Girl Scouts and the Santa Parade

For the fifth year in a row, Lia's Girl Scout troop has participated in our local Santa Parade which is always held the first Saturday in December.  This year, her troop voted on decorating their float in the theme of "Candy Land."  As a result, Lia requested that she go dressed as a peppermint candy.  It is always a bit of a stretch for me to make a costume the week that I am trying to get the house decorated for Christmas, but I managed to put it together yesterday and I think that it turned out super cute!  In addition, Lia is part of a new troop this year with only girls from her school, so we have tried to keep some of the traditions from the past several years.  Her former troop leader always hosted a Christmas party on the first Monday of Winter Break after the girls went caroling to a Senior Center.  This year, we decided to change that and have the Christmas party in the evening right after the Santa Parade.  I offered to host and so we had about 30 people over to our house tonight for a potluck dinner and an ornament exchange.  All of the girls and their moms attended along with several siblings and a few dads came.  The girls and the parents had a great time mingling and eating this evening.  It was a fun way to get into the holiday spirit!

Our little peppermint all dressed up and ready to go!

A close-up of the peppermint shirt that I made for Lia.

And another close-up of the awesome, peppermint headband that I found on Amazon a few days ago.  This was the one splurge for the costume, but I felt like it added the perfect touch!

Unfortunately, the rains came in with a vengeance in the afternoon today.  If only it could have held off for a few more hours.  Luckily, a little rain never scared off some Northwesterners from going to a parade.  So, we grabbed our umbrellas and off we went.  Here are the two little ones and me waiting for Lia's float.

Logan with his Star Wars umbrella and Ella with her Frozen umbrella.

Lia's float going by!  The girls really did a good job decorating the trailer with candy themed decorations that they made by hand.  Luckily, one of the troop leaders was able to put up a blue tarp on top of the float so that the girls were able to stay pretty dry.

Lia flashing me a smile and giving me a wave.

All of the girls in the troop (minus Kaydence who had already left and Mila who came late to the party) posing for a troop picture after the parade was over.  

Front Row (L to R):  Eva, Lilah, Addy, and Ellie

Back Row (L to R):  Mollie (who is mainly hidden), Bethany, Sienna, and Lia

After the dinner at our house, the girls gathered in the Family Room to participate in an ornament exchange which is also something they did every year at the Christmas party with their old troop.  The one rule is that the ornament has to be handmade.  It's always fun to see what everyone makes.  Here are the girls passing their ornament around (to a poem that Regan read to the group with many "lefts" and "rights" in it).

For some reason, Ella took a liking to Lia's friend, Addy, and spent the entire ornament exchange in her lap.  Since Ella can be a bit shy around unfamiliar people and large groups, I found this quite funny!

Lia showing off her new ornament--a handmade Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!

The entire group troop, plus some siblings, with their new ornaments!