We had a really fun combined youth activity with the 2 other wards that meet in our building. It was one of the other wards that decided to head it up and then assigned each ward different assignments and to be in charge of different events. I volunteered to do the decorations because I love that kind of thing and then I put our young men in charge of our event and I'm so glad that I did because they did a great job and had so much fun with it.
I did have a little mishap when I went to set up. I had McCall with me and went to set up by myself. I got everything needed in the building along with McCall and all her things to keep her entertained. I locked the building since I would be by myself and I didn't want anyone to come in that didn't have access. I realized that I forgot something in the car and ran out to get it without even thinking and locked McCall in the building! Our church uses our phones to unlock the doors and my phone along with my little girl were locked in the church building and I had no way of getting in. I was in a complete panic and wracking my brain of what to do. I had my car keys, but felt horrible leaving her to go get someone. She was just as happy as can be staring at me from inside wondering what mom was doing. I decided to run around the building and it was such a tender mercy that Dale happened to be there working on something in the building and I just had no idea that he was there. I ran around another time trying to see if there was a light on in a room so I knew where to knock. I ended up banging on one of the main doors and thankfully he heard me and opened it up for me. I was out of breath and my heart was racing, but it all worked out and Pops had a little sidekick and I was able to get everything decorated.
I loved how it turned out and I loved seeing all the ideas in my head come to fruition.
I got colored poster board for the Olympic rings and the the different colors in streamers for each of the walls. I used yellow and orange tissue paper and cut it into squares and crunched them up piece by piece with a tape to create the flames underneath the rings. Then on the opposite side I did the youth theme for the year since that was our spiritual focus for the evening. I painted the sign and then created the hand with the flame with poster board, paint, and tissue paper.
I painted the different flags and made sure I had flags from each of the continents and made sure that the flags I chose actually participate in the Olympics and had simple designs. I created the torches on the side with tissue paper and some poles I got from my first counselor.
Then the two back walls I had Baylor create these handprint rings to represent the Olympic colors, but also a handprint to represent spreading light. I had the youth from the three wards write on them either ways that they can be a disciple of Jesus Christ or how they can share light with others.
We had an opening ceremony where the youth (we had close to 50 youth!!!) were divided into teams of 4. Then we had an opening prayer and the youth all together cited the youth scripture for the year. Then one of the leaders from another ward carried in the torch and another one did some amazing baton throwing to kick off our amazing night.
Then the youth had 4 events to do. Each event had 3 teams of 4 and it turned out great and they had fun at all the different events. First was pickleball. We had 2 courts set up and the teams rotated through. This one was probably the most challenging since half of the youth knew the rules and the other half didn't. Each event lasted 15 minutes so it wasn't a lot of time to explain rules and play. The second event was brain trivia. When I walked by I heard gospel related questions and Washington state history questions though there may have been other categories that I didn't hear. The third event was corn hole. The last event was the one our young men leaders were in charge of and they did relays. The first relay was trying to flip plastic cups and having it land either side up just not on its side and then once you got it, you could place a token and your team was trying to get three in a row. The second relay was cookie face where each of them had an Oreo and you put it on your forehead and only using your face muscles trying to get the Oreo into your mouth. The last relay was throwing marshmallows and getting into your partner's mouth. They were all really fun to watch and it was super nice for me to just be able to walk around and enjoy it and take pictures and not be in charge of any aspect during the evening.
Enjoy some pictures of my young women from our fun evening.
Then we had a closing ceremony where the Bishop from another ward shared a spiritual message about sharing your light and talking about the logo from the youth theme. Each youth got a tea light to turn on and the lights were turned off to show that we can all be a light and it will shine in the darkness.
Then we had the award ceremony. I made the medals and they turned out great and it was fun to see all these youth on the podiums.
The other ward was in charge of the refreshments and they did an amazing job with the Olympics theme. The youth devoured them up and I think they all had an incredible time.
No comments:
Post a Comment