Card Games Part 1

Man, I feel like I am on a roll today. I had a lot of inspiration while I was at work today and you guys are getting to reap the benefits of it. 

So these are a couple of games that I use to play in groups and the first game is one that I taught my girls up at girls camp when I was a fellow camper and then again a few years later when I was a leader. 

All you need for these games are a couple of decks of Uno cards and regular playing cards (one deck will do if you have a smaller group but you'll needs more than one if its a larger group. Also, with Uno cards unless they are different versions (like years that they were produced) they might look the same so you will want to mark one set a bit differently so that when you are cleaning up, you can get the right cards with the right deck.  Also, some leaders or camps might frown on having playing cards (you know poker style cards with face cards), we had a camp director one year that was staunchly against having those kind of cards around even though we played fun games with them. So please, no judgmental comments here-follow your camps rules, this is only a suggestion on some fun.

So the first game that is fun for all ages and requires the Uno cards is a game called SPAZ Uno. Player beware this game can get intense and painful because it is all about speed.

So the premise is to get all the cards BUT first things first. I gotta tell you what the cards mean. In a typical Uno deck you have your basic number cards with instructional cards. We are going to ignore the numbers and words and just focus on the colors:

Green=place your hand on the surface (being a table if you are playing at a table or the ground if you are sitting on the floor). To remember this think of GREEN being GRASS. 

Red=hand across your heart. This should be pretty explainable. Red for heart.

Yellow=Hand at forehead. Now this has a couple of references, YELLOW fever or if you have a bright idea.

Blue=sky. Again, pretty easy. Blue as in the blue, blue sky.

Now come the tricky part. The Wilds. These cards you have to keep an eye out for the two different wild cards:

the standard Wild card you do all four actions in order. Green, Red, Yellow, Blue. 

the DRAW 4 WILD card you have to do all four actions and back down again. So Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Yellow, Red then Green. 

Now, remember I said the premise of the game is to get ALL of the cards. How do you do this? The person who does the action the fastest wins the cards that have been played. 

Here is how you play:

You deal all the cards out. The cards are to remain face down. First place goes to the person on the right of the dealer. They take the top card of their pile and place it face up in front of them. Then the next person goes. What you are looking for is doubles (for example two reds in a row or two blues in a row, etc.). When a double comes up, EVERYONE needs to perform what ever action correlates to that color (two reds mean you need to race to be the fastest to put your hand on you heart).  Fastest wins all the cards that has been played so far and collects them and places them face down under their stack of cards. The winner of that round begins next play. If at any time a WILD is played EVERYONE does the actions that correlates to the type of wild card that was played. Winner takes all the cards and they start the next round. Doubles are counted as the card you play and previous card that was played.  When you run out of cards you are out of the game. Last person standing wins. 

Photo from Vanilla Sky

Part 2 to learn about the other game go HERE

A Game of Chance...

Hello! I promised that I would post a fun activity tonight that would work for any group! This activity would be perfect for Activity Days, Mutual (especially a YM/YW combined activity) and even a daddy/daughter or mother/daughter activity night. 

I was at work when the idea hit me but I had come across some Youtube videos of it (google it and you will find some funny videos) and then I remembered the time that this happened to me. I was at my now ex sister laws house and this was just when Harry Potter was coming out and getting big and they came out with the Bertie Bott jelly beans. UGH! She had taken a bag of those and mixed them in with two bags of regular Jelly Bellys. Talk about mean! 

Anyway, if you haven't guess by now, I am talking about the Bean Boozled game/challenge (seriously, if you don't know what I am talking about google it). Now, I have found some stores in my area carry this game but I have also seen online where you can just buy the bags or boxes of beans for relatively cheap (again, another quick search on google will give you several options). 

Grab two beans of the same color (example: sour milk and coconut, vomit and peach, etc.) and put them in a container. Condiment cups are perfect for this and number them. You'll want to keep track of what flavors are in which cup. Then have some willing victims participants and have one of them pick a number. Then they each grab one bean. Who ever gets the normal or good flavor gets a point. Now if they both get the good flavor they both get a point if its the bad flavor-no points. You will probably want to have a garbage can readily available and some bottles of water to help those who loose their round. 

This makes for a fun night of laughter and entertainment so make sure you get videos or pictures!

Daughter of a King...I am a Princess!

Hi...it's me again (in case you forgot). I know it has been ages since I have posted anything of real value but being a first time mother, a wife and working has taken up a lot of my time and to be honest I am exhausted. You get it, right? I can't possibly be the only one who is feeling like that.

I have had this idea in my head for a while, especially the closer that school had become. Many of you know that I am no longer in the YW program but am currently serving as an Activity leader of our girls ages 8-11 and we have struggled with the idea of unity and inclusion. Most of the time, the girls are pretty good. However, there are times when they are not so good. This also has come to my mind after I, myself, personally have felt like a lone little gold fish swimming amongst sharks. I have felt lonely and finding it difficult to want to go to my meetings because I feel that I just don't fit in....anywhere in my ward. Which is a great ward...I...uh...just...don't...fit....well.

So this idea of mine (and I apologize that this doesn't have any pics yet because this is still an idea in my head and haven't put it into reality...just yet...hoping to in November) involves our favorite Disney Princesses and a little known kids book that I have blogged about before (you can read about it HERE), the Paper Bag Princess. 

Every girl has a favorite Disney Princess...and if they don't they are lying *wink wink*. There is Aurora, Snow White, Merida, Belle, Cinderella, Tiana, Jasmine, the list goes on and on. I would have the girls name as many as they can think of. I would write the names on the chalkboard or have them printed up in cute fonts so everyone can see them. I would then ask them, what qualities or traits do each of the named princesses have? This could be a tough question to answer to try and get as many different answers as you possibly can.  

Next, read the book the Paper Bag Princess and talk about the qualities that this princess had and how she didn't need to have the stuffy old prince's attitude or shallowness.  Now that you have done this. The next section will take some pre-planning. 

Make a poster for each girl. Have a crown on the top of the poster and their name below. Then hang them up and have each girl stand in front of their poster. Hand them each a marker or pen. Then, picking left or right, have the girls go to the next girls poster and write something nice, some sort of quality they admire that the girls who poster they are at, has. Keep going until all the girls are back at their own and let them take a moment to read over the things that their peers wrote to them. You can have the girls sign who wrote what or keep it completely anonymous.

 Close with the talk if time allows from President Uchtdorf and remind them that all of them are a princess because they are a daughter of God and that no one, NO ONE can make them feel any less inferior. 

Post Recognition Night

So, it has been about 3 weeks since we had our last Activity Days activity which was the recognition night. Now, it didn't go exactly as I had envisioned but it was cute nonetheless. 

It was simple and that alone made its mark. Would I have loved to have had it decked out? Yes, of course! Would I loved to have had more time to plan? Heck yeah but when there is two other leaders schedules to work with it doesn't always happen.

This was the only pic I got of the night, I had a really active somewhat sick toddler with me that night.

Here are the certificates that we used to honor each of our girls:

These were printed two to a page and then printed on gold card stoke which I had left over from my Personal Progress/YW leader days.  You can download them HERE. I will convert them to a PDF in the next few days just in case your Word isn't being nice and opening it. I took the the basic outline from a google search and then added the words to it to make it fit what I was needing. 

Overall it was a great night, out of 21 girls we had 12 show and they had enough things to share and talents to show that it was truly a testament of the Lord's plan for each and everyone of His children. 

Activity Days Binder Cover

Here is a simple binder cover that I created for all of you Activity Day Leaders! Illustrations came from melonheadz and you can find more cute illustrations by clicking HERE.

Just right click and select Save Image As

Tic Tac Toe- Article of Faith Style

 As promised on my Facebook page, here is one of the two activities that I promised could be used for a time filler or for an entire activity if you wanted. All you need is some cards and chalk and chalkboard.

I got the idea off of an idea that I came across on Pinterest. You can read about it HERE. I thought it was a great idea but I am going to take it a few steps further.

So I started by created my word lists. This combined the numbers and key words of each of the Article of Faiths. You can download a copy of my list as a word doc by going HERE.
Once I had my word strips printed and cut, I cut out 26 pieces of card stock that measured roughly 4 1/4" x 2 3/4" and attached a word to each card. Note that this was the size prior to laminating them (which in the picture they are not laminated) which is optional but I find that things that are last a bit longer especially when it comes to games. 

Once you got your cards done, you are ready to play. Here is the rules to my version of the game but feel free to adapt to what ever fits your needs.

Start out by dividing the group into two. Make sure you have a good mix of older and younger girls that way the game doesn't become so one sided. Now in my ward in Primary each Sunday the kids all recite an article of faith, which ever is the one for the month, in hopes to help the kids memorize them. So even though you have some younger girls, unless they are non members, all of the girls should be a little familiar with them.

So like the blog that I saw the idea, I had one person from each side play rock, paper, scissors to see who went first. The team that didn't win the draw picked if they were going to be X's or O's. 

Have one girl come up and draw a card. Here is the twist, the team then decides if they want to play or pass it to the other team to see if they can recite it as best as they can. If the team that drew decides to play, they must pick someone to recite the article of faith (if they are picked to recite once they can not recite again until others on their team has had a chance as well-this is up to you on to how many that is). If they get it right, they can either place their team symbol on the board or they can erase a symbol from the other team (but NOT both). If they get it wrong, the other team has a chance to steal for a play on the game board. If the stealing team gets it right they get to either play on the board or erase a symbol from the other side. 

Keep in mind this is Tic Tac Toe so the object of the game is to get three in a row either up or down, left or right or diagonally. Play then goes to the other team where the above game play happens. Repeat until there is a winner. 

A Night of Stars:A Talent Show and Recognition Night

So if you have still been following along with this little blog of mine, then you know already that I am now an Activity Days leader. Now, I am SUPER DUPER excited about this calling and have a TON of great ideas (to which hopefully I will be able to put to good use someday) but I am also at the same time, TERRIFIED of this calling. I always seem to go into a calling after a really good leader, one who all the girls love and adore, gets released. Sigh...wish me luck!

Anyway, as part of the Faith in God program (aka Activity Days), we are to hold some sort of recognition night at least twice a year. Ours, is coming up in September. EEK!!! What was once going to be just a talent show is now going to be what I call our Night of Starts where we will combine our talent show and recognition night all in one.

Now, I have convinced the other leaders to kinda make this a fun night for the girls and do a Red Carpet type of theme. Oh, I should mention, what I see in my head and what I put to this blog may or may not be what comes out in real life as with any calling, I have other leaders I have to work with, small things but we are three very different leaders and all with three very different ways of doing things. 

Back to the Night of Stars. Did I mention that this was a perfect theme to tie in with the activity and recognizing the girls and the great job they have done with their Faith in God? We are wanting to do something similar as to what the YW do for their EinE or Evening in Excellence (see?! this would work perfectly for YWs!). We want the girls to bring things that they have done on display so that the other girls, primary leaders and parents can see.

Pinterest is a magical place and has a lot of really good ideas (some as to which I hope to borrow from and tweak a bit to fit my needs) for this theme. To me, Pinterest is kinda like the new Google- if you have ab idea just search the site and you are bound to find someones take on the same idea. I will post the links at the bottom of this post of the ideas that I plan on using (keep in mind this activity for us doesn't happen til the middle of September).

So here is what I envision our Night of Stars to look like:

* When the girls and their parents walk into the church, I want them to be greeted by gold stars with each of the girls names written on them. This to be done with by placing them one the floor, hanging them from fishing line from the ceiling of the foyer or even taping them on the walls.

*Then they would be greeted by the
"paparazzi" and get their pictures taken in front of some sort of back drop. 

*Next, they would walk into the gym where towards the back of the gym would be tables that would have the girls items displayed. In the middle towards the stage, there would be two sections of chairs divided by some red butcher paper more than likely. This would be our "red  carpet" that would lead up to the stage where the girls would perform or talk about their talents and where us leaders could stand and recognize the each of the girl
s for the job they are doing.

Lastly to the side of the gym would be our table for refreshments because when you meet for something like this, food is always a good way to end the night and allow for a little bit of socializing.

Here are the links to the ideas that I just love:

http://alittlecrafting.blogspot.com/2012/11/shine-night-of-stars.html

http://nogalesfamily.blogspot.com/2015/01/young-womens-in-excellence-2014.html

http://www.partycity.com/category/party+ideas/theme+party/hollywood/red+carpet+party.do

http://karaspartyideas.com/2013/06/red-carpet-10th-birthday-party.html

The Importance of Good Healthy Habits

My first activity as a newly called leader of Activity Days was one that I think is very important. It was based on eating healthy and being active. Here is my tie in for the YW program and Personal Progress-this falls under the value Knowledge as an idea for the value project or even under the requirement #2 of that same value. For the Faith in God program, this falls in under the Developing Talents section. Win win!

We started out with the girls each picking a food item. Now some of these items were healthy and some were of the sinful variety like chocolate chip cookies (YUM!). We had the girls look at the labels and we talked about serving sizes and calories and carbs and sodium and the like. We then talked about eating a balanced meal and how we can have the not so good stuff in moderation but our diets shouldn't be made up of junk food. We talked about how our bodies are temples and just like going into the temple and having to be worthy to enter, we need to make sure we are putting "worthy"   food into our "temples" and that along with eating right we need to exercise and keep our bodies active. 

So now we moved on to the active part of the night, we took the girls into the gym/cultural hall and ran some relays and some quick minute to win it type games that are more based on movement. The girls loved this and it was quite fun to watch them as they started to cheer everyone on. For refreshments we had some fresh fruit and veggies along with some water.

Here are some links to Nutrition Info:

eatright.org/resource/food/nutrition/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels/the-basics-of-the-nutrition-facts-panel

http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm