YW's Fancy Nancy Party

Wednesday was our Fancy Nancy party for our young women which we held in the backyard of one of the girls' homes. We had a contest for the fanciest dressed, so all the girls got gussied up. It was fun seeing the different outfits; even the leaders dressed up. Wish I had gotten a picture of us.
We started with a lesson on the Word of Wisdom and avoiding the appearance of evil. Then we learned a little bit about British dining culture. We followed that with a light meal of finger sandwiches, mini fruit kabobs, cream puffs, cupcakes, scones with homemade strawberry jam, and punch. We used M's grandmothers china and Milk Glass punch bowl and cup set. When we were done eating, we voted on who was dressed the fanciest. Almost everyone agreed it was Emma, she was stunning in her cute little tiara.

Doesn't the food look scrumptious?

The two tables all set up.

Avery, Emma, Ashley, Kaeley, Haley, and Becca.

Lea and Savannah.

Natallie and Allie.

Ten of our thirteen young women in the program.
Aren't they just adorable? They are such a great group of girls!

Fear Factor Mormon Style

For our Mutual activity on Wednesday, we put together a Fear Factor for our girls. There were six challenges for them to do. Some of them required a team effort, some two players to complete and some were individual challenges. We divided the girls into three teams of three. We were one girl short, so our beehive adviser stepped up to help out. Each team picked out their own name. I thought they were quite clever.

Purple Monkeys of Utopia

Graceful Ninja Butterflies

Super Stars

Challenge 1: Glob of Goo.
Two girls from each team had to taste six different jars of
baby food and determine what it was they were eating.

Challenge 2: Quick Hands.
The girls worked together to put together a
50 piece puzzle. The quickest team got the points.

Challenge 3: Mystery Surprise.
Two girls from each team had to drink a mixture we created.
The team that drank it the fastest got 5 points, second got 3 and
third got 1 point. However most of the teams couldn't stomach it.

We blended taco soup, blueberries, spinach, and ginger ale together.
I tasted it and it wasn't so bad, but the girls HATED it!

Kaeley was the only one who could drink it.
Way to go Kaeley!

Challenge 4: Lock and Key
One girl was locked up and another girl was blind-folded.
The blind-folded girl had to crawl down the field and dig through
a bucket of kitty-litter and tootsie rolls to find the key then make
their way back to their partner and unlock them.

Challenge 5: Pucker Up
All the girls from each team had to put a lemon in their
mouth and suck on it for one minute.

They all thought this was easy. I was surprised.
I only like lemon in lemonade with lots of sugar.

Challenge 6: The Plank
All the girls had to hold the plank yoga pose for as long as possible.
I was impressed by how long they were able to hold it.

Kristy, one of our leaders, was able to hold it the longest.

The Final Challenge: Ice Cream Scarf
This was our dessert part of the evening.The girls made a
sundae on the table with ice cream and assorted toppings.

Then they ate their sundae as fast as they could with out
using their hands. Stefanie was the winner of this challenge.

The final tally for Fear Factor. The girls had a great time and
were willing to try all of the challenges. We were so proud of them.
Next year maybe we will include the boys.

Crawdading with the Youth

On Wednesday we took the youth to Clay Creek for a combined mutual activity. We played in the creek, caught crawdads and had a cookout. Most of the boys did the crawdad catching while some rode the waves down the creek and the girls walked around in the water.
I recall catching crawdads, frogs and other such animals at the creek behind our school when I was a kid. It was always so much fun so, Kristan and I decided we wanted to try to catch a crawdad too. We started turning over rocks and squinting through the roiling water. I found a really big rock I was sure had crawdads hiding under it, Kristan and I worked together to turn over the rock. A crawdad about the size of my middle finger came lurching out and headed straight for my toes. I booked it in the opposite direction while my friends laughed. Apparently I am not as courageous as I once was.
After we had many buckets full of crawdads, we started boiling water to cook them and the hot dogs we brought. Many of the youth ate the crawdads, even Kristan and I partook of the delicacy. They look like mini lobsters and you only eat their tails. We each took one and broke off the tail. I didn't like the way the shell felt, but I soldiered on. After you break off the tail, you clean out the stomach and other innards, then peel off the shell. Once free of its encasing, it looks kind of like shrimp and is only about an inch long. The flavor? Kind of like thawed and cooked shrimp. Not really much of a flavor but it was fun to try it. Guess if I am ever lost in the woods near a creek and need nourishment I can eat crawdads, provided I don't run away from found crawdad like a little sissy. Yeah, I should probably stick to berries.

Bishop Hansen and some boys looking for crawdads.

The boys riding the waves.

More of our crawdad hunters.

Looking for crawdads.

Nimbly running away from scary crawdad.

Haley, Lea, Natallie and Kaeley.

More youth getting crawdads.

Bishop, Kristy, and Brittany relaxing
while waiting for the water to boil.

Checking out all the buckets of crawdads.

So many crawdads.

See? Mini lobsters!

Here is mine.

Kristan and me eating our bite of crawdad.
After all that, all you have left is a little piece of meat.

New Beginnings-Virtue Academy

We had New Beginnings for our girls on Wednesday. Our theme was Virtue Academy and the girls helped out a lot. They worked on a skit to perform, made backdrops, and helped decorate the room the day of the event.
I conducted the meeting and did the Welcome, Sister Wright talked about the changes to Personal Progress, Natallie and Emily both gave talks, Ally gave the Mutual Theme for the year, and Avery gave the Young Women's Theme. Then they all did their skit and did a fabulous job! Afterward, we had snacks of pbj sandwiches, apples, pudding cups, and juice. I also gave everyone a little tile with our theme on it for this year which is from Joshua 1:9-Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with ye withersoever thou goest.

Here is our table with books decorated for each of the YW values.
The tiles for each girl and the incentives each girl can get if she works on her
Personal Progress and finishes experiences and projects.

The banners were made by Sister Wright and have each of the YW values
on them. On the piano are the lockers the girls colored for part of their skit.

Here is my 1st Counselor, Kristy, looking amazing as usual
and the other banners and backdrops for the skit.

Becca, Ally, Emily and Natallie came to help decorate.

Emily giving her talk on How Young Women's has effected her life.

Natallie giving her talk on How doing her
Personal Progress has helped her in her life.

Natallie, Emily, Avery, and Kaeley talking about Divine Nature.

Sierra, Stefanie, and Ally talking about being good examples.

Stefanie, Sierra, and Becca talking about modesty.

YW Beach Retreat

The Young Women Leaders wanted to take the girls to the beach for an overnighter and my aunt let us borrow her beach house for the event. We left on Friday around 1pm and drove the two hours to our destination. When we arrived we got some pizza for dinner and followed it with games and movies. The girls got into bed for the last movie. The movie was over around 12:30 am and the girls went straight to sleep when asked to.
On Saturday morning we got up early and ate breakfast then had our planning meeting to figure out our Wednesday night activities for the rest of the year. After that the girls went down to the beach for half an hour before some of them headed home. They ended up getting soaked from head to toe, so we had to get them all changed and cleaned up before heading out. We stopped by a souvenir shop where they each bought a little something. We all had a great time and the girls behaved exceptionally well. I was very proud of how well they got along and listened to their leaders.

Sister Radke and Sister Luciani on our way out of town.

Sister Lake and some of our girls.

The girls in the very back of the car.

All the girls in their pj's.

All the girls singing the camp song "A Jellyfish".