This was my 5th New Beginnings so I think I am finally to the point where I don't wake up every night during the month of new beginnings with plans or worries filling my head :) The awesome thing is that now I am in a new ward, I can use the same ideas we used in our last ward! We re-used the "Night of the Stars" theme that we had used last year in our Memphis ward. I like this idea because it is simple and cute and doesn't require crazy overtime work by the leaders.
invites, info on back
Before our program started we had people (ideally Young men- but ours didn't show up) walking around serving "candy sushi" Above: these ones are half of a mini powdered doughnut, place a sweedish fish on top (I did it with the large multi-colored sweedish fish last year- that was cute too) and wrap it in a strip of fruit roll up or fruit by the foot.
These were made in an actual sushi maker- line the sushi mold with fruit roll up, fill with store bought rice-crispies, put jelly beans down the center, and then slice! (with out a mold; shape rice crispies, wrap in a strip of fruit by the foot, and put jelly beans in the center)
After our program we had sparkling cider in plastic fluted glasses, and star shaped sugar cookies placed on fancy cake plates- right (only this is before we served up the food) we hung gold/silver stars from the ceeling.
As each new girl was introduced she walked up the red carpet (below) and recieved a golden trophy (then you give some fun facts about the girl, and can also have them dip their hand in ink and have them put a hand print on a large star- like a hollywood hand print)
And here are our cute young women. They dressed in "red carpet attire" or formals. Each of them was assigned a value to explain durring the program, so they wore the color of dress that co-ordinated with the value they were presenting. We had a fun night!
Talk: who ever is giving the little talk can talk about how each of the girls are "stars", or you could also talk about the "north star" helping us to find the way- the star of course symbolizing christ.
