Caroling

We had a few new families move into our ward recently and also our Primary Chorister had a new baby. We decided to deliver Christmas cookies and sing carols to them. All the girls wore santa hats and they picked out some of their favorite carols. Since we were driving to the various residences, we had to get permission slips from all the girls (make sure you get permission from ward leaders before doing an activity where driving is involved). The girls had fun and in the end we ended up going a little over our time because the girls wanted to keep singing for people.

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Christ Centered Christmas

I was giving this calling just before the Christmas activity last year (that I had no part of planning). There was a white elephant gift exchange and lots of candy and in the end there were some super hyped up girls running amuck and a few girls with hurt feelings because their gift got swiped per the rules of the white elephant gift game. In the end I felt like we had almost completely driven the spirit away. I did not want to ever go through that again so for this year we decided to keep it Christ centered, no gifts, no candy, and actually learn something.
First we watched the nativity video the church put out. Next we talked about all the symbolism in Christmas. Finally we made baby Jesus ornaments. The girls still had a lot of fun (a couple said it was their favorite activity of the year) yet we kept the spirit very strongly there. Win!!!
The instructions for the ornament can be found here:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450799096270/

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Cake Decorating

You might be thinking that I have an unfair advantage for this activity since I am a former pro pastry chef. Chances are there is someone in your ward who has taken the Wilton cake decorating classes and can teach your girls some very simple basics. I had several different tips for the pastry bags and several different colors of icing for them to practice with. We learned a couple of simple chains, simple writing, and a simple flower. I baked a little 6" cake for each of the girls and after practicing on wax paper for a while, I let them go to town on their cakes. In the end we had a wide variety of cakes from very simple elegance all the way to more icing than cake. The girls loved getting their tasty creativity on.

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The Big Split

For a while we had such a big group that we had split them up into 2 groups (8&9 year olds and 10&11 year olds). For 2 weeks the older girls worked on sewing some super cute owls (in retrospect we should have sewn parts of them less and used fabric glue to save time). Each girl got to pick out her own colors and pattern ahead of time and I had all the pieces already cut out for them. I also sewed the front and back together on the sewing machine for them. The pattern can be found here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/69453030/hooo-ray-owl-pattern?ref=sr_gallery_9&ga_search_query=felt+owl+pattern&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Meanwhile, the younger girls did a book club the first week and made friendship bracelets the next.

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End of Summer Swim Party

They can't all be educational. It's the end of the summer. What more can we say.

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Pioneer Day

I wish I could give you more details on this one but I was out of town and my partners in crime handled this. I know they did some cross stitch and some homemade ice cream in a bag. Sorry, I can't be more help on this one.

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Father Daughter Water Balloon Tournament

16 girls + 16 dads + 500 water balloons = more fun than we can handle!!!
4 events:
1) water balloon bucket fill (throw water balloons against a backdrop to make them explode and collect the water into a bucket below)
2) water balloon toss (toss water balloons between girl and dad getting further and further apart)
3) water cup on head relay (fill cup, race with it on head, fill up bucket, run back and tag your partner and keep going until bucket is filled to the line)
4) soaker ball sling shot (girls shoot soaker balls with sling shot while dad tries to catch them, as many as can in 1 minute)
extra - lots of extra water balloons, a bunch of water guns, buckets with water, bubbles, a lot of really soaked people
BEST. ACTIVITY. EVER!!!

Thank you to my amazing sister who took all these pictures (Alisa Duenas Photography)

http://www.alisaduenas.com

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