A Modest Princess

There have been a few name changes, from ‘Princess Academy Day Camp’ to ‘Princess Day Camp’ and finally this year I just started calling it ‘Princess Camp’ but the same model has been used over the years and 2018 was the best yet. I’ve tried to figure out what made it so much better this year, and I think it’s the Young Women – they are always the ones who make camp awesome and I think this year what really helped is all of them had previously helped at or attended several years of Princess Camp so not only did they know what to expect but they knew what they wanted to do.

A few years ago a little girl asked me, ‘Why is Princess camp only once during the summer’ – at the time I laughed her off but now I really wish I didn’t have to wait a whole year for another opportunity to organize such a fantastic event. I even had time to make all the crafts myself this year!

Because the numbers got a little out of hand last year, I required registration this year and used a Sign-up Genius form. The number was calculated based on how many Young Women agreed to help as I’ve found a ratio of at most 2 younger girls to 1 older girl is ideal.  With 17 Young Women helpers and 28 little girls this year we ended up with a 1.6 ratio which allowed some Young Women to take a break at times.

I was asked this year what the secret to success is… and the best answer came from the person who asked the question “I think the Young Women are set-up to succeed.” I hadn’t thought about it before, but that is what I do. All the gathering of ideas, planning of schedule, explaining assignments and requesting supplies is so the Young Women can have an opportunity to succeed in their selected tasks and leadership roles.

Ok, time for some pictures!

Each day of camp begins with a prayer, short devotional and song practice.

Rainbow Dance Painting was a success, just take off your shoes, step in some paint and dance on the paper! These were later used to decorate the front of the stage and it looked amazing but unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it.

Each morning I gather the Young Women and discuss plans for the day and share some leadership skills, the first is to delegate. The Young Women in charge of an activity delegates to her Young Women Helpers who delegate to the Princess-in-Training who explains to the little girls in her group what needs to be done. A process that worked incredibly smoothly this year, again I believe because so many of the girls are return princess campers.

My favorite moments of Princess camp are seeing the older girls, the younger girls and those in-between all having a great time. Water is universal fun and here are 7 to 17-year-olds proving that.

We tie-dyed once again this year and learned that the color of house paint matters. We had some light blue, green and yellow (which turned out orange)… we needed darker colors to make more vibrant ‘ink’ but some of the shirts still turned out pretty neat.

We finally came up with a genius solution for the Compliment posters, using the ‘walking chalkboard’ and magnets! These are posters which the girls write compliments to each other on throughout camp. A chance to write messages to new friends and to remind each other how we are all special.

Messy, glittery crafts are one of the best parts of Princess Camp and after the first day we learned how to get the clean-up under control. Here they are making cards for missionaries as our service project and decorating frames.

Spa day involves manicures, pedicures, hairstyles and face masks – this year they mixed up the ingredients for a oatmeal chocolate face mask, yum! We also sewed t-shirt scraps into flower headbands.

More paint, more bling! We decorated felt crowns on headbands, collaged pictures for our frames, painted blocks and practiced a dance for our show.

On the final day, we spend the morning setting-up, decorating, preparing food and finishing crafts in order to be ready for our Princess lunch.

All dressed-up in Modest Princess outfits we sit down for a lunch- and this year everyone was having such a great time they actually sat and ate for quite a while. It was also the first year lunch was ready early, due to the careful menu planning.

We had a professional photo shoot this year, in a photo studio set-up by one of the awesome Young Women!

A few faces forgot to smile.. it was hard to know when the timer was going off and they were ready to eat their lunch! I guarantee that they were all smiling most of the time, this year I didn’t hear of any fighting or even disagreeing – all truly acted like Princesses!

We perfected the show this year, it was so short and sweet that I didn’t get any pictures! We simplified it to performing the slideshow, song performance, graduation (walking across the stage to receive crown and certificate) and dance performance.  Due to limited space on the stage we ended up with 4 groups performing the same dance, to the same song… and then at the end the Young Women who hadn’t even practiced the dance but had learned it simply by watching rehearsals on the last day wanted to perform so we gave them the stage and it was the highlight of the show and a grand finale!

Photo Credit: Young Women Photographers