Ready to ROCK THE MALL - S.W.A.P.S.

I am fairly sure that I have lost my mind, but I have decided to brave the crowds and take Abby and Caroline to Washington, D.C., bright and early tomorrow to go to the Girl Scout's ROCK THE MALL event.  ROCK THE MALL is an enormous sing-a-long to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting held right on the Washington Mall.  The organizers are expecting 150,000 to 200,000 girl scouts.  Streets will be closed and it is going to be a spectacle.

I think this is either going to be an amazing experience or a complete disaster.  I am so worried about losing Caroline in the crowds, that I took a Sharpee marker and wrote Caroline's name and my cell phone number on her belly after her bath.  I'm not even kidding.  She's inked.  

On the less neurotic side, one of the neat things about Girl Scouting events of this type is that all the girls bring along SWAPs that they have made and then they trade their SWAPs with those keepsakes made by girls from around the country. SWAPs is an acronym for "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere " or, alternately, "Something With A Pin."  Typically the SWAPs are made to be representative of something special from your area of the country or a particular type of activity.

We weren't able to attend the SWAP-making workshop for our service unit, but I stole a few ideas from them, found a few ideas on the web, and created a few things myself.  Abby, Caroline and I spent quite a few hours creating a glittery, beady, glue-gunny mess in the dining room, but their SWAPs are ready to trade.  And, I think they turned out pretty well.

The end results (we made about 20 of each type pictured).  I must say the girls really got into this!  Wish us luck tomorrow and I'll post some photos from the event after I recover.

Philadelphia Pretzels

Mushroom Capital of the World

(Chester County, PA)

Philadelphia Phillies

 

Girl Scout Pins

Magic Friendship Seeds (Magic =Glitter)

Philadelphia Eagles