Missionary Care Packages

I'm thinking that it would be really fun to throw together some little care packages for the missionaries in our ward. It would be something small... Maybe make some cookies and some sort of Halloween decoration. Stick in some little pieces of candy and a card made by the kiddos? They have little Halloween boxes at Target for $1 right now.

I'm don't have it all worked out in my mind yet, but I will tentatively say to plan on this one for Thursday the 27th at my place probably in the morning. Comment here if you're interested or have ideas.

Details to follow.

Our First Trash Clean-up Activity

We had a great time picking up trash a Griffith park this week. We cleaned, watched squirrels, and explored nature for about 40 minutes. The park seemed  pretty clean and I was a little concerned that there wouldn't be enough trash for us to pick up, but  once we got started I realized how much there really was.

Here's a picture of our fabulous, hard-working girls 

Each child had their own plastic grocery bag to dump trash into. That worked okay, but there was a bit of a breeze and the bags were hard for the kiddos to handle at times. I think that next time it might be better to try little pails or something like that-- then they wouldn't have to worry about trying to hold their bag open while it blows in the breeze. 

Taking a break to explore a mysterious hole-- "what could live in there? Hey! There's trash in this little animal's home!!"  Just for the record it wasn't really an animal home... just a shallow hole. :)

I was glad that I thought to bring hand wipes at the last minute. Hands got a little dirty even through the little "t-shirt fabric" gloves I made for my girls. Too much mud from the rain the day before.

Oh yeah! One other thing-- the playground was a bit of a distraction at the beginning. Things got easier for the kids once we moved away from it, but next time I might avoid playgrounds completely.

It was a big success overall. Lot's of opportunities for teaching, and at little bit of exercise as an added bonus.