Family Proclamation Blocks

I have seen quite a few of these online but I wanted ours to be a little more classy yet easy enough for young girls to do.

The writing can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jYlpVdElkSGJNcDg/view?usp=sharing

Instructions:

1) The blocks are on 2x8 wood (length depends on how many you are needing to make) cut into 10" chunks. Home Depot will cut them into chunks for you at no charge. Just have them cut and then take them home and sand them down.

2) With a damp cloth, wipe off all the sawdust.

3) Paint with a plain white acrylic paint and let dry.

4) Paint with white pearl paint (will give it a really pretty luster).

5) Print proclamation on white or cream card stock then cut down to 4x4.

6) Find some pretty 12x12 card stock and cut it into quarters (one sheet will do 4 blocks)

7) Use spray glue to adhere the proclamation to the pretty card stock then use spray glue to adhere that to the wood.

8) Cut coordinating ribbon into about 2.5 to 3 foot pieces and tie around in a bow to finish.

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Bring an Ancestor to Activity Days

I forewarned the girls about this one. Each girl was to tell about an ancestor of theirs. They could dress up, bring an artifact, show pictures, tell a story, whatever they wanted. Each girl took a few minutes to show us what they brought and tell us about their ancestor. We learned lots of fascinating things about each girl's family and had a fun time in the process. I brought family trees for the girls to fill in if we had time but the stories ended up taking our entire hour.

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Zoo Trip

We like to have one all day field trip every year. This year we decided to go to the San Francisco Zoo. Even though Sacramento is closer to us, it is not as nice and we thought it would be worth the little extra time in the car.

If you are going on field trip, be sure to get permission from your bishop and have permission slips for each girl attending.

It is also a really good idea to make some kind of lanyard with your contact information on it, just in case someone gets separated from the group.

Be sure and go over the rules with the girls about staying with the group and what to do if they get lost.

I had each girl bring a sack lunch with them and I had bottles of water in a back pack for each of them. 

Then just enjoy the day together.

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Father / Daughter Water Games

BBQ + water + dads + girls = too much fun to handle!!!

We started off the evening with hamburgers and goofing off (I had one dad in a tree...sent photographic evidence to his wife). Then the real fun began.

We had three events:

First:
Super Soaker Fill Up
Each father/daughter team is given a large water gun and a cup. They each stand about 8 feet apart and they have 30 seconds to shoot as much water into the cups as possible. Since the giant water guns were pretty heavy when full, the dads shot while the girls tried to catch the water in their cups.

Second:
Water Ball Toss
I found some balls that soak up water really well. Fathers and daughters were spaced about 12 feet apart. The girls had to toss the balls while the dads caught them in a net. First team to catch 8 balls wins.

Third:
Water Cup Relay
Split into two teams. One team member at a time fills up their cups then, while holding the cup on their head, run to the other end of the course (about 20 feet away) and pour the water into a bucket (cup remaining on their head the whole time) then run back to their team. First team to fill their bucket wins.

We ended the evening with ice cream sundaes and continued water ruckus. SO MUCH FUN!

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Flower Headbands

I had several design options for the girls but all gravitated toward this one...

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/284078688965234307/

We kept it simple, just a few different colors and patterns of ribbon and a few different colored headbands.

Simple...easy...done!

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Mother / Daughter Pajama Party

PAJAMA PARTY!!! You know any time you get a bunch of girls together in their pajamas, there is fun times to be had.

We began with pizza and pajama ballets. I handed out ballets to each person and had votes for both moms and girls. There were categories like "best animal print" "most fuzzy" "best themed" etc.

Once pizza and ballets were finished we had three games.

First:

Tin Foil Dresses

Each girl got a roll of tin foil and had to make a dress for their mom. There were some pretty wild designs.

Second:

Bedtime Relay

We divided into two teams. I set up two laundry baskets that each had a towel, a bathrobe, and a pair of slippers. One person from each team would run to the basket and put on all of the items and run back to their team then take everything off and hand it to the next person who then had to run with those items and drop them back into the laundry basket before putting them on themselves. The first team to have all of their members run wins.

Third:

Marshmallow Catch

Each girl would toss marshmallows to their mom who had to catch them with a bowl. Whomever has the most marshmallows in their bowl after 30 seconds wins.

Finally, each of the girls gave their moms the necklaces they made for them. I also handed out awards to everyone based on the voting earlier.

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Mother's Day Gifts

I have some really creative girls. Giving them free reign over their project can be both scary and exciting at the same time. We decided to make necklaces for their moms to give them at our Mother/Daughter activity. I had a variety of beads and a few examples of what they could do and asked them to keep in mind that these were for their mom and not themselves but basically make what you want. We had some pretty amazing creations come out of it.

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Easter Scrap Wreaths

Decorating for any holiday can be fun. Personal touches are even better. Since it was coming up on Easter, I wanted to do something both easy and pretty. Easter scrap wreaths seemed the perfect idea. The instructions can be found on pinterest here:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450802893792/

I cut all the fabric ahead of time so all that had to be done was tie the fabric strips to the wreath hoops. The one that I did was like the instructions and it took me about 2.5 hours to do. After learning how long it would take to make, I decided to have my girls do much smaller ones. None of them finished while we were together but they took them home and finished them on their own.

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Gardening (again)

There were a few activities that I did with the older girls when were split into two groups. We have since recombined into one group and the older girls have either graduated into Young Women's or have moved away. This gives me an opportunity to revisit some activities and do a bit better the second time around.

In my home, early spring means preparing the garden. We weed and lay down compost and once it gets warm enough, we start planting. Learning how to garden is a very important part of both food storage and self reliance. It is important to begin learning these skills at an early age. Even if you live somewhere that does not have a yard, potted plants can produce quite a bit of produce while only taking up a small space.

I made a gardening book for my girls to take home and use for a reference. If printed front to back, the pages should be in the right order. The link for the gardening book and cover are below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jY0FsbHM2TUwyTUk/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jcGZ4U3p4RTFpWmc/view?usp=sharing

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Star Gazing

Constellations have always fascinated me. I love to look up at the stars and see all the shapes and admire the beauty Heavenly Father created in the sky. I have a pretty good telescope that I really hoped to use with the girls but light contamination pretty much ruined that for us, so we did what we could with what we were given.

I found several kid friendly websites that showed pictures of some of the more well known constellations. We looked at pictures and talked about where they could be found in the sky and during what time of year. We then played a matching game to see how well they remembered them.

The girls had a blast and were excited to go outside and search. They bundled up in their coats and I gave them cups of cocoa and out we went to search the heavens.

I gave each of the girls cards with the constellations for them to reference and they made a bit of a competition of who could find what first.

I think we will have to do this again, but meet somewhere  there is far less light so we can use the telescope.

Link for the flash cards can be found here:
http://liebacklookup.com/for-a-limited-time-constellation-cards-free-printable/

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Valentines for the Single Senior Sisters

Like our mini pumpkin activity back in October, we wanted to something else special for the senior widows. Since any time I bring out colorful paper, scissors, markers, stickers, glue sticks, and glitter paint, the girls go crazy, I thought I would put that crazy to good use. I pretty much laid all the stuff out on a table and let them go to town. By the end of the night we had about twenty valentines for me to hand out. They were a big hit with the single senior sisters.

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Reach for the Stars Awards Night

I think Awards Night is my most favorite activity of the year. It is also my least favorite activity of the year. I love it because it is great to see all the girls have accomplished and reward them for it. I love it because we get to involve the parents and show them some of the amazing things their girls have done. I love it because it is always beautiful, spiritual, delicious, fun, and amazing. I don't like it because I always go way over the top in planning and executing it that I am extremely exhausted and burned out by the end of it.

Our theme this year was "Reach for the Stars" and I kind of felt like my planning was just as much of a reach at some times. Everything was star themed from the decorations, the games and even the food. We had phenomenal feedback from everyone who attended and it may the whole exhausting process totally worth it for me.

Invites:
I ALWAYS do handmade invites...for several activities throughout the year. That kind of got me on the roll as far as silver and sparkly and led to quite a few other ideas I had along the way.

Decorations:

I used a star punch to punch a lot of star shaped holes in silver card stock. I then put it inside of various sized mason jars with tea lights. These were on every table along with white tablecloths, silver sparkly fabric in the middle of the table and light and dark silver curling ribbon. We ended up having to change the date and location at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts but it worked in our favor as the breezeway was so much better in getting the effect of the night sky I wanted. We borrowed white Christmas lights from several parents and I strung those up back and forth along the breezeway. With the lights turned out and only the Christmas lights and tea lights, it was just magical.

Food:

It was the usual...mini pizzas, meatballs, fruit kabobs, trifle, fruit punch...

In keeping with the theme, however, we gave them all outer space names. It was fun and tasty at the same time.

Speaker:

We had one of the moms of one of the girls who will be joining Activity Days this year speak. She was so amazing. She talked about all these phenomenal women in history who went against what conventional society told them and did extraordinary things with their lives (Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and quite a few others). She then talked about many of the strong driven women in our ward who have gone back to school to further their education, who have started their own businesses, who have become pillars of the community. She then told the girls that if they begin now by setting small goals and working toward them, they will be in the habit of working toward something special and will be able to do great things with their lives. I was nearly in tears by the time she was done. 

Awards:

We basically have 4 different types of awards we give out:

1) The "New Bee" award for the girls who just started coming but haven't really done much yet. I don't like to leave them out.

2) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year of goals completed toward their Faith in God Award

3) Memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith

4) Reading the entire Book of Mormon

I make special certificates for each of these that I have both the Bishop and Primary President sign.

I also like to have a small gift I give each of the Activity Days Girls as well as all the girls who will be joining us this year. It generally goes along with the theme. Last year for our Snow White theme, I gave out small handheld mirrors. This year I made star necklaces for each of the girls (yes, I said made).

In the end, even though I was dead on my feet by the end of the night, it was a spectacular night and one I am sure the girls will remember always.

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Health & Hygiene

As these girls get older, it is important for them to understand how to take care of their bodies both inside and out. Nutrition is often discussed but hygiene not as much beyond take a shower and brush your teeth. That's all a kid needs right? Probably not.
We started off by playing a little memory game. We had a bunch of hygiene products on a table and the girls had one minute to look at them all and try to remember as many as possible before the table was covered up. Most of them got about half of what was there.
We had: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face scrub, hair gel, lotion, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, hand sanitizer, washcloth, pumice stone, clean pillow case, loofah, clean panties, deodorant, and several other items I can not remember now. After the little game, we discussed the importance of each of the items and why many of them need to be used on a daily basis. We discussed how clean bodies mean clean temples for our spirits to dwell in. We also discussed how clean bodies lead to happier and healthier lives.

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Girl's Binders

With the start of the new year, I had several goals in mind that I wanted to encourage with the girls. I felt strongly that one of the ways I could make Activity Days a better learning experience was with making binders for each of the girls that would encourage memorizing the Articles of Faith, daily scripture study, and keeping personal journals.

I found some mini binders on amazon.com that have a pocket built into the front inside cover that is the perfect size to fit both the Faith in God books and their Articles of Faith memorization cards. Inside the binders I put a phone list, a list of all the activities for 2015 with a list of what they needed to bring, a calendar, as well as personal journal pages and scripture journal pages. Since I am not totally opposed to a little bribery, I told the girls that for every 5 pages they filled out, I would give them a piece of candy. Yes, I know I should be ashamed of myself, but if it gets them reading the scriptures, writing in their journals, and memorizing, I am totally fine with it.

In addition to this helping the girls, it somewhat helps me as I am TERRIBLE about remembering to sign off on their books. I keep track of what they have accomplished in my binder but their books remain semi-blank. They have been told to bring their binders every time so we can both sign off on the journal pages they have done and sign off on their Faith in God books.

I am hoping this will lead to more girls finishing the Book of Mormon as well as some serious spiritual growth.

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