Brownies from West Ham, Plaistow and Canning Town kicked of the Big Brownie Birthday in style with a weekend of fun in Bognor Regis.

The event, called Funtastic, saw Brownies descending on Bognor on January 17-19 to enjoy all the fun of the seaside – and have their chance at building a massive LEGO Big Brownie Birthday cake courtesy of LEGO.

The Brownies travelled from Newham to Bognor for the girl-only weekend, to take part in activities with 3,000 other Brownies from across London and the South East. They enjoyed swimming, a pantomime, dancing, nature walks along the coast and even got to make their very own LEGO model to take away.

Hundreds of thousands of Girlguiding members from all over the UK are taking part in events to mark the 100th birthday of Brownies in 2014 – and the Brownies from Newham are no exception.

Sophie Ball, aged 10, from 5th West Ham Brownies, said “Funtastic was really fun. I had an amazing weekend with my friends. We loved the pantomime, and the swimming, we really liked going to the beach – even though it was very cold!”

Susan Mawhood, Brownie Leader, said “It was brilliant to see so many girls here from Brownie Units in Newham,– I don’t think they’d ever seen so many other Brownies together before! There was so much for them to do, and they had lots of fun.”