Young Women's In Excellence. Award Show.

Young Women's in Excellence is a time to celebrate a year of hard work on Personal Progress.

As with everything we do in the Young Women's program, we try to strike the balance between spiritual and fun  (because that's exactly what living the gospel is... both spiritual and fun) and I always try to make sure that what we're doing isn't going to "waste the time" of the young women.  We leaders have busy lives, but so do the young women and the fact that they take time out of their schedules to come be with us mid-week means a lot.  I feel it needs to be quality, because that's what's going to keep those girls coming.  And quality can be taken in many different directions, but it's something I keep in mind.

For Young Women's in Excellence we decided to hold an awards show.

Think Grammy's.

We stole the idea from a pin on Pinterest (here, original post here) and then made it our own.

For invitations we printed the information off and glued it to the front of a glittery star that we bought from a party store.

We pooled our resources for decorations, using Christmas lights, star banners from the party store, red plastic tablecloths for the red carpet, and we tied cardboard stars to the bottom of balloons so they would float overhead-ish.

I drew this year's mutual theme on the chalkboard.

The invitations told the girls to dress up for the awards show.

Since we knew we were using stars and lights for the decorations we settled on a "light" theme for the award "trophies."

We bought flashlights from the dollar store, spray painted them gold, and then topped them so when they were turned on they would shine in a star shape.

To make the flashlight toppers I simply traced the flashlight on black cardstock, cut out the circle, and then used a star hole punch on the center.  I used gold craft glitter and modge podge to paint the circle so it would be gold and glittery.  Once it dried I just used a hot glue gun to glue it to the flashlight.

We opened our awards ceremony by telling the parents some of the projects we had worked together on as a group.  We also pointed out the display table where we had the values in frames, and the young women had placed items that they were working on, or represented things they had done.  We then encouraged everyone to clap as we went through our program because we really wanted to celebrate the progress that was being made.

We tried to do it like they do on awards shows.  We had a "performance" and the presented some awards.  Then had another performance, and then more awards.

The breakdown went like this:

Opening exercises (song, prayer, Young Women's theme)

We then shared this video.

Award presentations: Category: Faith; Category Divine Nature

We created envelopes out of scrapbook paper and stickers.  We decided beforehand who would get an award in which category and why.  On a black cardstock card we glued the value scripture and saying which we read, and then said, "And the award goes to..."

We would open the envelope and announce the winner.

After wild applause from the audience we would then explain why, or retell a story or experience that had been the reason for choosing the award for that girl.  We gave her the card with her name, and a flashlight (turned on).

Other performances we had were a young woman played her violin, and all the young women as a group recited The Living Christ from memory.  We had been working to memorize it on Sundays for this very reason, and used the experience to pass of the Faith project for personal progress.

The other leaders also surprised me by presenting me with my honor bee that I had earned.  We also gave a special thank you to our advisor who had been in charge of personal progress through out the year.

We interspersed all those things with the rest of the value categories, making sure that each category had at least one award winner in it.

When we were finished we played a slideshow of all the pictures we had taken through activities, girl's camp, and youth conference through out the year.

We had a closing prayer and refreshments were fruit, sugar cookies, and rice krispie treats to dip into a chocolate fondue.

My heart is full after doing this with the young women last night.  We really did have a lot of fun cheering everyone's accomplishments on, and the musical numbers and reciting of The Living Christ brought the spirit on strongly along with it.

I'm thankful to be able to serve in such a capacity.  It fills me to overflowing.

One of our young women said it best at the very end when she declared, "On to another year!  I can't wait!"

Just some of our young women and leaders.  We have the best bunch around.

Even if I do say so myself.

Crazy Hair Day. Cindy Lou Who Tutorial.

If you've seen the Cindy Lou Who hair creations walking around on crazy hair day (it's becoming a popular thing, at least in our area) but weren't quite sure how to do it, this post is for you.

It's actually pretty easy.

I tried to take pictures that showed Tay's reflection in the mirror so you could see what I was doing in the back, as well as what was happening in the front.

I started by bringing some of her hair forward so there would be enough to cover the front of the up-do.  I didn't need to pull as much forward before she had bangs.

We found a small cup and placed it on the crown of her head.

And then I began to scoop the hair up and held it in place on top of the cup, all the way around her head.

Put your elastic in.

Easy.

We curled the ends and tied ribbon in it.

Cali went for the triple braided pig tail.

Sean just went for the triple pig tail, not braided. :)

Do you have any good "go to" crazy hair styles?

Brynn's Party. And Evidence That I Need a Craft Room.

To wrap up Brynn's birthday posts:

All that girl wanted for a party was to have some friends over, popcorn, smoothies, and a movie.

The popcorn and smoothies went off with out a hitch, but those girls had no intentions of sitting down and watching a movie.

Brynn designed her cake and I helped her with it, but she did a lot of the work herself.  I think it turned out pretty good.

Brynn's bff, Hannah, gave Brynn, of all things... a fish.  A beta to be more exact, which Brynn promptly named Aqua Jay (maybe she can keep a named fish alive better than I can? (Here)) and which oddly I don't have a picture of.  I was too busy trying to get things set up before kids showed up (after having worked all day) and I had to keep moving that fish out of the way.  At first it was on the kitchen counter but I didn't want it to get knocked over in the chaos of the party.  Also, I had plans of creating a wedding gift on the counter while Brynn ran around crazy with her friends so I needed the fish out of the way.  So Brynn took the fish downstairs to what I had assumed would be her room.  A few minutes later I went down to check on something and found the fish on the floor of the basement great room, and looking somewhat wobbly on the cushy carpet. With a huff and a shake of my head, and with Brynn no where in sight, I grabbed that guy up and put him squarely on her dresser.  At this rate, I don't know how long he's going to last.  Also, he's a "he" simply because he's blue.

The signs of a successful party.  Happy girls trailed away home late into the night, and by late into the night I mean 10:30, but when girls show up at 7:00 and stay, screaming with pure delight, until 10:30, it begins to feel like late into the night indeed.

Check off another birthday success at our house.

All the while I was working on this puppy:

A subway sign for a wedding gift, which I will explain and show you the finished details, as well as the wedding, tomorrow.  Exciting, no?

Also, exhibit number one as to why I need to have a craft room.

I completely render the kitchen unusable when I start a project.  The Circus can only hope it doesn't take me longer than a day to finish it.

House Renovation. So Far. Before and After Pictures.

Once upon a time we had a waterfall spout from our kitchen ceiling.

Try after try we could not find the leaky culprit so in a five minute decision we took hammers to the bathroom that sits above the kitchen and gutted the whole thing down to studs and subflooring.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Or history in the making since we're not actually done with the whole domino effect yet.

From the bathroom redid the kitchen ceiling which used to have a drop down ceiling and florecent lights.

Then we turned a walk in closet next to the bathroom into a second laundry.

We were already re-doing the plumbing, we might as well, right?

While we're on the subject of tearing up our house, let's work on the main floor.  It needs a facelift.

And though we are far from done with the changes that will be made to our house, I present to you, our house and what we've done so far.

Ignore the fact that we haven't actually decorated yet.

This is just showing fundamental changes.

We'll get to the frilly fun stuff soon.

I hope.

I apologize in advance that a lot of these pictures where taken with my phone and I'm no professional photog so they're not edited or anything for better quality.

Bathroom Before:

We'd already started pulling up carpet, I'm just glad I had the presence of mind to take some before pictures before we really tore into it.

During pictures can be found here here here.

Bathroom after.

Ignore the fact that we don't have mirrors above the sink yet.

 The Man made the room bigger and rearranged the layout.

We now have a private toilet room so the mirrors and sinks can be used while someone needs a little privacy.  Kind of a big deal when you have half a dozen kids.

Quite the difference, huh.

The office before:

We'd already moved the furniture to begin but I'm still glad I got these pictures because the difference blows my mind.

Office during here here

Office so far (since we haven't decorated):

TV Room before:

This room always felt so dark, even with the blinds open and the lights on.

Once again I took pictures after furniture had been moved and we were getting ready to tear into it.

TV Room so far:

(Like the beach towel that we're using as a rug in front of the door to catch wet feet?)

Dining Room before:

Before paint and new floor:

After paint but still before new floor:

Dining Room so far:

It's still a work in progress.

And we still have plans to end our love affair with those pink counter tops.

But for now it's time to pause the tearing into the nitty gritty of the house and start decorating and finishing the rooms we've done.

I'm so in love with this house.

Friendship Bracelets... Circus Style

For those of you who asked for friendship bracelets from the circus (here)...
They're being made today.
Except for Makenzie who specifically requested that Cali O'Maley be the one to make hers... Cali had it made and delivered that night.

The girls know what friendship bracelets are.

But when we went to Lake Powell with a big packet of string, and when everyone was braiding them and twisting them into cool patterns, and even tying them into hair...

the girls decided to do it their own way.

At first I didn't notice what they were doing.  I knew they had a bunch of bracelets tied around their ankles but I didn't really look at them.

Until Jayme and Tayler asked me what colors I wanted in a bracelet?  They wanted to make me one.  So I picked out my colors and they proceeded to make me one of these:

They lined the colors up and tied knots in the ends and then tied them on.
The end.
Who needs to braid these puppies when you can make them this way and get five in the time it would take you to braid only half of one?

I think my kids have mastered think smarter instead of work harder.

Please note that when you receive your bracelets from The Circus we may or may not throw some extra goodies in there.

Please also note that when you receive your bracelets from The Circus that it is appropriate to let the excess string hang down.

What's a mom to do?

I wrote down the names of those who asked for them and I'll probably be contacting some of you for addresses.  You may not want them now that you see what they are :).  But really, aside from the excessive excess hanging down, I think they're cute.

We have trend setters in our house.