Thankful Dinner

The parents of my Activity Day girls are so supportive and so often jump in to help when we need it. We wanted to have a special dinner for them with the girls serving them dinner. We had a nice table set up with menu cards and pretty center pieces and tried to make it look like a nice restaurant. The girls got to be the waitresses for the evening and they thought it was the best thing ever. They started by serving them water and giving them the menu. It had three courses:

Course 1) Salad with choice of toppings and dressings
Course 2) Choice between 2 entrees (we had lasagna and stuffed bell peppers) and choice of veggies
Course 3) Choice of dessert (brownie sundae or berry sundae)

I made the girls order forms so all they had to do was check the box next to whatever their mom or dad wanted and bring it back to the kitchen. We then put the orders together, one course at a time, and the girls served them to their parents. We had them checking back every once in a while to refill their water, take away plates, bring the next course, etc. The girls were also munching on food in the kitchen in between. I wish we had taken pictures but we were so busy getting everything done we just did not have time. But it was great. The girls loved it and the parents enjoyed being pampered for the evening.

Continue Reading...

Birthday Traditions Around the World

I love to learn about other cultures. At BYU Hawaii I took an international relations class and got to talk to students from other countries and about how they interact with one another, coming of age traditions, birthdays, holidays, family traditions, etc. It was so much fun. I wanted the girls to learn about how other cultures around the world celebrate both birthdays and coming of age rituals. There is all sorts of things to find online. If you have anyone in your group from another country, it would be fun to have them do a little presentation. We had no such luck on that. We have one girl from Peru but I completely spaced and forgot to ask her. Instead we had fun facts, pictures, and whatever else I could find online.
To make the evening even more special, since we were discussing birthdays, I made jumbo cupcakes and brought frosting, lots of different sprinkles, glitter gel frosting, and candy pieces and let the girls decorate their own birthday cupcakes.
On a side note...It was the first night for one of my girls and she wanted nothing to do with Activity Days. She was out in the hallway throwing a fit with her mother. I took a couple of the girls into the hallway with me and we were telling her how much fun Activity Days was and we get to do things like make art projects, go on field trips, learn about new things. This only semi dulled the fit. I then mentioned that we were going to learn about birthdays and then decorate our own cupcakes. This got her attention. We were quickly able to get her into the classroom and by the end of the night she was bubbly and giddy along with the rest of the girls. I'm telling you, Activity Days is the place to be!!!

Chowing down on the over the top hot pink cupcakes was the highlight of the evening.

Continue Reading...