Tithing Banks

To get out of the heat last nights activity was a fun craft and mini lesson on tithing. To get the girls thinking, we read a talk by President Hinckley called Five Little Fish. It was in the November issue of the 2007 Friend. The story was about a couple who paid their tithing even when they didn't have food and the blessings that came from it. After we read it there were some questions at the end that lead to a discussion all about tithing. Although the girls had been taught about tithing, we were surprised what they didn't know so it was a perfect chance to go over some things. To end our discussion we talked about how much to save for tithing. We told the girls that we were decorating tithing banks that they could keep their tithing money in. My mom got these adorable little banks from the dollar store and each girl got to pick one out.

Then the girls got to go crazy with the paints! Some got very creative and they all turned out really cute.

While the girls banks were drying we had some extra time so we had them make little snack butterflies to take home. To do this they painted a clothes pin for the body. Then, they put some googly eyes on it and used a pipe cleaner to make antennas. Last, for the wigs, we filled up plastic baggies with some treats! This was a perfect, easy filler.

Here's one of the butterflies without the antennas.

To finish off the night we like to do something a little more active. My mom found this game at a garage sale and it was tons of fun. Its called Bucket Blast. The girls clip a bucket to their back and run around trying to get bean bags into each others bucket. The girl with the least wins!

Can Food Drive

Now I know its a little early to be thinking of the holidays but this idea doesn't have to be used just around then. Last Thanksgiving we did a really fun canned food drive. I wanted the girls to learn that we can do service but also have a little fun. What I did was asked a few families ahead of time, if we could come by and they could donate a can of food. In order to get the food though, the girls would have to do something funny to entertain the family. Everyone we asked was eager to help and because of our limited time we didn't need too many families. When the girls arrived we told them what we were doing and although some of the shy ones were nervous, they were really excited too. When we would arrive at a house they would hop out and huddle around me. I would tell them the silly thing they had to do and then up to the door they went. Here is a list of some of the silly things they did:

1. Bark jingle bells
2. Recite an Article of Faith with their tongues out
3. Sing "I'm a Little Tea Pot" and do the motions
4. Do a silly dance for 10 seconds
5. Pretend to be kitties
6. Do ring around the rosie with the children in the family
7. Read a bedtime story to the kids at the house

These are just a few of the numerous ideas I'm sure you could come up with loads more! By the time we were at the last few houses the girls were crazy with excitement and would run to the door and run back to the car cracking up. Once we got back to the church we counted up our cans and talked about the people who would be getting them. We also talked about the importance of service and the great way it can make them feel. Overall this was a super easy, free and fun activity!

Water Bombs

Last month to kick off summer we did a fun outside activity. We called it water bombs. Funny how this craft is now in the July issue of the Friend! I forgot to take the pictures because it was a little crazy running around but below is a picture of the same "bombs" that we made. To make it was super easy! I just bought the cheapest sponges I could find and because we have a small group I gave the girls four so they could make two bombs each. The girls cut it into strips then they just put a rubber band around the middle! We found that the tighter the rubber band the more the little strips stick out. I also gave them a sharpie to write their initials on their bombs because I know they would want to keep their own.

We then went down to a near by park with a bucket of water and played freeze tag with their water soaked bombs. To tag someone you had to throw your bomb and hit them. Then to unfreeze someone you did the same. Luckily the girls didn't get soaked but they got wet enough that it was pretty fun.

The second game we played was baseball. I just had the girls use a little kid plastic bat with the flat side. We used the bombs as a ball and when they hit it water went everywhere. Also to tag someone out they had to throw the bomb at someone. Having two games worked out really well and by time everyone got to bat we were out of time!

Babysitting Night

This activity was super simple to put together but still lots of fun. It was nice because I had most of the things I needed around the house. Even though our girls are younger, we have the 8 and 9 year olds, I know they love kids. Most of them have siblings that they help with or nieces and nephews. So to start out we had the girls leave the room. We hadn't even told them what we were doing that day. While they were out of the room, I quickly set up a bunch of items around that could be potential dangers for a child. Some things were really obvious, but others were a bit tricky.

Here are a few of the things I put out. I even dumped some of the medicine out on the floor, but had the knife just on the edge of the table.

After I put the items out I had my mom send the girls in one by one. They were told to look around the room in ten seconds. They didn't know what they were looking for but they needed to remember what they saw. At this point they were very confused!

Once they all had gone through I quickly hid the stuff and had them come back in. I told them that today's activity was about babysitting and they needed to get with a partner and remember all the dangerous things they saw that a child could get into. Then in their partners, I had them tell me. Most of the girls got the main things like the knife, but some didn't even notice the cleaner. So after we talked about each item and why it might be dangerous and what to do if a child got into some of it.

The next part of the activity was child care. I taught them how to feed a baby. I did this by bringing some baby food. I told them what they needed and how to do it. Then I had them practice on each other, bib and all. It was lots of fun and they each got to be the baby and the feeder.

After feeding the baby, it is important to learn how to change its diaper. I first showed them with a doll and some Hershey's Syrup. The girls all thought this was disgusting! After showing them the right way I split them into two teams. Then we did a relay. Each girl had to run down, change the dirty (chocolate filled) diaper and put a new one on their doll. I went a little crazy with the syrup but it was so funny to watch the girls gross out!

After all the fun I thought it might be good review to do a jeopardy game going over the things the girls learned. I just wrote questions on 3 x 5 cards and taped them up on the chalk board. The girls then were put in teams and took turns trying to answer. They did great and learned a ton!

Western Daddy Daughter Date

Activity Days Duo is a place where my mom and I share our activities that we do with our achievement day girls. We are always looking for new ideas for our girls to reach their goals and have fun so we thought why not create a space where we share things we've done and hopefully others will too! Feel free to recreate any ideas you like for your girls! For our first post we thought we would start out with a big activity. My mom came up with most of these creative ideas so I want her to have the credit!

The activity was an old fashion father daughter hoe down! To start, everyone showed up in their favorite cowboy and cowgirl outfits! The girls and their dads looked adorable and some went all out. As the girls and dads arrived, they sat at the tables and were asked to fill out questions about what makes their dads or daughters great.

My mom made these cute table runners and the table cloths were from the church.

After everyone made their way in we had a few funny little games to get the night started! Fist was pick your daughters feet. We hung up a sheet and had the girls take off their shoes and socks. They got behind the sheet, mixed all up and had just their little toes sticking out. The dads had to guess which was their daughters.

Next was pick your dads nose which was hilarious. In the sheet there were holes at all different levels. The dads had to stick their noes out the holes and the girls had to "pick" their daddy's nose!

After lots of laughs, we headed off to some more crazy games. The potato relay kicked things off! The girls and their dads were split off and into teams. Each person had to walk to the other side of the gym with a potato between their knees. Some got pretty creative on how they got there but if it dropped they had to go back!

Staying in these teams, the daddy's and daughters had a good old fashion gunny sack race.

And last but not least, we did a wheel barrow race. Daddy's had to push the girls in a wheel barrow down and back across the gym.

After all that fun it was time to give everyone a break and head over to the popcorn bar. There we had popcorn with all sorts of mix-ins. We ordered fun powder toppings and had them add candy too.

Once the popcorn disappeared we called the daddy daughter pair over one by one, read the great things they wrote about each other and had them pose for a cute picture together. They then entered the dance area where the daddy got a mustache and the daughter got a bracelet.

Warning: These clip on mustaches were such a hit the girls wanted them too!

In the dance area we had a blast! We danced to the bird song, the hokey pokey and then last, a cute slow song about dads.

That was the end of our Western Daddy Daughter Date!