"The Pig Out"

Odds are good that you've never associated "eating like a pig" with "keeping the commandments", but the West Mountain Young Women sure have!

We had a list of "commandments" the young women had to follow in order to enjoy the blessing of their dinner {and dessert!} and they did fabulously.









The girls ingested an insane amount of cotton candy {kindly donated by our local Boy Scout troop}. Whoever said a little cotton candy before dinner ruins your appetite?!? Let's be honest-- it's just air and sugar. Perfect for a huge sugar rush to add momentum to an already hyper gaggle of girls. :)






Bring on the pig noses and the "bibs"!

We tied their hands together and secretly hoped that their wouldn't be a fire drill.




After the homemade Alfredo, jello, and green beans {see?!? We were totally healthy} were placed in front of the girls, the anticipation was practically palpable. . .

Ready? Set? GO!

Aside from a couple of tipped water cups, the girls stayed surprisingly clean; even after the frosted brownie bars. We were impressed. :)


Clean-up was a breeze. . .  for the leaders, at least. We sat there eating cotton candy and popcorn {another kind donation} and watched the young women fulfill the final "commandment" -- THOU SHALT HELP CLEAN UP.

It was such a blast! Thanks to everyone who participated and helped support our sweet girls. The food was delicious and the company was epic. 

Until next time!

Family Home Evening : YW Style

This month's combined activity was centered around ways we can strengthen our famlies. . .and what better way to strengthen than a hearty dose of Family Home Evening?! {you can read more about FHE right HERE if you're interested}

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We gathered together and waited for the games to begin :









Our lovely, charismatic president welcomed everyone and turned the reigns over to the Beehive presidency. . .



. . . and they took us off at a gallop playing all sorts of fun games!

The first one taught us that family members need to work together to ensure that jobs around the house get done and that family unity is intact at all times. We were each given a puzzle piece with different tasks written on the back and asked to try and complete the puzzle using just our piece. Obviously, that didn't happen despite some valiant attempts. We had to work together to complete the puzzle, just like in real life. :)

Ta-da!

There were a couple of other games we played that involved singing a Primary song while acting out bizarre household chores, such as "raking dinner" and "polishing the toilet" as well as a game where we had to make animal sounds. Unfortunately {or perhaps fortunately?}, we filmed those and so there aren't any pictures. However, if you would like to behold our acting skills, just ask and we can e-mail the videos to you! They are, to say the least, epic. 

It was definitely fun to see the girls come out of their shells and feel comfortable around friends. Animal sounds will do that to a group, I daresay. 

Next on the list? Mixing fudge in a plastic bag while we discussed ways each of us can help out our families and make them stronger.

We learned many things, not the least of which was how to squeeze a bag of fudge without popping open the seams. There were some profound ideas shared by these special young women and we as their leaders are tickled pink to see them implemented into their families! 

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Thanks to all the girls and leaders who showed up for our fun-filled Family Home Evening.We sure appreciate the opportunity to learn and teach every time we're together and can't wait for future activities!

Speaking of, the activity coming up is on THURSDAY (the 21st) instead of Wednesday. We are meeting at the church at 5:45 to carpool our way over to some missed-out-on camp activities. Come, come! It'll be a blast. 

Until next time!

First EVER Personal Progress Ice Cream Night

We are BEYOND excited to introduce our fifth Wednesday activity-- Personal Progress Ice Cream Night!

Here's how it works : The girls can accumulate "Personal Progress Points" by doing certain things throughout the week and month. Each Sunday, they report the number of points they've earned that week to us. When a fifth Sunday {a.k.a "Personal Progress Night"} rolls around, the girls get to cash in their points for toppings on ice cream!

YUM!

For example, let's just pretend that you earned a total of 30 points. You could load up your ice cream with chocolate syrup {maybe worth 5 points} and fresh strawberries {worth 10?}. You could add in some delicious Butterfingers candy and gummy worms . . . The list just goes on and on!

So now for the big question-- how in the world do you earn points?! Well, I'll tell ya.

If you have any questions whatsoever, just ask one of the leaders! We'd love to explain things a little bit better. Oh, and by the way, our next Personal Progress Ice Cream Night {a real-live one where points are used} is October 29th.

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Since we are just getting the gears spinning on this, tonight was a nice simple "freebie" ice cream night. The girls were able to meet with their corresponding leader and update them on what Personal Progress {PP} experiences they've been working on. We also had stations set up for a number of different value experiences that the girls could work on while waiting for their "interview". It worked out wonderfully!

And, ice cream. Hello. It's always a good activity when there's ice cream. :)

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Here's President Lundberg layin' down the law and explaining the concept :

And our cute {albeit nice and simple} little stations :




We had Mackenzie give a short little snippet on the awesome-ness of receiving her medallion :




And then got right down to business :

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Here's a HUGE thank you to all the wonderful girls in our ward- you make our job as leaders easy as pie! Or, in this case, ice cream.

Keep up the great work and don't forget to earn those points! You won't regret it when your ice cream is buried under 3 inches of miscellaneous deliciousness. 

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There will be NO ACTIVITY next Wednesday because of Youth Conference {which is August 7th- 9th}, but be sure to plan for August 13th at 7:00 {at the church} for our epic combined activity. :)

Until next time, ladies!

Covenants and Competitions

Why, hello!

It's time for our first official post and I'm beyond excited. This month's combined activity involved learning about the covenants we make when we are married in the temple. The girls were joined in the room by a handful of beautiful white dresses to suit every fancy :







All that white almost made the girls blind . . . the solution? Sunglasses, of course.

Candice gave a wonderful lesson and then we watched a wedding video staring our trusty President, Kayla, and our Bishop. They are such cuties!

Then it was time to build a wedding dress using these supplies:




It was intense, ya'll.



The competition was fierce. .  and friendly. :)



I'll be honest-- if I had to make a dress out of toilet paper, a single table cloth, tissue paper, fake flowers and packaging tape, it would look a lot like a lumpy, frumpy garbage bag. These girls, however, totally mastered it. Their designs were absolutely beautiful!

Dress #1:

Look at this train made out of toilet paper! How incredible is that. . . I mean, really.




Dress #2:

And then it was time for our photo shoot {because we all know that you can't wear a wedding dress without having your picture taken}!

 

Lovely, lovely ladies!

Such a fun night! Thanks to everyone who came, and we can't wait to see even MORE of you next time! Don't be shy! Come on down :)

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Our next activity is Wednesday, July 9th at 7:00. We're going to be playing dodge ball at the church with the Young Men, so let's show those boys what it means to "throw like a girl".