Relief Society Activity-We are all on a "Purse-onal" Journey

Tonight we had our bi-monthly Relief Society Activity for the women in our ward.  The theme for this activity was, We are all on a "Purse-onal" Journey.  Our decorations centered around purses.  We had a light dinner (aram sandwiches, a vegetable tray with dip, and a fruit tray with a yummy marshmallow cream dip).

 Each person received a purse with M&M's in it.  The M&M's were their markers for when we played P-U-R-S-E aka bingo.  Our PURSE cards had items on them that were all things you may find in a womans purse.  The half sheet of paper had the lyrics to a song titled  "Count Your Many Purses" played to the tune of Count Your Many Blessings.

Playing P-U-R-S-E aka Bingo.

I also gave a talk that tied in the purse theme.  The talk was about how we are all at different stages in our lives, some of us are carrying back packs, some of us are carrying diaper bags, some of us have the big mom purse, some of us are carrying little hand bags.  Some of us are in college, some of us are just starting families, some of us have kids in school, some of us are empty nesters, some of us are widows, but we all have something in common, and that is we all need each other, regardless of whatever stage we are in on our "purse-onal" journey.

Overall the evening went well.  We had a larger turnout then we expected, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Yosemite

Today we took a day trip to Yosemite National Park.  We took our bikes with us, did some bike riding around the park (you can cover so much more ground inside the park on a bike), some hiking, had a picinic by a pond, and enjoyed spending the day in the park together as a family.

Mikayla's 12th birthday

 For Mikayla's 12th birthday she decided that she wanted to have her 4 friends from her old school over for a camp out party.  We bbq'd hamburgers and hotdogs, played some minute to win it games, had an Easter egg hunt in the dark, made s'mores and they slept in the back yard in a tent.  Pretty simple.  She loved hanging out with her good friends.  Allison, Mikayla, Brooke and Jordan have been together since kindergarten.  Karah joined them in second grade.

Mikayla, Jordan, Brooke, Allison and Karah

 On Wednesday, the actual day of her birthday, she chose to have chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and stuffing for dinner.  I made her favorite best ever chocolate cake and she opened some gifts from John, Ashlee and I.

Holding her shirt and scarf from Ashlee

Mikayla with all her gifts.  Clothes.  She needed clothes.

Ashlee trying to photo bomb.