Weekend Success!

I hope everyone's 1st weekend to sell was as successful and Raven's!

The weather was beautiful, and I don't think that the idea to take advantage of warmer weather for cookie sales necessarily intended for that to mean mid-January!
When you need cookies, just email your quantities to me. Remember safety 1st!
Have fun.

Cookie Cents and Safety

Before you start selling cookies - Brownies, please fill in your personal goal, name (1st name only), troop goals and cookie box prices on your form. We ran out of time on Monday to do this together as a team - sorry.

Here is your cookie price chart:

Box #	$
1	$3.50
2	$7.00
3	$10.50
4	$14.00
5	$17.50
6	$21.00
7	$24.50
8	$28.00
9	$31.50
10	$35.00
11	$38.50
12	$42.00
Case	$42.00

We are participating in Troops for Troops - this is the program where customers can support Girl Scouts and donate cookies to the troops overseas. On your order form, please fill in Troops for Troops as the organization that donated cookies will be delivered to at the end of sales. If your customers would like a letter from Girl Scouts of Western OK for tax purposes, please tell them that we will mail them one. Blue Star Moms will package each box of cookies donated into care packages to be sent to our troops serving overseas.

COOKIE SAFETY

• Wear the Girls Scout sash or vest.
• Become familiar with the neighborhoods where you sell.
• Sell door-to-door only during daylight hours.
• Brownie Girl Scouts® must be accompanied by an adult when taking orders, selling, or delivering cookies.
• All money should always be handled by an adult.
• Never enter the house of a customer.
• Share only 1st names - remember Safety 1st!
  
• Girls' names and address should never be given out. Instead, give the troop number (840) and an approved contact phone number (Amy @ 216-9076).
• Always use the buddy system. It's not just safe, it's more fun.
• Always follow safe pedestrian practices.

Have Fun, Be Safe and follow the Girl Scout Law

.

Ready, Set, go Sell!

The count down is on to January 17! By now you should have received the following:

• 1 cookie order form
• 1 money envelope
• 1 family matters page
• 1 page (2) Mystery House Awards
• 1 page (2) Mystery House Helper info notes
• 1 cookie received receipt

If you are missing anything, please let me know ASAP. If you have any questions, please contact me via email: theakins@sbcglobal.net

Live - Love - Lead - Go Green

Today we read about "Eco Ellie".
You can click on her or her name above to get to her story.
She gave tips to make our Carbon Footprint smaller by comparing an Elephant size CFP to a mouse size CFP.
The troop goal for their service project with their cookie money is to do something good for the environment. Eco Ellie encourages Brownies to Live - Love - Lead.

We are Discovering facts about our environment and ways to help save it and make our lives more "Green". We are Connecting to what we are learning to our service project and Connecting our cookie money to fund the recycling project. We are Taking Action and Leading the way with our families and our community to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

When asked to "Imagine if . . . You could change the world" all of the troop individually answered in one way or another that they would work to save the world by "Going Green".

So that is just what we are doing.
One day, one girl, one action at a time! We will sell cookies and take the lead with our service project of a recycling project to do our part to save the world!

Brownies - you may enjoy Bill Nye, The Science Guy's new show on Planet Green called Stuff Happens. (Cox Channel 102, DTV Channel 286, Dish Channel 194). Have Mom or Dad set your Tivo or DVR to record it so you can watch as a family!

She & Me Chocolate Dreams

All 12 of our Brownie Troop attended the She & Me Chocolate Dreams Event on Saturday.
Everyone enjoyed a lot of yummy chocolate treats and time with Mom's and our friends.
If you would like to share your recipe for your special chocolate treat, please add it to the comments of this post so we can all enjoy.
Here's a slide show of all of the pictures from the event.
We are so happy that everyone was able to come!

SMART Cookie and SMART Goals

We have set our troop goal of 1980 boxes of cookies. The girls each set their personal selling goal on Monday, discovered what SMART goals are and we discussed our 2 troop goals; 1 fun reward goal and 1 Cookies for Change goal.

SMART GOALS:

•S = Specific Goals

•M = Measurable

•A = Attainable

•R = Realistic

•T = Timely

The proceeds that our troop receives from the cookie sales ($.50 per box) will go towards these events. On Monday, Jan 12 - we will focus in on the specifics of these goals. We DISCOVERED that we are interested in helping our environment by recycling. We will CONNECT our cookie sales with our goal project. We will TAKE ACTION by completing this project in the spring.

A part of the SMART Cookie try-it is to create a profile for cookie sales and work on a sales pitch.

We are using the "Cookie Club" to keep this process paperless. Please visit: LittleBrownie.com
We went over the Goal Tracker, Setting Goals and Managing Contacts during Monday's meeting.


You can email your friends and family to let them know that it is almost time for cookie sales. If you would like to share the blog so they can see all of the fun service projects we have done so far this year, that would be great!

Please Remember: NO COOKIE SALES UNTIL JANUARY 17! and NO INTERNET SELLS!
Thanks!

We CAN change the world!

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 :)