Wilbur Days and Spider Webs

     We had a rather busy afternoon.  After a re-energizing snack of cheese, crackers and grapes we got down to business.  Aislyn is in charge these last couple of months with us and she does a good job.  She even took all the pictures for us, since we leaders forget about that.

We practiced some music that would help us in a couple of ways: Developing Talents #2 is "Learn to sing, play, or lead a song from the Children's Songbook.  Teach or share the song in a family home evening or at Primary. Discuss how developing talents helps prepare us for service to Heavenly Father and others." We taught a little about leading. We also practiced some Christmas songs since we hope to do a little caroling for our December Activity.


Our main activity was fulfilling Learning and Living the Gospel #9 "Learn to sing "Choose the Right". Explain what agency is and what it means to be responsible for your choices.  Discuss how making good choices has helped you develop greater faith."

     We practiced the song and had a good discussion.  We also talked about how we need to be aware of all the girls in our group and make sure that they all feel loved and comfortable in our group so that if they are having a sad day - a Wilbur Day like the pig in Charlotte's Web - that they know we will be there like Charlotte making  a nice web of support.

We then played some fun unity gains.  It is always a great time when you are around these girls.










Other items we are trying to pass off:
     Learning and Living the Gospel #8 - I need the pedigree charts from a couple of the girls
     Developing Talents #8 - Please let me know if your girls have finished their 30 days of activity (we asked for 30 minute 5 X per week.

Just A Reminder

     Look at these cute little bottles that I brought home from Egypt for the girls.  I am dying to give them away but the girls have to earn them.  They needed to keep a physical fitness goal of being active for 30 minutes just 5 days a week for one month.  When I look at these girls I know they are active and that this isn't a hard goal for them.  Will you parents help them keep track.  I think some of them might have already passed it off this summer but they will need a signed note from you. If they are playing at recess and lunch that counts.  If they are outside running with their friends or siblings that counts.  If they have swimming or soccer that counts. Just talk it over with them and send me a note.
    Also, I need to see a pedigree chart still from some of the girls to pass off that goal.  It was fun to hear about their ancestors.

Campfire, S'mores and Stories!

     Last Wednesday was a fun night.  The weather was perfect and the Ott's had the fire going, the roasting sticks ready and their backyard is great.  We all had some great s'mores and all the girls had a story to tell about an ancestor. They should all be proud of their great heritage and where they come from and how they are just continuing a great line of people and contributing to it.
     Some of the girls brought their 4 generation charts.  If you didn't then please bring it next time or have your parent sign it off in your book. 
     I took pictures but of course remembered too late and Ellie had gone home.  I apologize.

                                  We have such a Great Group!!

If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

   This week we finished up an activity for the 11 year olds on the 13th article of faith:

 "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous,
  and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow
  the admonition of Paul - We believe all things, we hope all things,
  we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all
  things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of  good report or
  praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

  We discussed what this means and learned some new words, like benevolent and admonition. We then had a little story and got to play charades.We had some good actors and good guessers.  We finished off with a wordsearch and some chocolate chip cookies.
   You girls are so smart and know so much already.   Maybe you can share some of your ideas with your family.
     Don't forget your homework for the next activity.  We will be having a campfire and making s'mores at the Ott's.  You need to prepare a family story to share.  It can be a story about any of your ancestors from your parents on back and can be humorous, serious, inspiring or anything that you would like to share.
      You should also prepare a 4 generation pedigree chart.  You can find one at  pedigree.pdf .  Call Sis. Holbrook or Sis. Oliverson if you have questions.

Virtue

     Karen Oliverson had a great lesson and activity on virtue at our last meeting. For all the girls who are 11- thiswill help with bullet #1 in the Preparing for Young Women in the manual.  She talked about virtue and had the girls think about things that made you virtuous.  They used these ideas to create flowers.

     

She then taught an object lesson  involving a pretty cupcake and a bug.

 Something can look wonderful but if there is one part wrong it can ruin the whole effect.  She talked about movies and music and clothes.  If there is a bad scene, language or something immodest, that is the sting that can get you and we need to stay away from those things. 
      Then we learned how to make very cute cupcakes with marshmallows and colored sugar.  We had a great time.

Summer Accomplishments

     We have had a good summer learning things and having fun.
      We started off with a nice Father-Daughter dinner.  We won't mention the huge rainstorm that poured on us start to finish. But we will mention the good food and fun time we had. The participants all looked good in their recently made shirts.
     At the end of June we had a swim party and talked about physical Fitness.  They were encouraged to pass off a goal of doing 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week for a month. This can be biking, walking or just playing outside with friends.  Hopefully they are learning that it can be fun to be physically active. Some girls have passed this off and gotten their reward already.  Please encourage yours.  They maybe have done it already if you can remember.
     Karen spent a week making beanbags with them. They can use in a babysitting kit. We also spent a week talking about some babysitting tips and what to do in emergencies.  We then got to try out our new skills with some younger kids from the neighborhood.  The girls did such a good job entertaining them.  We have a great crop of baby-sitters coming up.  Hopefully all of the girls feel a little more comfortable taking care of children now.
     We are now back on the 3:45 schedule (when the bus drops them off). We have some good fall activities planned. Keep the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays open.

Craziness

What do you get when you mix 12 girls, 26 shirts, lots of dye and rubber bands and, oh yeah,  a rainstorm!

                Lots of creativity, Lots of fun and a little bit of craziness.
We look forward to seeing what the shirts all turned out like.  We are planning on wearing them to the Daddy Daughter Activity on June 8 at 6:00.  We have reserved the bowery at the LDS church Stake Center. It is down Mutton Hollow about 1/4 mile from the highway, on the right.

On May 25th we will be meeting at the regular time after school at Karen Oliverson's house.  We will be doing some final planning plus have a little farewell for McKenna (whom we will miss very much) and welcome to Ellie Marriott.

This summer we will be meeting from 4:00-5:00 on Wednesdays.  See you there

Pretty Journals

 In April we spent an hour making our own journals.

 They created some very cute covers.

If they write in their journal they can pass off an activity in Learning and Living the Gospel.


They can use their journal jars for ideas.
 











Who wouldn't want to write in these?

Don't you love them!

They are all so unique but very cute - just like the girls!

Next time we will be decorating t-shirts for the girls and their Dads.

March Update

     We talked about journaling last time.  McKenna shared how she journals with her Mom and Aislyn showed how she journals how she feels with colors and shapes.  The all made a journal jar with questions that they can journal about.  Next time we will make journals out of composition books.  Since I am not very crafty if someone would be willing to shop with me and/or help me teach the girls I would really appreciate it. Just let me know.
     I have posted our bowling pictures on a Picasa web album. Here is the link: bowling .  Sorry about the quality. I might need to get a camara with a flash.
     I am leaving in a couple of days so I will not plan on anything this month.  Alexis Dopp mentioned that she was putting together a modesty fashion show at the end of the month and wanted to use you girls.  I thought it was a great tie in to our activity designing modest clothes.  She might be contacting you about it.

    
    

Great Designs

 This was a fun activity.  I found out that we have some very creative girls.  They all designed very different outfits but they were all cute and MODEST.

 I hope you enjoy the pictures.

 Don't forget bowling this week!

 This passed off an activity in Learning and Living the Gospel or Developing Talents.

    

Just a reminder ...

Just a reminder that we will be finishing the girls' dresses today for our activity. They had so much fun doing them! They are so cute!

Modest Dress

This Wednesday we will talking about modest dress. It is going to be really fun because we will design our own life size outfits! If you have any fabric or anything you think would be fun to add to your clothing design please bring them with you. We hope to see everyone there!

Family History

     I wish I had brought my camera.  The girls had a better time than I even expected.  They were so interested to see where their families came from.  I hope you got to see some of the sheets they printed off.  They should have brought home their church record sheet so they can sign on to the Family history website at home.  If you need any help with this you can contact me or Linda Nimori or Scott Stettler. Family History really can be fun for everyone!
     Next time we are talking about modest dress.We are going to design outfits for life size drawings. If you have some fabric or ribbons that you aren't going to use please drop them off to me or have your girls bring them.

Family History

We will be going to the Family History Library on the 12th of January. It is going to be a lot of fun! Please bring an ancestor who has passed away. This could be a great-grandparent if you would like. If you could also bring their birth date or birth place that would be great. We hope to see you all there!