Ward Friendship Circle

A few years ago my family and I enjoyed getting to know the ward members better and building a closer relationship with them through this activity.

To begin with, I made this cute little circle using a poem that is often found on plates that folks are supposed to move from house to house, like a chain letter - but, it's a plate. Instead, I made a circle to remind them that we were thinking of them... and it is cute and I like to make things. I used clipart from programs that I had purchased at a LDS bookstore to put together the people around the circle.... this includes the word "WARD." For the name of the ward, using Microsoft Publisher, I added a word art and using the font "SnapITC", a shadow was added and the word was changed to the color orange and placed just above the word "ward." You can see that in the example above, but for the one that I am sharing below I removed it. I printed the circles onto purple paper, had them lamenated, and punched a whole in the top center for a suction cup. Finally, I cut them out using curvy scrapbooking sizzors.

For the activity I would make a homemade apple pie and we would grab some store-bought ice-cream and a game and show up at someone's house. There we would enjoy a dessert of pie and ice-cream and either visit or play the game we brought. I would give them the friendship circle, which was for them to keep - not share. It did invite them to do something nice for someone else, though. Showing up at someone's house uninvited worked most of the time. We still remember how one family kept insisting that they must have invited us and that they had forgotten and that we were just being polite about it. We always had a good time with the family we were visiting and we could always tell that they enjoyed it, too. So, all was well as the uninvited guests.

We really miss these outings. Maybe one day we will continue them. For now, I am happy to share with you our little "Ward Friendship Circle"

YW Mini Golf

Last night the Young Women played a homemade mini golf game. Using these printed onto cardstock the area was set up as follows:

There are 7 groups. One representing each of the YW values. Each group contains four things.

1) What NOT to do
2) What TO do
3) Blank Sun representing the Celestial Kingdom where they will write the blessings they would recieve by following the commandment or council that group is suggesting. Ex: NO PEER PRESSURE, instead CTR. What are the blessings of choosing the right over peer pressure.
4) Quote cards for them to receive when they get the golf ball into the hole. There are four per page. Print as many as needed for all the girls.

How to set it up.
What NOT to do should be put in the direction you do NOT want the ball to go. The arrows should be placed heading in the direction you want the ball to go. The sun should be placed at the final destination and the girls can decorate the cans however they like in addition to the sun. Then, as each hole is played, the girls get a quote card.

Because I was too late getting to the dollar store for plastic golf clubs, they used crutches and whatever they had for hitting the ball. We didn't have enough used cans, so they used pitchers for the holes.