Activity Day Invitations

The activity day (church girls group ages 8-11) leader before me started passing out a cute little invitation to each girl on the Sunday before activity day.  The girls really looked forward to it, were excited to attend, and seemed to remember better.  So, I've continued her tradition.  Sometimes it is a very simple printed note, other times I play with my scrapbooking supplies and make it fancy.

I  must clarify that we have a very small primary (children's group like Sunday School) in our ward (congregation).  We will get our sixth activity day girl next month.  So, it doesn't take very much time to make invitations and those kinds of things.  I have a craft room literally overflowing with supplies for a huge variety of projects so I am able to "shop" there for what we need to do most projects.  Not to mention that grabbing six frames at dollar tree is not going to break the bank.  So, budgeting for activities is not too much of an issue.  I realize that some of you activity day leaders have a huge challenge in this area.  My sister's ward has 40 activity day girls-that has got to be some kind of record!  I just don't want people to see what works for my tiny group and think that they should be doing the same for their large bunch- not so!

I've found some fun ideas and inspiration online and hope to be able to share some of what works for me- but for pete's sake- go easy on yourself.  We just do the best we can with the situation we've got :o)

In January of each year I make a schedule of the activity days for the year.  I glue a magnet on the back and send it home with the parents of the girls to put on the refrigerator.  All activity days are held at my house which is a million times easier then hauling all of the needed supplies to the church (I tried it- so much nicer to do at home).  We have our activity days on Tuesdays from 5-6 p.m.

For the less active girls I use the mail.  I send her the yearly calendar and invite her to attend.  Mid year I sometimes send a little care package to these same girls.  I include a "miss you note" signed by all the girls, a calendar of the upcoming activity days for the next few months, and one of the projects that we have completed (hair clips or something little) to get the girl excited about how much fun activity days can be.

These are just a few simple tips that have worked for me- hope they work for you!

Fresh Carrot Juice

The healthy eating and 45 minute "daily" aerobic exercise is still paying off.  I did struggle a bit with the holidays so now I'm trying to overcome my sugar cravings from my December fudge fest.

Fortunately I have a husband who is in my corner!  He went out to the garden and picked fresh carrots, cleaned them and ran them through the Jack LaLanne juicer that we purchased at a yard sale a few months back.  You might want to try mixing fresh carrot juice with a bit of orange juice for a intensely orange vitamin packed beverage. Mmmm.

Activity Day Temple Picture frame

My husband made me a picture frame- I love that he is willing and able to do projects like this!!!

 I decided to make a few fabric flowers in grey and cream.  Then I added an antiqued temple picture.  Here is how it turned out.  

I decided to do something similar for activity day (church girls group ages 8-11).  I'll say up front this was not a very inexpensive project.  I saw one version where the girls mod podge the temple pictures onto boards cut to size.  You could do that here and then glue the flowers in the lower corner of the picture- that would save some money.  Having fabric scraps and buttons on hand to use also helps.

To prepare I cut out circles from a cereal box (to glue the fabric to)  and cut strips of fabric to make the flowers.  I also painted the picture frames.  The girls just had to make the flowers and glue them onto the frames.  I also had several needles threaded and ready to use to gather the fabric for the large flowers.  Even with all the prep work this class went about an hour and ten minutes.  It would have gone faster if I would have had one glue gun per girl.  I had six girls and three glue guns.

My daughter said that young people would prefer pictures that were not antiqued and distressed- so, we went with a standard 5x7 print of the temple.  We also used this quote and talked about the importance of the temple.  Whew, I'm ready for a nap!

Photo Prop- Cute Rug- nice price

I cruised through the clearance section at my Wal-Mart today.  I'm not sure what they are doing but at the front of our store there is a weird clearance section- it has hunting stuff, Christmas decorations, toys, just odds and ends.  In that section I found this super cute rug that would make a great photo prop for baby girl or for Valentine's photo shoots.  It would add so much texture, etc.  The price is $14.99. The rug is made by "American Kids" and it is 24x40 inches.

These rugs are very easy to make- but they use a surprising amount of fabric and a take great deal of time.  So, I felt like it was a good purchase- I'd love to photograph it on a rustic white floor with a chubby baby girl plopped on top.

How to Lengthen a Skirt

I purchased this skirt from modbe on clearance for about $10 for my daughter.  I was disappointed that it was so short- too short. So, I went to Hancock's and found some coordinating fabric.

Here is how I lengthened it.

1. Take the original skirt and cut off the bottom four inches- now you will have a circle of fabric and a skirt with no finished hem.  
2. Take the matching pieces of fabric and cut five inch wide strips, I wish my photography lighting skills were better because the fabric coordinates perfectly with the skirt and the sweater
3. Sew these into a circle matching the circumference of the skirt bottom.  
4. Match up the side seams and sew this new fabric to the bottom of the skirt.  
5. Take the original skirt bottom and sew it to the bottom of the fabric you have just added to the skirt

Now, you have the original hemmed edge at the bottom of the skirt and it is a good four inches longer- yeah!

Activity Day: Bath Salts and Lip Balm

For activity day (church girl's group ages 8-11) this week we spoke a bit about how repentance cleanses the soul.  I used a few quotes from this talk by Pres. Spencer W. Kimball.  Then I made the comparison that we need to cleanse our souls just like we clean our bodies- like when we bathe.... kind of a stretch.... but it led into our activity where we made bath salts and lip balm (the lip balm had nothing to do with the theme- but I needed another project to fill up the time).  Here are the VERY simplified recipes that we used.

Bath Salts
1/2 c. Epsom salt
1/2 c. sea salt
5 drops essential oil for fragrance
2 drops food coloring (to look pretty)

             Use a Popsicle stick to stir well, pour into jars or Ziploc bags.

Lip Balm
3 T. Vaseline
1/2 t. agave nectar
1 vitamin E capsule, poke them and then squeeze out the liquid into your mixture

            Stir gently. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir again until well mixed.  Microwave more if needed.  When it is well mixed spoon or pour into containers and let sit for 30 min.

I found the little clear jars in the bath section at Dollar Tree.  They came in a bag with three bottles (one pump spray bottle and two with screw on lids) and were called "travel kits" or something like that. Ignore the  misspelled word on the bath salts label- love it when that happens.

I found the cute little tins for the lip balm at a yard sale way back when and they have been kicking around the craft room just waiting for a project like this.  Making the lip balm was quite messy- and clean up took some extra help- thanks honey!

Germ Free Get Well Cards

We have a friend that is going through chemo and was in the hospital with pneumonia.  In an effort to keep his exposure to germs to a minimum (and he wasn't feeling up to visitors anyway) my son made him a card and we scanned it into the computer and then emailed the picture to our friend.... germ free get well wishes.

(The card refers to the time little guy was in the hospital with double pneumonia).