S.W.A.P.S.

S.W.A.P.S. stands for "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere". The Girl Scouts promote the girls to make little craft things with a pin on it to trade with other girls, to promote friendship. It's a neat idea and it's fun to see the other S.W.A.P.S. that Emma brings home. On Monday morning we made a quick run to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few items to make our S.W.A.P.S. and got right on it after we ate lunch. I even came up with an idea of my own to use instead of stealing someone else's off the internet! Emma really liked them and it was easy enough for her to help by sorting and bending pipe cleaners. These required the use of the hot glue gun, so I certainly had to help with that. After making just a few, Emma was losing interest. I figured that would happen, but the problem was we needed 60 of them! (At the time I thought we only needed 48, but after I read the paperwork that was emailed to me, I saw that there were 12 more, PA's and Camp Directors, that needed to be made.) UGH! Thank goodness for us, our dear friend, Elise, stopped by to drop off a DVD we had loaned them. After showing her my battle wound with the hot glue gun, she volunteered to stay and help us because she didn't really have anything else to do. Needless to say, I was THRILLED to death! I didn't realize how long this project was going to take! Elise stayed and helped for 2-3 hours (I lost track of time) and we still weren't done! I finally finished them up just before supper and that is when I discovered we needed 12 more to total 60 S.W.A.P.S. I thought to myself, "That's tough shit! I had no desire to make even one more!" Well, my other side won the internal argument and I ended up making 12 more. Yesterday after camp I was excited to see Emma's S.W.A.P.S., only to find out they didn't do it that day. I had a whole extra day to work on them! UGH! Oh well, I was glad to have them done. Anyway, today was the big S.W.A.P. day. When we looked in Emma's bag, I found the ziploc with LOTS of the ones we made still in it! I asked her if they didn't do it and she said they had. When we got home I counted out 41 of those stupid things in her bag that she didn't trade with anyone. AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! What a waste of time! I asked her why she didn't give them all out and she said she didn't have time. WHAT?!?! Don't ask everyone to make SIXTY of these things and then not give them time to trade them! I told Emma it looked like we wouldn't have to make anymore for quite some time. She didn't really like that idea. What the heck else do we do with them? Elise, would you like to have some to trade with your friends? :-) I told Emma she better take that bag of them back with her tomorrow and hand them out to the girls who didn't get one. I might have something to say about this in the Girl Scout office the next time I visit. (I sound so mean, don't I?)