New Beginnings: "Oh The Places You'll Go!"

For our New Beginnings this year our Young Womens president decided that she wanted to do something FUN! She was thinking a lot about the new theme "Stand in Holy Places" and kept thinking about the Dr. Seuss Book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

After searching for some ideas on the web, she ran across this idea from hatchpatch.com. We used Hatch Patch's idea to have each value be a "land" and each land had a Dr. Seuss book that displayed that value. (Hatch Patch has the ideas on which books to use and which book went with which value. She also has an assignment sheet to give to your Laurels. You can print it here.)

The books were:

Faith: Horton Hears a Who
Divine Nature: The Sneeches
Individual Worth: Thing 1 and Thing 2
Knowledge: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut
Choice & Accountability: The Lorax
Good Works:
Integrity: Horton Hatches an Egg
Virtue: I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew

Here are some pictures from out stations. During a class activity the Laurels made arrows with the different values and colors to place above the "lands." The sayings came from the Dr. Seuss book that displayed their values. Some of the Laurels brought extra decorations for their table. (For example, books, object lessons, etc.)

The sayings on the tables came from searches on Pinterest. We also used fun Dr. Seuss sayings to decorate all over the gym. We didn't have extra rooms available because there are so many groups using the church on Wednesday so we just rotated through tables in the cultural hall.

I created a "passport" (we gave one to each family) to divide up the rotation through the lands. As they went through each station the Laurel presenting the value gave them a sticker to put on their passport.  We used the colored star stickers from Wal-Mart, but you could also use a hole punch or stamps. I got the Dr. Seuss background printable from Beca at My Paper Lily here. She had lots of other great Dr. Seuss printables.

The front was decorated with yellow butcher paper and our awesome Laurel adviser drew the poster we put on the front. We used streamers, quotes, and pictures from books to decorate all over the rest of the gym.

Our Laurel adviser is amazingly creative and she did an awesome job on the refreshments table.

The drinks were four colors of Kool-aid. The names were "Pink Yink Ink Drink," "Beezlenut Splash," "Moose Juice," and "Goose Juice." I used the tags from My Paper Lily to print the names of the drinks.

The cupcakes were "Truffula Trees." They were frosted with green icing and then we stuck dumb dumb succors in the top. 

For the new "whos" coming in. (The new Beehives). Our Young Women's President found some 2013 head bands at Target and attached a print out with the 2013 theme. As we announced each of the new beehives the Laurels put one of the headbands on the new Beehives. The Beehives wore them the rest of the night and it was a fun way for them to stand out. 

All the leaders dressed up as either Dr. Seuss characters or just wacky "whos." I just wore plastic green glasses from Target (with the lenses punched out), a pink polka dot scarf, a green jacket, jeans, and yellow shoes. Our Laurels that dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 wore beanies with a blue boa glued around it to make a blue wig. 

It was a really fun night!