Hello January!!

Candy sales begin in January so we will spend most of our time selling...

Meeting for Monday Jan 4th is cancelled

Art Workshop Saturday Jan 9th 1:30 to 3:00 at Summer Studios in Torrance, 10 dollars per kid/adult

No meeting Monday Jan 11

Candy Sale Kick off event Tuesday Jan 12 6-7:30 pm (location TBA) 6pm

We will be sending out emails regarding candy sale pick ups, candy sales officially start Friday Jan 15th and end on Valentines day Feb 15th.

No meeting Monday Jan 18th

Meeting Monday Jan 25, Amber will host

Keep checking back for updates!! **** note: date changed for the candy sale kick off *****

Happy New Year!!

(images from our new kinder group christmas party... hoping we can combine ours next year)

I am so excited that this is Camp Fire's 100th year Birthday!! I am hoping to do several projects that reflect this special year, stay tuned for that. I am canceling the next meeting Jan 4th, Jessica will be hosting a meeting in the spring on a Saturday. We will do a walk around the Nature Center (to fulfill a requirement for our special outdoor progression patch) and visit the SPCA. I have to work on the 4th so it worked out better just to cancel it.

Candy Sales are fast approaching, January and February will be chock full of store sales, so be ready! Our goal this year is for everyone to EASILY selling their minimum and of course you are welcome to sell more. Emily is striving to keep in the 120 club, a goal that i would love to see everyone accomplish. Remember, the Long Beach council gets 100 percent of the profits we generate and we will get a nice bonus check if we sell a lot. LASTLY, there is one group that is very competitive and i would LOVE to give them a run for their money. last year they really smeared everyone that first weekend of sales, so if you are interested in setting up a strategy to really knock our sales out of the park that first weekend, let me know. i will post more details on specific dates for January events soon. i would love to hear from you if you want to be more aggressive with candy sales this year. i think we can do it!

:)

The Potential Lunatics

The Yule Ball was great fun! Thank you Amber and Brenda for coming, we all really enjoyed the show. I am so excited for all of you to meet this creative family. Next year we will try to coordinate some kind of event that can showcase their talent. Anyone up for a party at their house???

:) See everyone at the christmas party tomorrow night.

Handmade Christmas meeting

Next meeting is our christmas party, don't forget to make your gift. it can be edible, painted, sewn, glittered, glued.... anything you can think of! have fun!

Hope to see some of you on Saturday night (yule ball) and also, let me know if you are coming to the Art Workshop in January (if you haven't already)

thanks!!

christmas!!!

upcoming info on the Yule Ball this Saturday: this is the letter i received from Cecille (Emma and Isaac's mom)

The Yule Ball Celebration is a secular, holiday event/ toy drive for the Long Beach Women's Shelter, the homeless and underserved kids in Long Beach. This is the second time we will have participated in this event. We also attend church there. It's held in the Parish Hall@ St. Luke's Episcopal Church. There will be free food and games and crafts. Isaac and Emma are also in a homeschool jazz/rock group with 9 other kids. That group will also have a short performance there that evening. They are really good too.
It's a fun evening. Last year we decorated with paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and lighted trees and lit candles. It was really pretty. It's inspired by the scene in Harry Potter at their Yule Ball with the open ceiling and the snow coming in. It had that magical feel.

The info is: Dec12, 6-9 pm. St. Luke's Episcopal Church in the Parish Hall, 525 E. 7th St., Long Beach 90813 It's a big, beautiful 100 year old church. Parking is in the back and on the side of the church.

We 're asking people to donate an unwrapped toy for a boy or girl. Or a Target gift card for $10 or more. The cards will be used to get the toys for whatever age group or sex needs to be filled in after all the donations are in. Last year, (through The Yule Ball and boxes placed around the community) we collected 200 toys and there were still kids that had to be turned away.

It's a wonderful church that does many good things for the community. Amount the many programs that they have is a shower and food program for the homeless all year. They always need new or old, in good condition, men's clothes, in particular. So if your husbands or fathers are cleaning out their closets, or shopping and you can buy an extra bag of socks or underwear, please think of this program.

hope you can make it!!

Belmont Shore Parade 2009

the parade is THIS Saturday Dec 5 at 7:00 PM. Please meet at 155 Quincy avenue no later than 6:15 PM

Wear dark pants, white sweatshirt, turtleneck, sweater etc under your vest. Uniforms are mandatory.
I have a bag of santa hats, if you have one already, please bring it, extras are always good.

Everyone must sign a permission slip, anne marie and susie are in charge so make sure you touch base with them early. We need to hand them in that night (anne has the forms).

remember it is crowded so get there early. Remember to eat dinner but don't fill up on too much drink and USE THE RESTROOM before lining up. the bathroom facilities are not convenient.

See you this Saturday!!

make up meeting

fabulous meeting guys! thank you!! thanks michelle!!

the Potential Lunatics

Join Emily and my family to see the Potential Lunatics at the "Yule Ball" on December 12 (Saturday) 6pm. I put a link to their myspace page on the sidebar (not working yet, use the one in this post) and they are also on facebook. I will get more info on exactly where the event is, the website says "St. Luke's" but I am not completely sure where that is. Let me know if you are interested, I have room for a few kids to join me!

We will be meeting up with the Potential Lunatics after the holidays, let me know if you are interested in hosting a party with them or have any ideas for a future camp fire concert.

thanks!!

bead fair 2009

the bead fair was a success!!

thank you moms for all your help!!

Thank you cards

So I told the girls about our neighbor Lynn who donated her belongings to our recent last minute garage sale to benefit our group... earning our camp fire group 300 dollars!! this is money put in to our kitty for beads, patches, supplies and fun events!!

The girls need to write thank you letters to her and bring the letters to our next meeting. i would love to get her some flowers and a stack of thank you cards asap, so please remember to bring them next meeting.

i am handing out beads as we earn them this year (if possible), only about half the girls received beads tonight because we ran out (everyone got the red white and blue citizenship bead in a plastic baggie though so make sure you check your canvas bag for it, don't lose it!!) jill hamilton picked up some beads for us so i will have them at the next meeting to get everyone caught up.

vintage beads: if you can purchase the vintage camp fire girl book (here is an example on ebay) please do, i also have some copies of the orange, light blue and red/white/blue bead list the girls can earn, let me know and i will give you a copy. thank you janet for making copies at your work for us. remember: you can earn beads on your own, all year long, at your own pace. just check out the bead book and have fun with the vintage beads too! you can also purchase vintage beads on ebay and earn them as well.

Next week we will have a special guest and work on our kiniya poster. please bring a thank you card for LYNN and your workbooks. all girls need to have an individual indian name, if you didnt pick one tonight or have one already, please purchase an indian name book at camp fire and spend some time picking a name (we have a few copies we can share as well).

please purchase a "symbol book" in the next few months, we will need it as we work more on indian themed projects. next up is the symbolgrams for our group name and individual name. once we choose the symbols we can start making felt designs on our vests and future gowns. we will also be learning how to use a bead loom and make headbands and bracelets with our symbolgrams. this will be super fun (i still have my headband from when i was a kid!!! ) more on this later. pick up the symbol book if you are at the council, its about 8 or 9 dollars (they are ordering more, there were only a few copies left the other day)

bead fair is this wednesday, starts promptly at 930am, i am running it so i can use all the parent volunteer help possible. we should be done at 1230, you can stay and have a sack lunch at the end but i am opting to leave when the event is over. let me know though, i dont mind staying. if you can volunteer, i will place you at a booth to help the coordinator and/or have you take our girls around to different stations. it's a super fun event!

let me know if you need a calendar for the los cerritos wetlands and friends of the colorado lagoon events. many of the girls said they didn't know anything about this at tonights meeting. remember i have posted links here to the calendar on the los cerritos wetlands stewards site.

kiniya is thursday november 19th, starts at 6pm, arrive at 530pm

THANK YOU for your patience, i know the last meeting was a bit boring but we got through a lot of the "work" we needed to do.

Saving Los Cerritos Wetlands

We spent a wonderful morning out on the Los Cerritos Wetlands today! Thank you Fatima, Ella, Ava, Emily and Lizzie for giving up your Saturday morning to help clean up and restore a beautiful oasis in our city. Can't wait to hear how all of you feel about the wetlands after spending time with Taylor, Eric and the other naturalists who run the restoration events.

November and beyond

Next meeting we will be getting ready for Kiniya. Our service project this year is to help restore Los Cerritos Wetlands and we added the Colorado Lagoon to our wetlands list as well.

This Saturday (nov 7th) I will be attending the habitat restoration at 10 am to noon at Los Cerritos Wetlands. If you would like to join me, i have space for one more kid and you are also welcome to drop off at the wetlands and pick up around noon. I have only attended a trash pickup in the past but i assume it will be a bit messy, so wear clothes that can get dirty, closed toed shoes, hats, sunscreen, garden gloves are good if you have them. Let me know if you can come. This will fulfill 1/2 of the service project needed to earn the Wood Gatherers Patch.

Bead Fair!! Vets day, November 11th, $5 dollars per girl, starts at 9:30am to noonish. Please wear your uniform, we take lots of pictures that day for the council. We could use as many parent volunteers as possible, don't worry if you can only drop off. this is a great way for the girls to earn 7 beads all in one day and have fun with the entire group. let me know if you can help out that day at one of the booths.

November 16th meeting: a professional makeup artist will be showing us how to do different kinds of make up (she works in hollywood and is an artist as well) This will be a fun meeting! She will be doing temporary makeup tattoos, be sure and let me know if you dont want your child to get one. they last longer than your normal temp tattoos. :)

Kiniya: thursday November 19th. Meet at the flagpole at 5:30pm, drop off camp fire kids and then family heads to the amphitheater at the back of camp shiwaka. bring sit upon, flashlight, wear your uniform. Two girls will go up and read our scroll about our service project and put it in Santas bag. Please bring one package of cookies (drop these off on your way to the flagpole at the council) these will be served after the ceremony at the lodge. Bring the lyrics to the Dreidel song if you have them.

At the Parent meeting we discussed the Art Workshop we will be attending Saturday Jan 9th, please mark your calendars. It will be in the afternoon (time to be announced) and held at Summer Studios in Torrance. Cost is approx 15 dollars/girl, we will subsidize with money from our kitty if possible. The girls will earn at least one bead (most likely a few) for this event and i will expand on this lesson in future meetings. They will be learning to color mix and paint a painting while being instructed by David Parsons, the owner of the studio and a professor at several colleges. I hope we can all do this together! Older siblings may also come (let me know ahead of time) There is room for 15 to 20 kids.

Belmont Shore parade is coming up, there may be some changes in the time and location (where we meet) so stay tuned for more on that soon. It is the first Saturday of December. If you have a Santa hat, please bring it that night. Dress warmly, white turtleneck or sweatshirt under your blue vest, dark pants, shoes you can walk in.

We still have a few people who have not paid dues, try to get me a check for 60 dollars asap if you have not already. thanks!

pumpkin party

we love our pumpkin party! thanks dori, danica and your whole family for a wonderful event!