Recognition Night

Activity Days Recognition Night usually happens once a year for the girls to show their families what they have learned in Activity Days.

The Theme for our Recognition Night was "Blooming Together in Activity Days".

We always have a preparation activity before a big combined activity. For the prep activity the girls made invitations, met with their leader to mark off their Faith In God books, and did a run through of our program including practicing the songs we sang.


Here is the Flower Invite to go along with our theme. All the petals were traced onto a piece of card stock for the girls to cut out. The middle of the flower was on a different color of card stock. On another piece of card stock were all the words to the invite. the girls could choose to write the words or cut and paste. they connected the whole thing with a large brad. Very simple and gives the girls the opportunity to make the whole invite!


Here is what our Program looked like. I covered up all the words to protect our girls names but I will tell you what we did for our program.

The girls lead the entire program.
We first had one girl welcome everyone
next the whole group sang "Faith"
One of the girls played the piano and one girl lead the group.
Next Opening prayer
Then we had each group (we have 3) recite a scripture together and 2 girls from each group spoke about 2 activities each they enjoyed this past year. Some showed pictures or things they had made and then shared their testimonies.
We ended with all of the Girls singing "I Am A Child Of God" and a prayer.

The whole program was only about 20 minutes. It was short and sweet. It was neat to watch these young girls lead a program, sing, speak and bear testimony of the gospel. We have such amazing youth in the church today!

We had our program in the chapel on a Sunday night. Afterwards everyone congregated out in the foyer to receive a yummy lollipop cupcake as they headed out the door!

For the flower lollipop cupcake just make your favorite cupcake. Frost. Add sprinkles if you like. Stick in a lollipop and add a leaf that is cut out from any taffy type candy. I think we used airheads.

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. :)

Hello!

Hello Activity Day Leaders around the world! I am so excited to be carrying on this blog! I love Activity days. It has strengthened my own testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ as I have been able to work with these young girls. I hope that the ideas I share with you will be beneficial and fun! This blog has served as an inspiration to me and I hope to be able to continue it in a way that will be of service to all of you. If you there is anything in particular you would like to see or are having any difficulties with Activity Days let me know.
This past week I have celebrated my 11th Anniversary with my husband, had my children start back to school, and celebrated my oldest daughters birthday! BUSY, and lots of fun. I am hoping next week to get on the ball and post some fun activities for you to get excited about Your callings in Activity Days. I have lots of fun ideas for no cost, easy, and more elaborate ideas for special occasions. If you have a fun idea you would like to share on this blog please email me. It is so wonderful that through technology we can all help each other in our callings and in Life.

I'd love to hear from you...Have a wonderful day!

Hi ho Hi ho, its off to RELIEF SOCIETY I GO!

I was called into the Bishops office last sunday and released as a

Activity Days Leader! So its off to Relief Society I go!  I have many mixed emotions!  I have loved

being in Activity days but after five years in the same calling I guess I could use a change but Im going to miss all my girls!  I have loved all your wonderful emails, they make doing this blog so fun!  So now the torch must be passed on. (kinda like batman, no one knows who he is but there is always a new one in each movie,)   This Site is so wonderful and was helpful to me when I was getting started and someone else was running it.   

 If you would love blogging about Activity Days and would like to continue this wonderful blog, and feel you could devote some time to keep it going please email me at : ldsactivitydayideas@gmail.com

I will still post some pictures soon about our last Mommy and Me COOKING Activity!  SOON

Activity Days PENPAL

Is now closed---Due to Me getting a new calling! 
Okay by the raise of hands who is ready for summer to be here? Anyone with kids counting down the days, hours & minutes till its here? Well I sure am, with my five kids there are days I hope that everyone is fed dinner and just has their teeth brushed for the day! Okay its not that bad but hey my daily calendar for the month of may looks like my three year old colored all over it! WOW! BUSY BUSY! So I had to plan and execute a MOMMY and ME dinner for all the girls and their moms- We had almost 60 People there, it turn out great ! (Pictures are almost done) So in other words Ive been very very busy! I had a great Activity Days leader email me and give me a great idea (HER IDEA) ! For the summer/fall I thought it would be great to start an Activity Days PENPAL program with your girls . You could teach your girls some writing/letter skills (since they are almost non existent these days with computers) and they would receive a letter from another girl, maybe a picture, and a note, story or poem on some pretty paper and someone to get to know that is their same age!

(Plus this could pass of DEVELOPING TALENTS #3)

Email Me at : ldsactivitydayideas@gmail.com
WITH THE FOLLOWING:

1- The number of girls you have in your group
2- The girls ages
3- Where you live

I will send you an email with another ACTIVITY day leaders email and you can coordinate with the other Activity day leader your address and how many girls you have and if you want to send pictures with your letters or not.

RULES: 1- Please do not give out or let the girls give out their address, phone number or email to protect them and their privacy....
2- Lets just stick to all the letters being sent to the leader of the group.

I think this would be really FUN and the girls will love it! Please send pictures of the process and I will display them here! ( I can cover their faces for privacy if needed)

HAVE FUN!

Its a Tea Party...... Mommy and Me Style!

Every spring we have a MOMMY & DAUGHTER party for all of our Activity Day girls! This was last years party! This year we are doing an Italian/Cooking theme! Ill post about it next month- but this Tea Party was so much fun! These were the invitations that we made and handed out to all the girls and their moms (or grandmas, aunts, or friends. Please be sensitive to those that do not have a mother in the home! We always put an invite at the bottom of all our invitations to say that they could bring a grandma, aunt, cousin, or friend if they choose! ) Our Spiritual theme for this party was: We each have our own Unique Individuality and Beauty!

As they walked in we had a beautiful picture of each of the girls! We took these during the month before at their regular Activity Days class. They got to each take these home when the party was over!

We decorated our tables with pink tablecloths and a really cute tall flower in the middle! We also did paper pom-poms. They are so Cheap and easy to make! Love them! Here is the Link that will show you how to make them: Tissue POM POMS

We always have a corner where each girl gets a picture with their moms! We had many hats, gloves, umbrellas, tea sets, scarfs, to dress up and pose with! The GIRLS absolutely loved this!

Most girls came in their best Sunday dress and a fun hat and gloves! Some even came as the old bell of the ball- with their flowing Southern style dresses!

Here was our dessert table- We had everything you could think of chocolate, cupcakes, puffs, cookies, fudge, you name it we had it! By the time this was over there was not even a crumb left! WOW Girls can eat, and especially SWEETS!

For dinner we had croissants filled with chicken salad, a fluffy jello, and vegi s with a yummy dill dip. Everyone enjoyed it! We also had cherry seven up! SPARKLY!

Here was our Young Women who volunteered to help out! They were so amazing! They helped with serving and with kitchen duty! They even dressed up in their bow ties! SO CUTE!

We had a wonderful lady in the Ward come and talk about how Beautiful and Special each girl girl is! She did an amazing job! She had jokes, a really spiritual talk and some fun songs! She did such a great job! She talked about the photos that we took and how each girl is beautiful and special in their own unique way! It was a lot of fun!

Program outline: 1- Pass out invitations about two weeks before! Always call to remind
the night before! People are busy they forget!
2- Let guests arrive and take pictures in the picture corner
3- When everyone has arrived, Say prayer and Serve Dinner
4- Have fun soft music playing!
5- Have Dessert
6- During Dessert have Spiritual talk!
7- Pass out Photos of Girls!

HAVE FUN!

Scripture Power!

Scripture Power! Okay Ive been a little slow in blogging lately... I guess that is due to the fact that I have five daughters and that they keep me so busy! I have had Activity days but just not brought my camera along. We went to the local history museums and some of the oldest pioneer houses in town to learn about our heritage, the girls loved it!

Here is the Theme for Primary this Year! It is on the Scriptures this year!:
2nd Nephi 4:15- For my soul delighteth in the scriptures,
and my heart pondereth them.

So here is the Activity that our Primary did, which can go with Activity days
first we made SCRIPTURE BOOK MARKS- with just thick ribbon and buttons!
It was so cute! We had multi colored ribbons to choose from! so many choices!
The girls loved making them! Just take some ribbon cut to size, glue buttons on.
So easy and cute!

Next we had the girls make Mini-SCRIPTURES with CHOCOLATE!
(don't know where they got the idea- so hopefully I'm not stealing anyone elses idea- just expanding on it)
again so easy! take 2 small Hershey chocolates- the small ones
Glue them on a piece of brown or black card stock or construction paper
print out the primary theme on piece of paper-(Really small)
and add a small ribbon down the middle- we used glue dots for everything but you could use
a glue gun instead! or just regular glue!
The girls thought it was so cute!

Okay here is the important part! You could make small scripture bags for church- we bought some from the dollar store! 5 for a dollar and had the girls decorate them! They can now fit some small scriptures in them and their Faith in God books in them!
Here is a book of Mormon Reading Chart! Just click on it and it should take you to the site I found it on and just print it off! You could challenge the Girls to read their scriptures! Maybe have some small party when they get so far and have so much passed off!

http://mormonbudget.com/2010/02/book-of-mormon-reading-chart/


Okay found these at lilluna.com they are like the pilgrims hats we
made around thanksgiving! So easy
1- Fudge striped cookie turned upside down
2- Marshmallow dipped in chocolate
3-Green Frosting- yellow candy- clover! So Cute!

Article of Faith "TREASURE BOX "

This Treasure box works wonders in getting the girls to learn their articles of faith- We have 13 bags of goodies inside- numbered 1-13 when they pass of their articles of faith they get to choose from the Treasure box, according to the number they passed off. We started off with smaller cheaper things for number one and went up in prizes as we went. We used things like erasers, pencils, different candies, dollar store finds, (cheap)necklaces, bracelets, and other things that the girls would like and when they learned all 13 they got a BIG candy bar. (which was bought on sale) It really helps the girls to want to learn and pass off things. Make an article of faith bag which has all sorts of games, puzzles, and things that help them pass off their "Articles of Faith". It will help them to be regular in studying ..... GOOD LUCK!

For anyone who wants to get ORGANIZED! Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Here is my Christmas Present to all of you! IF you need to get organized or are new to Activity Days here is the perfect present for you, everything you need to get organized and to run a smooth activity days program- I have spent hours making and racking my brain for ideas that really help! and help you get to know the girls, have some fun, and keep track of everything all at the same time- There are two folders to download- One is for you and for you only! it keeps track of everything for each one of the girls and helps you plan out your year! So that you will not be deciding what to do the night before! There is also one for each girl- You can put them in paper folders, or hard folders, and let each girl decorate them! but it helps them keep track of their own progress and feel good about themselves as they accomplish many things and realize their true beauty and self worth! Just click on the links & it will take you to my google docs, Print them off for you and each of the girls & put in folders- I wish I had this when I was starting out or just needed to get organized!

"Merry Christmas, I know the Lord is so proud of all of you for taking care of his sheep"
lets just do the best job possible!

click on link! let me know if it doesnt work.



Activity Day Leaders Folder


Activity Day Girls Folders

Christmas countdown chain

Christmas countdown! (This photo I got from a etsy site) We printed off a picture of the the Nativity (you could have the girls color it) . Then we made Candy chains with saran wrap, ribbon, and Hershey Kisses! We made our chains and hooked them to the picture of the "Nativity" and talked about the real meaning of christmas.... The girls loved it- I also told a few christmas stories that i got off the internet or you could go to the lds.org site and print a few off. Next week we are doing a Service project for the elderly for Christmas!

Being Financially Responsible & Shutterfly!

here is a wonderful lesson from the Young Women Lesson Manual
on being Financially Responsible!

LESSON ON BEING FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

you could help the girls to realize the importance of being financially responsible and talk of ways to save money, be frugal, and to live with-in our means. You could teach them ways to save money, be frugal and the importance of being financially responsible!

In a week or so, Ill post a great Christmas Present for all of you new activity day Leaders!

Happy Holidays

Thanksgiving Tree.........

Yesterday we did a really fun activity that the girls loved!
We made thankful trees! It was so much fun! I printed them off here!

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-thanksgiving-tree-instru.htm

I printed them off on cardstock! with leaves of different colors! and we
talked about "gratitude" and being thankful! I based it on President Monsons talk in
General Conference on "GRATITUDE"! the girls loved listing the things they were thankful for! and then we made chocolate pilgram hats- that were shown in my last blog post! the girls had a blast!

Holidays are coming!

(Great Thanksgiving Cookie Idea- cookies with Chocolate Covered Marshmallows & Yellow Icing- Yum and SO EASY! )

I can't believe how fast the holidays are upon us! We all know how busy life can be and we all need ideas that can be implemented and fast. Especially as a Activity Day leader we need to have ideas ready and handy and Im going to let you in on a little secret of mine- Okay its not really a secret but it is my favorite place to get ideas for anything. Games, crafts, printables you name it they have it. It is http://familyfun.go.com
okay the secret is out- Now im sure that this site is where you all find your ideas but if not then I really did let you in on a little secret- They have so many cute ideas, crafts, and so much more. So since it is the season for being Thankful, I think I will focus on that this Activity Day month- Here is a few pictures of Thanksgiving Ideas this month.......

Okay so I have been saving my (Toilet Paper rolls) with the hopes that I could somehow find a great craft to use them with the girls with well now I found it- It is a great idea! You could use them for any kind of character. You could make some scripture people from the Book of Mormon, Or santa and his reindeer.

Great TEEPEE's made of Icing and Cones.

"I am thankful for: "
I love this print out you can go to their website and print it off if you would like. Just another Idea. It is six different cards that you can write on. It would be perfect to let the girls write their favorite things that they are thankful for.