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!

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!!

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.

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: