Relief Society Birthday Party - We Rise By Lifting Others

In January I got a new calling (LDS lingo for an assignment) at church to be the Relief Society (the largest and oldest women's organization in the entire world - read more HERE) Activity Chairwoman.  In the nearly 6 years Burke and I have been married I have served in the Young Women's Organization for the majority of the time (about 4 years) and as a Sunbeam teacher twice, so I was excited to have a calling connected with the Relief Society.  With the 173rd Relief Society Birthday Party happening March 17, the B-day party was to be the first activity I was in charge of coordinating.  

The word that kept repeating in my mind every time I brainstormed ideas for the activity was "kindness, kindness, kindness."  So I jumped on Pinterest and typed in "kindness" and one of the first images I saw was this:

Credit found HERE

This image and quote were so beautiful to me.  I then went on to lds.org and typed in "We Rise By Lifting Others" and read some amazing general conference talks on the themes of kindness, charity, compassion, etc.  When I met with Heather Roundy and Mindy Grimshaw and presented the idea, they were so supportive and contributed such wonderful insights, snowballing the idea until it blossomed into this final product.  I hope you enjoy a few notes and pictures I took along the way!

100 darling, hand-made invitations by Mindy Grimshaw with the help of Stephanie Barnes.

Hot air balloons in the making.

After making 2 of the hot air balloons, Mindy's life got completely hectic, so she asked me to take over.  Little did she know that I am not a very crafty gal (would love to be, I just struggle!) and when I tried to do the weave she had done for the first 2 like the green polka dot lantern above, it was an epic fail.  So I  simplified with 4 strings instead like the yellow chevron lantern above.  I spent hours on those babies and felt so stinkin domestic when I finally finished all 12!

THE DECOR

Balloons to compliment the "Rise While Lifting Others" theme, 

spring pastels for Easter and kindness Quotes galore.

THE FOOD

Along with the "rise" theme, we talked about how Jesus Christ is our best example of pure love and kindness and how if we partake of "The Bread of Life" (Christ), that is the only way to become as perfectly kind and compassionate as he was.  A few weeks before the activity we sent a sign-up sheet on Sunday asking for ladies to bring bread - any kind! - to compliment our light dinner of soup.  They did NOT disappoint.  It was awful trying to choose which of the dozen or so options to choose from.  In the end I settled on 3 samples and went back for another one of Renae Clark's divine rolls.  Heaven. We also had mini cupcakes for them to take home at the end.

THE ACTIVITY

After we welcomed everyone and they got their food, we began the program with Alison Fitzgerald giving a bread demonstration.  A few of you may remember a few years ago when I nearly had a panic attack in Mesquite when I had to make bread from food storage wheat for a Relief Society night and I had never made bread in my life (HERE).  In my mind I was picturing Alison doing something similarly easy.  Little did I know this woman is a food ARTIST!  No joke. She brought 3 different types of Artisan breads for us to try and they were all incredible, unique and beautiful.  So impressed.

Following Alison's presentation, I gave a talk about kindness.  How many of you guessed I cried and blubbered making a complete fool of myself?  You know me so well.  It actually turned out so well which I was so grateful for because I had been praying my guts out all week that it would come together.  A few  highlights from my talk included these two videos I shared with the ladies.

The Civility Experiment  

and

The Rice Experiment

I think these short clips are what got me started on the water works because they brought such a nice spirit.  And then I shared a personal experience which hasn't made me cry in years and I totally lost it.  Thankfully there were some fantastic quotes from two steller Elder Uchtdorf talks:

HERE and HERE.

Finally, I ended by asking the ladies to share a few experiences they have had with people being kind to them over the years and the difference it has made in their lives.  Three sisters shared such amazing examples and it reiterated all that I was trying to say.  I challenged each of them to write down on their cards one tangible thing they could do that week to be more kind and to DO it.  

As a final sendoff, we busted out 50 floating lanterns and wrote our kindness resolves on them before going out to the parking lot and launching them into the sky.  It took a moment for the lanterns to get going (lesson learned: cheapness doth not equate to quality folks) and a couple dropped their flaming fuel cells on the ground (thank goodness we were in the parking lot!), but it was a blast!  The ladies were squealing, oooing and awwwing.  I was shocked that none of the 35-ish ladies present had never done that before, so it was a neat sight to introduce them to as they ascended quickly, glowing so beautifully in the night sky.

I was so happy with the way this activity turned out and hope we will have even more success at the next one in June!