Cookies and Careers

We decided to have simple relief society night activity. We called it Careers & Cookies. WE had our ward employment specialist speak about different career options, Then we had a cookie exchange party. It was a fun relaxing night. And everyone went home with yummy cookies

Clue Night

WE had such a fun Clue Themed RS dinner. 

I started announcing it about a month before the activity. Not giving them much info just the date and time but getting them curious about what it was. 

I asked a few ladies in my ward if they would be clue models for me. I gave them a character and asked them to bring a prop/weapon. I used these pictures as teasers for the night. Each week I would display one of the pictures on our ward RS Facebook page. The sisters loved this!

That evening when they sat down on each table was an envelope that said confidential. I welcomed everyone and had them open their envelopes. They didn't know this but they were all trying to solve the same mystery. I hand wrote a characters name and then hand wrote "Finding joy" so it seemed like every table had a different mystery. 

I added a copy of the conference talk by President Russell M. Nelson "Joy and Spiritual Survival" Found HERE

In the envelope there were also clue cards. Our "places" cards were problems we all face. and our "weapon" cards were ways we could help solve the problem. 

As a table they were to come up with a problem for said character and a solution to help her find joy. It was so fun to hear the different scenarios the women came up with. One was chose financial distress and chose family history as there weapon. They said we should do family history so maybe we can find a rich uncle to help us with our distress. I thought it was hilarious. They then did give some real thoughts on how prayer, tithing etc... could help!

It was November so people still had pumpkins out. I asked a few neighbors for their pumpkins to use as centerpieces. I Spray painted them gold and bought a knife and plastic gun at the dollar store to stick in the pumpkin. I also bought fake flowers and spray painted them black. 

For food that night we kept it pretty simple with a pasta and salad bar. We named all the food like Mrs. Scarlett's killer Marinara

Mrs. Whites to die for Alfredo

etc... 

I think everyone had a great time. It was a great way to get sisters to talk at their tables as they tried to solve their cases!

We like you a "waffle" lot!

WE had our RS birthday dinner a couple weeks ago. Our last few activities have been pretty big so our committee thought we should do something a little more simple for this month. We had a yummy waffle dinner.

We kept everything very simple! We had butcher paper for table cloths with instructions on how to make the waffles. We had a waffle iron on each table of 8 people. The sisters made their own waffles while visiting with the other sisters on their tables. It turned out great and everyone had a great time. We decided to do Liege waffles because they are super yummy and they aren't as messy to make. We used the recipe we found HERE 

 We had lots of yummy toppings. Fruit (we bought the frozen berry bag from costco), whipped cream, nutella, buttermilk syrup, maple syrup, powdered sugar, sprinkles, biscoff spread, chocolate syrup, banana's, etc….

The Price is Right. RS activity.

We have had quite a few new people move into our ward. We thought it would be fun to have a "getting-to-know-you" activity. My husband is the EQ pres so we decided to do a combined activity for all the adults in the ward. It was a lot of work but ended up being really successful! Instead of guessing  prices of things we had questions about members of the ward.

First, a few weeks prior to the activity I asked everyone to fill out a contestant info sheet. Even if they didn't wish to participate and be a contestant that evening, we still wanted to get to know them! 

For Prizes I asked for people to donate prizes. It was a fun way for people to show their talents! We received so many fun things. (baked goods, jewelry, quilts, jam, gift cards,etc…) I asked people not to spend a lot of money and that we would prefer something people could take home that night. Not an IOU i.e. 10 hours of babysitting, rolls. 

The evening of the activity we had everyone fill out a name tag. If they wanted a chance to go up on stage they wrote their name on a separate piece of paper and put it in our price is right box! That way there was no pressure for people. If they didn't want to go up in front of the audience they didn't put a paper in the box. 

 My husband was the announcer and I was Bob barker. We downloaded price is right theme music. We started by calling up 4 contestants. I asked a ward trivia question and the person that got closest without going over was called up on stage! in between each game we called up 4 new contestants. That way more people had an opportunity to go up on stage. 

Here is a list of all the current price is right games with little clips on how to play. 

http://www.priceisright.com/games/

Here are the games we played!

Game #1 was PLINKO!

I asked true or false questions about what songs people in the ward liked to lip-sync. For each correct answer they earned a plinko chip! 

(this was the only board I purchased for the evening. The rest I just used scraps from my garage)

The peg board was 4'x8'. I put pegs  every 4th hole across.  I used air hockey pucks for the plinko chips. At first my chips were flying off the board,  so i tied the ends with string and glue gunned the top  to secure the string. 

Game #2 was Secret X. 

i used yellow butcher paper from a local copy store and painted the tic-tac-toe board on it. I then used a separate red butcher paper to cover up the "secret x"

For this game I used questions about peoples "dream job". The contestant had to guess who said that was their dream job. 

I printed this large 3'x5' at our copy store for $1.25

game #3 Pick a pair

I printed pictures of celebrities people said would play them in a movie! First we did the men celebrities. I gave the contestant 6 ward member names on cards and displayed the 6 celebrities. They had to match which ward member said which celebrity. if they correctly guessed 3 they won. 

We then did the females. 

To make this game I painted a thin piece of wood and drilled holes 2'' apart so i could stick Christmas lights through the back. 

Game #4 Punch a bunch!

We used peoples favorite movies for this game. They were true or false questions.
 If they got it correct they got a punch.  They then could chose if they wanted to keep the prize that was in that hole or try for their next punch. 

I got 12-pack soda boxes from people in the ward. Every other box I folded in the front and taped a piece of tissue paper around it.  I made 5 rows of 8. I taped together each row individually and then at the end taped them all together. I left the back open so I could slip the prize cards inside when I knew what the donations were . Then covered the front with pink butcher paper with holes cut where the tissue paper squares were. 

Then it was time to spin the big wheel. With the help of my parents we made this pretty amazing wheel. I love how it turned out!!!

Game  #5 was Lucky seven. 

we covered up the numbers with green butcher paper (i forgot to take a picture)

The contestant had 7 monopoly dollars to try to win. They had to guess how many children people had. We would tear off the paper to reveal the numbers individually. I just printed this large 3'x6' sign at the copy store for $1.75. To make it look a little cuter, I mod podged green glitter on the numbers. 

Game #6 cliffhangers (a crowd favorite)

I printed (in black and White) 6 ward members high school pictures. The contestant had to guess which year it was taken. For every year they were off, the little mountain climber moved up! If he was still on the mountain at the end they won. 

I painted a thin piece of wood.  I then drilled holes about 4 inches from the top and 4 inches from the bottom in a diagonal. I used a jig saw to saw diagonally (from one drilled hole to the other) a little slit so my mountain climber could move up. 

 We even had the yodeling music when he moved!

Game #7 Race game. 

I printed 6 pictures of foods that totally disgusted ward members. I gave the contestant 6 ward member name strips. They had to match that person with the correct food. They had 45 seconds to do so. 

Game #8 Hole in one. 

I printed 7 engagement pictures people had given me. The contestant had to put them in chronological order from oldest to most recent. 

 and of course the game is hole in one or two.

I painted the thin board with the "or two" golf ball. Then I put a screw on top of the golf ball   The "one" ball was a lid to a hat box. I hung it on the screw to cover up the "or two" ball. 

For the showcase show down (I don't have pictures) we had quite a few members donate gift cards. So i used those for the showcase. 

Showcase #1 

It was a taste around the world. 

Maine- was a gift card to red lobster

France- Was a gift card to Wendy's (french fries, it was a stretch)

and Italy was gift card to carabbas. 

I had them add the number of kids of the women in our ward that were Auxiliary presidents (Relief society president, YW president, and  Primary President)

Show case #2

Was a "date night" 

They need to get all fancy for their date so it was a gift card to a dry cleaners (a man in our ward owns one and donated gift cards)

and they would need a NEW CAR "wash"

movie tickets, and a gift card to waffle love

they had to guess the number of kids the men auxiliaries had combined (Bishop, High Priest Group leader, Elders Quorum president, and Sunday School President). 

Back to school night

I forgot to post about our RS back to school night. I had seen a VT training activity with a back to school theme HERE and thought it was a cute idea!
When I first got put in this calling I sent around a survey of what the women were wanting to learn, or do at our midweek activities.  I chose 3 of these things to be our "Class Subjects"

 We had a class in the primary room, one in the RS room, and one in the YW room.
The photography class the teacher taught basic photography skills as well as social media photography.

 The Life Skills Class the teachers gathered fun life hacks on various pinterest sites.
And the Home E. Class they taught different ideas for Family Home Evening for all ages.

 We had the cutest little lunch ladies who handed out their lunches. We just had roll sandwiches, an apple, chips, and of course PB bars!