Activity Day Recognition Night

The Princess Within Shining Forth

This year we decided to do sort of a Young Women in Excellence for the activity day girls and they had a ball with it.  We took the theme from a quote by Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley.  The girls helped make the flowers and decorations, so they really felt a part of it.  I was in charge of the dessert table, so I found some yellow candy sticks, pink gummy bears and had pink and yellow cookies and cupcakes.  I put little crown cupcake toppers in the cupcakes.

 

They had to choose a bag that represented themselves and then put something in it that represented each of the different areas of the Faith in God booklet - Learning and Living the Gospel, Serving Others, and Developing Talents.  They each took a turn to stand up and share what they put in their bag.  Morgan chose her gymnastic bag and put a Book of Mormon in it to represent how we as a family read scriptures each morning as a family, a stick to show that she helped pick up sticks in the front yard recently, and a pillow to show how she has learned how to make pillows and then sell them.  They also put on a small talent show.  Morgan and two of her friends made up a dance to a song the "Chipettes" sing, so they each dressed up as one of the Chipettes (Alvin and brothers' girlfriends).  I think Morgan was Jeanette.  Anyway, it was cute.  We presented each of them with a necklace that had a crown and a little jewel on it to remind them they are royalty of Heavenly Father and to always shine for him.  We also gave them crowns.  It was a lot of work (most of which my 1st counselor did!!!!), but the girls loved it.  The girls who recently had moved on to Young Womens asked why we hadn't done something like this when they were in Primary. :)  It was a really great evening that was very uplifting and spiritual, yet fun.  I think we've started a tradition!
    

 
 

Go Spartans!

They had a cheer clinic one Saturday that Morgan wanted to go to.  They got to cheer one quarter of a middle school game as well.  I thought it was so cute that there was a megaphone with Morgan's name on it, so of course I had to take her picture next to it!

Morgan with two of her friends

She LOVED it!  She was so excited and just had a ball.  I found out too late that there was a cheer clinic all last week during Fall Break for only $10, so I was totally bummed!  Oh well, hopefully they will do it again during Spring Break.  I didn't tell Morgan because she would have been sad too.

 

 

 

First Day of School!

WAAAAAY back on August 5th, they had their first day of school.  This is the last year they will all be at the same school.  I think I started the tradition of holding up the number of fingers for what grade they would be in because I am always so frazzled and unprepared the night before/morning of that I just am not organized enough to remember to write the famous "First day of ______" on a piece of paper and have them hold it up for a picture, so last minute I just had Tyler hold up 1 finger back when he was in 1st grade, and I still haven't been organized enough to do it, so the finger holding up has stuck.  The question is, what happens when they are in 11th grade? :)  Maybe then I will be more organized.

Tyler's last year in elementary school!!!

Morgan is in the grade that Tyler was when we moved here!

And little man Harrison wowed us with how easily he got on the bus and didn't cry ONCE! :)

Ready for a great year!

My little Entrepreneur . . .

 At one of Morgan's Activity Day nights at church they made cute pillows.  She decided she wanted to start up a pillow business with her friend, so Maggie's mom donated some fabric.  Morgan even used some of her own money to buy some pillow stuffing.  I helped her measure, cut out, pin, sew, stuff, and then sew up the stuffing hole.  They have done a lot of the work themselves with me helping where needed.

 The first 5 pillows!

 They were able to make 3 more pillows in this material and have sold all of them!

I found some more material that they have made pillows with as well as Maggie's mom, so we've got more sewing to do!  So far, they have sold 5 pillows and have 2 more orders!  Morgan is quite the entrepreneur and is pretty motivated and creative.  I am quite proud of her!

Morgan's Beauty Shop

 My Grandma Elzer was a beautician for as long as I can remember.  She had her own beauty shop in her basement and I used to love meeting all her customers and playing with all her beauty salon gadgets.  We loved spinning in the chair and pumping it up high then letting it slide back down.  We loved playing beauty shop because we had the real things to use!  When my mom was going through all my grandma's stuff after we moved her to an assisted living home she gave Morgan a bunch of my grandma's beauty shop stuff.  The tall glass container where she kept her combs, a couple capes, some combs and the name tag that was on the door to the shop.  She had that name tag for forever.  Her name is Dorothy, but a lot of people called her Dot or Dotty.  So we put it on top of Morgan's door, like the entrance to her "shop".  Morgan had her first customer!  And boy was Callie excited for that!  It was just so cute to watch them, especially since they were using my grandma's supplies!

Sweet, adorable, beautiful, and just plain CUTE sisters!!!

 Aren't these little girls just the CUTEST, SWEETEST, MOST ADORABLE AND BEAUTIFUL things you have ever seen????!!!!!

 I bought the fabric ages ago when I found what looked to be a fairly simple ruffle skirt on Pinterest.  I didn't have my own sewing machine and I wanted Callie to be a bit older before I attempted  to make matching skirts.  So this summer I finally started the project. 

I don't know exactly what happened - whether I measured wrong or what - but Callie's was WAY too short and Morgan's was knee length ON ME, so I had to add another ruffle to Callie's skirt and shorten Morgan's skirt without undoing all my hard work.  Talk about a pain!!! Morgan's was a ton more of a headache, but in the end they turned out cute.  The seams are not all straight and the hems may not all be completely equal, but from a quick glance, they look fine.

I found these green flowers in my craft supplies that matched perfectly to make barrettes, so that was fun too!

 

  

I loved watching Morgan helping out her little sister.

Morgan's friend party

OK, I think this is the last post that has to do with Morgan turning 8!  SOOO glad I don't do this every year!! :)  Although, I must say that planning the baptism and getting everything ready for that was a MUCH bigger task then planning her birthday party.  My friend, Ashley, had a candy buffet for her baby shower a couple years ago and I just LOVED the idea and how cute everything turned out, so I decided to have one for Morgan's party as well.  We didn't have a ton of different candy, but it was just about right for the girls.  I made sure there was some healthy food in there as well. :)   Their poor parents probably wanted to kill me for sending them home on such a sugar high!  I ended up using some of the leftover candy for Harrison's party too, which was helpful.  Anyway, she wanted a "Day at the spa" theme, so I got some good ideas from my friend who did one for her daughter last year.  I had so much fun putting together the decorating ideas and just LOVE these paper lanterns!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for our activities we had a foot soak with magazines to look at, face masks, a nail/toe painting station and I had them make homemade body glitter to take home.  Some of the girls were a bit hesitant to try any of the activities, but some really got into it (like Morgan, of course!).  Thank goodness for my yard sale because between the candy and the stuff for all the activities, her party got a bit pricey!!!  But a lot of the things we can use over again and like I said, we used the leftover candy for H's party.  I decided that since her 8th birthday is a special one, I would splurge a little more than I normally would.  I think the girls had a lot of fun and definitely made some good memories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I told them to make a funny face, and when I looked at Morgan's face I TOTALLY CRACKED up!!!  It doesn't even look like her!  Crazy girl!

Morgan's Baptism

Morgan's baptism day turned out to be beautiful.  A little warm, but cool enough to be able to eat lunch in the garage comfortably.  The majority of her family was able to be there for her, which was so nice.  The program went well.  She had her grandmas give the talks and all the cousins and she sang When I am Baptized.  It was awesome!!!  So sweet.  She looked beautiful in her baptism dress and lots of her little friends (even one from Crawfordsville!) came to support her.  She was so happy and excited.  Aunt Kelly took her beautiful baptism pictures and Aunt Julie made her awesome invitations.  Thanks, gals!  It made the event even more special!  She chose orange and white to be the colors for the occasion, so I spray painted some frames I got at the thrift store to put all the pictures that Kelly took in them.  I made some orange and white flower arrangements to add some more elegance.  It was a lot of work, but totally worth it!  I love how it all turned out.  It was the perfect day for my sweet Morgan.