Girl's Camp

My calling in my ward is the MiaMaid advisor and as such I was asked to participate in our stake girl's camp.  I didn't have too many responsibilities, so mostly I got to sit around and enjoy being there.  I took lots of pictures and just enjoyed getting to know the girls in our ward better. 

 (All but one of the leaders)

Our theme this year had to do with princesses and "happily ever after".  The stake and ward leaders really did an excellent job of having all of those things relate to gospel principles.  We had some awesome applications and I think the girls really had a good time.  Most of the leaders in our ward had never been to girl's camp as a leader--we aren't that much older than the girls we lead.  So we were a bit nervous about how everything would work out.  But we really clicked well with the girls and had such a fun time!

Setting up Tents

 

(We are so grateful we had at least one man up there to help with all of the hard stuff!  Thanks Bishop!) 

Setting up the tents really was a group effort.  The girls did great!

Minute-to-Win-It Games and Other Fun Games

 

 (Seeing how many "steps" they can register on a pedometer with just using their heads!)

 

 (Knocking over cups with a tennis ball tied around their waist)

 

 

 

 (Playing a game called Grunt, Piggy Grunt!--which is so much fun, by the way!)

 (A person gets blind-folded and the remaining players switch seats so the person in the middle doesn't know where people are sitting.  Then they are lead to a person, sit on their lap and then ask that person to "grunt, piggy, grunt."  That girl then has to grunt or make some other kind of pig noise while the blind-folded person has to guess who she is sitting on.  It really is so much fun!)

Teamwork Activities
The girls also had the opportunity to do some teamwork activities.  They had to get their team across a log without touching the ground; they had to untangle themselves with the rope; they had to walk on 6-foot boards together; they had to play tag blind-folded....  These were just some of the fun games that they got to play and hopefully learn teamwork from. 

 

 

 

 

Princess Academy

The girls participated in Princess Academy all week. One day they went to Charm School and learned about several principles of the gospel.  I really loved walking around, watching the girls learn and seeing them see the gospel in action.  They learned things like the Atonement--they listened to the song called "His Hands" and then gave each other hand massages.  They learned about missionary work and wrote their testimonies to the missionaries serving from our stake.  They learned about using their mouths and their words to uplift instead of for bitter and hurtful speaking.  They learned how to be better girls.  I loved participating from a distance and really hope the girls gained something from this as well.

 

 

 

 

Skits

A big part of girl's camp is skit night.  With our theme being princess-y, each ward in our stake was assigned a different Disney princess that they were.  Some of the wards used that as a basis for their skit, while others came up with different, and yet funny skits altogether.  Each ward needed to use the same prop and the same word--Win-ga-po, with its associated sign in their skit.  We had a blast laughing at how these items were used and how they were something different in each one.  These pictures won't mean much to most of you, but they are funny reminders of what I saw that night!

 

 

 

Our skit had a good message along with the fun.  We had several people with different problems or issues.  One girl came around and told how ugly and useless they were because they weren't beautiful and perfect.  We had problems like: big feet, big eyes, kind of weird, twins, big booty, fashion-impaired, dirty,...  She would then have them "frozen" with our prop.  She basically said that no one was good enough unless they had outward beauty and talents.  We then had Princess Aurora--or Sleeping Beauty, who was our ward princess--come to each one and tell them why they were beautiful or good.  We then had a musical moment--oh yeah and each ward could do a song too.  Our song was "Just the way you are" by Bruno Mars.  The part that we wanted the audience to get out of it was that we all are beautiful and amazing just the way we are.  We are loved and should be loved in spite of our outward imperfections.  Then we ended with Sleeping Beauty falling asleep and being awakened by the handsome prince.  We were really proud of ourselves for following the directions and specification for the skit.  Other wards seemed to have worked on it before camp, and while that makes a nice skit, it takes away from the spontaneity and fun that can happen with only preparing at camp.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Castle-Building
Also going along with the princess theme, we were challenged to build a castle out of cardboard.  Once again other wards had prepared and done a lot of things before camp, but the main focus was to build it at camp.  We stuck to the 'at camp' rule and we came up with a great castle!  I really was amazed at the creativity and ideas of these girls.  Our final product boasted a castle foreground and a temple in the background.  We painted it pink and blue to show our colors of Princess Aurora.  Our pathway to the castle was of bricks with the Young Women values.  We had thorns of adversity, which we all must pass through in this life to attain our "happily ever after". 
We also had flags made--at these were done before camp.  Each one was so unique and beautiful.  I wish I had taken pictures of each one as well as their castles. Even though our girls felt like the other wards cheated, they did have some pretty awesome castles built. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crowned Princesses
At the end of the week we had all earned our very own princess crowns.  The Bishops were assigned to crown each one of us as princesses and Daughters of God.  It was a fun way to end the camp. 

 

 

The last morning at camp we decided a good wake-up call for the girls (and stake leaders) would be fun to do!  Thankfully someone in our ward has access to a gorilla suit!