SYW Traditional March Massey Draw March!

As luck would have it, we once again had beautiful weather for our march up Massey Draw. 

While the moms were having a leisurely walk up the hill, sharing what we had been up to lately....and just having fun in general....

we came upon an ambush!!!......and snowballs began flying by us like rockets!

Nary a one of us escaped being spattered by a big wet snowball, 

but it was unanimously decided the girls got the best of their moms.

 

 Who's up for Round 2???   

Awww...don't be shy girls!!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!!

Once in a while a girl's got to have a little fun......and fun we had at the September SYW's meeting!   Our hot September afternoon was spent taking a walk down memory lane while we played in the shade.

We discussed what we do during our "down time" and how that entertainment has drastically changed from when we were younger.   It's so important to find a way to lighten the stress in our lives....and that applies to us all no matter what our age!

While some daughters were being treated to a manicure, others were playing Candy Land, musical chairs, or braiding each others hair......

And one of our moms brought a fantastic craft for us to do!  

The girls picked three words that described their mothers, and the mothers did the same for their daughters.  We found those words in magazines and glued them to a fun background that we had inserted in "bottle caps".  We got to choose either a necklace or a bracelet......and when we gave them to each other, we explained why we chose those words to describe that person.  It was loads of fun and we learned a little bit more about how we are viewed by those we love so much.....not to mention walking away with a new piece of jewelry!

We also shared a new book that that is FULL of inspiration for young women.  It is called Don't Give It Away by Iyanla Van Zant.   In fact, we have adopted her "A Girl's Pledge"  to begin each of our meetings.  To visit Iyanla Van Zant's beautiful website and to learn more about her and her books, CLICK HERE.

GO GREEN!

SYW kicked off our 2010-2011 season with a GREEN bang!

Our school invited us to educate the students and faculty about the new composting project that is being implemented school-wide.  The group began their task by first discussing the complete composting process and then defining exactly what may be composted.  

We were surprised to learn that any food left on our plates from banana peels to meat.....even yogurt!.....was worthy of composting.  We discovered that our leftover food scraps are not really trash at all, but an important resource that may be called "food for the soil"!

 After our discussion, we designed 20 colorful posters for use in the classrooms and cafeteria.  On the first full day of school, we divided into four groups and visited each of the classrooms to teach the students about the exciting new way everyone can become a "farmer" without ever riding on a tractor!  Who knew our banana peels could be a sunflower in their next life!  :)

In addition to our GO GREEN project, each girl made a Memory Book to keep her pictures, keepsakes, and treasures in from this upcoming year's events.  Below are some more pictures of us with our Memory Books:

"Instead of managing wastes, we will manage resources and strive to eliminate waste.”
–The Institute for Local Self Reliance, Washington, DC

 

For those of you who would like to read/do more about Going Green, the Go Green Blog has lots of information ranging from Eco-Products (such as super neat dog leashes!), Energy and Environment......to Family, Healthy Eating and Green Crafts.  Go explore!!!

Read more about Zero Waste here:
www.zerowaste.org
www.ecocycle.org/zerowaste
www.zerowasteamerica.org 

It's a Wrap!

Moms, remember when the girls were so little and we'd meet at Dinosaur Park for lunch?  And girls, remember crawling all over and under that big green or purple dinosaur???  Well, fast forward and now you're not little girls anymore....you've become young women! Time has taken wings....and so have you!

For our end-of-year SYW meeting, we took a step back in time by visiting Dinosaur Park near St. Anne's.  Basking in the sun, we wrapped up the year recounting our topics, events and adventures while mingling with our ol' buddy, the resident dinosaur, and munching on our sack lunches.
 

As the girls relaxed, both moms and daughters shared what we loved most about this year's SYW meetings and what we thought we could improve.  We recapped our discussions of building a bond of trust between mother and daughter, our own self-esteem, how to be a genuine friend, healthy eating habits and "finding our breaths" in time of need through some relaxing yoga techniques....all of these being "tools" that we added to our ever expanding SYW "toolbox".

A feedback survey was filled out by both moms and daughters giving their thoughts of this past year's meetings and suggestions for the 2010-2011 meetings.  If you were unable to attend, Ginny will be attaching the feedback survey to her next email.  You can print them out and mail them to her, or you may just email your and your daughter's feedback to her directly.

Lastly,  we are all realizing what an impact these fun, but educational meetings are having on our lives....how they are improving our relationships with each other and those lives we touch outside our circle.  This enrichment has sparked the idea of leaving a "legacy" behind....a legacy that represents accomplishment, encouragement, and growth toward realization of one's full potential as an individual and to our community.  In upcoming meetings, we will be discussing ideas to identify and implement the SYW's legacy.

Please check the SYW's blog often for new posts with upcoming events, meeting times, new topics of discussion and just plain ol' fun stuff....and we'd love to have you add your comments to each post!

And girls, please don't forget to send me your favorite top three songs to include on the iPod.  When you visit your SYW's blog, you may fast forward to the songs you want to hear while you are reading through it! 

OM....

We spent our April meeting on the floor—literally!


We added the study of Yoga into our toolbox of strategies to help us to feel good about ourselves. We met at a studio at the Greenwood Athletic Club, and we sat cross-legged in a circle to talk about a wide variety of ways girls and their mothers use to deal with feelings of anxiety, fear, worry, loneliness, and thoughts of “not fitting in.” We imagined that we had a “self-esteem bubble” around us that was filled with all the stuff that helps us to feel great about who we are. We then filled in our “self-esteem” bubble on paper and shared our strategies. We had a special guest this month at our meeting when Emma Domich brought her grandmother, Glenn Ann, to our meeting. We were so happy to include another mentor in our group!

Moms, daughters and even Emma's grandma, Glenn Ann, had many good ideas: listening to your favorite music, talking to a friend, playing the violin, laughter, meditation, breathing slowly, hugging a pet, playing basketball, distracting yourself, thinking about the things you do well, practicing gratitude, having hope that things will get better, giving yourself a pep talk, watching a movie, and drawing. We learned that the more strategies you put in your bubble, the stronger you are when faced with tough situations.


We then welcomed yogi, Suzanne Matthews, to our group for an hour-long yoga session. She taught us about the power of the breath and how when we’re feeling down, there’s nothing like taking three, deep Complete Breaths to move you into another place of thinking.


We practiced the Complete Breath, the Twinkle Sparkle exercise, the Crocodile Pose and the Release of Fear Pose. She taught us that we have to understand that we can't worry about OPB or Other People’s Behavior, and as soon as we realize that, life will be easier. We ended the session by learning the Child’s Pose and the Warrior Pose. If you're interested in catching an adult class with Suzanne Matthews at the Greenwood Athletic Club or at other studios in Denver, call her at (303) 771-5083.

Next month we take a break during the crazy days of May but we close out our first year of the Spread Your Wings Courage Circle on June 2nd at noon after dismissal from school. We will have a brown bag lunch meeting at Dinosaur Park and recap our journey, and pass out the calendar of events for the upcoming year. Details will be sent in May.

Happy breathing!

SYW March Up the Massey!

For our March Spread Your Wings Circle Meeting, we decided to snow shoe up the Massey Draw Trail in Littleton, Colorado. Believe it or not, it was nearly 70 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Gosh it’s great to live in Colorado!

Our expedition of moms and their daughters headed up for a 2-mile round trip tour of the most popular trail in the Ken Caryl Valley subdivision. It’s popular because you pass through four ecosystems along the way. Luckily, Brooke brought her pedometer so we knew exactly how far we hiked!

And Mother Nature provided not only sun and a slight breeze but about 15 inches of new, wet spring snow five days earlier.

Overall, everyone had a blast, although there were some mishaps along the way: straps that wouldn’t tighten properly on the snow shoes, (if you were in the back of the pack, you witnessed a few pairs of snow shoes abandoned upright in the snow) a few spills in the wet mud (Sue is the best sport!), and a few tired moms, but mostly there were many laughs.

A hearty group of snow shoe enthusiasts trudged upward to the switchbacks into the deciduous forest and then there were others (Ginny and Sue) who took a seat on a log under a tree to wait for the group to head down.

We took photos of our expedition and it looks like we began an annual tradition of snow shoeing for our group. The sun, laughs, camaraderie, and friendship were all good for the soul after a long, cold winter.

We then returned to Ginny’s house for cold lemonade and homemade brownies. As we sat in a circle, we conducted a short feedback session to get input from all our members about Circle activities and the planning of next year’s activities. The girls had some great suggestions such as a weekend overnight Circle meeting, longer meetings for the upcoming year, and they suggested activities such as tie dying t-shirts, doing community service at an animal shelter, and camping.

We talked about putting a blog together so that everyone has a calendar of events for the year and photos of each meeting so we could post them on the Blogspot page. We also talked about what each of us has learned this year and it was fun to hear that moms felt they became closer to their daughters and had more meaningful conversations with them, and the daughters felt as though they learned to think about how their words/actions affect other kids’ self esteem.

Just before we dismissed the meeting, the girls made a human knot and ended up surprising everyone! TWO knots??? Oh, my!!!

All in all, it was a great day!