Liberty Girls/Yasa Retreat

This year we combined the Liberty Girls retreat and the Young Stateswoman retreat for double the fun. We learned all about Kaya's world, with a real tepee, Native American Dancers, basket making, corn husk dolls and many more delightful activities. The older girls put on an adult skills fair and Janey made the beautiful cake in the first picture. After it had been sampled, she recycled it into a zombie pack man cake for Daniel friend birthday party the next day.

Liberty Girls Retreat

Last week the girls had the chance to attend the Liberty Girls Retreat. This year they read the Josephina Series and studied the South West in the 1800's. Girls from all over Utah came together for the day to learn dances, games, crafts, skills and cooking from that time period and region. They learned to card and spin wool, weave, do the Mexican Hat Dance and make tortillas and salsa.

Ellie loved putting on her big skirt and learning to dance. Afterwards she said, "This is so much fun! Didn't we look beautiful?" Yes Ellie, you did!

Pioneer Trek

Yes, this is all still the same week! We arrived home from CA, attended the recital, gutted the car and packed for our family Pioneer Trek. We got up at 4:00 am the next morning (Thursday) and left for our Pioneering adventure at Martin's cove in Wyoming. Everything is more fun with cousins!


Grandma and Aunt Emily made it all possible! They bought all the food and pre-cooked all our amazing meals. The pioneers never ate this good!

The hand carts weighed 180 lbs, BEFORE we put all our gear in them!

Add some dirt, scruff and sunburn and my hubby only gets more handsome!

Daniel taking an after lunch snooze in an empty hand cart. The toddlers got to ride in covered wagons when they got too tired to walk. Whitney and her best friend Natalie, who we adopted and brought along, spent most of the trek pulling the kiddie wagons.

Aunt Em made everyone's day with smores around the camp fire!

Steve says he would never want to hit the trail without his mom along. She was so fun, a hearty pioneer and made all these beautiful pioneer dresses for us!

All the youth gathered around our campfire to hear Steve's comedy skits. He's so funny! The youth in the camp really enjoyed each other.

Our pioneer Family!

Square dancing, pioneer stories, camp fires, the pony express, amazing wind that threatened to blow us away, neat families, mosquitoes, great food, 12 1/2 miles of trail, and gorgeous country made our trek an amazing experience. It also gave us a glimpse into the sacrifices our pioneer ancestors made for us to have religious freedom. We came away with a new appreciation and perspective for their faith and sacrifices.

One Little Indian

Janey's Liberty Girls club studied American Indians all semester, through the American Girls, Kaya series. Saturday was a pow wow for all the families to be able to see what the girls had been learning. I especially loved the headbands and moccasins they made this year.

Cookies and Tickets Galore

A weekend full on delivering cookies and selling Scout-O-Rama tickets. Both Janey and Daniel reached their goals.

Daniel sold 30 tickets the first day and qualified for a bucket (or plastic bag) of prizes.

Liberty Girls Retreat

At the liberty girls retreat we did some dancing and made rag-rugs and cooked stone soup and quilted. And we got liberty girl tee-shirts there and all the liberty girl groups in Utah where there. I loved it! We also made book marks. All of he activities where things they did in the great depression.


Rag rug making

Quilting

Square Dancing

Liberty Girls by Janey

In the book Kit Learns a Lesson, Kit's Dad lost his job and he might need to go to a different state to try to find a job. She doesn't want her dad to move to a different state. Kit likes to write newspapers for her Dad and I wrote a newspaper for my dad. Her it is:

Janey’s 1st Newspaper!


Today we made some bread. Steve and Daniel played a game on February 25th. I went to Liberty Girls yesterday. We played some jump rope while girls were coming and then we came in and I said the prayer and another girl did the pledge of allegiance. Then we made some clay stuff (see picture of one at the bottom of the page.) Then we had our snack and then we had another activity, but I forgot what that was. And then my Mom picked me up and we went home and had dinner. My Mom left to go to a wedding shower, and while she was there we watched a movie and then she came home and we went to bed. Then we woke up and I wrote this newspaper.

What I want for my birthday is a girl gerbil, and some food for the gerbil and some bedding, a little playhouse for the gerbil, and a cage and a padlock. I want a padlock to keep Ellie from squishing the gerbil. And I also want a new coat for the next winter. And I want 2 surprise presents. I want to have a friend party and invite Alex, Kelsey, Autumn, Elizabeth and Abby and Zealand, Jackson and Savanna and Alyssa. At the party we are going to play pin the tail on the donkey, hopscotch, (and for another present I want some chalk), and we are going to have balloons at the party, and a piñata, and a pink frosting cake. And everyone can make two small frosting cookies to take home. And then we are going to play hide and go seek tag and then were going to play up in my room and then we are going to play outside. Then we are going to have cake and then presents and then people are going to draw what’s their favorite animal. And that’s the end of the Newspaper.

Liberty Girls by Janey

The Kit book was fun.

In the book a lot of people were losing jobs because of the Great Depression. Then President Obama was talking about the same thing on the radio. In the book there was a garden party with lots of ladies, and then we had a garden party at liberty girls. We had little hearts cakes and little heart candies that were really hot. I was saying, “HOT, HOT, HOT!” and made all the girls laugh. It was fun.

Liberty Girls by Janey

First we got together at Liberty Girls. Then we said the prayer and did the pledge of allegiance. Then we made pies. First you roll the dough out into a circle and put it in the pan. Then put the pie filling in. Then you make another circle with some more dough and put it on top of the pie. Before you do, you can cut shapes in the pie top with cookie cutters and then you set it on top of the pie and then you cook it. I made an apple pie.

Pilgrim Hats

Janey went to bed before I remembered to have her tell you about these adorable pilgrim hat cookies she made. Her Liberty Girls held a craft fair and all proceeds went to the Humanitarian Aid fund. They are clever and easy. You coat a marshmallow in melted chocolate and center on an upside down fudge striped cookie. Chill in the fridge and then make a buckle with yellow decorator frosting. They were a hit and she sold out for a good cause.

Liberty Girls by Janey

For Liberty Girls this week we read the book Meet Addy. Addy and her family were slaves for Master Stevens during the Civil War. Her brother and dad were sold to another white guy and Addy and her mom escaped, but they couldn’t bring her baby sister Ester. They came to this river. They tried to cross, but her mom couldn’t swim and the current took her down river and Addy had to rescue her mom.

In Liberty girls we sewed a doll like Addy’s doll in the book. Addie’s doll is named Janie in the book. Then we had a snack of corn bread. Then we showed each other pictures of our families so we could get to know each other. We made sea shell necklaces, because in the book Addy’s mom gave her a sea shell necklace that belonged to her great-grandma. It was really fun.

How the Duck got His Colors by Janey

There is an Indian story that says that "back then" all the ducks used to be white. Then OLD-man saw all the ducks gathering to fly south. So OLD-man was on this big hill covered with LOTS of moss. He gathered some moss and he thought of something to trick the ducks because he wanted a big duck dinner. So he began walking down the big hill, then he called to the ducks and said, "Come on lets have a party and dance, but first help me build a tepee to dance in."

So he got some poles and leaned them against each other and wound them together with some thread. Then he spread the moss over the tepee. So he built a nice fire in the middle and then he called and said, "Lets have a party with nice dancing."

One wise duck said "Don't listen to him."

So Old-man saw that they were thinking about it, but then they decided it would be fun to go to a party. Grey goose and his brother decided they would just watch. The ducks went in and Old-man said "Would some of you play some instruments?" and they started dancing around the fire.

Then he said "Stop. For this dance you need fancy clothes. I'll get out my paint brush and paint you. For this dance you need to close your eyes, or they'll be burned by the fire."

They started dancing with their eyes closed and and one by one he put them in a basket to kill them after the dance. So grey goose and his brother yelled "Stop" and everyone opened their eyes. So they saw what was happening and flew south. To this day the ducks have kept their bright painted colors and fly south and if they have red eyes it means they peeked at the fire.

Liberty Girls by Janey

Using our sence of smell instead of our sence of sight.

Indian Fry Bread

For Liberty Girls this week we pretended we were blind. We played a game where we were blindfolded and someone else led us through a path of obstacles. We ate Indian fry bread with blue berry sauce. It was GOOD! We learned three Indian dances, the duck dance the waiting dance and the jingle bell dance. We smelled lots of smells blindfolded, to see what it was like to be blind and figure out what something was without your eyes. No one liked the pickles or soap. I learned how to write my name in Braille with a Brailler. We talked about the book Kaya shows the Way. In the book Kaya finds her blind sister who was kidnapped. She was happy to see her again.

Liberty girls by Janey

This week for Liberty girls we played some Indian games. We played a game like hockey with sticks and a ball and another game where someone would hold a stick and someone would hold a hoop. The person would throw the hoop and the person with the stick would try to get it through the hoop. The Indians played this game for spear throwing practice. Then we got to peel corn on the cob and eat it. I liked the corn. We made Indian dream catchers and talked about the book Kaya and Lone Dog. The book was about a lone dog that had puppies. Kaya visited the puppies and got to keep one for her own. I like this book about Kaya.

Liberty Girls by Janey

For our Liberty Girls meeting this week we read and learned about the book Kaya's Hero. In the book a baby gets sick, but she gets better. I really liked the book. We built a long house, like Kaya lived in, in the winter. Then we moved with our babies to the summer tepee. We learned about how Indians traveled, pick Indian names for ourselves and baked homemade cornbread and cornmeal mush. My favorite was the corn bread. Traveling using our Indian transportation from our winter long house to our summer tepee.

Making Corn Bread with Aunt Laura!

Liberty Girls Retreat

Imagine dozens of little girls learning about noble character traits from their favorite book heroines. Thursday was the annual Liberty Girls Retreat, a seven hour event for all the Liberty Girls chapters in Utah. (There are over 200 girls now participating in Liberty Girls!) They learned about having Courage, Faith, Joyfulness, Compassion, Perseverance, Hope, Respect and other traits as they participated in games, activities, service projects and crafts. Janey's favorite was the blindfolded ropes course, to teach Faith. They learned manners, made luminaries, planted seeds, and played tug of war among many other activities. Since we are studying Kaya this summer, Janey, Savanna and Anna were especially excited to get their picture take with her.

Liberty Girls by Janey

My favorite part of Liberty Girls this week was planting strawberries. First we painted our pots and when they were dry we put the plants in. We talked about the American Girls book "Kaya's Escape." We also made Indian necklaces and ate strawberries, blackberries, popcorn (did you know Indians were the first to discover popcorn?) and beef jerky too. We learned some sign language like Kaya and played together. I like liberty girls.

Liberty Girls by Noreen and Janey

This week Janey and I hosted the first meeting of our new girls club “Liberty Girls.” There are several club chapters in Utah that follow the American Girls Book series and my Sister-in-law Laura and I have started a new one. The girls read one of the books at home with their mom and then we get together and do activities based on the book. This summer we are reading the Kaya books about a Native American girl from the 1764. We read “Meet Kaya” for our first meeting. The story was beautifully written and full of choice and consequence, good family relationships, history and culture with beautiful illustrations.

We opened our club meeting with a narration on the book by Janey and made tepees out of sugar cones, icing and mini M&Ms. The book talks about how the Nez Pearce Indians followed the food supply and spent some time every year catching Salmon. I cooked some Salmon and we ate it out in the Tepee in the backyard. Most of the seven girls were brave enough to try it, and wouldn’t you know, it was my two year old niece that volunteered first! Janey had made a horse piñata when we were reading Black Beauty together and decided that the club would be the perfect place to bust it. Whitney volunteered to teach the girls about horses, and how the Indians used them, and had them each color own. We then attempted to make Indian jewelry. (Tip: Don’t buy clear elastic bead cord and expect to tie it around tiny wrists and ankles. I just isn’t going to happen.) Over all it was a great successes!

When I asked Janey her favorite part she said, “I don’t have a favorite part, I love it all!”