Brownies and Pie

On Tuesday 16 brownies officially became members of Troop 4012. And I officially became their leader. We all have the pins to prove it. I even wore my uniform for the occasion (basically a navy blue shirt and the official GSUSA scarf!) The investiture was lovely and the girls really had a great time. So did I. I expected that I would enjoy being a Brownie leader, but the truth is, in a totally sappy way, I LOVE IT. Even though I really do need a nap after every meeting.

We did the standard Brownie Pond Investiture where the girls all stood by the pond in the courtyard of the elementary school and pledged to be Brownies and follow the Girl Scout Law. Each Brownie was turned around by my assistant leader Amy, while I said:
Twist me, Turn me
Show me the Elf,
I looked in the mirror
And saw ...
MYSELF (the girl says that part). Then I pinned her Brownie pin on her sash, gave her the Brownie handshake and went on to the next girl. When it was all done we sang the Brownie smile song. Then we came inside and did our closing circle where we sang Make New Friends and sent the hand squeeze around the circle. I think the parents were pretty charmed by the ritual of it, and how much the girls were into it!
We followed the ceremony with refreshments (brownies, of course! and apple cider) and then everyone went home.
I don't feel comfortable posting the pictures of my Troop (even though only about 5 people read my blog, I didn't ask permission of the moms....) so instead, here is our Troop Banner that we made last week as part of one of our Try Its! (brownie badges). The Girl Scout motto is Be Prepared, so I had each of the girls make their own bee from a template I created. Amy put the Bees in place and added the fringe and dowel and string and I think it came out really sweet looking. We'll take it with us when we sing at the nursing homes or participate in cookie sales, etc.

Here's Lizzie's Bee -- notice the lovely eyelashes and bling on the wings:

And here's Hannah's Bee -- a more minimalist effort, but she did have her bee wear earrings. Also she insisted on signing Hannah R so that everyone would know it was her instead of all the other Hannah's in the troop (of which there are none!)

So with the Investiture behind us, and two days off for conferences we decided to bake a pie this morning. My friend Deb taught me to make pie crusts on Monday as part of a Moms Club activity, so with the crust already made, I had the girls do the filling. First, Hannah puts the pumpkin in a bowl:

Then Lizzie poured in the evaporated milk and they stirred and stirred and stirred:

Hannah did really well adding her egg. Lizzie added the first egg, but freaked out when some of the egg white dripped on her, so I had to rescue the egg and get it safely into the bowl. Hannah's getting to be a pro at egg cracking:

Then we poured it into the pie shell and let it bake for an hour or so:

Here's a close-up of the pie, pre baking. And notice the lovely near-professional fluting on my pie crust:

Here it is cooling on top of the stove. Oh, and you get a little preview of Lizzie's Halloween costume, too! So that was our last 24 hours or so. We're having the pie for dessert for dinner tonight, along with pot roast (my mom's delicious recipe) and egg noodles. Luckily dinner is only in about 30 minutes because writing about it, and seeing this pie I am HUNGRY!!