Mother Daughter "Part of a Wonderful Bunch" Activity

This Mother daughter Activity was one of my favorites! The Theme was centered around the Family Proclamation, titled "Part of a Wonderful Bunch!" We first had a prep activity the week before the actual activity where the girls made invitations, made letters, and were filmed for their part of a movie we made, "A-Z in the Family Proclamation." You can find a copy of the ABC quotes for the family proclamation at www.beinglds.blogspot.com Both Mothers and daughters read a part of the proclamation with their letter and then I pieced it together to one movie and we showed the film on the evening of our activity. It was fun but took some work!
We also asked each girl to tell us a famous "quote" or "saying" their mother uses often. Some of the answers included "this place is a pig sty!", and "believe in possibilities". I wish I could remember more. We had the girls guess who said what the night of the activity.

Here's a look at the invitation. I do not have this to share with you as it was a cut out used by another leader not on the computer. The girls cut it out and put it together. the stem opened up and read...

A family doesn't "leaf" you hanging on a vine
with a Mothers love you'll always be fine

Families "cling" together and help each other.
making you feel close to one another.

If you come to our party, I have a hunch
you'll "proclaim" you are part of a wonderful bunch!

and of course then we had the date, time, and place

This stand of grapes greeted our Mothers and daughters as they entered the cultural hall where our party was at.
When they first arrived we had a few tables set up in the back where we had a craft project for the girls to make with their Moms. They started it by painting a 4x6"wood block black and letting it dry while we waited for everyone to get there.
directions...
At the end of the activity, the girls finished their craft by adding this saying we printed on cardstock, distressed with some stamp ink, and made into a sticker. All they had to do was peel and stick.
A little ribbon was added to the top to finish it off. You can download the quote HERE
The Mothers/daughters were asked to bring a food dish special to their family to share. This table was set up to hold all the yummy food items.
We gave them these cards to label their special food. Unfortunately I don't have a copy to share but it would be easy to make your own!
here are a few things the girls brought to share...
Favorite treats, Christmas eve dishes, braided bread their grandmother made, homemade salsas from their gardens, and foods that are a tradition were things that showed up at our table.
It was a great mix of food we enjoyed. Notice the letters behind the table...They are the letters the girls made for the movie we made and the part of the proclamation they read. We used them to decorate too!

We used this decorated wall to take a picture of each mother and daughter together.

These balloons were our table centerpiece.
These were the place settings. All going along with our Grape theme.
I loved the little touch of candy grapes tied to the forks. All the party supplies came from Party Land.

A glance at the decorated room. To my right in the back was the craft table and to the left was the food table. We had the projector set up in the center for our special movie presentation.
So a run down of the activity went like this...
Girls arrived, put their food on the table and painted a wood block
Then they got their picture taken with their mom and had a seat
Next we had our opening prayer, shared the family proclamation movie we made(lots of giggles watching ourselves speak!)
Then we ate dinner
After eating for a bit and visiting we played our game of famous quotes and tried to guess which mother said what?!?
Next we talked about families and motherhood and shared a special Mormon message from Stephanie Nielsen about Motherhood which you can find here. I was able to download it for free from ITunes to my computer and then project it on the screen for everyone to see.
Lastly we had a prayer and then the girls finished their craft project to take home.

We also had a packet for each family to take home that included the family Proclamation and a FHE Lesson about the Family Proclamation which you can find on www.beinglds.blogspot.com
Both the ABC quotes we used for the movie and the packet can be found and downloaded for free through this site. Be sure to leave her a comment of appreciation!

It really is wonderful to be part of a bunch!

I hope you enjoy these ideas for your next Mother/Daughter Activity!

Kristen :)

Mother Daughter Relaxation Retreat!

I just couldn't wait to start sharing so here is the first activity I'd like to share with all of you! Keep in mind we did use up a large portion of our budget for this activity. Actually it is the only activity so far this year I have turned in receipts for so it is a more costly activity than most I will share. (P.S. I have received permission to share photos of my girls)

In our ward whenever we have a big activity like Mother/Daughter, Daddy/Daughter/ or recognition night we always break it into 2 activities and usually combine all ages of girls in AD. We started by having a prep activity to teach the girls how to plan and prepare for a party. We invited a sister in our ward who works at a spa to come and teach the girls how to give a pedicure. Afterwards we split into three groups. One station they made tissue paper flowers. One station they filled bags with homemade bath salts I made and labeled the bags as a present to give to their Mothers. The last station they made this flip flop invite for their Moms.
I printed out the invite on white card stock and traced my younger daughters foot around the words. I copied a bunch off for the girls. They stamped around the words with this cute flower stampin up! set and glued ribbon on to make it look like a flip flop. Then they mounted the whole thing on some colored card stock. I thought they turned out so great and the girls enjoyed making them.


The day of the Party... We had real rose petals sprinkled down the hall and into the cultural hall where the party was.

We closed off most of the cultural hall to make the room smaller and more cozy.

Place settings at the table. These cute plates and napkins came from the Dollar Tree. We tied a little ribbon around each napkin.

We had 3 tables set up and then a bunch of chairs in front set up for the girls to give their Mom's pedicures.

The tissue paper flowers the girls made at the prep activity for decorations to add color to the walls and go along with our flower theme.

Here is the food buffet table. I thought it turned out so beautiful! I brought some leaves my neighbor picked from her yard to add on the table around the food. I cannot take credit for this display! One of our wonderful leaders helped me put this together!

The food was so yummy! Tea party foods is what I call them. It was a yummy, healthy, delicious lunch.

Fresh fruit kabobs

Cucumber cream cheese sandwiches. Everyone thought these sounded strange when I told them my menu plan, but they were the first to go! Everyone loved them. All they are is a square of bread with no crust, whipped cream cheese, slice of cucumber, and topped with salad supreme.

Next up...Heart shaped strawberry creme cheese sandwiches. The girls favorite!

Egg salad sandwiches cut into triangles. They started to dry out and so I wrapped all the sandwiches before I got a picture, dang it!

Delicious homemade creme puffs made by one of our leaders! yummy:)

I loved these big Gerber daisies another leader brought to decorate from her quilt store.
Notice the delicious veggie tray. I wanted to snap it's own picture but my camera battery died. It was so pretty with romaine lettuce leaves under all the veggies. these lady's I work with sure know how to make things pretty!

Here's the pedicure side of the room. The hospital donated the buckets to us to do the pedicures in and I made a homemade soak and scrub for the girls to use.

The Mom's and daughters had so much fun giving and receiving their pedicures. What a fun way for the daughters to serve their mothers!

Two of our leaders made a delicious smoothie for the girls to serve their mother's while they enjoyed their pedicures.

Our Mothers and daughters!

One of our leaders works at a quilt shop and got us a good deal on tool so we wrapped all the chairs with it an put a flower on.

I really stressed about what we could do on a budget for the centerpieces. I ended up cutting my fresh Roses in my backyard, along with some from my friend yard and some other variety of plants. They turned out beautifully. We added some ribbon around the vases, fabric remnants and fake flowers at the base. The cost: FREE!

Freshly pedicured toes!

Here is the bath salts the girls put together for their Mom's. I made this label up on photoshop. I**UPDATE**you can get a similar bath salt label 

HERE

Here it is the recipe...
2 Cups Baking Soda
1 Cup Sea Salt
3 Cups Epsom Salt
Therapeutic essential oils of your choice. Approx. 12 drops. Of course I prefer DoTerra!
For the scrub I took 2 cups of this and put a few tablespoons of fractionated coconut oil. Next time I would probably just use epsom salt and coconut oil with some essential oil.

There you have it! A Mother Daughter Activity to always remember. :)