Girls Camp 2012

This year I got to spend a couple days at girls camp (big thanks to my mom-in-law for watching the kiddos). It turned out being the last part of the week, Wednesday night through Saturday morning, which included family home evening, hike day, moonlight theater, a skit complete with a watermelon fight, testimony meeting, and clean up.

It is always a pleasure to be up there with the girls at Mount Charleston. I kept singing lyrics to Kelly Clarkson's song while I was up there. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Sleeping in tents and using the B.I.F.F.Y (bathroom in forest for you) is not my favorite thing but the trade off is so worth it. It's always a spiritual boost for me. 

We were the Virtue Sparklers this year. I only had a couple of assignments this year. One I gave myself was to make us a banner.

My two beehives and it was both their first year going to camp. I tagged along on their hike to spend some time with them. I love these girls.

We did a little repeling down the mountain on our hike. (No time for archery or zip-line this year. I was busy helping with crafts. Oh well.)

 Our Virtue Family getting ready to go home.

Our stake does camp in mixed groups so it was fun to be with new girls and I even got to be with one of my old girls from a different ward.

Our YW presidency (except our secretary) with our Camp Director.

Amazing women I get to serve with!

One of my assignments was to make treats for the girls in our ward to leave in their mailboxes to show that we loved and missed them. I used ideas from Pinterest of course but made my own labels to use. I just sent them to Costco and then attached them to the treats. If you likey, the links to download them are below each one. ( I took off who they were from.)

On the back it says "We are!"

Knock - Knock

Magnificent & Marvelous

S'more Love

It's O-Fish-al

Arise and Shine Printables

This past Sunday we had our New Beginnings program for the Young Women. Big sigh. It turned out great. I love the Arise and Shine theme this year. I was put in charge of invites and other decorative stuff so I turned to the internet to get inspired. I found a lot on ETSY but had a hard time paying for it, so I made my own with Arise and Shine Art on Photoshop. Plus I like everything to be matchy-matchy.

First, I made invites for the program by printing off 4x6 prints at Costco and then gluing them on gray cardstock sheet that I printed on the computer that had the info on the back. Pretty simple and easy. That's what we were going for. Then, I made an 11x14 poster of the same print and put it in a cheap spray-painted frame from a thrift store. For a part of the program the girls each held a battery operated candle so I made round labels for them (the scallops are cut from my silhouette with more gray cardstock) and tied ribbon around them. Lastly, I made little flag/banners for each dessert which was little bundt lemon cakes. Which I didn't get a picture of, sorry.

So here is a links to the files 4x6, 11x14, circles, and banner. NOTE: If you use these turn OFF your AUTO CORRECTION at Costco or wherever you print them (I called customer service for directions) or you will get ugly mustard rays and black writing.

We hung up lanterns across the ceiling.  It turned out really pretty.

Girls Camp 2011

For the first summer in three years I am not pregnant or nursing so I decided I was going to girls camp this year. I still had two little problems. What to do with my three year old and a one year old? Luckily my mother-in-law said she could watch them for two days. I said two days is better than not going, so I packed my bag. (Okay, if only it was just that easy.) I had spent two weeks before working on a presentation on Choice and Accountability. Seriously, I dreamt about that value and jelly beans for weeks. You'll see why in a minute.

I went up on Tuesday with the 1st-4th year girls. This year's theme was Incredible U, which was a university theme. Our stake does it a little different. They camp in families with girls from the stake all mixed up. So to sort the 1st years they did it Harry Potter style with a sorting hat that talked just like the movie except it put them in different value families. It took me a minute to figure out how they did it. Walkie Talkies. Pretty clever. This is one of my past students Brynn, finding out what family she belongs to. I can't believe she is old enough to go to camp already.

Later that afternoon they had a college fair with the all the different values. This was to help each girl learn more about the value and then time to actually work on their personal progress. I decided to teach C&A with an experiment using Harry Potter jelly beans. If you haven't had these they are really gross flavors like booger, barf, and skunk. But they are mixed with the good ones so you can't tell if it's going to be chocolate pudding or dog food. I told them they had the choice to pick a jelly bean but whatever they got they were accountable for their choice. Disgusting or sweet. The girls were chickens though. Most of them dug for the blue jelly beans since it was blue berry or toothpaste. But some girls got into it.

After the college fair I went to what they were calling "orientation" but later they called it Life Line. They had a lady from Texas come and teach it to us. We were blindfolded and couldn't talk during the whole process. They had us hold on to a rope and we were told never to let go of it. They also put an egg in our hand and told us to keep it safe and it symbolized what we treasured most in life. If we got lost we could raise our hand and a still small voice would help us out. It sounds silly but I was crying before I even started on the rope.

So this is me holding on to the rope. They had trained the older girls to try to get us off the rope or take our egg from us.

I was trying to get around these girls but they were strong so I had to be tough back. I heard one of them say after, "She's feisty!" Yeah, I wasn't going to let go or give up that egg.

I did make it to the end without letting go or breaking my egg. It was an experience that I will reflect on for a long time.

Wednesday was full of fun.

I tried the zip line even after the priesthood helper said my cable was not put on correct. He fixed it and away I went. Scary!

Then I tried Archery. I got a bullseye my first round. And no I haven't done this before.

Second round I hit Justin Bieber in the eye. The girls were really impressed with me then!

Later on Wednesday at flag they had the priesthood come up and dance. This was by far the hardest that I laughed up there.

I came home late Wednesday night to my handsome husband, kids asleep and a hot shower. I was glad to be home but was so glad to have two days with the girls.

Marian and I did go up for testimony night on Friday. I sure enjoy working with her and the beehives.

Young Women Values Subway Art Style

A while ago on one of my shopping outings I saw the 8 Young Women values written in boring black vinyl. I thought that was a good idea but thought it could be better especially since each value obviously has a color to go with it. So I came up with this colorful subway art for my beehives Christmas gifts. Luckily, I only have four because it was a little time consuming. But it turned just how I wanted it too!

1. I spray painted (yes I told you that is my answer to most things) cheap frames that I got from DI and removed the staples from the back of the frames.

2. Next I figured out how the words were going to fit on the glass frame on the silhouette software.

3. Then I cut each value word in the coordiating color of vinyl and attached it on the glass. (I turn the frame around so I can see where the frame hits the glass.)

4. Then I just kept putting the values on until I had all 8 done.

5. Glued the back of the frame down along the edges with hot glue. You can tell my glue gun gets used a lot!

That's it my friends. Young Women Vaules Subway Art Style.

Things To Do:

Today I taught my beehives in church about using their leisure time wisely. I always think this lesson is so for them but in the end I get so much more out of it myself.

(I reap all the benefits from being their teacher!)

Anyway, I used a really great talk given from Dallin H. Oaks titled Good, Better, Best and applied it to activities we choose in our free time. Some activities are good (texting, facebook), some are better (spending time with family, scrapbooking), and some are best (giving service to others, attending church, etc.).

Which got me thinking a lot about what I do in my free time (all twenty minutes of it). I have all these projects that I want to get done but I don't get them done. Which got me thinking even more that I always have time for my favorite shows on TV and blog hopping. So I decided to put my blog hopping time to good use and made these for the girls and me!

I went to Deseret Industries (funny how things change, I would have sat in the car too embarrassed to go in when I was a teenager) and found frames for a dollar. Went home and spray painted them black (which is my answer to most things). Printed out the document found here on white cardstock. Found whiteboard markers and whala! my favor for my lesson. I was telling Quincy my lesson just feels complete when I have a cute favor. His response, "Oh, how I know."

Now when I do get a second I will refer to my list of things I need to do! I fear some of these are going to haunt me til I check them off.