AHG Award Ceremony

Genevieve was a Tenderheart this year, and Hannah was an Explorer.  Genna has been so sad to be separated from her sister this year (not only in this activity, but in German school and golf as well.)  She has been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Hannah with all the Explorers awaiting their awards

Genna got her Sacagawea Award this year and is bridging to become an Explorer during this ceremony.

The Troop Picture

My Girls

The Explorer Table

These are the dresses the Explorers made for Africa.  They learned to read a pattern and cut out the fabric.  They also learned to embroider or applique and added that to the trim or a pocket.  Moms sewed the dresses together.

A Sewing Lesson

I hosted a sewing party for a few girls in American Heritage Girls to get their Explorer Sewing badge.  (Genna is not an Explorer, but she wanted to do it anyway.)   I was going to have 7 girls, but only 5 ended up making it.  I started off with showing the parts of the machine and they drew lines from the part names to the part on their diagram of a sewing machine.  Then I demonstrated how to thread the machine, wind the bobbin, and thread the bobbin.  Each girl got a turn to do each of those once.  Then they each practiced on a piece of paper following some lines that bent and curved without thread.

For their requirements, they had to complete two simple projects.  The ones I chose were making a small simple doll from felt and a night shirt from a big t-shirt.  The girls are wearing their nightshirts in the pictures.  I chose those projects because I had a lot of girls to help and I knew there needed to be a lot of room for error.  Wavy lines were a common theme!

AHG Award Ceremony

Before the ceremony

 This year Hannah earned the following badges:  Aviation, Native American, Textile Arts, Sign Language, Book Adventurer, Cooking, Fishing, Music Performance, Sewing, and Golf.  Genevieve earned all of those except golf.  they both earned two service stars for their 10 hours of community service.  Plus, Hannah bridged to the next level and earned her Sacagawea level award, so she will be an Explorer next year (or I guess, is officially one now!)  Genna cries every time we talk about AHG because Hannah and a couple of their friends all bridged and she has another year.  She totally has good friends still in with her as a Tenderheart, but she has a hard time when Hannah has to be in a separate group than her.  They are in SO much together, same piano, same German school class, same golf even this year.  Hannah does basketball without Genna, but Genna doesn't do anything without Hannah.  It'll be a good experience for them.  She'll get over it...I hope!

Hanging out with their friends after the ceremony.  The leis have the badges pinned to them.

American Heritage Girls Award Ceremony

The girls are both Tenderhearts this year and they both earned 5 or 6 badges and one service star.  Genevieve earned her Joining Award as well since this was her first year.  The whole family came to the ceremony this year since Drew is older and can handle staying up later on occasion.   

Isaac's sweet face lit up every time the he heard the girls' names or saw their picture in the slideshow.  He also was quite surprised when my name was called for recognition since I am the registrar this year.  

Drew decided to sneak by Brian and I and take off to the front of the ceremony.  He was quite the site in his PJs and his rain boots.  (It started to downpour right before we left the house.)  He ran straight into Hannah's arms until Daddy could catch up to him.  He's a fast bugger.  He is definitely faster than me at this point.

We have big plans to get badges earned this summer.  We'll see how it goes!

Here's a snippet of the ceremony...

American Heritage Girls