Sewing: Round 3

Last night for mutual we had sewing: round 3. We finally finished up the pajama pants we've been working on!  Unfortunately, I wasn't there so I can't give too many details, but I know the girls have had fun learning this new skill and making something in the process.

Update: I found out that the pants were not finished, due to sewing machines breaking down. Looks like we might be going for round 4!

PPP Party: Purple Pictionary

Last night for mutual we had our PPP party we had a purple theme and played pictionary. We all wore purple clothes, and our YW president also made us purple princess cupcakes (a la Sofia the First). We only had 2 girls there, so we had a group discussion about personal progress. We challenged them to finish Integrity #4 by Sunday. It is a pretty simple goal and went along with our purple theme. It was a fun night. 

Sorry for missing the last few weeks. I have been out of town and sick so I haven't been to mutual in a while. But we just had our first planning meeting of the year and we have some fun activities coming up! I'll try to be better from now on. 

Christmas Break

Since both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fell on Tuesday evenings this year, we did not have any mutual activities for the past 2 weeks. We'll be back next week though. Don't forget our new mutual theme for 2014: “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32). Happy New Year!

Combined: White Elephant Gift party

Last night for mutual we had our annual White Elephant exchange gift party. We ask all the youth to bring a gift under $5, we draw numbers out of a hat and let the kids choose and steal gifts. We usually supply dinner for the kids too, things like pizza or panda express. It's always a lot of fun. I actually wasn't able to make it, but I'm sure they had a great time. I heard there were eggnog cupcakes involved though, so I wish I had made it. It's a fun easy night that the youth look forward to each year.

Pajama Pants Week 2: Cutting

Last night for mutual we worked more on our pajama pants. We all headed over to the house of one of our leaders and had a lesson in how to use a pattern. The girls then pinned the pattern on and cut their fabric one by one (well two at once since the pattern had 2 pieces). We started pretty late (our ward is on Mormon standard time), so this took the whole night even though we only had 4 girls. It was a pretty casual and fun night. We will have to extend it to a third week to finish sewing.

We also practiced singing our Christmas song that we are performing on Sunday. I'm so excited!

Pajama Pants Week 1: Fabric Shopping

Last night for mutual we went to JoAnn Fabric to buy some material to make some pajama pants. We thought this would be a nice Christmas treat for the girls, as well as a great learning opportunity. A few of the girls had never been to a fabric store or sewn anything before, so we had a short lesson on site about the different types of fabric and what they are good for. It was very educational for them and for me. Next week we are getting together with all of our sewing machines to sew the pants. Hopefully it all works out and we have enough time!

You could have the young women apply this to Knowledge #2, or a Knowledge or Divine Nature Value Project.

Sunday Special: Young Women in Excellence

Last night at church we had our Young Women in Excellence Program. Each year we celebrate the accomplishments of the young women in our ward. We decided on an Oscar theme this year, inspired by this blog post. Ours was very similar, we even had the same value cards in frames! The invitations stated "Black Tie Optional," and our attendees did not disappoint.

We had a red carpet through our foyer into the Relief Society Room, lined with lights. We wrote out the girls names on stars and laid those on the red carpet also.

In our room we hung some stars and twirls from the ceiling and had lights around the chalkboard.

We started the evening with a song and a prayer. After an introduction by our YW president, we had each of the young women come up and talk about a value of their choice, hopefully one that they have been working on throughout the year. Then, each girl presented an award to a woman in our ward who she feels exemplifies that value. We handed out star shaped ornaments to the ladies (and to the girls afterward) and thanked them for being a shining star in our ward. We wanted the awards to be cute and functional, so now everyone has a new ornament for their Christmas tree. I'm always surprised at how well the young women prepare their little talks for these events. The same thing happened at New Beginnings earlier this year. We don't always get to see it in class when they have to spontaneously answer questions, but when they prepare and read something, their testimonies shine through like spotlights (ha!). We have a small but wonderful group of young women and I love being able to work with them.

We also had each of the leaders give a small recap of one or more of the activities during the year that stuck out to them. Our Bishop gave some closing remarks and then we ended with a song and prayer, followed by sparkling cider and golden treats.

It was a wonderful evening and everyone had a great time. I believe we are going to try to make this an annual event.