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Girls,
All our photos are now at the bottom of the blog....just scroll down to view them all. And don't forget to post a comment. I love to hear what you have to say.

Last Night Of Craft...... for 2009 (sorry Beth!)

Well girls, we had our last craft night last Wednesday, and I am positive that Bethany will be soooooo devastated!!!!! She LOVES craft so much. In fact, I think Beth loves craft nights just as much as Echidna does!!!!!!

So...... we knitted, we crocheted (is that even a word??) and we sewed badges onto our camp blankets. It was one of the QUIETEST nights on record EVER!

A big thank you to Gillian and Tracy for giving up their time to come and help your craft challenged leader Echidna. Banksia is quite capable of holding her own on these nights, but poor Echidna just cannot cope with anything involving threads and needles of any kind. And, by the way, Laura ...you did not sew a single badge on your blanket so you should thank your mother profusely!

Well done to all the girls who have now passed their needles badge. We have a promise ceremony coming up soon where all girls will receive the badges they have earned over the past two terms.

WOO HOO!!!!! Our girls are FABULOUS!

WOOHOO...... Patrol Challenge girls ROCK!

Only one years experience and our Patrol Challenge girls lifted their ranking from 10th overall in 2007 to.... wait for it....

FOURTH!!!!!!!!

We are SO immensely proud of you girls. It was a tough competition and you all did so very well.

From throwing lifelines to erecting a flagpole (and raising a full cup of water to the top) to making a fire on water and then having to cook on it...... My goodness you girls are talented.

Congratulations to Laura (Patrol Leader), Bethany, Charlene, Caitlin and Kayla


.......and well done to Beecroft, the overall champions.
Next year girls....... we will, we will rock you!

Patrol Challenge Day

On Sunday we are sending four girls to the Patrol Challenge day at Glengarry. Our girls will have the opportunity to take part in some exciting and inventive activities, competing against other patrols from all over Sydney.

Some of these challenges will include cooking, orienteering, design and make tasks, first aid and safety.

We wish our girls the best of luck as they take on other patrols! (C'mon.... you can beat Beecroft!)

Don't forget to post a comment to let us know what you did and how you went.

Sit-a-pons and Scrunchies

Wednesday night was a fantastic example of how our girls have learned to cooperate and assist other people. It was an absolute joy to see "old" guides helping "new" guides as we began making sit-a-pons for Jamboree. We also began making some to sell in our Guide hut... (Echidna hopes that this will mean that we NEVER have to sew again at Guides!!!) I was totally impressed by girls assisting each other with the pinning process and using the sewing machines. Special mention goes to Laura who helped the younger girls enormously.

So what is a sit-a-pon?

It is a waterproof mat that is padded for the girls to sit on when on camp or when participating in an outdoor activity. They are easily rolled up and secured for packing. Sit-a-pons are not difficult to make and the results were amazing. Of course, we chose our District colours of Lime green and Purple for ours.

Next week any girls who have finished making two sit-a-pons will have the opportunity to make district colour scrunchies.

A big thank you goes to Jan (honorary guide for two weeks - Guide name "Platypus") for generously offering her sewing machines, time and talent to help our girls.

Hopefully Echidna's phobia of sewing will be cured one day.... the nervous rash is fading as we speak!

Guides Take to the Air

Well, we certainly have participated in a diverse range of activities this year. Who would have thought that a Guide could fly.... and fly we did.

The instructors at Camden airport led the girls through a fantastic day that included a tarmac walk, safety rules, aircraft identification, flying in a light plane and making and racing balsa wood planes.

All the girls flew for approximately 30 minutes in a route that took them out to Badgery's Creek, over Silverdale and then to Warragamba Dam. All the girls checked to see if Echidna's husband had hung the washing out to dry!

Every girl remarked at some point that it was a fabulous experience. The mums, dads and brothers that came along enjoyed the day also. A huge BRAVO goes to both Banksia and Echidna who were both on the Camden Air Day committee for organising such a wonderful day.

Check out the photos below to see some of the girls in action.

Roar and Snore...Guides Sleepout at Taronga Zoo

Well girls, after all Echidna's doubts and Banksia's enthusiasm we finally did it! We camped out under the stars at Taronga Zoo. After a VERY long drive from Warragamba to the beautiful city of Sydney (hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!) we arrived at about 7:00pm. It was cold at this point, but not NEARLY as cold as it would get! After a delicious dinner of pasta carried all the way in hot boxes by Echidna and Banksia (wow! you should see the bruises on our legs!) we set up camp. No soft grass for our girls.... just dirt, leaves and sticks to make camp on.

We were entertained by a fantastic campfire, blown away by the spectacular fireworks over Sydney Harbour and were mesmerized by the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Big Screen. As the night grew progressively colder we kept telling ourselves it was 31 degrees (in Beijing, anyway!) and that we really weren't that cold at all.

Finally we bedded down for the night and MOST of us were as snug as bugs in rugs. If only we could have found Jemma a volume control switch for her tarp! Morning came all too quickly and after a quick breakfast and a long walk to the education centre we were ready to start exploring the Zoo.

Each girl nominated an exhibit they wanted to see and we planned our route accordingly. The Little Penguins, the elephants, the snow leopard the meercats and the dingoes were standout favourites, however the echidna and wombats rate a mention for their cuteness.

Finally it was time to go and I have never seen guides conk out so quickly on the bus trip home.

What a fantastic experience for the girls and for us leaders. We will DEFINITELY be returning next year, and hopefully more girls will come too.

Term 3.... What a busy start to the term!

Hi Girls,

Wow! Who knew we had so many good singers in our group! Our karaoke night was so much fun and even when it wasn't our turn we still sang along and supported our performers. Honourable mentions go to Lisa and Aleisha on their top scores.... some of us may need to practice a little more to get over our "amateur" and "tone deaf" status!

Last week we held our parent meeting regarding fundraising ideas to get us all to Jamboree 2010 in Victoria. Thank you to all the mums and dads who attended. We floated a lot of good ideas including:

• House number curb painting
• chocolate drive
• cookie dough drive
• more Bunnings BBQs
• smencils
• slice drive

All these fabulous ideas should help us to raise enough to offset the cost of Jamboree. Meanwhile, we are all set for Jamboree 2008 with 10 girls representing Warragamba. Banksia and Echidna are very excited to be going for the whole camp!


Thanks too, to all the families and guides who came along last Saturday to sell Guide Biscuits at Nepean Square. Bursaria informed me today that we sold about 14 boxes..... BRAVO!


And thanks to all the Guides and families who rocked up to Bunnings at Penrith to cook sausage sandwiches. The money for today's fundraising will go to our very important support group and will pay for hall insurance, electricity, water and rates. Without our support group we would be in a pickle, that's for sure!