hip hop partner in crime Bea were reunited since they aren't in the same troop, and I was delighted to see how well they got on. There was a lot of laughing and rallying around their terrible three-legged racing. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to do a photo shoot in Brooklyn, so I missed the bridging ceremony where she was announced as an incoming Brownie. But I'm pretty sure that this was the right decision. Sometimes with Elisa I just don't know what she really loves. But I think she had a good time this year and I hope she'll do it for as long as she wants to. However long that may be.