We all had a blast going to work on the floats that will be in the Rose Parade on New Years. Haili was going to meet us up there but was unable to make it. We missed her and all wished she could have taken part in this fun day.
Our day started out with rain but the girls were not going to let that get them down. They were ready to have fun!
We went inside the big warehouse and signed in. Then we had to wait for them to find something for us to do. So, we went around looking at all the stuff that was everywhere.
There were eleven floats all getting decorated for the Rose Parade.
The girls were surprised at how large some of the floats were going to be.
We tried to picture what the floats were going to look like. Talked a little about what we thought they should look like.
We tried to pick out the ones that we thought would be the best. Like this cute cat one.
The girls all gave the cow (that will be on the Discover float) a kiss for luck!
We couldn't figure out what float these guys would be a part of. Perhaps some of the figures were from the floats from other years.
The big fruit was going to be part of the float from Dole.
The girls thought it was cute to see how big the dragon's foot is compared to their hands.
The dragon will be part of the float sponsored by The City of Torrance.
We finally got our spot to set up camp for the day. We were way in the back of the warehouse.
There were tons and tons of other girl scouts and their families also working on the floats.
It seemed like we actually spent more time waiting for them to tell us what our job was then actually doing the job itself.
It didn't really matter though because we all had fun even while we were waiting for our assignment.
Finally we were told what we were going to be doing. Cutting up dry flowers. Not the whole flower though. Just the bottom side that was brown and dark gold. Not the bright yellow part. That would be done by another group later.
We got a big box of the dried flowers and had to finish them all. Or at least try.
While it wasn't really a craft project, the girls said it seemed sort of like one. They really enjoyed cutting the flowers.
The girls came up with a system of how to cut the flowers and how to keep the ones we already cut from the ones we still had to cut.
We all discussed where we thought our flowers would be used on the floats. Would they be used on only one float or would they be used on all of them?
We later were told, they would be added to the other groups cut up flowers and then they would be used on all the different floats.
The girls learned that all the floats are covered 100% in items that can be grown. Not only flowers but also things like seeds, rice, grass and leaves. Though flowers are the most popular item used.
We saw some people working on the Ronald Regan float. They were making big pictures of President Regan to go on the sides of the float. They used rice and seeds.
It was interesting to see the process of this being done.
We also saw what is used to drive the floats. These type of vehicles are hidden under the floats and a driver slowly drives the floats down the parade route.
We came across five little monkeys. Oh wait! There are only two monkeys. The other three are the girls.
When we came across the big turkey, that had been used in prior years, we got an idea of how the flowers, we cut up, would be used.
Thousands and thousands of cut up dried flowers were used to make the feathers on the turkey.
It made the girls excited to see how their hard work would be used.
After we got through the big box of flowers, it was time to clean up our area.
The girls did all the clean up. It looked like a lot of work ended up on the floor but it didn't. The stuff on the floor was more the bright yellow and it would just fall off of the flowers when touched.
All the girls said they wanted to watch the Rose Parade this year. I hope they all get to. It will be fun to hear if they were able to spot all of the floats we saw.
I thought this was a great opportunity for the girls to see what it is like behind the scenes. To get a better understand of the hours and hours work done by hundreds and hundreds of people.
It would be great for them to get to see how the final product turns out.
If you would like to see what all eleven of the floats will look like you can click
here and see pictures of them.
We started out making reindeer candy canes.
We talked about how the seniors were going to love getting them when we hand them out.
These were pretty easy to make and while it was a little hard to get all those googly eyes on, we made 6 dozen reindeer.
The girls all got to keep one reindeer for themselves or to give to someone else.
We made some with red bells as the nose and some with fluffy red balls for the nose. It was a tie as to which one was liked the best.
I must have had my camera on the wrong setting because all the photos I took of each girls favorite came out blurry. This was the best out of all of them...and it is not good!
After our reindeer were all finished, we moved on to making Christmas ornaments.
We knew we didn't have enough time to make all of them tonight, so we took a vote as to which one the girls wanted to work on as a group.
The candy cane ornament won so we stuck to the candy cane theme and made them.
The girls all loved them. Plus they got to learn the meaning behind the candy cane.
