Girl Scouts hold sleepover

Most kids would love to live at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. And one night more than 200 Brownie Girl Scouts experienced the next best thing when they spent the night at the museum in March.

Girls and their leaders arrived on Friday just after 7:30 p.m. and didn't leave until around 8 the next morning during the Brownie Lock-in at the museum.

In addition to the everyday museum exhibits, staff members set up stations throughout the museum to help young scouts explore their senses and the science of astronomy.

Eight-year-old Northwest Las Vegan Mackenzie Johnson thought the event was fun, but she wasn't sure about the experiments in taste. Each child had a taste of sugar, salt, cinnamon and pepper.

"They were bad, I didn't like them." Johnson said. She may not have enjoyed the experience, but her mother sure did.

"Her face was pricelessÉ just watching her after she had a taste of pepper," Cindy Johnson said.

In addition to the taste experiments, girls learned about the night sky, shadows, sound, optical illusions and they tested their sense of smell. Activities filled the evening and the lights didn't go out until 12:30 a.m. While the leaders were ready to hit the sack, many girls weren't.

"I would say sleeping was my favorite part, but that really wasn't it," 8-year-old Lisa Kraisriwatana said. Her favorite part was really "when we played flashlight tag."

"You lay down and wiggle your flashlight all over and try to catch other people." 9-year-old Lori Kenyon explained.

For some kids this was their first night away from home, but there were no tears or calls home to Mom.

"For a lot of my girls this was their first sleepover and it was awesome," Cindy Johnson said. "I'm proud of the troop. They had fun but they didn't step over the limits. We slept here and we have survived to tell the tale."

Not many of their girls slept, but Henderson troop 223 did more than survive; they showed up in style. All the girls and leaders arrived wearing matching T-shirts and identical cloudy sky shorts. Enthusiastic mother Vadja Ibeas whipped up all the shorts on a sewing machine in only a few days. Matching pajamas or not, many of the girls had no interest in sleeping.

"I know I had two of them, probably three, that I don't think slept more than two hours," troop leader Tina Monticelli said.

"We were having fun just talking and laughing because Candace was snoring," 9-year-old Amanda Goodluck said.

"I was snoring?" Candace Snowden asked in disbelief.

"You were!" Stephanie Michaels testified.

Kids may have had the chance to sleep, but for museum staff members that wasn't an option. Deanna Harp came in at 1 a.m. and worked until the girls left. She said the night crew stayed from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

"I said I would work it. No one had to ask," Harp said.