Valentine's Father/Daughter
by Lorena Brown


 

I am our Stake's Faith in God leader, and I was invited to a Father/Daughter activity on Saturday. It was a Valentine Theme. The gym was partitioned off halfway, and the room was lit with some black revolving globes with colors on them (I've seen them in the teen aisles at many stores) with soft music playing in the background. The decorations included large pink hollow hearts in pairs, taped to the walls, and the girls had written on heart doilies the things that they loved most about their dads. The centerpieces for the tables were 'heart chickens'. These were made from the insides of those hollow hearts and put together in three's - with small yellow hearts for the beaks and red chenille for the legs. They even had a tuft of feathers for the head. Very cute! And a few helium balloons here and there were a nice touch.

There was a spot in the corner for the picture taking of each couple (dad and daughter) - with a heart-decorated backdrop and fake ficus trees decorated with the chicks as well. Each couple was dressed alike - there was a pair from 'Krispy Kreme' wearing white shirts and the worker hats, another had on matching knit hats, another couple was wearing blue jeans and red shirts, another wore tie dyed shirts...you get the idea. Very cute. The girls had made some picture frames to go with the pictures, once they were made and will be presented at a later date to their dads.

The food was an ice-cream dessert bar - with brownies, bananas and toppings.  Yummy! The recognition had the girls tell about some of the fun activities they enjoyed during the past 6 months. HINT: prep the girls beforehand on some of the memories. They had a tough time remembering.

There were games played:

"Do you like your neighbor?" which is similar to fruit basket. The people sit in a circle with one person being 'it'. the 'it' person asks a seated person, "Do you like your neighbor?" If the person says, "yes," then the two people on either side need to switch places and the "it" person tries to steal a seat. If the person asked says, "No", then the person continues and says, "But I like everyone with ______________" and then fill in the blank.  They can like everyone that is wearing jeans, wears glasses, has to shave their beards, has a mustache, or even everyone! People who match the description have to get up and move to another chair with the "It" person trying to grab one of those seats. In the end, the girls were trying so hard to stay in the middle to be "it". It's a cute game!!!

Another game was "Body Parts". You need two people per team and a blown up balloon. Label separate body parts (like left arm, right calf, right eye,...) on separate pieces of paper and put them into a bag. Pull out two papers and have the team try and place their balloon on these body parts without using their hands. It's like a game of twister, and really great fun! Some of the positions just cracked me up! The bishop of this ward is 6'7", and so to see him try and do this with his 4'8" daughter was great!!!

They also did some dances: Hokey-Pokey, the Chicken Dance and then they danced one last slow dance to "Butterfly Kisses". Sob! It was adorable to see these dads dance with their daughters.