Amazing Race YM/YW Activity

So, the Laurels were in charge of introducing the theme for the year for our combined youth activity. And since I'm in charge of the Laurels....

The theme this year is "Oh ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength." (D&C 4:2)

Needless to say, I've had a lot of activities that involve a "travel" vibe in my brain for the last couple of months having that word "embark" in there and all.

Well, I saw the idea on the internet of an Amazing Race youth activity and I though it sounded so much fun. I never know though, because I hate to assume that just because I think it's fun, doesn't make it fun for the kids.

So, as a group we brainstormed how we would make it work and how we could really introduce the theme this way.

This is what we came up with and what do you know... it was REALLY FUN! Ok. The adults seemed impressed but I've only heard from one kid... but he said it was the.... And I quote "Best Activity EVER!"

Since there are 4 parts to the scripture... HEART, MIGHT, MIND, STRENGTH we figured we would do 4 challenges that related to those four things.

My advisor (bless her heart. I always make her stand in front and talk.) started out by showing this video that is on the church website.

And she talked about what it means to serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength.

Then we divided up into teams. I had strips of fabric cut in 4 different colors that they could tie on their bodies in some way or another.

I explained the rules (Read the entire card, we're in the church so don't get too crazy etc.) and gave each team their first clue.

I found the downloadable clue cards here: I also used the yellow logo for the envelopes

Clue #1

The packet was two pieces of fleece that were prepared for tying. I cut the corners out and marked where they needed to cut, and safety pinned the two layers together so that it would be easy for them to figure out.

I LOVED watching the kids do this one. We did have a little scissor trouble. Some just wouldn't cut through two layers of fabric leaving some of the teams in a lurch. But we evened it out as we went and it turned out fine.

 

Once they finished their blanket they turned it in for their next clue.


Clue #2:

 

I made yellow boxes out of some old small flat rate shipping boxes I had. I just cut off the flaps, and covered them in yellow paper with a strip of black down the front. We then taped them to the wall and put in the cards for their next challenges.

 

 

This group building activity is called "Toxic Waste" if you wanted to look it up. The supplies we had were 8 pieces of string that were not long enough to reach across the entire circle and a rubber band.

 

This team was way ahead, but had a hard time figuring out how to complete the challenge.. Which was good because it gave the other teams (who had crappy scissors) a chance to catch up.

L had it figured out really quickly but no one would listen to her.

They all eventually figured it out and it didn't take long for them to complete it after that. We did have one of the rubber bands break so have some extra on hand just in case.

Once they completed the challenge, they received their next clue:


Clue #3

This is the card that was in the yellow box in the primary room

 

 

I love that they have their scriptures in their phones.

 

Passing it off.

When their team passed it off, they were given their next clue:


Clue #4

In the yellow box was this challenge:

 

I forgot to add the rules to the bottom of this card and had to do it later. They were:
1. Only one team member may go look at the example room at a time.
2. NO PICTURES

 I was in charge of this leg of the race so I didn't get a lot of pictures. But this is the example room:
and the list of things that I had to refer to when I was checking:

·         8 chairs in a semi-circle facing chalk board

·         1 chair for teacher

·         Book of Mormon, face up on the table

·         Lesson Manual open to page 100

·         Table in front of chalk board

·         Boat drawn on the chalk board (4 sails with with “heart, mind, might & strength written in each) Theme “Oh ye that EMBARK in the service of God” written on the board

·         Paper and pencil on each chair

·         Eraser face down on tray closest to teachers chair. Chalk on table next to book of Mormon

 

  When they did it right they got this:

In hindsight, we needed some kind of finish line, but I didn't have one. So the end was anti-climactic but oh well.

 

I also really wish that I had gotten some team pictures with their blankets. But I'll just take the blankets to mutual next week and pretend :)

 

After everyone was done we had cookies and milk as a post race party.

 

It was SO much fun and such a good way to do something boring like introduce the theme for the year. ;)

 



A Four Day Weekend

Seriously? We just finished Christmas Break and then there was ANOTHER long weekend. Oh well. I know it makes it sound like I hate my children. I don't. It's just a long weekend involves a lot of things I don't enjoy.. Like preparing and cleaning up three meals a day, entertaining bored children, entertaining bored husbands, a lot of noise and feeling guilty for not enjoying it more.

Anyway, so for this long weekend, the kids and I took an impromptu trip to the family cabin to clean.

It was left in a bit of a rush almost two years ago after my dad passed away and the entire family was there for the funeral. I've been wanting to take my young women there but I knew it would have to be cleaned first so this was that time.
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We got there, I plugged the kids in (Seriously, they played video games and watched movies the ENTIRE TIME minus the 30 minutes I forced them to go outside and play.). And I got to work.

It was slow work. The spider webs are nuts. There was a web in between just about every log. Oddly enough, I only saw a few spiders. And flies are crazy. They can get in somehow, but can't get out and they die in piles by the windows. It's gross (Marisa sat perched on the couch until I had them all vacuumed up.). A lot of the cleaning involved sorting and finding homes for the things that were out. My mom (who I didn't take with me Shhhh... she doesn't know I've been down there) is probably going to murder me when 1. She finds out I went down without her and 2. She can't find anything she is looking for but I tried to be mindful of that and tried to make everything easy to find.

Here is just a sampling of the work I did.(3 of the 10 rooms)

Before



After

Before

After

Before

After

I worked two half days and one whole day stopping only to feed my poor neglected children. I was SO tired when I got home and REALLY sore! So, I used the gift certificate Shane gave me for Christmas and got a really good massage.

It looks so much better now. And, while my motives were selfish (so I could go play with the girls later). I hope that it will make returning to the cabin this year less overwhelming for my mom. Hopefully she doesn't have to tear it all apart to find something she's looking for. After being away for two years I figured that would be the case whether I cleaned up or not.

Christmas Vacation part 2

For the second half of Christmas Vacation, Shane now had the flu. Fun!

The kids and I did manage to escape the house a few more times. The boys and I were lucky to escape the flu as well.

The day after Christmas we went sledding at the little hill by the high school. I like this hill because it's virtually impossible to get hurt on it. It's just not big enough. The kids don't complain about hiking back to the top and they get bored with it at about the exact moment my toes are turning blue. Win-Win-Win.

OK, Maybe it's a little small for Roman. He started using the sled as a snow board. He did pretty good.

It was a good way to get away from the mess and germs in our house.

The weekend was like any other really. Only the kids made a whole bunch of Pearler bead things. They turned out to be a great Christmas gift because it kept the kids busy most of the break.

On Monday of week #2, the kids and I took the train up to Salt Lake City.

I've been wanting to do this for SO long. They have a great group pass that is good for 4 people and works all day on all busses and trains for $15. After paying for gas and parking, I'm sure we broke even. Plus, the weather was dreadful and the roads were messy. I was happy to not have to drive.

The kids enjoyed it and played Uno. Ezra did get a little motion sick but we switched seats and he was all good again.

Our first stop was the Clark Planetarium. I wasn't planning on going there, but the train stopped right in front of it so the kids and I hopped out to check it out.

We had a lot of fun looking all their exhibits.

I'm sure a movie would have been fun too but I wasn't wanting to spend the time or money.

We then walked over to the Gateway Mall and had an early dinner in the food court.

After eating, we hopped back on the train and headed over to the City Creek Mall to check it out.

The kids found the play area and were thrilled to take off all their winter gear and run around for a while. I was happy to let them.

As soon as it was dark enough, we walked over to Temple Square to see the lights.

We haven't taken the kids to the Christmas lights on Temple Square since Roman was probably 6 months old.

They liked it and didn't mind all the walking in winter boots that are getting snug.

 

After seeing all that we wanted, we caught a quick Trax train to the Front Runner train and then headed home again.

As we rode through the valley we went through two really bad patches of weather and I was so glad I wasn't on the road again.

What a fun night.

Tuesday the party was over. We spent the day cleaning the house that we had been ignoring for a week and a half.

Wednesday I let the kids stay up till 10:00 to celebrate the New Year. I know... Party animals! We had the mandatory junk food and spent the rest of the week recovering from all the fun and counting down the hours until we could get back on some kind of schedule.  Ok, I might have been the only one counting down. :)

 

It was a good break and I'm glad we got to do so many things.