October Recognition Night

 Recognition Night is here and went off with out a hitch! We had lots of fun putting it on! As I mentioned in an earlier post, our theme for the night was, "A good home is never an accident.", basically homemaking! There was so much going on that night to start here are the decorations. The idea to use wrapping paper on the tables and the table cloth bows on the chairs came from The Art of Choosing Joy.

The table runners are made of wrapping paper I found on clearance at Target and the flowers were made by the girls at an earlier activity.

I cut a plastic table cloth into strips and then we just tied them into bows on the chairs for a little extra color.

Here we used more wrapping paper and then a banner I also found at Target. This was the photo booth area we used later in the night. I painted some picture frames that the girls and moms could use as props. You will see those later.

This was the refreshment table where we served punch and the girls put their cupcakes. Instead of providing refreshments, I had the girls and their mom each bring a cupcake decorated to represent themselves. At the end of the night, we had everyone guess who the cupcakes belonged to then, the best part, they ate them!

This was a separate table filled with lamps which were our "recognition lights". Instead of going the usual route of having the girls bring a project, we had them share an Article of Faith. The first thing we did for the night was have each girl walk up to a lamp, turn on their light and recite their Article. It turned out really cute and was a great way to highlight each girl.

Unfortunately, I was so busy running things, I was awful and forgot to take pictures during the night but here is a run down of what we did.

So once everyone arrived we did their recognition lights. Next, we split into groups where they did 4 fifteen minuet rotations. Each leader was in charge of a homemaking station.

The first station was sewing where the girls and their mom made quilt squares for a family in our ward that was having twins.

Second, was a laundry relay. The girls and moms had to iron shirts, fold them and separate the laundry!

Third was the beautifying station. The moms got to do their daughters hair and the daughters got to do their moms. Each pair was given a little baggy with a comb, bobby pins and rubber bands. There were also hair do tutorials that they could use.

Last, was the hair bows and photo booth. The girls and moms made mini tissue paper flowers and glued them to hair clips. These were added to their awesome hair do's and pictures were taken in the photo booth.

At the end of the night we guessed cupcakes and ate them. We had so much fun and hope the girls did too!

Invitations and Decorations

So a little while back I was worrying about the recognition night coming up. I was thinking about all there was to do along with planning for that nights activity. Then I thought, well its the girls recognition night why not get them involved?! I decided that they could help with decorations and invitations that night and it was a hit!
First, I had them help me with the invites. Our theme for the night was going to be "A good home is never an accident." basically, we were going to focus on homemaking. So for the invites I cut out little paper dolls and cute little dresses with my Silhouette. Then I had the girls put the dresses on the dolls and glue it to an invitation. Then if they wanted, they could draw a little face on the girl too. This sounds simple and it was, but we only had 4 girls and 13 invitations so this took a while.

Next, I had them make tissue paper flowers for the decorations. This was lots of fun and the girls really seemed to like it. There are lots of tutorials online for how to make these and its pretty simple once you try it. Here is a good link for making them. Also, youtube has some easy videos to follow. Having the girls help gave me a huge jump start on the recognition night and got me excited to do the rest!

A few years ago I did a first aid lesson for a Young Womens Class. This could be done for activity day girls, anytime of year but the supplies are easiest to get around Halloween. Just purchase your eyeballs now and save for when you give the class. The posted pictures came from this blog: http://creatingandcruising.blogspot.com/2009/10/spooky-eyes.html

Nurse Nancy would be a fun book to have one of the girls read aloud along with your first aid lesson. (Stating ahead of time that you know the book is young for them but is a fun way to start the theme) 

Septembers PJ Party

  

We invited all the girls to come in their PJ's and bring along their scriptures. Kristal and I made sure to wear are goofiest PJ's and slippers to help set the mood.

We then had a short lesson which we found directions for at :

http://ldsactivitydayideas.blogspot.com/2012/09/pj-party-ad-kickoff.html

She has wonderful ideas and is worth checking out. Most of this activity was copied from her site, however we put our own spin on it when it came to the games.

Here is how it reads:

We had a short lesson on what the word "breakfast" means.  We talked about how important it is to nourish our bodies every day.  Then we discussed 2 Ne. 31:20 and Moroni 6:4.  We discussed the difference between feasting, snacking, nibbling, and just looking at the menu.  We all committed to read our scriptures every day for a month.  I made a little chart for them to keep track(-it is actually just a four-week one, but I figure that way they can still complete it if they just read 28 days total).

See link to scripture chart on: http://ldsactivitydayideas.blogspot.com/2012/09/pj-party-ad-kickoff.html  

From that point on we decided to come up with some of our own ideas for games that were more our style.

The first game we played was our version of Piggly Wiggly Oink Oink. We had each girl hide under
a blanket while the "farmer" went out of the room. Once the farmer came inside she went from blanket to blanket saying " piggly wiggly" to which the person being touched would have to reply saying
"oink oink". The farmer was then to guess who the pig was under the blanket. This was a favorite game with lots of giggle.

For the second game we sent all the girls out of the room. We put pillows for each one in a circle. Under two pillows we put a peanut. When the girls came in they were to pick a pillow and sit on it. After everyone was seated they were to check to see if they were sitting on a peanut. If they had a peanut they were to stand and recite an article of faith. The girls who had been going to Activity Days for a while were not allowed  to do Article of Faith One!

The third game was played with Skittles. Each girl was to reach in the bowl of skittles without looking and pull out 2 skittles. If the skittles matched then they could eat them. If the skittles did not match then they had to hold them in their mouth until the next round. This went on with girls collecting quite a number of skittles in their mouth before they were allowed to chew. ( We made sure it never got to a point where it looked like someone would choke and all girls were warned that they could chew at any time they felt uncomfortable.)

The last game was a rowdy one, but fun nonetheless. Each girl had 5 clothes pins attached to her back. When the whistle blew they were to run around and try to take off as many clothes pins as they could on the other opponents all the while trying not to get theirs taken off. Winner is the one with the last clothes pin on their shirt. Lots of fun.

At the end of the night they were sent home with a mini cereal box, spoon and flyer and about breaking the fast and studying the scriptures.

Find the link to PDF for this flyer on the above mentioned link.

First Day of School Treat

We saw this great  idea posted over at http://seasonsgredings.com/2012/08/caramel-apple-kits/ and decided we just had to copy! 

We used this link to print off tags. http://cupcakecutiees.blogspot.com/

We got apples and store bought carmel dip. We then delivered the treats the first week of school. If you are quick, there is still time to print off tags but change it to say something about having a great Halloween. Then deliver the evening of Halloween or hand out at an activity night.  

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