Father Daughter Olympics

SO. MUCH. FUN.
4 fun filled events and everyone gets a gold medal in the end.
1) pool noodle toss
2) ring toss
3) beach ball / kid size golf club put put relay
4) giant marshmallow in a little spoon relay
Begin with a barbecue, work up a sweat playing games, proclaim everyone a winner, end with root beer floats for all.

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

http://www.alisaduenas.com

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5 Years From Now...

We wanted to emphasize the importance of setting goals. While they have goals they need to set in order to get their Faith in God Award, for the most part if they come to the activities they will pass most of them off. We felt that we needed to prepare them for bigger future challenges as well as all the goals they will have to work on their own once they get to the Young Women's program. We actually had the Laurel class come and help us with this activity. We talked about setting big long term goals and then setting smaller goals to work toward reaching the big one. We talked about the kind of person they want to become and how to set goals to become that person. Afterwards we did kind of a time capsule activity. I had the girls fill out a questionnaire about who they are right now. Link to the questionnaire is here:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450800439195/
I then had them write down 3 goals they want to have achieved in the next 5 years. I then had them write letters to their future selves. I took all of these and put them in envelopes for each of the girls to be opened 5 years from now.

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Mother Daughter Tea-less Tea Party

Amazing girls all come from amazing moms and my girls and their moms are beyond amazing, they are spectacular. To celebrate Mother's Day this year, we decided to throw a little tea-less tea party on my back porch. I made mini muffins and scones, chocolate dipped strawberries, cupcakes and punch. We asked sisters in our ward to donate teacups and mini tea sets to use as decoration (reassuring them they would not be used for drinking by small hands). I also found some really awesome cupcake wraps that look like tea cups so we could at least have tea cups at each place setting. When we were announcing this activity, a few of the girls asked what we were drinking since there was no tea. That gave me an idea for a little game. We played name that beverage. I had a few different sodas and juices that I poured into little cups and they had to guess what it was. For our lesson, we talked about the importance of spending quality time together and gave them some ideas of what they could do to spend time as mother and daughter.
Link for tea cup cupcake wraps is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/170026860/12-tea-party-tea-cup-cupcake-wraps-diy?ref=shop_home_active_1

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

http://www.alisaduenas.com

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Kitchen Safety / Chicken Pot Pie

An educational yet tasty activity. I had the girls sign up to bring different ingredients (really the mom's on our Facebook page) like chicken, stock, carrots, frozen peas and corn, potatoes, butter, cheese, etc. If you do this activity, you may want to get the chicken in the oven first thing as this is what held us up at the end, waiting for it to finish cooking. We talked about rules of safety in the kitchen like no goofing off, being aware of your surroundings, knife safety, hot pots and pans safety, etc. We then had the girls break off into different assignments depending on their age and maturity level (older girls used the knives, younger grated cheese or peeled potatoes). We had some cutting up veggies, some peeling, some grating, some making crust, some making gravy. We then dumped it all in a big bowl to mix it together. I bought 8x8 square pans for each of the girls and we divided up the filling for each of them. we then sprinkled cheese on and then rolled out the dough for the crust on top. the girls tucked in edges and poked holes to let out the steam. The pot pies got wrapped in foil and baking instructions attached. Each girl got to take a pot pie home to bake the next night for their families.

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Clay Pot Critters

It is always fun to get your craft on. Anytime we bring out the paint, girls get crazy excited. This time we made clay pot critters. Instructions can be found here:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450797803641/
We just did ladybugs and butterflies to keep the variety of supplies to a minimum. In the end we had a wide spectrum of very different looking critters and a lot of very happy girls.

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Sister Missionary Spotlight

We have some amazing Sister Missionaries in our ward and we asked them to come help out with this activity. We had them talk about what they did to prepare for their missions and the girls got to ask them questions. We got them missionary name tags and gave them ideas of how they can be missionaries now. A simple, yet fun activity.

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Scripture Study / Scripture Journals

In preparation for our awards night, I asked each of the girls if they had read the Book of Mormon on their own. I was shocked to discover that not only had none of them done it but also that very few of them were having daily personal scripture study. We also only had one girl who had memorized the Articles of Faith. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned and became determined to do something about this. First, I made Articles of Faith memorization cards. I printed them front to back on card stock, trimmed them, laminated them and put them on rings for each of the girls. I have attached the cards here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jVko1X3VjVGhQdEFUa1VZbkRhUFFVei1VZkhZ/edit?usp=sharing
All of the pictures from these cards came from:
http://melonheadzillustrating.blogspot.com

Next…a lesson on daily scripture study and keeping a scripture journal. I found a few different links to give the girls a few different options to help them with their daily scripture study.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450798591181/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450798591180/

We talked about the importance of daily scripture study and practiced using scripture journals together. At the end of the activity, I challenged the girls to read daily. I also gave them a goal to have the Book of Mormon finished before our next awards night next January.

Finally, I handed out the Articles of Faith memorization cards. I found a little heart shaped punch and told the girls that every time they pass one off, I would heart punch their cover card for the corresponding number. I think that pushed the girls over the edge of excited fun because I spent the next 20 minutes (while parents were waiting) passing off and punching cards.

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