relief society birthday prep

we have our relief society birthday celebrations in a few weeks and being the additional meetings co-ordinator my planning for our high tea (involving a lot of hot chocolate and herbal tea of course) is in full swing... we are having a quiz on the evening and i thought i would pop it up here, in case any one wants to use it in the future. please feel free to send me an email (starsinourhearts @ gmail.com) or comment below if you'd like a pdf of the questions and answers emailed to you.

by the way, if you know all the answers (without googling them), i'll be super impressed!

1. In what year was the Relief Society founded?
2. What is the floral emblem of the Relief Society?
3. What colours are on the emblem?
4. What was the original name of the Relief Society?
5. What is the Relief Society motto?
6. Who is the current President of the Relief Society? 
7. What date was the Relief Society Founded?
8. How many dollars worth of gold did Joseph Smith give to the society to begin?
9. Who was the first president of the Relief Society?
10. In what year did the general women's broadcast become a biannual event?
11. Since the founding of the Relief Society, how many presidents have there been? 
12. With a 29 year effort, which Relief Society president served for the longest period of time? 
13. Name the three sisters who serve on the Relief Society Presidency of our ward? 
14. How many women were present at the first meeting of the Relief Society?
15. How many other women not in attendance were admitted membership that day that were not present? 
16. What hymn opened the first meeting of the Relief Society?
17. At the first meeting Emma Smith said the relief society was going to do something WHAT? 
18. There are now more than how many MILLION members of the Relief Society?
19. Where was the first meeting of the Relief Society held? 
20. At which age do the young women of the church join the relief society? 

riley's baptism

yesterday we got to witness the baptism of this handsome boy. doug and i have been friends his parents for 10 years now and have loved watching him and his brother and sister grow up.

it was such a special service, followed by a barbeque at the farm. we had a great time laughing and catching up... it had been far too long!

this little dude tried to steal the show by unintentionally matching with his dad, while rocking the cutest shoes ever!

and i was thrilled to bits to see this rainbow cake... i am such a sad child pretending to be an adult... i love rainbow food of any description 

here is the birthday boy cutting into his cake...

and the sweet inside, ready for the taking

joseph has a haircut

this insanely cute boy just had his luscious locks cut back... and suddenly doesn't look like a baby anymore. he loved looking at himself in the mirror and wearing the cape for starters. but that didn't last for long... 

and one thing is for sure though, he still does not like to have his hair cut! it was only a minute or two before he started to wiggle, try and take the cape off and climb down onto the floor. :(

but eventually jess managed to work her magic and get it done... look at all that hair!

and here he is! neatly done and happy again

♥ 

the starfish

Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. 

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)

i think pretty much everyone that knows me knows that i love stars and starfish, so when 

my lovely friend vivienne posted this photo this morning on facebook, which she had taken while walking at their local beach , it was love at first sight! she posted it along with a version of the above story, which i love but had not heard for years. i love the moral it carries. that anyone can make a difference no matter how small. 

be the person that throws the starfish. make the difference and seize the day.

sariah's high tea

a few weeks ago i was wandering the aisles in woolworths with madeline, trying to do my shopping when i unexpectedly bumped into a friend from church. we chatted for a few minutes, during which she blurted out that one of the young women was about to turn 18 and that the young women's president had decided to throw her a high tea and had asked her to organise it... but that she had absolutely no idea what to do, or where to start. i mentioned that mum and i had done quite a few and that it was kind of "our thing" and offered to help. apparently i was the answer to her prayers and here we are!

sariah is 18 this weekend and the young women wanted to give her a surprise party with all the trimmings... so it happened. last night! we made it super fancy. other than the chair covers and the sashes/table runners, all the decs came from mums place, with a few things of mine and my oh my did it look amazing! it was so much fun putting together and so easy with the help of the mia maids. 

one of the other laurels decorated these amazing cupcakes too. yummmmm!

sariah as a baby on the goody bags supplied by the young womens leaders, after all what is a party without a goody bag?

welcome to sariah's par-tea! the girls were so proud of themselves for thinking that one up!

vintage trio sets from mum place. they really make it a "high" tea

and a photobooth with vintage and other random props to boot... the girls had such a good time with them once they were done eating and drinking tea

one of the best purchases i've made... a punch fountain. it's a little noisy, but looks so cute!

the hot drinks... for a recipe for amazing slow cooker hot chocolate: here

it was scraped back to nothing by the end of the night, it is so yum!

all the food was awesome and the girls went all out with their assignments. i was so glad to be a part of such an awesome night with no effort spared

this cake was lovingly made by another one of the young womens leaders. it looked so yum!

as the guest of honour arrived it was all worth it, she was so thrilled! what an awesome night to be a part of. 

we love you sariah!

jelly slice

i have always loved the look of this beautiful bright slice and have been wanting to try it for ages, but always left it in the too hard basket, but tried it for josephs birthday and am so glad i did... i've made this twice in two weeks and both times had rave reviews, so i thought i had better hurry up and share the recipe for the best jelly slice, which i found here

i will begin simply saying, make sure you have plenty of time when making the slice, as the way to make sure you get the beautiful clean layers, is by allowing enough time to let them set and for the jelly to cool before you pour it on the top. 

you will need:

200g milk arrowroot biscuits

225g melted butter

395g can condensed milk

2 1/2 tsp gelatine

3/4 cup boiling water

4 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 pkt jelly (flavour/colour of your choice)

boiling water as per instructions on jelly packet

extra tsp gelatine - for jelly top

method:

1. line slice tin with baking paper

2. crush biscuits in food processor until fine

3. add crumbs to melted butter and mix until combined. pour the mix into the prepared tin and press down with the back of a spoon until a neat layer is formed. place in the fridge to set

4. whilst base is chilling, add 2 1/2 tsp gelatine to boiling water and stir until dissolved. add to condensed milk and lemon juice. whisk until mixture is combined and smooth

5. remove base from fridge and pour condensed milk layer over the top. place back into the fridge to set.

6. make jelly as per instructions on packet, adding an extra tsp of gelatine. leave jelly to cool until it reaches room temperature.

7. pour jelly over slice and place back in fridge to set, this will take at least 4 hours, leaving it overnight is the best option to ensure the layers all fully set.

8. cut into squares using a hot knife.

it's so yum! hope you enjoy :)

dannii's having a baby!!

our dannii is glowing,

her bump is now showing,

a person she's growing,

to her shower you're going!

you could not, would not, 

want to miss...

a celebration such as this!

today i had the absolute pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my beautiful friend dannielle. i feel so blessed to have her in my life and i am so excited for her little boy to arrive... it was such a fun day and i was thrilled to be a part of it.

she decided she wanted a dr. suess theme which was so fun to decorate for... lots of pale blue, white and red poms (which we fluffed last time we visited bunbury whilst watching old episodes of friends - a typical hang out activity for us...) and really cute bits and pieces i managed to pick up around the place. i was obsessed with the serviettes with little clouds on them seeing as her favourite dr suess book is "oh the places you'll go" and they fitted the theme perfectly. i also made cupcakes with blue fairy floss on top in the hopes of them looking like thing 1 and thing 2... i thought they looked awesome, but warning if you try this at home, the fairy floss does not last long... it melts!

some of baby w's present stash along with the cat in the hat that dannii's step mum made for her classroom (yep she was a teacher up until baby w decided to join them)

and some more of our decs!

drinks were cherry and fruit punch koolaid kindly supplied by a friend that was back over christmas from the u.s. don't let those violent colours fool you, they were surprisingly good and fitted our theme perfectly.

a few simple games to top it off, guess how many clouds were in the jars with a lovely poem written up by cody the night before, easy done...

and "my water broke" which is also easy as... freeze jelly babies in ice cube trays... give everyone one in their drink and the first person to have their "baby" break free from the ice (without putting it in their mouth) yells my water broke and is the winner. so fun. 

dannii was so thrilled with all her gifts and i was blown away at the generosity of her friends and family, baby williams is certainly going to be very loved. 

it was a lovely afternoon and i was so thrilled at how many people were there for her

checking out the haul afterwards! :)

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i was especially lucky because dannielle knows how obsessed i am with snapping pictures and let me get some of her once the party was over... i especially love this one of her with the book that inspired the party!

she is looking so beautiful and i love her bump ♥

i can hardly wait to see that little person she is growing, im so excited!

♥♥♥