Brave at Brownie Friendship Camp!

I wasn't intending to do much camping this winter but as of now I have been at camp every other weekend since mid-January. When the Brownie Friendship Camp lost a leader last minute I was asked to come instead. I love camping (of course!) and I was hoping to increase my experience with Brownies so this was the perfect opportunity. I love theme camps and the theme of this one was the Disney and Pixar movie "Brave" which has so many cool things you could do with it. Here is the trailer for the movie in case you have not seen it or want a quick refresher.

There were 45 Brownies and 10 leaders which made for a very busy weekend but it was fun! We were divided up into groups when we first got there and the group leaders were the Queens of different characters in the movie like bears, crows, wisps etc. I was the Queen of the Queens which I cannot complain about. :) The leaders stayed up really late to get the lodge ready for the girls in the morning and I made a little swing for Merida because she looked a little too creepy just hanging by her hair. We also had the little bear brothers from the movie all over the place for the girls to take home on Sunday (the camp was lucky with a very healthy budget).

 

 

 

 

 

The main activity on Saturday was a craft round robin where the girls made castles in their groups, Merida dolls from wooden spoons, soap carvings, crowns out of fun foam, design their own coat of arms and tartan, and Brave activity books. I think the girls had a lot of fun and made some really cool souvenirs from the camp. I was manning the soap carving station which was super messy but really cool to see what the girls came up with. You can get more information about these crafts if you would like to do them with your girls here! They pretty much have an entire camp already planned on the website which is quite convenient.

 

Soap for Soap Carving

 



 Merida dolls made with wooden spoons!

Some of the cool castles the girls made.

In the afternoon we went outside for my favourite part of the camp- a hike and snowman building contest. The girls had been inside all day and I thought it was important to get outside because the weather was beautiful and you are at camp, you should go outside! On the hike we came across some real life "nature in action" that consisted of wolf tracks, blood, and some anxious Brownies. Now that I have said that it sounds a little bit sketchy but let me explain... We were hiking along the trails and i noticed some pretty big prints in the fresh snow. They were too big for coyote and there should not be any dogs out on site so i was pointing them out to the Brownies and talking about some of the other tracks we were seeing. After about 100 metres or so the snow was getting a little bit spotty with red as we were walking there was more and more and I was worried that we would come across a meal in action. With 45 Brownies behind me I kept on going until we got to a hill with a pretty sharp turn I asked the girls to stop, look, and listen while I went ahead and checked things out. Luckily there was nothing there and the bloody paw prints disappeared into the woods but imagine what it would have been like to see something like that! I think it would be cool but the Brownies would probably be pretty spooked. I didn't take any pictures but this is what wolf prints look like in the snow.

 

Onto something less grim! The snow was perfect for snowmen and so we set out a challenge to build the biggest snowman. I was so impressed with what the girls came up with I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

We finished off the day by watching the movie and the girls enjoyed it a lot. I have never watched a movie at camp (besides Break the Rules camp in Pathfinders) so it was a new experience for me. The whole weekend was full of new experiences and I think it was quite interesting to camp with people I have never camped with before. I know the girls had fun and I hope the leaders had a good time too! :)