Outdoor Movie Night

Who: Everyone!

Objective: Mingle, Fellowship, entertainment, good low-pressure activity to invite non-member friends too!

Budget: $10 for popcorn

Flyer:

Set-Up: A neighbor has a huge backyard with some out buildings and granted us the request to host our activity. The new activity chairperson donated the popcorn from her food storage as she had quite a bit of it.

A white sheet was hung in front of a garage door to one of the out-buildings and that became the "movie screen". A member of the ward had an LCD projector that was then hooked up to a laptop. A large speaker was also hooked up to the laptop and the DVD was played from the laptop.

Popcorn was popped ahead of time and placed in large bowls with little scoops. Brown paper lunch sacks were set out so movie-goers could fill up their own popcorn. Ice water was also provided.

Special Instructions: We were invited to arrive no earlier than 8pm to set up our chairs and blankets while we could still see :) It was announced the movie would start at dusk, around 9pm. The popcorn would be provided, but we could bring other treats from home if we wanted.

The selected movie was one that had been previewed at another local outdoor movie night. It was a local independent film and therefore we were able to obtain permission ahead of time to show the movie to a non-profit church group. Many places are not particular with this, so long as you are not making money off of the event. It also helped that the movie was being shown at someone's residence as it then fell into the category of "home viewing".

Crayons were set out along with the popcorn bags, so before dusk the kids colored on their bags and wrote their names on them. This helped to keep them entertained. The adults enjoyed sitting and visiting with each other.

Also, in the activity closet were found some 3-legged-race bands from a ward camp-out several years ago. So, while waiting for the sun to set, several joined in the 3-legged-race. They had a lot of fun.

Turn-Out: There were 46 people in attendance. And because the popcorn was donated and we already had a supply of paper sacks in the closet, we ended up spending $0 on the activity.

Mom & Me night

Who: All of the ladies and girls of the Ward

Objective: Mingle, fellowship, fun

Budget: $0, everyone brought treats, and I donated about $5 worth of craft supplies

Flyer:


Set-Up: We set up chairs for the women to sit and talk. We also set up the TV/DVD player and played The Princess Frog. We had 2 tables for snacks and water, as well as 2 tables for crafts.

Special Instructions: The crafts were simple. For the first craft we made paper flowers. I bought 3 packages of cupcake liners (.96 each), and donated some brads from my scrapbook supplies. We had plenty of straws in our supply closet, left over from an activity about 3 years ago in which they had rootbeer floats. I brought my tiny scrapbook hole punch, and the girls punched 1 hole near the top of the straw, and then a hole in the middle of each cupcake liner they wanted to use, and used the brad to secure them. We also had child scissors and crayons so they could fashion the liners to look like flower petals. Here was my inspiration:

We also made Tissue Paper butterflies. I donated tissue paper and I bought a pack of white chenille stems (50 for .89).
The best thing about the crafts is I only had to make one of each ahead of time, and set them out as an example. They were so self explanatory, that I didn't need to oversee them. Big sisters helped little sisters, and they all seem to have fun!

Turn-Out: Counting all moms and girls, we had a total of 38 come. It was perfect.

Game Show Night & Dessert Auction

Who: All. Family
Objective:Mix, Mingle, Raise Money for YW Camp
Budget: $75, actual spent: $65
Flyer:

Set-Up: We had the stage set up for the game show and borrowed buzzers from a lady in the ward who uses them for school competitions.

Special Instructions: We served a simple dinner of Sloppy Joe's and chips with water to drink. I also set up a PB & J station with a couple loaves of bread, as the bread was on sale for .98/loaf. I grabbed the PB & J from my food storage and voila! We didn't want to serve up a big meal, because we knew that "full" people wouldn't feel like bidding on dessert items.

The Young Women brought in single portions for the "Buy It Now" Bake Sale Table. Items were either 25 or 50 cents. This kept making change a simple task. They brought cupcakes, rice krispy treats, brownies, bars, etc. Some of the YW and many members of the Ward brought in other yummy desserts to be auctioned off.

First we started with the dinner at 6:30pm.

At 7pm, the bishopric was ushered on staged. We played 3 rounds of "Stump the Bishopric". We had a panel of judges and a score keeper as well. 10 audience members came up for each round. They held up an item they had brought from home and the challenge to the bishopric was to see which one of them could be the first to somehow relate that item to the gospel. i.e., a light bulb is like the gospel because it sheds light on a lot of topics and can help light our way, etc. If the panel was pleased with the answer, they got the point, etc.

At 7:15pm, we ended the game and started the dessert auction. We had a member of the ward who is known for his un-shy antics and off-the-cuff humor be our auctioneer. He had the audience laughing. Our ward has gotten much smaller over the past two years, so I was really worried that we wouldn't raise very much money. I have heard of huge family wards raising in excess of $1,000 at their dessert auctions. We had about 30 dessert items to auction and brought in, with the bake sale table, $622.25. For our first year doing this (in over 5 years) I think this was a success. We plan to make it an annual event, although I think we will do just the dinner and auction next time and keep it simple.

We were finished with the entire activity by 8pm.

Turn-Out: We had about 65 people in attendance.

I was so busy with the auction items that I forgot to take any pictures. However, we had some really awesome cakes, including "The Golden Plates" and some fun dessert ideas, like caramel corn in a cute Americana Tin.

Halloween Ball

Who: All Adults
Objective: Mingle, have fun, fellowship, missionary
Budget: $25

Flyer:

Set-Up: We basically had each member of the committee bring whatever Halloween decorations they had, and we made the room look really cute.

Special Instructions: We had an area on the stage for picture taking. A member of our bishopric is in a band, and he was able to talk his band in coming to play for free, so always a plus! So that we wouldn't end up with all sugary treats, I asked the committee members to bring items such as fruit/veggie trays, cheeses, cocktail meatballs, etc. It worked out great, and they were happy to do it. One of the gals on our committee made some "certificate" awards on her computer, and she and her hubby nominated people at the end of the night for best costumes. She also had found some little Halloween trinkets at the dollar store to give away for the prizes.

Turn-Out: After the wards split and were realigned, our number of elderly increased while our number of younger couples decreased. So, we invited the 6th ward to join us. We had a great time and about 60 people came.

We came in under budget, as the cost for the root beer extract, sugar and dry ice was $10; the printing of the pictures were $7, and the prizes were $5.



Here are a few pics of some of the costumes...

Hillbilly Harvest Hoedown & Chili Cookoff!

Who: All ages
Objective: Mingle, Fellowship, cooking skills, etc.
Budget: $20, for oyster crackers ("chicken feed") and butter
Flyer:


Set-Up: We decorated the tables with mason jars and old soup cans that were filled with sunflowers. We had some country style decor set up on the stage as well. (Tasteful) Redneck jokes were blown up onto poster boards and tacked up to the walls around the room.

Special Instructions: We had sign-ups ahead of time. People could either sign up to enter chili in the cook-off, bring rolls, or something for the "Roadkill Dessert Bar".

Turn-Out: We had about 65 people come.

We had little 3 oz cups set out so people could sample the chili as they went through the line. Then they could fill their bowl up with the one they wanted to eat. There were plenty of rolls, and our Roadkill dessert bar was a hoot. I had little place cards and pens so they could write down the name of their "roadkill dessert". We had "tire tread", "runned-over raccoon", "squashed frogs", and I can't remember all of them.

We had each crockpot of soup labeled with numbers, and there were empty mason jars lined up across the stage, that had corresponding numbers. When they came through the line to get their chili, they were also given a black bean. Then, they cast their vote for the best chili by placing their black bean in the corresponding jar. It was a quick and easy way to "visually" judge who had the best chili. It also was cute as it went along with our theme.

We had ice water in a metal tub that was labeled "waterin hole" and people could help themselves to water. The oyster crackers were served in a cardboard box (lined with plastic) and marked "Chicken Feed" in Hillbilly Handwriting.

Once everyone got through the line, we had a girl in our ward do some fiddling for us. She was excited to do it and had been practising for weeks. She played about 4 or 5 numbers and the audience loved it. Then we had a girl from the activity committee teach an easy line dance and practically everyone joined in.

Finally, we awarded a few prizes for the chili as well as for the best roadkill dessert, and we also gave an award for the best-dressed hillbilly.

We had "redneck" teeth from walmart for the outfit, and for the food winners we had a dish towel with chili peppers on them.

Everyone loved it and seemed to have a great time! Here are a few pics from my camera phone...