A night of fire magic and s’mores, a movie and sleeping outside–these started off our new Balcony Girls season.
You have to have a goal, and to stay focused on it, I told the girls the next morning as we sat around and ate French toast.
7th grade is full of excitement and a lot of changes.
My advice, taken right out of Philippians 3, was to have a GOAL. The goal being, follow who God made each girl to be, treat others with respect and dignity, and don’t follow the “in” crowd, just because it’s cool.
~ Stick with like-minded friends
~ Hang with girls headed toward the same goal
~ You may be swayed, but stay true to who you are
~ Don’t follow the crowd, just to be cool
~ Sometimes it seems easier to just “follow” but in the end it’s much harder
~ “Easy” is often a dead-end
Our craft
In less than 5 minutes, we made individual chalk boards. I bought these trays for about $1 each at IKEA earlier this summer.
We sprayed them with chalkboard paint, so each girl could write an encouraging word that would make them THINK.
GOAL was perfect for my board.
Having a goal and balancing it with God’s Word keeps me focused, and to stay on the right track.
A new spin on s’mores
Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Marshmallows
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Mmmm, Delicious!
Have you tried these?
Sleepy girls who got to bed very late!
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I love your Balcony Girls. I have 2 daughters and this type of group is what i want for them. Biblical values with everyday lessons and strategies. Beautiful… thanks for inspiring me as a mon! Blessings…
oh how very much Fun!!!! I would have loved that at that age!
Suzanne
Loved this! Great ideas–thank you for sharing!
Hugs,
susan
Being very non crafty I love the things I learn from blogs about stuff like chalkboard paint…who knew?
Love that tray chalkboard idea!
May God let these good true lessons sink deep into each girls heart and mind so they can withstand all the pressures of conforming to the world!
Reminds me when my daughter was in girl scouts: campouts, s'mores, crafts, and life lessons.
Love it! Miss it!
Love the chalk board and your inspiration to those girls. I taught the college girls for 5 years and you really could tell who had been following God as a teenager.
Cynthia
Love your Balcony Girls and your commitment to them. I SO love the TV outside.
What fun! It does not get much better than that when you are in 7th grade!
What a great post and excellent advice! Those smores look YUMMY…
What fun! I wanna be a 7th grader and come to your house, LOL.
I love that you are dong this with the girls, what a blessing you are to them. They will remember these lessons, and these fun times throughout their lives – awesome.
YUM
P.S. I've NEVER seen a smores like that and I'm def gonna try it,
This is so great! I love the idea. I have three girls that are still young. I hope they can find something like this as they grow up.
SERIOUSLY…your Balcony girl lessons are inspiring to ME (and trust me when I say I am noooo teenager – Ha!).
I find myself wanting to write them down (or print them off) so that I can share your wonderful advice with my own daughter when she is old enough!
Absolutely wonderful Sandy!
Jamie
What a great reminder for those gals as they begin a new season in life-and how special to have a little token of that too!
And the smore's-I've got to try those!
This is most adorable! I love your homemade chalkboards. I found a pen at Office Depot called the Mean Streak. It's a permanent white marker and it looks like chalk. I want to make these for my house. Also, I love fun daughter ideas. This one is definately a keeper!! Thanks for posting.
What a wonderful way to end the summer & start a new school year! Love the chalkboards!!
Carol
Awesome lesson and so true!!! That is what we regularly speak into our girls and into those we lead!! There are a few verses I love especially in the message version that ate so cool about not conforming.
Yes I have had S'mores like that and love them. Of course I love all things PB
hey we will be in your neck of the woods on sept 27…playing the Powerstrikers I think.
This looks like so much fun, I wish I would have had a Balcony Girl group growing up. Life long friends and life lessons from some who loves God. Beautiful!
Julia
What a great idea! I just wrote a post about goals on my blog and then 5 minutes later in my inbox I saw this post. Too funny! Now I have a scripture to accompany my goal setting. Thanks!
It's so very rare that I leave here without finding a cool new idea or recipe that I want to try.
Thank you so much.
Wonderful lesson, thanks for sharing it!
um yum those smores look good! Kelly
Oh how I would love one of those s'mores. But, alas, there are no graham crackers or peanut butter cups in Australia.
I love those trays! Great idea.