CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Sunday, January 11, 2009

It's great to be....DONE!

As you all know, I am in charge of baptisms this year, which means I am also in charge of our baptism preview, which was tonight. I really wanted this to be a great night for everyone, so I tried to do things that would make them feel special. I tried to take pictures of all the things that I did and I am posting them not to brag, but to remember, so that next year I can try to copy myself or improve and do things better.

Our theme was 'It's great to be...8', so I tried to incorporate that in all the things that I did. Here is the invitation, which is what my inspiration was for everything I did. Everything I did was in white, cream and beige shades so it had a nice simple, but elegant look (in my opinion).

The band with the 8 on it slid off, so that the invitation could be opened and looked like this when opened. A special thanks to my good friend Donna who let me use her cool paper for these!


When I delivered the invitations I took my camera along. I wanted to get a picture of each child so that I could use it to decorate with. I made each child (yes, I had to force some of them to do this) do a nice smile and then a funny face. Then, keeping with the 8 theme, I cut out the pictures and put one at either end of the eight. Then on the top picture I put "It's great to be..." and on the other picture I put their name. It was simple, yet it turned out cute. I put these all over the doors to the font, which was at the front of the room. We have 18 kids getting baptized, so it nearly covered the doors. Here is what one of them looked like.





Then I made a little favor for each child. I made copies of the following poem

"I am making some important covenants on my Baptismal day.
I'll wear these socks to remind me that I'm choosing the right way.
As I go into the Waters of Baptism, these socks will be first to enter in.
Just as these socks are clean and white, I too will be cleansed from sin."
I bought each child a pair of white socks (girls had lace around the cuff) that they can wear on their baptism day. I put them in a white chiffon bag and tied a bow around it. Since I discovered this Christmas, how to make cute hair bows, I decided that I wanted to make some white ones for the girls getting baptized, so I made some and clipped it onto the bag. I didn't have anything for the boys and Chris announced that it was unfair; at this point I had nothing else for them. Well today at church, I was going through our Primary cupboard and found some white CTR brackets...not girly ones, but the thick rubber band type, so I attached them to the bag as well.

This is how the girls bag looked...sorry you can't see the socks, but they are in there!Here is a picture of the clip up close, but I decided that you just had to see it on someones head to do it justice, so I asked AnaLeigha to model it... she was only too happy to oblige!

Then I made the programs, I tried to keep them simple and in the color scheme of choice. I am not computer savvy, so I am pretty proud that I figured out how to do a '8' watermark on it. LOL

For the program, both the Primary President and a member of the bishopric spoke to the kids, then we had the cub scout leader and activity days leader do a little blurb about those activities. Chris 'lovingly' agreed to sing a musical number...which by the way was so beautiful (of course) and really brought the spirit into the room. Then we did a small spotlight on each child...which was so fun. We really have such a great bunch of little ones! It was a short and sweet program (my kind of program) and then we ate refreshments.

And now for the best part!!! My friend Lesleigh, who is also in the ward, has a cake business (you can find her link on my sidebar!) and she made us these TWO AMAZING CAKES! They were definitely the hit of the party! When you walked into the relief society room, the aroma just hit you in the face...plus they looked so BEAUTIFUL! Really, these pictures just do NOT do them justice. She went above and beyond for us with these two beautiful masterpieces and I am so thankful for her and that she was so willing to do this. THANKS LESLEIGH!

This cake was only supposed to be a small 6" round cake, just in case the other cake didn't feed everyone (we were expecting 60+ people). But when I showed up to pick them up yesterday, this is what I found! She made another smaller version of the eight cake...just amazing!

So the night is done and I am relieved that it went so well. All the hard work was definitely worth it, I got so much wonderful feedback and thanks from the parents. I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of such a wonderful thing.

How's that for fulfilling my new years resolution????!!! Oh, and another great part, there was actually a little bit of cake leftover that I think is calling my name right now. I better go and answer it...after all, it is rude to ignore something that is calling your name! So in the words of Marie Antoinette..."LET THEM EAT CAKE!"

25 comments:

living life said...

i knew you'd do excellent! i wish you did my baptism....i didnt get and party favors...:)just kidding, anywho, you always do amazing jenny! and i agree those cakes look good enough to eat...

Amy said...

Holy cow Jen, you're right about fulfilling your calling, that is absolutely AMAZING!!!! You did such a GREAT job and you honestly went way far and beyond your calling. The cakes are perfect, I can't even get over how great they look!!!! Oh Jenny you are the best, you did such a great job. I seriously think I'm going to give a bug in my wards ear to check out your blog for an idea. Sure do love ya

Wendi said...

Great job Jenny! Everything looks perfect!

BreAnn said...

Well holy crap, that looks amazing! I love the invitations, they're adorable! And the socks/poem it too cute! You did an amazing job Jenny!

nic and krista said...

I'm always so amazed at your creativity Jen! You put so much time and effort into your calling and you do such an amazing job, I hope those kids know how lucky they are to have you as a leader. Love ya! Oh, and Addie wants to say, "hi auntie, I love you."

Momza said...

Wow. You are totally awesome! You should submit this to LDS Living.
Great Ideas! Hope u don't mind if I copy your great ideas for my 7-turning-8 year old class!
Love every bit of it!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad the evening turned out well! Everything looked great!

PS. Every time I read your blog I'm amazed at how talented your husband is! That song is amazing!

Lucky girl you are!

sadie said...

lucky little eight year olds has a wonderful leader who takes her calling seirously, your great jenn.

Allie said...

wow jenny that is so good i wish i could do that! hey i got a new blog because some thing happened to my other one and it wont let me on so ya

Super Angie Супер Энджи said...

Wow, I wish Dallin had had such beautiful detail put into such an event last year. You really did an amazing job. You went above and beyond and I'm very proud of you. Our ward is so blessed to have you in the primary. And WOW. Lesleigh is amazing.

Deedee said...

Great work, Jen. Isn't it so wonderful to ,stress, work hard to be creative, work some more and worry that everything will go as planned, only to sit back afterwards and feel so relieved that it came off without a hitch ? It's a great feeling. OH, just want you to know that I love you, just because you're you!!!
Deedee

Tara H. said...

I love everything!! You are such a creative girl!! I wish you lived close, you can help me with the thousands of great things I am supposed to make for YW. Well not thousands, but probably hundreds.
Glad your on the done end!!

xoxoxo

Kayla said...

Great job Jenny...I wish one of my kids would've been turning 8 this year!!!!

Kirstin and Brett's Family said...

You have so many comments you probably won't even see mine (boo-hoo).. I sure wish you were in charge of our ward. You & I are so alike.. I loved everything and I like that you are creative with it. It sure makes it worth it and memorable for those turning 8. Colten turns 8 Feb 5 & we're not having our preview until Jan 25.. No announcements yet & I have a hard time believing it could even come close to as good as yours! I'm jealous!! I need to get your girls # for the cake.... a great idea for the Baptism day! He's being baptized Feb 28th... if you can come. I'll let you know more! It'll be a big party at our house!!!! At least come for the party.. love your guts.. we need another game night.. we're up for it!! Might as well when you're home on Fri night..

Nikki said...

Faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous job Jenny! And by the way, that song Chris wrote ROCKS! I had chills. He is soo good!

Elaine said...

I LOVE, LOVE your invitations and program. I just wish you'd posted this last week before I made the invites for our baptism fireside.
Thanks for the great ideas that I will hopefully be able to use in the future.

Becky and Ryan said...

Thank you for sharing your fab ideas on sugardoodle!!!!

Becky

Jenkinson Family said...

Thank you! This is my first "baptism" preview. It will be of great help.

Anonymous said...

I'm a new Primary President and, needless to say, overwhelmed! My friend directed me to your blog when I told her I just found out I needed to put a "Great to be Eight" program together. I hope you don't mind if steal some of your fantastic ideas! I love how you made it elegant and special. I love the idea of the cute pictures of the kids...the goofy ones are genius. I'm sure they loved it.
Thanks!!! for posting this!!!

Keng said...

Hey, thanks for posting this idea on sugardoodle.net. I was hoping to ask you a few more questions via email. Please email me when you have a second at kendrahales at msn dot com.
Thanks,
Kendra
Lehi, Utah

kate said...

i LOVE your ideas!!! if you wouldn't mind, would you mind emailing me your templates for your invitation and program? I'm so bad at using those programs nad i LOVED your ideas so much that i'm basically copying them (hope that's okay!!)...my email address is kateanddave03@gmail.com thanks SOOO much for posting these great ideas!!!

Ann said...

Hello - Can you please tell me what is written below the date/time/place on the invitation? I know it says something about excited about making the decision to be baptized but I can't make out the rest.

thawkins said...

I love what you have done. Do you still have a template of sorts for the invitation and the program that I could use? If so, my email address is thawkins@smu.edu. I would so greatly appreciate. Wonderful job on putting this altoghther!

Natalie said...

I LOVE your whole program! Do you think I could have a copy of your program template? You are sooo talented! nataliemetlerrn@gmail.com

Dress up wholesale said...

I appreciate you advertising Halo Heaven. Unfortunately it went out of business shortly after I sold it. I am trying to rebuild it at www.dressupwholesale.com . I was hoping you would change your links to reflect the new site? It would really help me out and your readers would no longer be clicking a dead link.