Anniversary Celebration

Today Violet and I went to our council's official Girl Scout Centennial Celebration.  It was fun.  It was crowded!  There were a lot of Cadette/Senior/Ambassadors there which was great.  Almost all the girls were in their sashes or vests (thank goodness we remembered to take Violet's!) 

That said, it wasn't quite what I expected.  It was more like a trade show for Girl Scouts.  There were a lot of vendors there.  Mostly places troops might want to go on field trips.  Some sold camping equipment.  Of course the Council's bank partner was there to showcase financial literacy.  We visited some booths.  We mostly visited Council booths: the history booth, the council shop to get our event t-shirts and patches, the product sales booth to vote for next year's cookie incentives (plus I know the council product sales staff so I had to visit for a couple of minutes). 

I'm glad we went. I don't think I'll be making it to any 200th anniversary parties for Girl Scouts.

The event was held in our (mine and Mr. I's) old home town, our college town.  We started dating in college, got married while he was still finishing his degree, stayed, I enrolled and completed grad school there, all before we (sadly) moved.  We miss it.  It is only about 40 minutes away and we don't get back "home" nearly as often as we'd like.

After we left the event, Violet and I set off to find a thrift store I've heard about.  When the lady was showing us around, she said they'd been in business 5 years!  I definitely don't get back to town often enough!  The thrift store was cool, it had a bunch of rooms filled with things, then (per the nice lady) you go past the exit sign and down into the basement where there is even more!  Glad she showed us around or we never would have gone down there.  Violet found a sweatshirt jacket and 2 bean babies (one is from the Coca-Cola international beanie collection, which we didn't even know existed, she found the crocodile.)  I found some yarn.

Then I took her to our favorite place for frozen custard, Ollie's.   When we were in college and beyond, Ollie's was in our college town, then it had a falling out with DeKalb and moved to the next town over.  It's customers went with it.  On a nice summer day, the line will twist all the way around the building.  Yes, somehow, we've neglected to bring Violet there in so long she couldn't remember it.  Today the line was only about 10 people, it was in the mid-40's with a very strong wind.  But dedicated Ollie's lovers will stand there for their custard!  I think it is the only place that Mr. I and I will stand in a line that long.  I had a s'mores sundae (I figured I had to have that after going to the Girl Scout event) and Violet had a double scoop of chocolate.  We sat in the car and ate it.  Lots of people were sitting in their cars with their treats.  That's what you do there.

I think I have Violet considering NIU for college.  Yay!  I'd love it if she went there.  It is a great school, and it is so close to home.  And it is a top notch university.  And it is just down the road with all our favorite old places.  Actually, it is always been our "Plan B".  If things don't work out, Mr. I. plan to head back there, rent another small apartment and start over.  And have lots of Ollie's.