Relief Society Birthday Dinner

Thursday was crazy busy. I watched Madelyn in the morning. It was great because the girls played outside pretty much the entire time she was here. The morning was a little chilly, but as the day went on it warmed right up. Jessica brought me lunch for my Birthday which was so nice. She brought me my favorite salad from Applebee's! I really appreciated her doing that. It was funny because when we got up this morning Tegan told Justin it was my birthday again today. Justin said, "your right...we are going to celebrate all week."

Anyway after lunch was nap time, and I was able to get a few things done. Justin got home about 2:30 and I left to start taking care of things for the Relief Society Birthday Dinner. I came home around 5:00 to finish cooking my chicken, and when it was done, and I had changed I left for the evening. I must say the evening was WONDERFUL! We turned the cultural hall into a food court that had:

1. 
   
   Papa Murphy's Pizza


2. 
   
   Fresh choice Salad


3. 
   
   Asian Express-Mandarin orange chicken


4. 
   
   Mrs. Fields Cookies


5. 
   
   Then we made up a booth for the cake

The ladies came in and heard a brief message from our RS President, and then they were free to eat. After dinner the ladies were all handed a shopping bag that had a schedule taped on it of the different stores and the times that the stores would be "closed" or "open". Then the ladies went "shopping" in our six stores. The stores were:

1. Things remembered-Your life is the gift that you give to your Father in Heaven. The store owner had six little handouts a bookmark, a candle, some seeds, some incense, a little handout on marriage, and then candy. The store owner brought in her wedding dress, and then brought in her Grandmothers dress that is 100 years old. Her Grandmother wore it the day she got married. She also brought her children's blessing and baptism clothes along with many other things.






2. Lady Foot locker-walking a mile in someone else's shoes. The store owner had a cute little hand out that asked "what do you see" and it said good with evil inside the good.




3. Kay Jewelers- developing talents (no two diamonds are alike) Had a poem about Talents





4. Hallmark- when you care enough to give your very best She hand made cards for the ladies. They were darling!! A hallmark card from the hallmark store. This store owner even made a Hallmark name tag for herself it was really cute!




5. GNC-on healthy living. I am not sure what her hand out was. I wasn't able to make it to her class




6. Country Cottage-centering our homes around our family. She handed out the church pamphlet titled "Our Family" Her room was really cute, she turned it into a little house. She had a couch with a little table in front of it, a kitchen table set up, chairs, and she even had stuff on the piano like you would in your house. It was so clever!

The "store owners" put in so much time and effort, and really went above and beyond to make their stores great! They came up with great handouts for all the ladies, and great little lessons. I wasn't able to attend all the classes, but the ones I did hear were very thought out, and had meaningful messages. After the ladies went shopping we went into the Relief Society room for out closing remarks. The last thing we handed out was a Master in Charge card for the ladies to carry in their wallet. Sister Wood's talk referenced the scripture John 15:5 (Without me you can do nothing). We had a lot of positive feedback. The ladies said they really enjoyed the evening, and they had a lot of fun.