For cleaning I made some special gloves. I found some at hobby lobby plastic gloves and blinged them up. Then when the girls started cleaning they were singing " A Happy Little Working Song..."
I left the crown blank so the girls could write the name of their cabins on it.
Girl's Camp Theme for Stake "Happily Ever After"
Girl's Camp Theme for Stake "Happily Ever After"
I talked to the camp director and didn't want girls to feel the following story I heard from a BYU Talk *Forgive me I forgot the man's name, but there is a book about him that I read, If you really want to know I will find it.* There was a stake president who was sitting at a young women's New Beginnings night. He watched a fun game of the yellow Brick Road *Which I did and would totally do it again but not with their ending....* at the end of the yellow brick Road was a huge temple picture of the L.A Temple. The YW president got up afterwards and spoke, "If you guys will just get to that temple, everything will be perfect! I am so grateful for a perfect husband, wonderful kids and so on...." The Primary President asked this stake president to speak. He said she probably shouldn't ask him... but he got up anyways. He thought to himself how perfect looking this yw president and her husband and children looked. He spoke that getting to the temple was very important, but it wasn't something that meant your life would always be "happily Ever After" because you got married in the temple. Trials are part of this life, and surly they do come. But the temple is there as a refuge from the storm of life. Just as he was saying, I too didn't want to set my young women up for failure in the sense that as long as they got to the temple life would be easy and free of pain and trials. so I changed the theme to say " LEARNING TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER THROUGH THE YOUNG WOMEN VALUES" because no matter the trial we can learn to be happy and trust in the Lord. Each ward had a princess. The girls in our ward chose Gieselle from Enchanted. Can I just tell you there is NOTHING that you can find on Enchanted? ?! So it was a challenge but a fun one to come up with things for this theme. I made candy apples with the song attached "How does you know that he loves her?" But I changed it to "How do you know HF loves you?"
The most important thing I wanted to do was "The Iron Rod" experience. I thought it would be cute to have a motto for our camp and I thought it would be cute to use "The bucket man" *The prince she makes out of buckets in the beginning of Enchanted" as such. Every time the girls did a service, they got to put kiss stickers on him. We also got a basket and wrote "Kiss your Electronics Goodbye" that I had found off sugardoodle. We then would hand over hershey kisses when they gave us the electronics. I was in charge of decor, I wanted each girl to have their own sheet of paper that everyone could write wonderful things about them on. I made three small pom poms for each cabin *3 cabins* With schedules of the day. I Incorporated flower magnets that I made, along with butterfly magnets to go with her wedding dress. I found "Happily Ever After" water bottle labels to go along with her dress when she sings "How do you know" *teal color was the color theme we chose* on etsy. I found a squirrel *Thanks to DI* to be used as "PIP" We played "Pip Punting" instead of Snipe Pinting. When you found Pip you had to hide him again until someone else found him and so on. I got this idea from Mr. Moose on Sugardoodle. Now that we are back from camp we are Doorbell Ditching him with treats to each girl. When they get him they have to cross their name off of the list and send him to someone else. We had a cute flag that one of the awesome leaders who has her own WAY Creative blog made for us. I used to blog stalk her and she moved into my ward I was so happy. Poppiesatplay.blogspot.com is Andy's blog. We found mirrors at Hobby lobby and Andy used her vinyl lettering to write "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall" For each cabin. Andy also came up with the awesome crafts for both the stake *A crown wooden ring* and the ward * a daughter of a king and fabric flowers* We made a food list to prepare to go on a scavenger hunt to get all the food we needed, our ward is so cool we got everything we needed on the list!
Monday: Camp director Claudia and I (assistant Director) went up early to set up and decorate. The girls showed up. (Every night we found cute princess stories to read and hand out things to go with them. For instance princess and the pea and Hilary *yw leader* got green sixlets as peas to give the girls. Princess and the kiss, Princess and Hiking Boots, and Paper Bag Princess were what the YCL's got to read the girls at night) We had a blast playing all kinds of fun games and songs after we set up for camp. We had a stake craft and dinner that night. I think the first day was probably my favorite because everyone was singing and happy and just so nice to get out! We went Pip punting that night.
Tuesday: My favorite spiritual day. All the girls got lost on the stake hike- I stayed to fix up the Iron Rod. I found a pretty walkway to put the rope up on. We had the girls blindfolded and holding onto the rod. Many of the leaders were "Tempters" And two of us where whispering positive things in their ears. It was spiritual for the leaders as well. then when they got off the rod they held onto each other's shoulders blindfolded back to camp. I found a song "Hold On" from Sugardoodle and each girl sat to listen quietly. When everyone came back we played a game I like to call "Stick it to you." I have used it for my lesson and learned about it with my husband at a group we attended last year. All the leaders wrote on sticky notes positive things about each girl. All at the same time we whispered what we wrote in the girl's ears and stuck the note to them. Not a dry eye there. It was spiritual and I knew this was what needed to be done at camp. I know some thought it was too much work but I knew deep down that It had to be done. My motto to each girl and leader was "You are worth it" No matter what happens in life I wanted everyone to know that they are truly worth it. Luckily the leaders gave into me and did the game the way I wanted, it turned out really good. What really touched me was while some didn't want to do this because they were scared of others getting hurt, or it took too long, one of the leaders came up to me and apologized that she was sorry that she was questioning as well. That meant a lot to me. I know that It's hard for me to stand up for myself so I am sure I was pretty pushy, but in the end it was "Worth it." A lot of the people said that was one of their favorite experiences. I was just glad that none had done it before!! At the end I had a YCL tell how in this life we are holding on to the rod and sometimes it's hard to hang on tight, but that if we are still, we will hear the whisperings and truth of the Lord. They then opened their eyes and went to a tree filled with white Japanese lanterns and white envelopes. Their parent's/spouse for leaders or kids/ had each written a letter to everyone. I included a testimony of mine about this experience and when I was youth. I didn't want shame ( I know a lot of ways is when you fall off you have to go "Repent" to the bishop. I find that shameful way to play the game, so instead when they fell off, one would come put their hand back on and tell them to keep going. To me that is what the bishop does, he guides us to the one who can lead us back- our Savior Jesus Christ.) I was lucky to receive letters from each of my kids and husband (I thought I was so tricky getting the spouses to write to the leaders... little did I know that was so..."last year" but oh well I think they still liked it!!)I am so thankful I was able to share my spirit along with the leaders to these girls, and that in return they shared theirs with us. Later that night we went on a stake Faith Walk. At the end the leaders came out and found our girls singing and crying. It was very touching. We had the biggest ward and no one fought the whole time. It was a beautiful day full of the spirit and I hope it was refreshing to the ones who got lost on the hike to come back to feel the spirit.
Wed: We each had cooking groups and the girls got to chose the names of the cooking groups. For instance we had a "pips Pantry" group. The food was so good. We had bread from Kneaders and made grilled cheese w tomato soup, breakfast burritos, walmart roll sandwiches 2 times, Italian night, cafe rio salads, french toast, costco muffins the last day. I thought since it was a stake camp we wouldn't be in charge of cooking, but this gave me a way to understand how to prepare if I ever need to in the future for another camp. Each day we had to come up with new roll calls for the wards. On Wed we did the "Ropes Course" with the girls. It was fun. I climbed up to the top of this wooden swinging log and had to jump to get my foot in the right hole. I realized that while my balance and heights are still great... I really am not the athletic 12 year old I once was :( But hey at 28 I still can still do it... just not as graceful as before. The leaders with the stake taught us how to do some of the courses, I was the youngest in my course and I was able to balance walk across these boards, others had some problems, and it was hard to keep holding them up when I was on shaky ground myself. It was a good lesson and can be used in a spiritual sense too. Later that night we did skits. I brought a white dress and awesome shoes I found at the DI for Gieselle, and a witches outfit. The girls camp up with the skits. It was fun. The girls did some of the leaders hair and make up. Later that night I got the glow sticks out and we played. I wanted all the girls to stay up but many had to go back to their cabins. So in my cabin, we played for a bit and then the girls asked me and the other leader about our love lives LOL. It was fun.
The most important thing I wanted to do was "The Iron Rod" experience. I thought it would be cute to have a motto for our camp and I thought it would be cute to use "The bucket man" *The prince she makes out of buckets in the beginning of Enchanted" as such. Every time the girls did a service, they got to put kiss stickers on him. We also got a basket and wrote "Kiss your Electronics Goodbye" that I had found off sugardoodle. We then would hand over hershey kisses when they gave us the electronics. I was in charge of decor, I wanted each girl to have their own sheet of paper that everyone could write wonderful things about them on. I made three small pom poms for each cabin *3 cabins* With schedules of the day. I Incorporated flower magnets that I made, along with butterfly magnets to go with her wedding dress. I found "Happily Ever After" water bottle labels to go along with her dress when she sings "How do you know" *teal color was the color theme we chose* on etsy. I found a squirrel *Thanks to DI* to be used as "PIP" We played "Pip Punting" instead of Snipe Pinting. When you found Pip you had to hide him again until someone else found him and so on. I got this idea from Mr. Moose on Sugardoodle. Now that we are back from camp we are Doorbell Ditching him with treats to each girl. When they get him they have to cross their name off of the list and send him to someone else. We had a cute flag that one of the awesome leaders who has her own WAY Creative blog made for us. I used to blog stalk her and she moved into my ward I was so happy. Poppiesatplay.blogspot.com is Andy's blog. We found mirrors at Hobby lobby and Andy used her vinyl lettering to write "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall" For each cabin. Andy also came up with the awesome crafts for both the stake *A crown wooden ring* and the ward * a daughter of a king and fabric flowers* We made a food list to prepare to go on a scavenger hunt to get all the food we needed, our ward is so cool we got everything we needed on the list!
Monday: Camp director Claudia and I (assistant Director) went up early to set up and decorate. The girls showed up. (Every night we found cute princess stories to read and hand out things to go with them. For instance princess and the pea and Hilary *yw leader* got green sixlets as peas to give the girls. Princess and the kiss, Princess and Hiking Boots, and Paper Bag Princess were what the YCL's got to read the girls at night) We had a blast playing all kinds of fun games and songs after we set up for camp. We had a stake craft and dinner that night. I think the first day was probably my favorite because everyone was singing and happy and just so nice to get out! We went Pip punting that night.
Tuesday: My favorite spiritual day. All the girls got lost on the stake hike- I stayed to fix up the Iron Rod. I found a pretty walkway to put the rope up on. We had the girls blindfolded and holding onto the rod. Many of the leaders were "Tempters" And two of us where whispering positive things in their ears. It was spiritual for the leaders as well. then when they got off the rod they held onto each other's shoulders blindfolded back to camp. I found a song "Hold On" from Sugardoodle and each girl sat to listen quietly. When everyone came back we played a game I like to call "Stick it to you." I have used it for my lesson and learned about it with my husband at a group we attended last year. All the leaders wrote on sticky notes positive things about each girl. All at the same time we whispered what we wrote in the girl's ears and stuck the note to them. Not a dry eye there. It was spiritual and I knew this was what needed to be done at camp. I know some thought it was too much work but I knew deep down that It had to be done. My motto to each girl and leader was "You are worth it" No matter what happens in life I wanted everyone to know that they are truly worth it. Luckily the leaders gave into me and did the game the way I wanted, it turned out really good. What really touched me was while some didn't want to do this because they were scared of others getting hurt, or it took too long, one of the leaders came up to me and apologized that she was sorry that she was questioning as well. That meant a lot to me. I know that It's hard for me to stand up for myself so I am sure I was pretty pushy, but in the end it was "Worth it." A lot of the people said that was one of their favorite experiences. I was just glad that none had done it before!! At the end I had a YCL tell how in this life we are holding on to the rod and sometimes it's hard to hang on tight, but that if we are still, we will hear the whisperings and truth of the Lord. They then opened their eyes and went to a tree filled with white Japanese lanterns and white envelopes. Their parent's/spouse for leaders or kids/ had each written a letter to everyone. I included a testimony of mine about this experience and when I was youth. I didn't want shame ( I know a lot of ways is when you fall off you have to go "Repent" to the bishop. I find that shameful way to play the game, so instead when they fell off, one would come put their hand back on and tell them to keep going. To me that is what the bishop does, he guides us to the one who can lead us back- our Savior Jesus Christ.) I was lucky to receive letters from each of my kids and husband (I thought I was so tricky getting the spouses to write to the leaders... little did I know that was so..."last year" but oh well I think they still liked it!!)I am so thankful I was able to share my spirit along with the leaders to these girls, and that in return they shared theirs with us. Later that night we went on a stake Faith Walk. At the end the leaders came out and found our girls singing and crying. It was very touching. We had the biggest ward and no one fought the whole time. It was a beautiful day full of the spirit and I hope it was refreshing to the ones who got lost on the hike to come back to feel the spirit.
Wed: We each had cooking groups and the girls got to chose the names of the cooking groups. For instance we had a "pips Pantry" group. The food was so good. We had bread from Kneaders and made grilled cheese w tomato soup, breakfast burritos, walmart roll sandwiches 2 times, Italian night, cafe rio salads, french toast, costco muffins the last day. I thought since it was a stake camp we wouldn't be in charge of cooking, but this gave me a way to understand how to prepare if I ever need to in the future for another camp. Each day we had to come up with new roll calls for the wards. On Wed we did the "Ropes Course" with the girls. It was fun. I climbed up to the top of this wooden swinging log and had to jump to get my foot in the right hole. I realized that while my balance and heights are still great... I really am not the athletic 12 year old I once was :( But hey at 28 I still can still do it... just not as graceful as before. The leaders with the stake taught us how to do some of the courses, I was the youngest in my course and I was able to balance walk across these boards, others had some problems, and it was hard to keep holding them up when I was on shaky ground myself. It was a good lesson and can be used in a spiritual sense too. Later that night we did skits. I brought a white dress and awesome shoes I found at the DI for Gieselle, and a witches outfit. The girls camp up with the skits. It was fun. The girls did some of the leaders hair and make up. Later that night I got the glow sticks out and we played. I wanted all the girls to stay up but many had to go back to their cabins. So in my cabin, we played for a bit and then the girls asked me and the other leader about our love lives LOL. It was fun.
Thursday: We went to the Lake to go canoeing. Some of us were sad we only got paddle boats because we wanted a canoe. There was a fake little alligator in the lake that was pretty funny. Once we got back we did a ward craft and chilled for a while. Later that night we had the stake devotional and then testimony meeting. I really wanted to let the girls/leaders know if they were questioning their testimony that it was normal and that God wants us to decide for ourselves, so not to feel guilty about having normal feelings. We need to find out for ourselves not just rely on others. I think a lot of times people feel bad that they are having those emotions, and they shouldn't. That God is there for them whether they realize it or not. I wanted them to know they were worth it and to look in the mirror everyday and say they were beautiful and worth it. I just wanted them all to know regardless of the trials, issues, and so on in their life that they are beautiful. I'm glad you don't have to be perfect to be worth it. God is there. After the testimony meeting a bunch of the girls grabbed their sleeping gear and slept in my cabin. Everyone was doing hair, or talking quietly. Friday we woke up and went to the last roll call. Camp was awesome. I love this ward and the girls and leaders in it.
I made these to go with the book "Princess in Hiking Boots"
(My friend and Yw Leader Andy on Poppiesatplayblogspot.com made the idea "Ding Dong Ditched" with dingdongs attached.)
My friend Lyndee made Girls Camp Awards, and was nice to make a generic one for you!! Here:http://wilkninenpboi.blogspot.com/
I made these to go with the book "Princess in Hiking Boots"
(My friend and Yw Leader Andy on Poppiesatplayblogspot.com made the idea "Ding Dong Ditched" with dingdongs attached.)My friend Lyndee made Girls Camp Awards, and was nice to make a generic one for you!! Here:
1 comment:
Your crafts were all great! It looked like so much fun! BTW, I agree with you on the "perfect" ending if you get to the temple...it doesn't happen because this life is about trials and learning. That was a HUGE lesson for me to learn after I got married. I was positive that everything would be smooth from that point on because I made it to the temple. Boy was I wrong! I'm grateful the temple was there to help me find refuge from the storms and to find peace.
Post a Comment