Think Fast

Being a new leader of Girls Activity Day makes it so that I have no idea what is going on. I only know what I was told when I came into this calling and believe me it wasn't very much. So when the Primary President came to me and asked what our (the other leader and I) idea was for Stake Activity Day I was surprised. I told her I didn't even know that we had one. The Primary President then inform me that they have one every year and it happens sometime in March. I'm glad that it is only January so I can have some time to prepare. I told her that I would talk to the other leader and see what she wanted to do but the Primary President said she needed to know right now since there wasn't a lot of choices left. Of course I was completely floored by this news but what could I do. I asked her what was left for us to pick from. Their were only two choices so I picked the better of the two which was Beauty.

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Since I made the decision, so quickly and without my partner, it was my job to tell the other leader what I had done. However when I informed her of what happened I came to find out that she knew we have these stake activity day things. She was even at the one last year and just didn't tell me about it. I'm starting to get really annoyed with this calling and the people I work with because they make it almost impossible for me to do my job properly. Well after I was finished talking with my partner the Primary President called me again to tell me that the option Beauty was already taken along with the other one and we had to do something else. Basically we could just do whatever we wanted, except an activity that would require the gym or kitchen. At least now knowing that gave me a little more free range to be creative.

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The theme for this years Girls Stake Activity Day is, 'Circle of Friends.' We have to make sure that whatever we do emphasise the theme. Honestly I had no idea what we were going to do for the girls. At this point I was also getting sick of playing phone tag. I told the Primary President that I would call her back with what we were going to do in a few days so we could think about it. She ended up only giving me one night. I quickly tired to brainstorm with my partner and we decided to use one of my ideas. The idea was to have the girls make Friendship Catchers (aka: Dream Catchers).I figure they are in the shape of a circle so at least I had that part of the theme in our activity. I then found this really cute story/lesson on friendship. It talks about the book Charlotte's Web and how Wilbur felt about Charlotte the first time they meet but because of her web they became great friends. Now since the dream catcher has a web on the inside this was a perfect lesson to pull it all together. Although the tricky part with doing a Dream Catcher is that they normally take several hours to do, especially when it is your first one and I figure that was going to be the case with the majority of the girls going to the activity. I only have about a hour or less with these girls and that is not going to be enough time for them to make these without me doing a couple of steps for them. The question is which ones?

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Michael (my hidden leader) helped me figure that problem and others out. We decided that the only thing we would have the girls do was put the webbing together on the hoops and place the feather ties on too (except our feathers ended up being rose petals, its what I had). We got the hard job of wrapping yarn around the hoops. The other problem that we faced was what materials to use so that it wouldn't be to expensive of a activity. Figuring out the hoop was the hardest part since it is the main piece. Michael came up with the brilliant idea of using the top part of some large plastic cups. Doing this did add a little extra work for us because we would have to cut all of the cup tops off but we knew it was pretty much our only possible option. We then would use my yarn (instead of buying some) to wrap around the hoops and make the top hanging loop ties too.

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Now the other leader and I are going to be having a meeting tomorrow morning to discus some things that have been happening with activity day that we would like to change and also to talk about this stake activity day thing that is going to be happening. Sadly the other leader doesn't know what a dream catcher looks like which means that I have to have at least one all made and ready for her to see tomorrow. No big deal right? Normally yes, but in this household it is a dead NO! Michael and I bought the cups today that we were going to use and since he was going to cut the top off of one he thought might as well do them all since this is what we are going to be doing. Here is how my poor kitchen table looks.I don't think this table is really ever going to be for eating on. I always seem to be working on a project that requires the use of the table. Anyways, we tried to cut a few cups with scissors but that didn't work well. We always ended up with some very sharp edges. Michael, again, came up with the idea of using his hot knife to cut the cups and it has been working great. We have to cut 160 cup tops but I am going to do 200 just encase a girl brings a friend to this activity (which is what the stake leaders want to happen). The plan is to get these all done tonight so I can have it ready to show to the other leader. Lets just say that this is going to be a really long night.

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Oh one more thing and this is happy news. WE HAVE ANOTHER LEADER JOINING US!!! I am so excited. She just moved into the ward so I don't really know that much about her but I am hoping that she is going to be a very motivated and energetic person to work with. All I do know is that in her old ward she was one of the cub scout leaders. So hopefully this means she will do great with the girls since she probably had to put up with a lot of rowdy boys and our girls are very rowdy. I have invited her to the meeting we are having tomorrow and thankfully she said she will be able to make it. Maybe now we can have a little more order to the craziness we have been putting up with.