September Update:

September Update:
September Update:
Tonight we had a blast at chicktime! We got to practice our individuality by making our own pillow cases. Thank you to Traniece for such a fun and unique activity. A big thank you also goes out to Bridget Sy for all the food she blessed the kids with including chicken casserole and rice. There was not a hungry belly in sight. Spending just a couple hours with these great kids brings me joy beyond words.
September Update:
September Update:
Good meetings with new charity partner to secure serving again.
September Update:
Today our workshop was led by Renee. We had the girls do bean art! Which is actually kind of therapeutic and fun. The girls chose their pre-drawn pictures, grabbed some beans, glue and went to work.
Hassana was back with us and we had a great time just chatting and creating.
September Update:
September Update:
September Update:
September Update:
September Update:
Poetry Writing , decorating journals and connectivity makes for a very special Chicktime workshop!
Aren’t these so awesome!
Join us in October! It’s going to be just as special.
September Update:
Thank you H-E-B for being our sole grocer for all the good eats for the kids, staff and volunteers at our BokenKamp workshop! They enjoyed everything and had such a great time decorating their hair brushes. A huge shout out to Rosie Morin for being our workshop leader – the kids definitely thought it was such a fun craft too. As always, they touch our hearts.
The girls thought they were making them for us, but we told them it was theirs to keep! The looks on their faces made our day for sure. Thank you to our volunteers for all your help too. Without you, there wouldn’t be an us! Enjoy looking at the great job they did. #HEBHelpingHere
September Update:
Ms. Cisilia led our Chicktime event on Saturday and it was incredible. She had a wellness event for the mind and body, and taught the girls some amazing techniques to practice self-care. The girls learned breathing techniques, some yoga positions, they learned how to journal their feelings, and take care of their bodies.
Each girl received her very own journal and yoga mat, and Ms. Cisilia had brought supplies for every girl to make their own lavender eye mask and rosewater spritz.  It was a great day practicing physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. The girls loved it so much that they asked if they could do mental health checks with Ms. Cisilia every month. Thank you to Elks Aidmore, Inc. for allowing us to come and serve the girls. We love spending time with them!
September Update:
Unfortunately, we showed up and the kids did not. There was some communication mishaps!
It is frustrating, but that doesn’t stop us from showing up for them next month. After all….
this is why we Chicktime!
September Update:
September Update:
September Update:
September Update:
While we weren’t able to do Chicktime this weekend, the New Life girls had everything they needed to make Good Vibes Jars complete with inspirational quotes, prompts to write affirmations about what they appreciate about themselves, and the things in this life they are grateful for.
Thank you to Laura Arenas for making this happen!
Loom Art
Materials
A piece of cardboard about 6” x 8”, and two strips for the top and bottom.
Scissors
Ruler
Yarn
Plastic Needle
Masking Tape
Scotch Tape
Pony Beads
Twigs
Procedure
Take your ruler and put it across the top of your piece of cardboard, about 1/2” from the top. Draw a straight line with a pencil. Now measure in 1” and make a hash mark. Continue on and make 12 hash marks about 3/8” apart all across the top. Do the same at the bottom. You can space them out however you would like, but this is just what I did for my looms.
Using an exacto knife, or scissors, cut along each hash mark, stopping at the 1/2″ line.
Glue on the strips of cardboard so that the top of the strip aligns with the 1/2″ line (strips are about 1/2″ wide).
Cut 12 pieces of yarn and thread each notch, making sure to leave a tail of about 3” on the back. Tape these ends to the back with scotch tape. Make sure the threads are fairly tight (but not so tight that it’s stretching the yarn). These vertical threads are called the warp. You have your loom!
How to Weave
Cut a piece of yarn about 2 feet long. Thread it through the plastic needle and then tie a knot at the top of the needle.
Starting with the first warp thread, slide the needle underneath and then up over the next thread, and then back under the third thread, and so on. Use this under-over pattern until you get to the last warp thread. When you get to the end of your first row, pull it through all the way, leaving about a 3” tail. You can tie this tail in a knot around the first warp thread to secure it for the little kids, but after they weave two rows it won’t be in danger of coming out anymore.
For your next row, go back the other way by doing the opposite over-under pattern as you did for the first row. (If you go under and over in the same way as the first row you will be undoing what you just did. This mistake does happen with the littles so make sure to check on them before they begin each row in the beginning, Eventually they get the hang of it).
Once you have a few rows, use your fingers to push up the weft yarn so that it’s snug. Be careful not to pull too hard on the weft yarns after each pass through because your weaving will start to cinch in at the middle. Of course, this did happen to all of us, but I thought I should warn you anyway! First time weaving mistakes.
When you are done with your first color yarn, or if you decide you want to switch colors, simply end it with about a 3” tail remaining. It might start to look sloppy with lots of tails hanging out all over, but don’t worry ~ all of them will be taped to the back at the end.
Start the next colors in the same way you started the first, leaving a tail of about 3”.
When you get to the end, just cut off the yarn that you are working with. Not to sound too redundant…but don’t forget to leave that tail.
Taking Your Weaving Off the Loom
When you are finished, undo the scotch tape in the back and carefully pull off the warp threads. I didn’t take any pictures of this process for some mysterious reason, but it’s fairly straightforward…it’s just that you have to be careful because the weft threads could come off easily.
When your entire weaving has been pulled off of the loom, tie all of the warp threads together at the ends. Tie 1 & 2 together, 3 & 4 together, and so on. You should have six knots at the top and bottom. Double knots.
At this point, it’s time to deal with the tails coming out of the sides. The reason to leave the tails on the longish side is so that you can thread them through the needle, and then gently weave them through the back a few times before trimming them. If you don’t want to take this extra step, you could just tape the tails to the back with masking tape.
Also use masking tape to tape down the top and bottom warp threads to the back of your weaving. (If you don’t want a messy looking back, you can also weave the bits back through instead.)
Finishing Your Weaving
Technically, you are now done with your weaving. Hooray! But if you want to embellish with pom-poms and beads, and hang it on a twig, then read on. Just a note: The kids didn’t do any of the finishings, except for the pom-poms. I did all of the taping, beading (kids picked out their colors) and attaching it to the twig. They watched as I did it all, but it was too finicky for their little hands.
We made our pom-poms with a pom-pom maker (I highly recommend these things…they are good for life!). But you can also do it the old fashioned way: around your fingers.. Don’t forget to leave a longish tail with the piece of yarn that you use to tie the pom-pom. You will thread this tail through the needle and then attach it to your weaving by going through the bottom (front to back) and then taping it on the back. You can add beads to your pom-pom before you attach it to your weaving.
To attach the weaving to the twig, cut a piece of yarn, about a foot long, and string it through the needle. Starting on one end, loop the threaded needle through the top of the weaving and around the twig, wrapping the twig all the way until the end. Tie knots on either end, then trim and use masking tape to tape the ends to the back.
Lastly, to attach the hanger, simply cut a piece of yarn about 18” long (this will be trimmed, but better too long than too short), and fold it over. Loop the folded end around one side of the twig and make a knot. If you want to add beads, now is the time. To finish off the other side just tie it around the twig in a double knot and trim.
I know there are like a million steps, but the steps for the kids are pretty simple and fun. It’s the making of the loom and the finishing that involves some busy work on the part of the adult. I personally LOVE busy work…and I’m betting that if you’ve read this far, you do too.
They really did enjoy it. Our kids for the most part are different each month with some exceptions. But it was good because it took a while and kept them engaged. I bought the yarn at dollar tree, the plastic yarn needles are 2/$0.99 at Michaels, and I used cardboard from Amazon boxes to make the looms so it was very inexpensive too!
August Update:
The kids had a blast with our weaving activity at our August event.
We even had three new volunteers that made it extra special!
September Update:
Due to unforseen circumstances, our September workshop had to be cancelled.
See you in October!
September Update:
September Update:
It’s such an honor to serve our community.
August Update:
August Update:
August 2023:
We are looking for 3 more women to join the leadership team and women to sign up to share their passions and hobbies one month in 2024!
August Update:
August Update:
August Update:
Poetry writing workshop year four in the books! We provided them with composition notebooks, pens and stickers to decorate the journals! Several people donated prizes that were given out for participation and for creativity! Love my peeps!
August Update:
Our Back to School Bash was a success!! Thank you all for your donations of school supplies! The girls at Elks have enough supplies to last them well into the school year! Everyone brought snacks and Ashlee came up with some fun games for us to play! For one of the games, we had to lineup in alphabetical order according to our favorite breakfast cereal. The only catch was, we couldn’t say a word! That was a little tricky!  Thank you so much to Elks Aidmore, Inc. for allowing us to partner with them for the last 6 years! I can’t believe it has been six years already! In fact, we are about to start year 7!  We have had the privilege of serving so many girls in that time and we pray that they have all felt the love of the Chicktime Sisters! We’ll see you in September! Can’t wait!
August Update:
Another great night for the volunteers of chicktime. Thank you to Garrett for hosting tonight at connections. Everyone’s bellies were full of pizza as we worked on our mandalas. We can’t wait for the next event and we look forward to seeing new faces next month.
August Update:
The campus had a lot of activities planned for the month so we took the month off and supported them in other ways
behind the scenes! See you in September.
August Update:
Our August workshop was all about Family Feud fun! It was the perfect thing because it was so nasty outside with storms. One young lady is terrified of storms and the sound of the thunderclap and lights flickering out sent her into panic. We were able to witness an actual trauma response. She began to cry curled up into a corner and with recognizing this one of our volunteers just stopped what she was doing and sat with her. No judgement, no condemnation, and no criticism; just love, relation, and compassion. After one final round of the game we sat and talked about what kind of skills the girls wanted to learn. This helps us better prepare for our leader drive coming up! All in all a real good day.
August Update:
August Update:
August Update:
Pizza Wars was fun and oh so yummy!
Look at all the masterpieces. Prizes were given out and we will certainly be doing this again!!
August Update:
August Update:
Boo! We had to cancel our August workshop due to unforeseen circumstances. We will regroup and return in September with a bang!
August Update:
August Update:
What a fun Spa Day at our August workshop!
We can’t wait until next month. Our time together gets better and better.
August Update:
Due to circumstance beyond our control….We had to cancel our August workshop.
Prayers for Chadwick Residence as they staff the campus.
August Update:
What a blast we had scrapbooking with Kim! We are going to do it again next month!
Join us!
August Update:
August Update:
August Update:
We can’t wait to be HIS hands and feet again with you.
Stay tuned.
August Update:
August Update:
August Update:
Just what every kid needs to keep summer alive!
August Update:
What a blast carnival day was this past weekend! Bean bag toss, water guns, magnetic fishing, and ball toss all brought out the competition in the girls (and volunteers) because who doesn’t want to win fun stickers and rubber ducks?!
Thank you to all who joined for these memorable stations and to Juli and Randie for planning and crafting so much fun!
August Update:
August Update:
August Update:
The campus had a full schedule with summer camps and other activities. They asked us to skip August and come back in September . They are grateful for our monthly commitment and know we will be back! We are grateful the kids at SOS Villages get to experience summer fun!
July Update:
Opps! We forgot to take pictures, We are trying to see if our charity partner took some. Fingers crossed.
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
Tonight at Connections Individual and Family Services was another amazing event for the kids.Thank you Lori for providing a family style feast on Panda Express, the kids savored every bite !We would like to thank Merillee Wisk Berger for all the activities she brought. Let’s not forget a big thank you to Guardians of the Children – hill country for donating all the stuffed animals, bracelets, and stickers.
The children had an amazing time and the room was filled with laughter, joy, and happiness. We want to thank all the volunteers for the continued help and support for the children. Be sure to follow our Facebook page with updates for upcoming events.
July Update:
As we explore options for a new place to serve we are also looking for compassionate people to join our leadership team.
We are looking for a charity partner outside of Fort Worth so you must be willing to travel a little bit on our Chicktime Saturday…which is only once a month so very doable! Contact Sandi for more information at sbothum@gmail.com
Our Leadership Team is stronger than ever!!
July Update:
So much fun in the sun!
It’s always so fun to watch the kids play hard !
Join us one month!
July Update:
July Update;
The girls decoupaged clear glass vases with tissue paper and made tissue paper flowers on Pipe cleaner stems. They were given plastic card sticks to place a card that they were asked to hand write to theirselves! Notes like I’m worthy, I matter …
July Update:
July Update:
Fun games of Uno, Trivia, Mish Mash, Say What?, and raffles. Small group of volunteers but had so much fun was had!
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
What an amazing workshop!
The girls really had a great time decorating their sandals with balloons. They each got a surfing bracelet and ring to go with their flip flops. We got to have all the boys come in and thanks to our Volunteers, we were able to gift them a leather bracelet and ring! They were so excited to receive their gifts and this touched all of our hearts. Many thanks to our volunteers and our workshop leader, Elsa MacDougall. A huge shout out to H-E-B, our sole food sponsor!!! #HEBHelpingHere
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
We can’t wait to find a new place to serve so you can volunteer with us!
Stayed tuned.
July Update:
Stay Tuned. Chapter is going through a transition.
July Update:
July Update:
Our workshop was 10 of 10!
T-shirt making fun!
July Update:
We didn’t get many pictures because we were having too much fun! What a beautiful day for kayaking, a picnic and swimming!
God is good.
July Update:
Loved hearing about everyone’s dreams and sharing our personal mission statements. These ladies have a bright future!
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
July Update:
Thanks to all that braved the hot to come out this weekend!
We had a great turnout and lots of fun was had. ice cream and games for the win!
July Update:
July Update:
Our July workshop was canceled by SOS . The kids have so much going over the summer and we love they have others on their side and want to share love and fun summer experiences.
July Update
Our girl, Jenee’, organized such a fun game day at our Chicktime event today! Uno, Jenga, Connect 4, and Twister were just a few of the games. The big hit, though, was Culture Tags. That game made us all laugh hysterically. You should definitely check it out.. and definitely join us in August for our Back to School event!
June Update:
June Update:
Chicktime Katy is taking time off to mourn the loss of our chapter managing leader.
Thank you for your patience.
June Update:
June Update:
Had an amazing time today honoring our moms who graduated from their financial freedom class! What an awesome accomplishment!
June Update:
June Update:
June Update:
June Update:
June Update:
June Update:
June Update:
July drop off. Sure hope we get the okay to go back to in person workshops soon.