Happy New Year!

Troop # 840 is stepping into 2009 with great plans for the New Year!

We will start off with setting goals for our cookie sales, then sell cookies and move on to a new and rewarding service project before planning our bridging in May. We will do more SWAPS and Try-its and maybe a field trip sometime.

Please check in often for important dates for cookie sales and other updates. We are looking forward to a great year with the troop.

Changing the world one girl, one step, one day at a time!

Heifer Project gift in Troop # 840's name

Merry Christmas, Brownie Troop #840!

Rather than more sweets or trinkets, I have decided to give in your name a share of a Water Buffalo to the Heifer Project.

This is a great organization that works very hard to stop hunger in the world. They do this not by giving prepared food items, rather they supply sustainability to families or villages live animals to enhance their livelihood and their ability to feed and support themselves. Please take some time to look at the website.

Heifer International

Merry Christmas!

Spreading Christmas Cheer!

On December 15, we entertained with Christmas Carols at Touchmark at Coffee Creek in Edmond. The troop voted on their favorite carols and here are the list of the winning songs that they sang:

Holly Jolly Christmas
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells
Away in the Manger
We Wish you a Merry Christmas
12 Days of Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
along with a few solos and group songs

All 12 Brownies gathered and sang to the residents at Touchmark Assisted Living Center.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Troop #840 Leaders

Almost Cookie Time

This year we have the option to have cookies in hand at selling time. Please start thinking about how many of each type of cookies you think you would like to have in hand to sell. Of course, we can still take orders for cookies, as well as sell cookies for troops. This is a "troops for troops". More information on this to follow soon.

Please review the Cookie Club flier and print and sign the Cookie Club permission form. I have all of the Brownies set up in there and as soon as I get all of the permission forms, I will send out your log-in and password information.

Cookie Club Flier
Cookie Club Permission Form

The deadline for our initial order is December 10. Please think about the quantity of cookies you sold in years past and how many you would like to have in hand during selling. The council suggests that we order 100 cases - that is 1200 boxes or 100 boxes of cookies per girl.

There are 8 different cookies - here they are: Little Brownie Bakers

Actual selling begins January 17, 2009. We do not have to pre-pay for the cookies that we pre-order to have in hand for selling. Just collect the money as you deliver/sell cookies! So simple.
Please email with any questions: theakins@sbcglobal.net
Thanks!

Penny Power - Girl Power

For our Penny Power Try-it we will learn about the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Real and Counterfeit money, and keeping track of your personal finances.

This week, please visit these websites:

• Federal Trade Commission - This site helps you think like a consumer and find out things like how advertising influences your decisions. Explore the mall see how competition effects our choices.
• Bank On It - Check out money saving tips and reasons to have your own bank account.
• U.S. Treasury - For Kids - Check out the US Mint, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and Savings Bonds
• The Money Factory - Check out the redesigned bills, the history of currency and much, much more. Bring any fun or interesting facts you Discover to share with your Brownie team next week.
• Design Your Own Bill - For fun, you can design your own bill. If you do this, ask your parents to print it and bring it to the next meeting to share.

We will Discover how US Currency (money) effects us daily, Connect how to save it and where it comes from, and Take Action on our own when we Track our spending and as a Brownie Team when we make our plan for our selling Girl Scout Cookies, set goals, and make a plan for using the money.

Try-it! Discover, Connect, Take Action!

Happy ThanksGiving Brownie Families!

If you have some time of the Thanksgiving break, Brownies you can Discover a Try-it to complete, Connect with your family and friends to share and Take Action by completing a try-it (or few) over the Break!
Remember that we will NOT meet the Monday of Thanksgiving week, Monday, November 24 - NO MEETING. Enjoy your break, time with your family and be thankful.

Here are some good Try-its you may want to think about over the break:

Make it, Eat it

You do not need to make the recipes that are listed with the Try-it, be creative, yet healthy and have fun while experimenting or be traditional with your mom,'s dad's or grandma's Thanksgiving recipe. We all need help in the kitchen - don't be shy! Try-it!
Here's some links with good, healthy, kid-friendly food stuffs:

• Yum-O! Fun. Food. Fund.
• Family Fun
• Thanksgiving Workshop (Martha Stewart)

Take pictures and send them, if you would like and I will add them to the blog! Also, you can share the recipes that you made!

Puppets, Dolls and Plays

Did you know that making puppets and dolls is an art form? Did you know that many years ago children played with handmade dolls and paper dolls for fun? This is a fun try-it for this time of year to share with family memebers (grandparents, cousins, aunts, and friends) after a big dinner or anytime. You can do any combination of the 6 options in the link above, such as Finger Puppets, a Yarn Doll, Paper-Bag puppets and a Puppet Stage. Otherwise, check out these fun links and make a paper doll or other creative doll to play with or do a puppet show with your family.

• Paper Doll Fun
• Puppet Craft options
• Really Cute puppet and paper doll crafts

Take pictures or a short film of your creations to share with the troop! email them to: theakins@sbcglobal.net

Remember you need to do 4 options of any Try-It to earn the patch. Just email me which ones you complete and I will get you your Try-it's after the holiday.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Above all enjoy time with your family! Discover, Connect, Take Action and remember be thankful!

Here's a link to the Fall Break post with other Try-it options for you :)

120 Brown(ie) Bag Lunches Completed and Delivered

Girl Scout Brownie Troop #840 met our goal of making 120 Brown(ie) Bag Lunches for homeless in Oklahoma City on Monday, November 17, 2008.

In the cafeteria of Cross Timbers Elementary, the girls made sandwiches and bags of pretzals and included those with a piece of fruit, juice box and a sweet treat in each lunch sack.
We would like to thank our donors:

• Wal-Mart @ Santa Fe & Danforth
• Crest Foods @ Santa Fe & 15th
• Eli's Custom Catering
• Seller's Catering
• Many Brownie Parents for donating time & money

The 120 Brown(ie) Bag Lunches were delivered to downtown Oklahoma City on Tuesday, November 18.

The girls took action on their brownie leadership quest by Discovering a problem in the community that they can contribute to a solution, Connected by brainstorming and deciding on a way to help, and Took Action by making the lunches!

We CAN make a difference, Thanks to you!

Brown(ie) Bag Lunches

November is "Service Month" and Girl Scout Brownie Troop #840 is making 120 Brown(ie) Bag Lunches to feed some of the homeless of Oklahoma City on November 17.

Our troop is on a Brownie Quest to Discover, Connect and Take Action and become Leaders of tomorrow. We discovered that there is a need in the community to help others. The Brownies identified many areas that we could serve, such as picking up trash, recycling, helping a charity, church or school and many more. We connected by brainstorming different ways that we could help and serve our community. We narrowed our focus to 3 options for this month of service. The brownies voted on either making sack lunches for homeless people, starting a recycling program or making care packages for the troops. These are all such great projects that we will complete them all during this school year! The girls voted to take action with the project of making brown bag lunches for homeless people and delivering them to either the Jesus House or Grace Rescue Mission in Oklahoma City. The brownies set the goal of making 120 lunches. This is a Girl Scout Troop of 12 3^rd grade girls, from three different elementary schools in Edmond, OK with a goal of making 10 lunches each on Monday, November 17.

We will be collecting donation for the lunches through the week this week and make the lunches on Monday to be delivered for lunch on Tuesday, November 18. We will need bread, meat, drinks, sandwich bags, brown bags, boxes for delivery, chips, fruit and sweet treats to include in the bag lunches.

If you have any questions or would like to donate, please contact Amy Akin, Girl Scout Brownie Troop Co-Leader at:
theakins@sbcglobal.net.

Another chance to connect

No matter how you "hoped" the election would turn out - the choice has been made and the opportunity we have to connect to our children is to frame for them gracious winners, gracious losers and what it means to look to the future from where this country has come from in the past.

Take this opportunity, showcase leadership in good sportsmanship and the values of the Girl Scout law that we see in our world around us today and for their future.

One girl, one day, one action at a time, we can make a difference.
Creating leaders of tomorrow, one Brownie at a time.
Thank you for sharing your Brownie with us

Election Day . . . Is there a better day to connect??

On Monday, Brownies earned their Connect Key, the second key in the 3 key Brownie Quest. The connect key chant is :

The Connect Key!

That’s more than me.

It’s my arms and

your arms.

Linking together,

we’re free.

We discovered how we connect with our circles of caring, with "me" in the middle, families, friends, neighbors and the community surrounding them. We connect with others by showing that we care and are leaders by working to make a change for the better in our world.

This week, Brownies need to finish their chapters in the Brownie Quest Book and also look at pages 40 - 43 of how different people connected in their world and Took Action to make a difference.

Please talk with your Brownie about things in our community that we can do to serve and help others. We talked about some of the activities that we have done in the past. This year, we want our troop to help decide on what service project we will do in November/December.

We are going to work on "Taking Action" over the next few weeks as well as begin setting cookie selling goals. We want to connect and make a difference with our cookie sells this year as well.

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions or share any ideas that you may have for service projects.

Check out some of these sites for ideas:

• LittleBrownies.com
• Oklahoma Regional Food Bank
• Homeless in Oklahoma resources
• Not-for-Profit OKC
• Going Green ideas

One girl, one day, one action at a time, we can make a difference.

Creating leaders of tomorrow, one Brownie at a time.

Thank you for sharing your Brownie with us.

Happy Birthday Juliette Low!

Not only is today Halloween, it is Juliette Low's Birthday!
Your day may be too busy to have a chance for your Brownie to take look at some of these fun and informative sites, but maybe over the weekend or in the near future, they and you can take a check them out!

• Daisy Low of the Girl Scouts - comic book on line
• Juliette Low Quotes
• Juliette Low Stamp (who knew?)
• Savannah, GA - JL's Birthplace
• 

Happy Birthday, Juliette "Daisy" Low!
Yours In Scouting -

Halloween Week Update

We are well on our way to our second key of our Brownie Quest. On Monday we talked about connecting to our families. The girls can show their families they care by leading the family to be healthier, having fun and learning together. Pages 58-59 in their Brownie Quest books will help with ideas and suggestions for your family.
Also, if you want some fun family cooking ideas, check out here .

Please remind your Brownie to complete reading the chapters in the first of her book. There are some fun activities sprinkled between some of the chapters that they can do as they desire. Basically if they can have read up through page 36 - that is chapters 1 - 6 - by Monday, that will help us move on to completing Key 2 and start taking action.
We will start planning our service project for the year. The troop will be a part of deciding how we want to help our community through service.
We will also start talking about our cookie goals. Sells do not start until the end of December.
Thank you for your continued support. We hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween! See you Monday.