Emilyn's first Brownie campout

On Thursday night, because school was off on Friday, Emilyn and the Brownies had a campout in Katherine's back yard. Emilyn would like to report to all about her first time sleeping outside in a tent:

Emilyn says, "Well, we packed my toothbrush, my clothes, flashlight, a couple books, my chair, a sleeping bag, my new slippers and the little mat that goes under my sleeping bag. When it was time to go, me and Daddy packed everything in the car and went to Katherine's house. When we got there, everyone put their things by the fence and we played on Katherine's playground. Then, about 15 minutes later, we started to get everything set up in our tents. I shared a tent with Katherine, Olivia and Sarah.

"Then, a little bit later, we looked at a paper that was hung up on the wall to see what our jobs were. I was 'dinner prep.' Yay! Olivia and Gabbye were 'dinner prep' also. We washed apples and we took the plates out to the table and we got some chips and hot dogs and we roasted hot dogs on the fire. Then after everybody was finished with their dinner, we sang some songs and we talked about Brownies. By this time, it was dark. So Mrs. Franz gave us numbers, and she called us by our numbers to go brush our teeth. And then Mrs. Guerkink read us a couple of books (but everybody was tired, so nobody listened). So we went to our tents to go to sleep.

"Inside the tent, there was a little curtain that you could change your clothes behind so nobody could peek at you. Mrs. Franz slept behind the curtain. Everybody else slept in the middle. Our tent, I guess, was the loudest. In the next tent, Hannah's little sister Claire was overtired and crying, so we couldn't go to sleep. But, finally, we fell asleep. We heard a lot of crickets and cars (I guess one of them was Maddie's, because she had to go home because she was homesick). It was kind of cool to be sleeping in a tent. But I had bad allergies because of the grass, and a lot of grass was sticking to the tent, because the tent was wet. I also had sore legs. So, I didn't get much sleep that night.

"My tent woke up at 5 in the morning. So, I decided to stick myself under my sleeping bag and read with a flashlight. When all the other tents woke up, we all climbed out and we looked at the sign to see what our morning jobs were. This time, I was 'breakfast prep.' Yay, again!

"We made hot chocolate and took orders for the people that wanted orange juice and fruit punch. Then we all made a card for Grace, because she wasn't there, because her Grandma died, and she was in Texas. And then we ate. We had 'brown bears,' which are biscuits roasted in the fire, and then we put them in a bag with brown sugar and cinnamon and shake it. That was good, except for mine was burnt. But the hot chocolate was good.

"Then I decided to lay on the lounger with my book, when everyone was pretty much doing nothing. And then we practiced our skit, which had Hannah as the main character, the 'banana girl.' The skit was about the uses of bandannas. After we show one use for bandannas, Hannah tries to do it with a banana and says, 'I don't get it!' And then, at the end of the skit, the last use for bandannas is tying it up and carrying food in it. And Hannah peels the banana and says, 'I get it now!' It's a funny skit.

"Then we made 'God's eyes,' which is two popsicle sticks with yarn wrapped around it. By then, the parents were getting there. When I saw Mommy and Allen, I got all my stuff packed up. Allen was playing with Katherine's pumpkins. I was on the swings and didn't want to get off. Then we went home. I was pretty tired. Next time I go on a campout, I should bring leg pain medicine!"