Relief Society Enrichment Ideas

I thought I would share what our ward is doing for Enrichment and hopefully ya'll will share what has worked well in your women. I love swapping ideas!

Quarterly Enrichment Meetings:

These are the big, all-out ones that we provide child care for and it almost always involves delicious food. We try to get all the women to come to these.

1. Birthday Dinner celebrating RS B-day. We did this potluck on Earth Day and did it as green as possible. We asked our Stake RS president to give a short talk. We also played a 60 Second Social game where we had each sister ask the other a few questions (from a list we provided). After a minute, one side would rotate down so they ended up talking to 1/2 the ladies there. It was so much fun! It was hard getting the ladies to stop talking and move on down the line. Then for dessert we had a variety but it had to include green lime Jell-O in it. :)

2. Service Auction. I'm excited to bring this back again. Sisters come with homemade crafts or goodies OR they can auction off services such as babysitting, cleaning, lessons, etc. Then there is a list of ways to earn points such as 10 pts for visiting teaching this month, 5 pts for every child you've had, etc. They tally their points then use them to buy things up for auction. We're going to try to get an older but fast-talking gentleman to come be our official auctioneer. Last time we served food storage desserts & appetizers like pinto bean fudge and fruit smoothies from canned fruit and powdered milk.

3. Humanitarian Project. I've spoken about it before but White Elegance has AMAZING prices that can't be beat on their Humanitarian kits that you can assemble and turn back in to them or to the Humanitarian Center. Not sure which one we'll do yet.

4. Progressive Dinner. My mother's ward did this and women carpooled together. I started it in my ward when I was Enrichment Leader and it's stuck around. It's potluck and you separate into groups then go to one house for appetizers, another for main course, another for salads. RS provides rolls and paper goods and a short Christmas program at the end with dessert served and a small gift is given.

Enrichment Activity Groups:

These are smaller groups of women who would like to meet together on a regular basis and is headed up by someone who will organize it and tell people what, when and where.

1. Temple 1st Tuesday of each month 10am session. Babysitting swap available.

2. Book Club 1st Thursday of each month at 7pm. Preferrably books by General Authorities. Some books we've done are: Sheri Dew's book "God Wants a Powerful People", Beverly Campbell's book "Eve and the Choice Made in the Garden of Eden", Ferrell's book "The Peacegiver", Truman Madsen's "The Temple: Where Heaven Meets Earth"

3. Scrapbooking & Crafting 4th Friday night each month 6:30-9:30pm. Finish up leftover projects and offer one optional project per month: April- Explosion boxes, May- glass etching, June-Quiet Books, no July (Pioneer Day). Sept-Living Christ frame, October - Vinyl FHE board, Nov- large vinyl clock, No Dec (Christmas Day), Jan- jewelry, Feb - fridge photo magnets, Mar- Glass block w/ vinyl, April – pillowcases, May - Capri Sun bags, June – Table Talk ?s in IKEA jar w/ vinyl, no July (Pioneer Day), Aug- Cute Aprons, Sept – Family Memories Game, Oct – flannel rice bags, Nov – vinyl family chore chart, no December (Christmas). Yes, I'm in charge of this group - can you tell? :)

4. Quilting Bee. No cost, donations and helping kids welcome. 2nd Thursdays 7-9pm. Tied quilts are donated to Humanitarian Center. FYI, cheapest place I've found to get stuff is Walmart. Flat sheet for the backing, high loft batting and a top fabric that has a pattern so I don't have to mark it.

5. Cooking/Food Storage. Summer canning (such as making jam), Rotation/Room Ideas, 72 hour kits, etc. Held quarterly.

6. Single Sisters Group – They come up with ideas for the single sisters in our ward such as lunch dates, movie nights, going to a museum or art show, etc..

7. Summer Walking every Tuesday and Thursday 9-10pm around the neighborhood.

8. Summer Hiking Friday mornings with kids, easy hikes. This one's also mine. Email me if you'd like the list of locations or you can google it for your area. I love living in Utah! The kids have so much fun in the great outdoors and it's even funner doing it with other kids.

Summer Fun List & a new addition to our family!

Every year I get so excited for school to end so I can grab my kids and go on lots of field trips. Each year we do a few new things and try to do some of our old favorites as well. I'd thought it would be fun to share with you some of the things we have planned for this summer:

Mondays are designated Cleaning Day but we'll also go for a bike ride to a park for a picnic lunch. We're still keeping up with piano lessons as well. And of course, we're doing Family Home Evening every Monday night.
Tuesdays are Craft & Cooking Day. We'll do a craft project & I'll teach the kids how to make their favorite thing to eat.
***Our Summer Crafts are: decorate a photo frame, tie-dye shirts, sew a tote bag for library books, stepping stones, sew PJ pants, clay creations, and door hangers.
Wednesdays have Storytime in the morning at our library. I already got the info for summer reading programs at the library and Barnes and Noble. Then we're off on a field trip.
Thursdays are reserved for Yard Work but in the afternoon I'll take them swimming.
Fridays are hiking days and date night. Once a month we'll take a kid along and make it their special night to have Mom and Dad all the to themselves and we'll let them decide what they want us to do. (I always wished as a child that I could tell my parents what to do...)
Saturdays are Field Trip Fun days (see list below) and hopefully Daddy will be able to come along.
And Sundays are a day of rest which I will need by then. :)

Some of our old favorite things to do are:
*Do some boy scout activity patches for J
*Swimming at the Rec Center - they have an indoor playset that's fun but it gets loud.
*Go camping in the backyard and at our Ward Campout
*Children's Museum & Clark Planetarium & play in the water feature
*Church History Tour - Museum, visitor's center, BY Musuem, etc.
*Liberty Park & Tracy Aviary & Salt Lake library where they have themed reading coves.
*Thanksgiving Point Gardens and Dino Museum (coupon)
*Gardner Village (for Sweet Afton's free fudge sample)
*Living Planet Aquarium (discounted first Monday evening of every month)
*Farmer's Market Saturday mornings downtown
*Provo for the Museum of Art, Krispy Kreme tour, McCurdy Doll Museum (still don't know how I'm going to drag my boys in there.)
*Hogle Zoo & This is the Place (FREE on July 10th)
*Wheeler Farm
*Red Butte Gardens (FREE on Pioneer Day and Sept. 7th)
*Natural History Museum (FREE first Mondays of the month with activities after 5pm)
*Bowling, Classic Skating Center, Mini-golf (I love my Entertainment book!)
*Boondocks (just once or twice on their $12 Tuesdays)

Some NEW things we're doing this year are:
*Ogden- Dino Park, Treehouse Museum and possibly iFly to see my almost 9 year old fly in a wind tunnel (coupons for all!)
*Cabela's - apparently they have a ridiculously sized fish tank
*Build-a-bear (coupon!)
*Fishing. Free (no license required) on Saturday June 14th
*Park City - Alpine Slide, Human Maze, Legacy Launchers, and Little Miner's Park
*Pottery class at Color Me Mine with a coupon
*Cooking Class at Young Chefs Academy with a coupon
*Go to Bear Lake for a 10k and during Raspberry Days (I'm so excited!!!) for a 5k
*Seven Peaks - still looking for a coupon
*Cowubunga Bay which is brand new. Not sure if it's worth the money... I have a friend who said if I go at 6am for a TV shot next week our kids can get in free and play for awhile. We'll see if they wake up that early...

You won't believe it but it really does all fit into 3 months. We're also going to AZ for my neice's wedding - I feel so old when I say that. Oh! And Jeeping. Phew! Don't tell my husband I put that last. I really am excited to try out our new Jeep rubicon once he gets it lifted and the 3rd row seat put in. It's our new "baby". So much easier than giving birth to a real baby. LOL Isn't he cute? Now we can all fit. We used to have to drive two cars down and then pawn off one of our children to a friend. The 3rd row can be forward/rear facing. Cool, huh? They were having a sale, Troy was able to bargain it down further and they threw in an Entertainment package, a sleeping bag, fishing pole and MP3 player. Moab, here we come!

P.S. If anyone's interested in a white Liberty, call me! :)