Get to know you night - September

We had a get to know you night with a back to school theme. We had sack lunches for dinner and everyone had a chance to show or tell something about themselves. We passed around papers and made nice comments about sisters. The got their papers to take home in the end. I did not head up this activity. 

Service activity at Marion Polk Food Share - August

We met at the church and carpooled to the food share. We worked the from 6pm to 8pm repackaging food as a service project. We had refreshments afterwards.

BBQ & Dutch Oven - July 2014

We started out with a BBQ dinner and had Dutch oven cobblers for dessert. The dinner was followed by two classes. One on how to BBQ and the second class was on how to cook using a Dutch oven.

Garden Party - June 2014

Last years garden party was so nice that we decided to have another one. We asked a new sister if she would host the event at her house and she was happy to. 

We planned a lunch (potluck) which was suppose to be outside, but it rained on the day of our activity. So, we moved it indoors.

The sisters house where the event was held was amazing and the atmosphere there really added a lot to the party.

After the lunch we had a short message on gardening.

There were chickens wandering around in the yard there. So cool.

One of the rooms in the house where we had our garden party. It had a spectacular view with a river.

One of the five vases we put together. We cut fresh lavender from this sisters house to include in the floral arrangements and they smelled so good.

I brought a layered chip dip to the party.

My favorite dish there was a chocolate raspberry cake though. Yum!

Service Auction - May 2014

Our ward's service auction was so fun last year that we decided to do it again this year. If you haven't been to a service auction this is how it works.

You show up to the activity (we usually have a potluck) and there is a questionnaire on the table. You get points for every question that you can say "yes" to. Question examples include, Did you read your scriptures today? Have you done your visiting teaching for the month? etc.

You add up your points from the questionnaire and that is what you use to bid on services that are auctioned off. You have to send around a sign up sheet before the event and have RS sisters donate services like piano lessons, babysitting, baked goods, etc.

I brought cookies to the event to be auctioned off.

The cookie recipes can be found here.

Frugal Living - April 2014

Our RS activity for this month had a "frugal living" theme.

First there was a potluck dinner, with a hoagie sandwich bar theme. We had a signup sheet go around at church for sandwich toppings, salads, chips and desserts. The RS provided the deli meat, bread, mayo and mustard.

I picked up the deli meat (3 lbs turkey, 3 lbs ham, 2 lbs roast beef) and assembled 2 large trays that looked like this. I also included crab salad that was left over from my sisters wedding.

To make crab salad, I just add mayo to coat the imitation crab and add chopped celery and thinly sliced green onion to taste. It's a no fail recipe.

I bought what I thought was enough deli meat for 30 people. We had about 26 people come to the event and there was plenty of food left over.

I picked up hoagie sandwich rolls from Winco and split them in half before the event. I picked up some smaller whole wheat rolls too. I stored them in the freezer and then let them thaw in the fridge.

I wish I would have got a picture of the buffet table. We had all different kind of toppings. See list below...

Mayo, mustard, meat
olives (2 cans, sliced)
pepperoncinis(1 jar, sliced)
pickled jalapenos (jar, sliced)
pepperjack cheese (1 block, thinly sliced)
cheddar cheese (1 block, thinly sliced)
tomoatoes (7 medium, sliced)
sliced avacados (6, halved, sliced)
onions (2 large onion, thinly sliced, we could have done with less)
Lettuce (1 large bag, shredded)
Pickles (1 large jar, sliced)

I brought some spinach artichoke dip that was left over from my sisters wedding. Here's the recipe.

Lastly, I brought a chocolate peanut butter eclair cake that turned out to be a big hit. Here's the recipe. I used chocolate pudding instead of vanilla when I made it.

After dinner we had messages on three topics

1.) Budgeting
2.) Meal Planning
3) Couponing

There was also a spiritual message on having a frugal attitude.

All of the messages were wonderful. Oh I forgot to mention, that before the event we reached out to the sisters to find out if they knew of any local deals around town. We also invited them to share a crock pot or 5 ingredient or less recipe if they wanted. Those handouts were distributed at the event.

The dinner turned out so great. We did do a little extra work confirming that people who were bringing sandwich toppings would be there, that way all the main sandwich topping, like pickles would be available.

Relief Society Birthday - March 2014

We celebrated the birthday of the Relief Society this month.

Decorating:

We decorated the tables with empty gift bags and balloons to go along with the birthday theme.

We tried to set the tables up around the stage we created for the nights entertainment so that everyone could see.

Dinner:

The Relief Society provided a taco bar dinner. We had people sign up to bring desserts.

Entertainment:

We had 12 sisters play/act out Relief Society Squares, which is a spin on the TV show Hollywood Squares. Here's a quick summery of the game.

9 sisters were asked to dress up and pretend to be past RS presidents.
1 sister, who was very comical, was our game host.
2 sisters were our contestants.

The two contestants took turns choosing which past RS president they wanted the host to ask a question to. The nine sisters pretending to be past RS presidents had the option to tell the truth or make up a false answer when responding. The contestant would then have to decide whether the past RS president was telling the truth or not. That was the funny part.

We had a 9 square tick tac toe board too. The names of the 9 RS presidents were on the poster. Each time they were asked a question their name would be covered up by an X or an O depending on which contestants turn it was.

Another thing we did, was give the sisters who pretended to be past RS presidents a paragraph or two of information on the RS president they were impersonating. They selected highlights from the information and used it to introduce themselves when they came on stage, before the game started.

Here is the trivia and game information we used. We gave the trivia questions and answers to the 9 RS presidents and game host, prior to the game. Note - The trivia is a little outdated. So, one of the questions "who is the current RS president?" needs to be updated.

Here is another picture of the stage we created, since our gym doesn't have one.

I should mention that the idea for this game came from a previous ward where my husband and I attended in Illinois.

Family History - February

Our February RS activity had a "Family History" theme.

Dinner:

We started out the night with a potluck dinner with the theme - family recipe. We gave the sisters a minute to share, if they wanted, what dishes they had brought before eating.

I brought my mom's famous potato salad. Here's the recipe.

 Family History Game:

About 30 or so minutes into the dinner we started our family history game. It was so neat and fun!

Weeks prior to the event, I collected fun facts about peoples family history. Then, at the event, we had a sister read off the fun facts and everyone guessed who's ancestry it was.


Here are a few of the stories I loved.
1.) Someone's ancestor missed their ride on the Titanic, because they were kissing their boyfriend.
2.) Someone's ancestor was working in Spain, fell in love with a Spanish lady and as his boat was leaving for home he jumped ship and swam back to be with her.
3.) Someone's ancestor helped carve the faces of the presidents on Mount Rushmore.
4.) Several people were related to prophets and the early saints.

We gave small chocolate prizes to the sisters who were able to guess who's fun fact was being read. Their were too cinnamon swirl bread prizes too. They were the bonus prizes.

Class:

We ended the night with a 30 minute class on family history, by one of the sisters who's calling in the ward is to be a family history worker/expert.

Decorating:
The tulips are just starting to come on here, so I though it would be fun to decorate the tables with them. We attached family centered quotes to each vase.

 Quotes

1.) The love of a family is life's greatest blessing
2.) Family, Today's little moments become tomorrow's precious memories.
3.) Where life begins...and love never ends, Family.
4.) The roots of a family tree begin with the love of two hearts.
5.) Family is forever

Food Storage / Emergency Prepardness - January's R.S. Activity

This was a really fun activity.

We started out with a potluck dinner with a "Food Storage" theme. The idea was to bring a dish that you had used one or more food storage ingredients to prepare.

We took a minute for everyone to share what dish they brought so we could get food storage ideas.

I brought sushi with artificial crab, cream cheese and cucumber inside.

Here is a tutorial I put together on how to make it.

We set up for dinner and two classes in the cultural hall.

 We thought it would be fun to use jars for vases on the tables, since part of it was a food storage activity.

After the dinner we had the two classes. They were each 30 min long. The first was on food storage. I wish I would have taken a picture of how the sister who taught our class had set up her table. It was really neat. There were all different kinds of jars of fruits, veggies, meats, etc that she had canned and dried.

I learned that veggies usually need to be pressure canned and most fruits can just go through a water bath.

Then we had a 30 minute emergency preparedness class.

November - Holiday Dinner

We started out the night with two service projects.

1.) Making holiday cards to give to hospice
2.) Donating books to youth in need (ages 12-18)

Then, we had a dinner provided by the Relief Society. The activities committee prepared the meal at home and brought it to the church. We had...

ham
brisket
mashed potatoes
gravy
scallop potatoes
salad
corn
rolls

The dessert was potluck style

Prior to the activity, sisters signed up to decorate tables. Here are a few pictures of table settings.

After dinner we had a 30 minute program. First one of the bishops counselors spoke, then there was a musical number, and the bishop was the final speaker.

October - Apple Cider Pressing

We pressed apple cider at a members home for our R.S. harvest activity. Everyone had a job to do. Prior to the activity, people donated apples and jars. We split the cider.

 

Visiting Teaching Gift

This is a gift I put together for one of the ladies I visit teach. I picked some blackberries in our yard and decorated this thank you card box to put them in.

Garden Party - September

We had a garden party in September at the R.S. President's backyard. She had such a lovely garden there and we had a potluck with a garden ingredient theme. One person brought pudding with crushed oreos on top, candy rocks and gummy worms. I thought the dish was very appropriate for the event.

The missionaries came for dinner and they gave a spiritual message on service. It was more of a discussion with all of the sisters and it was very uplifting.

These are the table settings that we put together for the event. I love how they turned out.

Beautifying the Home - August

I loved August's R.S. activity. We started out at the church and had a 30 min class on interior design from a sister who got her degree in it at school and who worked in the profession.

Then, we went to a another sisters home to see the practical application of beautifying the home. This sisters home was so lovely and she prepared an incredible assortment of dessert refreshments that could be found on table tops throughout the house. She gave a spiritual message too that was very uplifting.

Fresh Mozzarella and Artisan Bread + Service Project - July

For our July R.S. activity we started out the night with a service project making hospice cards.

Then we had two cooking classes -
1) artisan bread making
2) how to make fresh mozzarella cheese

I taught the artisan bread class. I started out by introducing these breads.

1) Babka (marbled chocolate bread)
2) Challah (sweet bread)
3) Pain d'epi stuffed with bacon and covered in a herb garlic mixutre

I showed the methods for shaping the dough into these loaves and provided samples and recipes. I had braided Challah loaves and rolls that were stuffed with a sweet cream cheese mixture and blackberries.

Here is a picture of my stuffed rolls and here is the recipe for challah.

Here's a picture of a braided challah loaf.

Here is a picture of a chocolate & cinnamon babka and here is the recipe for the chocolate one.

 I don't have a picture of the pain d'epi with bacon, but you can find one here along with the recipe. I brush the loaf with garlic herbed butter once it comes out of the oven.

Our second class was a demonstration on how to make mozzarella cheese.
There were samples of regular and marinated mozzarella at the end.

Health Night - June

We had a "Health Night" activity for June. There were three 30 minute classes.

Class #1 = Nutrition (taught by a nutritional counselor in our ward)
Class # 2 = Chefs healthy cooking class (taught by a professional chef in our ward)
Class #3= Physical fitness class (taught by a marathon runner in our ward)

All the classes were great. I summarized my favorite parts from the night below...

Nutrition class
There were three small tables with healthy grains and other foods displayed. The presenter talked about the importance of eating whole foods, which are foods closest to their original form (unprocessed.) She talked about how diet can help cure a lot of our aliments. I felt like her message was really inline with the word of wisdom. At the end of her speech we got to sample healthy granola that she had made.

Chef's Class
The chef's class was really fun. I learned that there are a lot of different kinds of salts. He displayed five to ten, but I think there are somewhere around 100 different kinds of salt out there. He cooked and let us sample thai chicken curry and salsa chicken with rice. We also talked about cooking with lemon grass, lemon leaves, and other spices that add flavor.

Physical fitness class
This was a really motivating class. The presentation was done by a marathon runner who invited some friends and family to share personal stories about how they had met their physical fitness goals. One of the ladies that spoke had lost over 100 pounds. She brought in before and after pictures. At one point the main speaker talked about how phyisical fitness can add to your happiness and emotional stability. I thought her presentation was really on point with the word of wisdom too.

Service Auction - May 2013

Our service auction was so fun. We started out with dinner (Italian themed potluck.) Then, we had the service auction. The seminary teacher was our auctioneer and he was so funny. He had the ladies laughing the whole time. 

Here's a picture of a flower centerpiece on one of the tables

 

I had the numbers for the paddles printed off on card-stock at office depot. Then we cut them in circles, glued a colored piece of paper on the back, cut around the colored pieces with special scissors to make them look like flowers and hot glued large pop sickle sticks between the 2 pieces of card stock. I got most of the supplies for this project from Michaels. Here is a picture of how the paddles turned out.

 

When people won services we gave them a filled out coupon. See pic below.

Here is a pic of the s'mores pie that I gave away as a service.

Cupcake Decorating Class - April 2013

Cupcake decorating tutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jxPN5xYpw&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nreNuE_HuU4