Relief Society Birthday Brunch

March is always the Relief Society Birthday Activity.  We usually do a dinner but this year I talked the RS Pres into doing a brunch on Saturday morning.

Can I just say my committee is fantastic?!  Elaine found a great berry french toast recipe, we made 5 pans.  Karen cooked the sausage (well it was from costco the precooked so that was warmed up),  We had a bowl of peaches, pineapple orange juice, tiny quiche from costco & orange slices. Kelly came up with the game & Birthday gift supplies.

(Before it was cooked^^)

Part 1: Eat and Photos

The activity started at 10am, so we had a quick prayer to bless the brunch and get their food, and get their picture taken in the photo booth I put together (I used some stuff from my halloween costume box), and printed out free mustache/lips etc and taped them to skewer sticks I already had in my pantry.  I bought the green backdrop at Michael's, they have large rolls of paper for bulletin boards for about $10. I taped it with packaging tape to the accordion door separating the gym and the chapel.

Then we had 40 minutes to eat and socialize.

I forgot to take a pic of the food table-- oops!

Part 2: Game/Prep

On the table was a multiple choice questionnaire (had about 15-20 questions on it) about the history of Relief Society for the sisters to fill out, which we later played a little jeopardy with.  Before the activity we used magnets to put numbers on the back of some of the chairs, and after we ATE for 40 minutes, at 10:40, we started the Game.  Robin was leading it, asked who had #1 on their chair and they had to answer the question on the questionnaire (with neighbor help if necessary--)  everyone had fun talking about the questions and laughing about some of the funny or unexpected correct answers.

Part 3: Musical Number & 5 min of RS President Closing Remarks (mostly about visiting teaching.)

Then we had a simple but lovely musical number, 3 sisters sang "As Sisters in Zion" and we had the RS President give 5 minutes of closing remarks.

The committee made tiles with the word "sisteRS" on it (get it??) as a birthday gift for each sister to take home.  Kelly found the design and printed them on super thin paper (not vellum).  The we mod-podged it to the tile.

Closing Prayer and Clean up!

February Relief Society Meeting: Heart Healthy/Throwback to Recipe Club

Oh February!  

Our ward used to have a recipe club a few years ago that fizzled out, so we decided for one night we'd have a Throw Back to Recipe Club! 

We had a sign up and ladies could bring a healthy recipe (but we added it could be heart happy or just plain taste-bud happy so ladies could bring a favorite anything to share).  

In my ward we  always have refreshments first:-)

The plan for the activity is as follows:

6:30 Bless Refreshments/Socializing

7pm Start Program.

It works out perfectly, since not everyone can make it at 6:30, so the program is at 7pm.  When we used to have refreshments at the end, people would have to leave and miss them, so it just made sense to start them off at the beginning.

at 7pm we have an opening song to start off the program portion of the night.  

 Pic of the set up the day before the activity.  Luckily I saved all these Hearts I cut out of a scrapbook paper pack from last years Feb activity so I put them up again (but we were in the RS room last year).

I like doing U shape for the tables so everyone has the feeling of sitting together, rather than the round tables that are separate.

Part I:  Speaker for 15 minutes
We started the program at 7 with an opening song and then Haley gave a great talk (tied into the word of wisdom) about her journey losing over 60lbs in the last year by her dedication to eating healthy.  The sisters and I all enjoyed hearing her personal message and true story.  She did such a great job tying everything together!

Part II:  Sharing Time

We went around the table and each sister told everyone about the dish she brought or talked about a favorite dish.  (so everyone got to share if they wanted to-- fellowshipping by having everyone talking :-))  There were so many delicious dishes, and someone brought some bean brownies lol!

Part III:  The GAME!

We played the Minute to win it game of OREO Forehead or whatever its called.  We had 2-3 sisters compete at a time to get an oreo from their forehead to their mouth in one minute without using their hands. We brought 2 pkgs of oreos in case some oreos fell on the ground ladies could keep trying with a clean oreo:-) Phyllis won in about 5 seconds! She was amazing and the only one to do it. There was a lot of laughing and hooting and hollering watching us all attempt the feat!

Closing Prayer and Clean up. :-)

January Relief Society Meeting Hot Chocolate Party

After Christmas I always like to plan an EASY to throw together activity in January after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  Enter a HOT Chocolate Party!

In my ward we  always have refreshments first:-)

The plan for the activity is as follows:

6:30 Bless Refreshments/Socializing

7pm Start Program.

It works out perfectly, since not everyone can make it at 6:30, so the program is at 7pm.  When we used to have refreshments at the end, people would have to leave and miss them, so it just made sense to start them off at the beginning.

at 7pm we have an opening song to start off the program portion of the night.  

We set up 3 rectangle tables in a U shape for sisters to sit at and enjoy their hot cocoa, and later for 2 of the stations.

At this activity we had 3 stations, and the ladies spent about 10-15 min or so at each. We were lucky to have about 20 sisters come, so there were 6ish sisters per station. One of the midweek committee members ran each station.

I took this pic mid set up, there were more toppings and cookies we added.

Station 1:  Marshmallow minute to win it game.  

2 sisters compete at a time to throw as many mini marshmallows in a red plastic cup as they can in one minute.  I taped the red cups to a small table and then put 2 bowls (each with 1 bag of marshmallows in it) on two chairs about 5 feet away from the red cups.  The ladies stand at the chairs and try to get as many marshmallows thrown into the cup as they can in one minute.  We played some music on my phone to make it a little more exciting, and the sister in charge of the station set a 1 minute timer on her phone and we counted down the last 10 seconds.  It was super fun for everyone, and easy enough that even sisters in wheel chairs could play.

Station 2:  Catch Phrase Board Game

I'll admit I just wanted the ladies to have fun, (and friend shipping/fellowshipping is the goal here as well!) and rationalized playing catch phrase by tying it into visiting teaching:  you have to use phrases to be a good visiting teacher (then we played the game as usual).

Station 3:   Visiting Teaching Discussion (the spiritual part)

When the ladies rotated to this table, we had Karen lead a little group talk about how visiting teaching has touched her life. Then each sister had a minute or two to share any experience they had either being a visiting teacher, or been visit taught.

Handouts/Take Home Treats

At the end we handed out these little bags with an assortment of Werther's caramels and a tag that said "Treasure every sister" You can download the cards where I found them on this site  

December Relief Society Christmas Party

The Christmas Party is one of our best attended activities.  

We had it at Susan's house and it was perfect!! Her home was so lovely decorated I couldn't get over it.  There were even motion detector bells that played music as you walked up the front door!

Whenever we have an activity at someone's home, the start time is changed to 7pm-- so it's more convenient for the family that's hosting.  

Around 7:15 many sisters had arrived, so we had a Opening Prayer (blessing the food-- we had a big sign up and sisters brought the refreshments, the committee made punch and provided the paper products).

We had a musical number on the piano with 2 gals singing a beautiful Duet.  Then I announced the craft in the kitchen and wished everyone a Merry Christmas to socialize and make their craft for the rest of the evening.

We made ornaments similar to this:

source

 It was delightful and christmasy and a wonderful evening! Thanks to Susan and Robert opening their home for everyone!!

November Relief Society Midweek Meeting: Around the World

Who doesn't love talking about their trips??!  

In my ward we  always have refreshments first:-)

The plan for the activity is as follows:

6:30 Bless Refreshments/Socializing

7pm Start Program.

It works out perfectly, since not everyone can make it at 6:30, so the program is at 7pm.  When we used to have refreshments at the end, people would have to leave and miss them, so it just made sense to start them off at the beginning.

at 7pm we have an opening song to start off the program portion of the night.  

We decorated with a big map and some flag banners around the room.   The map was great to reference where all the ladies had been.  We set up a table on the side of the room (not pictured) for ladies to display their travel items on.

Part 1: Speaker for 10 min
We started out the evening with a sister who was a returned missionary from Chicago Spanish speaking mission and she talked about her experience on a mission and loving the people she served.

Part 2: Sharing Time
Then each sister that brought an item from a trip to display had 3-5 minutes to tell everyone about their item (or items!)  It was a very fun night, and people were able to get to know each other better and fellowshipping went on after hearing an insight into everyone's lives.  Our president even brought her scrapbook and shared when she just happened to be in the right place at the right time, about 10 steps away from the Queen of England!

We had a couple sisters sign up to bring refreshments.
Lots of fun and bonding was had that night.

September Relief Society Broadcast

In lieu of a regular midweek meeting, we focus on the General Relief Society Meeting.  We get together at the church 1/2 hour before the broadcast for treats and socializing and then watch the broadcast together.   I know you can watch it at home, but some sisters still like coming out to the church, and you have a super easy activity that only requires refreshments and a bishopric member to set up the projector & equipment.

June Midweek Meeting "A Night at the Movies"

We used this idea here and just regurgitated it for our ward.

All the gals did a great job, but in hindsight, 3 speakers was a rather long time, so I'd recommend sticking with my 3 Step Program and only having 1 speaker.

Here's the Poster we  put in the church foyer:

Here's the flyer, you can get a blank one here.

We had that great Chicago Mix popcorn from costco in cute little popcorn boxes from oriental trading, and Robin had some great hot dog baskets with paper for the hot dogs.

Funny pic of everyone in Deb's backyard!

March Relief Society Birthday

Since it was on St. Patricks day this year we had a bit of a green theme.

Another Relief Society Birthday Dinner:

We've got the next 2 months of activities framed and the flyers out on the tables.  After we ate (catered food from a local place-- much easier to pick it up, and we had some of the high priests serve the ladies) and had a speaker, we played a game back in those circled chairs for the fun.  ( I may have skipped out after decorating to go to Dayton to watch BYU play in the NCAA game;)

February Midweek Meeting Love is gleaming in the air

Here's the February Activity Flyer
We had planned for 3 speakers on the topics on the flyer (but I would recommend just sticking with 1 per my 2016 3 part meeting plan).

Relief Society Christmas Party "Kringle Mingle"

At this christmas party, after a quick prayer with a blessing on the refreshments--

Part 1: We played Name that Tune,  there was a clue that was read, and the ladies got to guess the title of the christmas song, each winner got a small bag of hershey kisses tied up with a ribbon.

Part 2:  We had a reading of 7 characters who were part of the Birth of Jesus' story, the inn keeper, Mary, shepherds, etc.  To be honest, 7 characters were too long, it lasted about 30-40 minutes! If I did it again I would have only picked 3 of the characters to be read, and I assigned one sister per reading, they were around 1-2 pages each.

We had a lot of sisters sign up to bring food.  I printed out 3 copies of this sign up sheet, so I could take one to the primary and YW.


The more spots numbered on the sign up sheet, the more people feel willing to sign up;)  At least that's my philosophy.  Plus there's usually at least one person who signs up and can't end up making it to the activity, so having an abundance avoids having a last minute scramble when someone cancels on refreshments.

 

<3 these ladies!

November 2014 Relief Society Midweek Activity Grateful Gala

In my ward we  always have refreshments first:-)

The plan for the activity is as follows:

6:30 Bless Refreshments/Socializing

7pm Start Program.

It works out perfectly, since not everyone can make it at 6:30, so the program is at 7pm.  When we used to have refreshments at the end, people would have to leave and miss them, so it just made sense to start them off at the beginning.

at 7pm we have an opening song to start off the program portion of the night.  

Part 1.
10min speaker on the Beattitudes (I think? My memory!)

Part 2.
Each sister was able to share something they were grateful for.

Part 3.  Big craft, decorating the cover of a composition notebook to become a Gratitude Journal.

Closing prayer.

September Relief Society Midweek Meeting- Organize Your Life

This Activity was what I like to call a trifecta.  We had 3 speakers.  In hindsight I would stick to one speaker, and follow my new (2016) format of 1 10 min speaker (about how the Lord's house is house of order, etc. for the spiritual aspect), followed by each sister sharing an organizing tip they do at their home, then have a game.  

With 3 speakers it was very important to tell people they have less time than they actually have because people tend to go over, 10 min each would've been fine.  Because honestly, unless it's 1 speaker that's really good that talks for 20 min, there doesn't provide much "fellowshipping" time among the sisters.
My emphasis on "fellowshipping/friend shipping" is based on what President Hinckley said every new member needs -- a calling, a friend & (something else I can't remember.) I've always felt like my ward is my family wherever I'm at,  and midweek meetings might be the only time some sisters have to get to know newly moved in sisters or just sisters you don't know well, since there's practically no time to visit on Sunday.   So that's my 2 cents on the subject:-)

March Relief Society Birthday "Something Extraordinary"

Setting up!

Here's the invitations:

Here's the conducting sheet/program:

Mid Setting Up:

The centerpieces were old spaghetti jars that I spray painted and rubbed gold rub n buff on. Then I got a few packs of star paper plates from the dollar store, taped them onto skewers I had, added some raffia and put them in the jars as centerpieces.  The fabric and beads and battery operated tea lights I had in my decorating stash.

 I printed these silhouettes out at costco that I downloaded free here.

 We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner.

My favorite sister missionaries and I putting together little bags of fudge for the sisters to take home:

January Relief Society Midweek Meeting- Talent Night

January always needs to be an easy activity after the big holiday!  See the flyer below:

We had a speaker for 10 minutes talk about the parable of the talents and her own talents.  Then each sister got 3 min or so to talk about the item they brought and their talent.  It was great to feel the spirit, and fellowship each sister and get to know them better based on what they shared. As always refreshments were served first at 6:30 with socializing, and the program started at 7pm with an opening song. Simple, Spiritual & Memorable!