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. 

In Case You Didn't See This

This was a video taken from the Bountiful Day Parade in Bountiful Utah...for those that haven't seen the video you need to.

2013 Mutual Theme Has Been Announced

I am excited to know that the new theme has been announced and that it comes from the scripture found in D&C 87:8 "Stand Ye in Holy Places,  and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord."

You can find more about the theme HERE

So to help get the ideas going here is a bookmark that I created for the theme. Picture comes from the site of announcement. More to come!

Click HERE to download PDF of 3 or right click and save on image for jpeg.

Lesson 4: Seeking the Companionship of the Holy Ghost

Yes, I have finally gotten back to creating handouts. A little late perhaps...OK a lot late but I know that some of you don't always go in the order that the manual goes in. So hoping that this is going to be helpful to someone.

Click HERE to download a pdf set of 2

This is a great video from our church leaders on the Holy Ghost. Click HERE to be taken to the Mormon Messages page at lds.org to get more information or to share this video with others.

Manual 1 Lesson 2

Here is the handout for lesson #2 from the YW Man. 1 titled Jesus Christ, the Savior. Click HERE for download pdf file of 4 or right click and save image.

Preparing for Change- Lesson 42

Photo taken from HERE

So I finally got lesson 42 planned out and posted... unfortunately I didn't get this done before I had to teach the lesson two weeks ago. But as you might have already guessed it is all about change and preparing for it and loving it. 

So HERE is the link to download from 4shared-four to a sheet or right click on the image and and save as if you want it as a jpeg.

Can I Just Say

I LOVE THIS LADY!! I know, I know I am posting another video yet again. I just can't help it...I LOVE her stuff!!

This video is on virtue and modesty...a must see and possibly a great help for future lessons and/or activities.

Click HERE to share the video or to watch other Jenny Philips videos.

Guys View on Modesty

I was surfing around on the web for some awesome YW ideas and one blog that I came across talked about this video SO I just had to go in search of it. It is an awesome reminder for our young women from the mouths of YM their own age!

HERE is the link if you would like to share or download this video

Marriage Standards

Here is the handout for lesson 36 from the Young Women Manual 3 for Marriage Standards. One of my clever leaders came up with this idea (as a book mark) and I just adapted to what you see down below. 

As most of us are aware, the church has created a resource manual for each of the lessons so that there is current words from our leaders that benefit the girls we teach today. One of the talks that was listed that our leader used was a talk given by Elder Hales (which you can find HERE). I thought that this was a clever way to relate the path that our young women are on to head towards the temple. If they don't know where they want to go now and start making the choices that are needed to help them get there, then like the Cheshire Cat says, it doesn't matter which way you go. Enjoy!!

Click HERE for PDF download set of 4

Let's talk about dating....

Hello everyone...sorry for the delay...everything seems to be working just fine now...what a crazy weekend it has been. So I am finally posting some of lesson 35 from the YW Manual 3 handouts that I used for my lesson (still working on one...road signs are giving me a lil trouble but hopefully that will be up soon). 

To being my lesson I brought in some cookies for an object lesson. Now these were not just any cookies. They were my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. This recipe makes a huge amount of cookies (like 12 dozen depending on size) so I took a about a 1/4 of the dough and I added half a bottle of curry...followed by half a bottle of cumin, then, not to be out done, I added 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of salt. Yes, I intentionally meant to do this!  Of course I then added some chocolate/white chips to it. 

 Don't these cookies look YUMMY?!? Guess again...it was a good thing I had some glasses and water near by. The looks that my fellow leaders and the girls had were priceless!!! I have been dubbed mean and am no longer trusted with food in my lessons (see the peanut lesson on consecration and sacrifice.. 28 i think).

These cookies were made into an analogy of dating...some guys look good on the outside but on the inside..they are not so great or there are a lot of "cookies" in the world...some good and some bad....which one do you hope to find?

So for some things that I used for my lesson, I used a picture that was circulating a lot on the net lately and came from sugardoodle with the saying "if this ain't your castle...you ain't my prince" and of course the castle being the temple.

Another resource I used was the mormon messages for youth "Chastity: what are the limits?"  For handouts I used a road map (which is the one I hope to have up soon), a talk given by a former bishop in our area (Click HERE for word doc.) and then I gave them a bag with a good cookie that had a treat topper with the saying what kind of cookie do you want?

Click HERE for pdf-4 to a sheet

Subway Art...YW Values

I tried my hand at creating a piece of Subway Art...

I used Picnik to create it. Click HERE for download jpeg or you can right click on the image above and save as.

"13th Night"

As promised from the short little blurb that I wrote last night from my phone, I am posting the details of last nights mutual activity.

The theme for the night was Being in the World but Not of the World or simply known as the "13th Night." 

We started out with the girls all repeating this years mutual theme, the 13th Article of Faith. Our idea for the nights activity was on the last words of "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" and Elder Oaks talk on Pornography (which can be found HERE).

We had our stake president come in and talk to the girls, he is also a professional counselor and has had experience in the effects that pornography causes, plus our girls really responded well to him when he talked at girls camp. 

We had the girls and leaders sit in a circle so it was a little more intimate and so the girls would feel comfortable asking questions or making comments. Our stake president started off with some points that he liked in Elder Oaks talk and then proceeded with some current statistics which are and were quite alarming....for example if we took all the money that is spent on pornography we we could fix the national debt with in weeks. Considering there is about $180,000,000.00 spent in 60 minutes on the filth. Scary isn't it? He also mentioned that one in seven females get solicited. Even scarier!! 

He also brought up some great stories from the scriptures to drive his point. He used the story of David and Bathsheba (how thoughts turn into actions and so forth) and then he talked about Joseph and Potifer's wife (sorry if I spelled those name wrongs) and how Joseph knew what was wrong and how he made a commitment to avoid the temptations. 

We talked a little from our discussions how thoughts and being modest affect the young men that our young women associate with.  How being strong and committed to doing what is right can help them if they found themselves in a situation that would compromise their virtue when on dates or what not. The girls made a lot of great points and it made it for a great night to address some concerns and issues that our youth are being forced to deal with in the world that they live in. 

...Search of treasure? Part 2

Thanks for checking out the second part of this post. I was worried that the other post was getting to be rather long. I told you I would provide to you the clues that we used. I will share them here and then  when I get them typed up in a word document I will post them as well. I just took an extra copy of the clues...I actually didn't type them up...the words in ( ) are the answers to the clues we used.

CLUES:

1. Ye will need to seek high and ye will need to seek low, if you want to get close to gold. Seek ye in a small space where the water runs both hot and cold. (Handicapped Bathroom)

2.Aye...Nothing beats a good pirate performance! "Under," over, in out...look carefully for your next clue. (Stage)

3.Ahoy mateys! Pirates often have secrets or skeletons in their closets. Sometimes they have them in their family "trees." Sometimes they are "stored" away from the the ship. (Storage shed in back of church)

4. Ahh, our dear Captain is a busy man! He believes we should improve on our reading skills while we wait to talk to him.  (Bulletin board by the bishops office)

5. Pirate ships are usually hot and stuffy. A chill wind blows today. Brrr...its freezing in here! (Freezer in kitchen)

6. Davey Jones' locker is as big as the deep blue sea. However, young, 8 year old Pirates get their feet wet in a much smaller sea.  (Font Room)

7.The ship's mast is tall and inspiring to all who cast their gaze upon it. Our ship's mast is pointing to heaven. (Steeple or wall nearest to steeple)

8."Train up a child in the way he should go..." Pirate children must learn, too. Get them while they are young! "Babies" are even better! (Nursery)

9. The ship's doors seem to say, "Shh, Be Still." You will find the treasure you seek near by. Look closely. (Chapel overflow)

10. Aye...all this searching for treasure has made me thirsty! I need a drink! (drinking fountain)

11. The Captain is sending you down into the bowls of the ship. Below deck level can be a dark place. Beware of the young men who hang out there! (Stairs leading to the scout room)

12. Your beginning is where you will end! You have collected valuable treasures along the way...but the best is yet to come! (Primary Room)

The clues that we had matched the maps. They were made out of the same brown card stock and crumpled up just the same and then laid flat to dry. We had an old antique key stamped onto the front of the clues. 

As you read from the last clue that was given...it took our girls back to the primary where we had started. Let me share with you our decorations. We raided our local dollar store into the party isle and found maps, and hanging things from the ceiling. Treat bags (which we bought some plastic gold coins and put four coins in a bag). We had the sound track from the first Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the background the entire time. All of the leaders involved dressed up like pirates. 

We had wanted posters placed with fun pictures of our two pirate thieves. They were stationed all over the church (depending on the clues) and they "attacked" the girls by taking their cell phones and shoes and hair clips...anything that could get their hands on. We told our girls that they might have to barter for things...none of them did. 

As part of the hunt, their were 3 stations before meeting back in the primary room. The family tree (clue 3 would be the clue leading to this station). Here we had one of our YWs mother talk about the past...she shared stories about her past and present and also about her daughter as a baby. A family history type of thing.

The next station was in the font room. We had a lady come in and talk about education and studying habits that the girls need to start develop and how they will help them in college and life (this was great since this activity was the night before school started).

Then they would start the clues that would take them to our 3 station which was in the chapel overflow. We had a lady come in to share about how personal progress and goals will help get the girls to their future and the importance that those two items. 

Finally the end of the hunt led the girls to a large treasure chest (we had jewels and candy (oh at each of the station they would collect treasure which was candy like ring pops, candy jewelry, hershey nuggets and any other candy that was gold or silver) and was spot lighted. Here we had a member of the stake YW presidency speak to the girls about the ultimate goal and the cummulation of the hunt (past present and future) about going to college, getting married in the temple and then starting a family and then concluded with the ultimate goal of returning back to Christ and our Father in Heaven.

We closed with the map handout and prayer. It was a great night and the girls had a ton of fun. I will hopefully get some pictures from the person who was taking pictures and get them posted on here. I will also type up the clues and the intro script and post them on here as well. 

Click HERE for pdf of Clues, Answers, and Send Off Script

Any comments or questions just let me know!

Aye, are ye in search of treasure? Part 1

So I just wanted to take a few moments and share with you some of our mutual activity that we had last night. I do not have actual pictures of the events that took place (hopefully I can get a copy of those pics so I can share with you all on here). 

So as you can see from the last post and the title of this post that we have taken our girls on a treasure hunt. Our inspiration came from a talk that President Monson gave at BYU in 1997. You can find a copy of that talk HERE. 

Once we had our "muse" we set out for invites...

For the invites I used Srapbook Max to create. I borrowed a  black and white image of the skull and crossbones, except for this I used the skull and swords...once I had my image I lightened it up so it was pretty much just in the background.  I used the font Pieces of Eight (very close and sometimes used, I heard, for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. You can find and download the font HERE. Its really cool in my opinion. I have these if you would like a pdf copy of them...I can personalize them for you too. Just comment me or sent me an email.

Once I had them I just printed them out on paper (the one you can see in the pic I took Tim Rangers Tea Dye ink pad and went around the edges cause I couldn't find my black...but since it didn't go with the rest of the invite I left it off. So to finish it..I cut and rolled it up and then some twine/hemp/jute cording to tie it up and then I placed them in a glass bottle.

For our handout out to give to everyone at the end of the night...

 OK, this looks a little different. The paper that we used is actually card stock! It looks like a brown paper bag but I assure you it isn't. I don't know where my other leader on this project got it...I think it was Michael's craft stores. So it came in the size of a 8.5 x 11 sheets. What we did was take it and cut it in half. I found a treasure map from Google and used my nifty scrap booking program (you can find out about it HERE) so I could get two maps to a page.

Here comes the tricky part. To get the crinkle effect, you have to spray the paper with water. Ink jet printers will work if you let the ink sit for quite a few days...and you really only want to spray it enough to make it soft enough to crumple it up. Laser jets are awesome! We went to Office Max and photo copied it. This was great but the toner on the paper would rub off when it was wet and crumpled together...so I ended up having to go over ALL the maps with a Sharpie prior to wetting it. 

Once wet and crumpled...uncrumple it and let it dry flat. Once it was dry (and it doesn't take long) apply a jewel heart on the "X"

Once it was all dry and the heart is glued on we go to the back of the map. Here we have the scripture from Matthew 6:19-21 and a little bit of the talk that Monson gives us. This was typed up and cut out with a cricut embellishment. It was stressed with a stamp background to give it an aged look with the stamp up caramel color ink pad (not a member of the club so not sure of the name). Then it was applied to the back with glue and then we glued three jewels...to represent the past present and future. 

Check out part 2 for the rest of this activity (mainly the clues and script).

Simple Value Bookmarks

Ok, so like I stated in the previous post, I had some value bookmarks that I was creating but I hadn't found the site where I got the graphics that I used from. Well I finally found the site, so a big THANK YOU to HOT PINK PANSY (link on side bar) for the wonderful freebies.



Click HERE for word doc with all 8 bookmarks