Brownies year in review

1^st Burghead Brownies had a fantastic year.

We managed to squeeze in lots of badges with outside helpers coming to do our First Aid, Water Safety and Fire Safety badges. We also had a fantastic time at the panto at Christmas.1st Burghead Brownies and Rainbows enjoyed a disco for their end of term party this year.

1^st Hopeman Brownies have had a busy year getting to grips with the new Brownie programme. We have completed a Skills Builder and are working towards the ‘Know Myself’ Theme Award. As part of this, the girls have been working on their Local History interest badge and we had a very interesting tour by a local expert of some of Hopeman’s historical places of interest including the ice house, old train station, and the famous black sheddie. We also made mackerel pâté and much to the girls' surprise most of them loved it.

What a busy year 4^th Keith Brownies have had. We switched to the new programme in September and the girls are enjoying the new activities. We had a fantastic dinosaur themed pack holiday at Cullen over the May Day weekend.

2^nd New Elgin Brownies have had an amazing year completing lots of badges and meeting lots of new people. We have taken so many photos and had so many giggles. Here are some of our favourite things we have done:

Unicorn Summer Party - We had a joint summer party with 1st New Elgin Brownies. We had great fun with an adult bouncy castle from JumpForJoyMoray, made slime, had a photo booth, unicorn glitter tattoos, unicorn-themed food as so much more. All girls had a magic time and went home with lots of crafts and a goodie bag.

Twinkle Owl's Promise Festival - To make her promise, Twinkle Owl decided to organise our very own music festival. We had dancing, singing, a photo booth, glitter tattoos, crafts as well as SE productions who came along to perform. We had festival food and all dressed up with our neon colours, glitter, face gems and wellies. We all helped Twinkle Owl make her promise in front of some special guests. We also had a professional photographer who came along to catch all our moments from our very exciting evening.

Green Watch Fire Station Visit - We went to the fire station where we met Green Watch (they told us they are known as the best watch) and had a tour around the fire station. We learned all about fire safety and fire engines. We had some very interesting and detailed questions ready to test them. We then got to go outside and play with the hoses. We had lots of adult helpers who were desperate for a shot of the hose. It was one of the fireman's birthdays, so we decided to let the whole of Elgin know as we sang (very loudly) happy birthday. (His face was very, very red by the time we finished).

They also came to visit as part of our themed badge. For the first half of the night, they told us all about their job and how to stay safe out and about. We then did a fire drill in the rain and got a surprise when the fire engine was sitting there with its lights flashing. Green Watch told us how important it was to do regular fire drills and said we did a good job. In the second half of the night, it was our turn to show Green Watch exactly what Brownies do, starting off with a chocolate snack. We then played lots of games and sang some Brownies songs which all the firemen joined in with. We had a fantastic night and can’t wait to invite Green Watch back soon.

First Aid - We had a very special visitor Tawny Owl who is a nurse. Tawny Owl came back for ‘one night only’ where she helped us learn all about the importance of first aid. We practiced and discussed what we would do if we were to come across someone injured. We had a wee shot on ‘Wee Annie’ learning a little bit of CPR. We then had great fun bandaging up all the Brownies, their parents got a bit of a shock at the end of the night when they all went home wearing bandages, eye patches and slings.

Charity - Over the last year we have tried to help out as many local charities. We collected beauty products for Footprints which were made into mini hampers for raffle prizes by Twinkle Owl, the evening raised over £1300. We also have collected for the food bank and MFR Cash for Kids - Mission Christmas. We also decorated over 100 Christmas Cards - sending them out to the local Police, Ambulance and Fire Services along with Anderson's home and others who might have been a little lonely over the Christmas period. We got lots of replies and Kath McGrath and team from Anderson's Care Home came in personally to see us with Thank You's from all who live at Anderson's. As Santa was busy, she helped hand out a wee Christmas present to the Brownies as a thank you for all their hard work and effort over the last year.

Lots of fun was had by 3^rd New Elgin girls this year. We welcomed David as a unit helper and continued with Helen. What would we do without these fantastic people who turn up to help us, week in, week out?

We attended the annual Remembrance Parade in Elgin, Thinking Day, Pyjama Sunday Fun Day.

We loved making face cloth bunnies at Easter as well as dancing at Christmas.

Lori will be returning to become guider in charge, I’m sure that together they will all have a fantastic time, happy guiding girls.

During the last year, we have dipped our toes into the new badges whilst still working on the old ones. One of these was World Issues, we had the idea of having a swap or donate box. The girls set about decorating cardboard boxes to hold unwanted toys that could then be ‘swapped’ or ‘donated’ to charity. 

We loved mixing, cooking and eating our own pancakes, acting out short plays, crafting and visiting the local park.

The panto was a great hit and we got very excited as our Grace was invited on to the stage.

We had a fantastic time at the Landward Thinking Day celebration and also at the Pyjama Sunday Fun Day.

2nd Elgin Brownies reformed in September 2018. Over the past 12 months, we have collaborated with 3rd Elgin Rainbows on a Christmas raffle and a recipe book. We also started the new programme. The girls found doing the badges rewarding and hard to choose which one to do first. We went on our very first trip to Eden Court to the Christmas panto. We also took part in the Thinking Day activity at Pinz Bowling. We hope to have many more adventures in the coming months and have a pack sleepover.

This has been a year of celebration at 1^st Cullen Brownies as we celebrated being up and running again for five wonderful years, we had a fabulous tea party with the guides. We also planned and hosted a Macmillan Coffee Evening and raised £840. We have all had great fun learning about the new badges and to top it all off we had a fabulous Brownie Fun Day. Roll on next year’s adventures.

2nd Fochabers Brownies have busy doing challenge badges including Aim High, Future Girl and The Parliament badge. We visited the WDC centre to learn about the resident dolphins and adopted one called Kesslet. We helped out at the cycle race and were given a £100 donation. We started the new programme in January and have gained our First Aid badge stage 2. We have completed various Skills Builders across the programme and lots of UMA's. We ended our year with a trip to The Trampoline Park, Inverurie.

The girls have had a very busy year what with Brownie Fun Days, trips to the panto, visits to Buckie Pottery to name but a few.  We also had a princess-themed pack holiday at the beginning of the year where for the first time we went to Fyvie Guide House and had a great time. Laura Lewis was getting tested for her Pack Holiday Licence and she organised a fantastic programme for the girls. We didn’t transfer over completely to the new programme this year and have been dipping in and out of both.  The girls enjoyed working on their Brownie Traditions badge learning about all the different programmes and uniforms followed by having a look at all the wonderful resources the new programme has.

We have also had fun making structures from marshmallows and spaghetti and designing equipment for the future. We have had lots of parties with food (what Brownie doesn’t love a party), trips out to the local park, penny walks, and a trip to the local ice-cream shop.  We are now looking forward to the new programme when we are back to Brownies in August.

At 1^st Forres Brownies we tried hard to embrace the new programme and having spent our life-savings on various cards, books, new badges and an I-pad (so we can log on to Go during meeting times) we have decided that the old way of doing things worked quite well so a compromise has been reached. If we tick off some activities, skills and badges along the way then that is a bonus.

This year we have achieved the ‘Take Action’ theme skills and activities and also; cleaned a beach, won the Forres guy competition (at last), learned to knit, paraded (well…sauntered), baked unicorns at Oakwood, made dens inside and out, sung carols with seniors, flounced in trashy fashion, danced (oh how we danced) at the Forres Youth Concert, tried to sleep in Rafford Village Hall, played tennis, attempted some mindfulness, had a really fun time at the Brownie Fun Day (thank you, that was great) made felt flowers, helped ‘Forres in Bloom’ (clever flower link there), managed not to be arrested by a visiting police officer and kayaked. It has been another fabulous year of fun.

Several girls attended the Ballroom Blitz weekend in Blackpool in September sleeping on the floor of the Tower Ballroom. They visited the Tower Circus, Madame Tussaud’s, Sea Life Centre and a Strictly Come Dancing session. They re-lived their experiences by giving an entertaining illustrated talk at the Moray Guiding Annual Event attended by the Scottish Chief Commissioner.

Also, in September, they had a lovely and sticky evening sweet making, although very few sweets made it home. This year the girls decided to organise the Hallowe’en party themselves and between September and late October spent a lot of time fine tuning their plans. The event, when it finally came off, was good fun and showed the girls how much planning goes into successful events.

In January, we embarked on the new programme and completed Network and Camp Skills Builders during the spring and summer terms. In addition, February was a very foodie month with two trips to the Oakwood Cookery School to make chocolate cakes and strawberry popping tarts and, of course, we had pancakes on Pancake Day too.

In March, the girls made cards and gifts for Mother’s Day and Hunted for eggs left by the Easter Bunny. 

In May we did camp activities for the new badge and, during the last weekend of the month, the girls enjoyed camp itself. A great time was had gathering wood, innovating to cook in orange skins and other unusual containers, looking after open fires and of course, snuggling down in your tent with some special friends and giggling until you fell asleep.

In June, the unit spent an evening at Hopeman beach with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society cleaning the beach and learning about all the ways they can help the ocean environment. Another visit, requested by the girls, was a return to the Oakwood, this time for unicorn cupcakes.

The girls have formed a penfriends group with Coddington Brownies in the Midlands with whom they have already exchanged letters, postcards and gifts.

We ended the term with a sausage sizzle at Brodie Castle where the Brownies met their new leaders and had great fun playing games on the campsite.  

What a fantastic year 5^thForres Brownies have had. We have had parties for Hallowe’en and were invited to a Mad Hatters Tea Party by 2^ndKinloss Brownies. We went to the pantomime at Eden Court Theatre with Girlguiding Moray and had a terrific day at the Brodie Castle Playful Garden where we met Brodie the giant rabbit. What a great time we had at the Brownie Fun Day at Inchberry, thanks to all the organisers. We worked on the Dancer, Home Skills and Hobbies badges.

We had to say goodbye to Brown Owl at the end of the summer term and wish her well in the future.

2nd Kinloss Brownies have had another fun-filled year. We have worked from both the new and old programmes and during the year have completed lots of badges including: Brownie Skills, Gardening, Craft, First Aid Stage 2 and Camp Stage 2 Skills Builders. 

We made our own candles and decorated candle holders, did some gardening and learned about the different Girlguiding organisations from all around the world. We had lots of fun at our Hallowe’en and Christmas parties and crafts evenings. We celebrated Burns Night in January and held our very own Burns Supper. During our book theme evening, we were able to dress up as our favorite book characters and had some fun and games.

At our World Thinking Day celebrations we made time machines and earned ourselves the World Thinking Day badge. We invited 5^thForres Brownies to our Mad Hatters Tea Party where we had a fancy dress competition, Mad Hatter Tea Party Games and made our very own mocktails. To end our winter term, we enjoyed a windy evening at Brodie Castle campsite making s’mores over the campfire. During the summer term, we worked towards the Camp stage 2 and Communicate Stage 2 Skills Builders. We had a fantastic promise party with a unicorn theme; we even made our own unicorns. We had a fantastic time at the Brownie Fun Day at Inchberry and had a really good time at Brodie Castle and its playful garden.