Week 11: A Great List of Service Activities

This last week was spring break. The girls spent almost the whole week with their Grandma. That was a wonderful act of service by my mom! The girls had a wonderful time.

One day, at the end of the break, we went to Hollywood as a family. We also went to the newly renovated LA Temple Visitor's Center. We have friends serving there and it was nice to visit with them. The church has done a wonderful job with the updates there.


Do you know of anyone who is interested in learning more about the family? Take them there!

On another note, in preparing my primary lesson for this week, I ran across this great website, KidsActivities.net, with a list of service activities for kids. I wanted to share it with you. They list tons of great ideas for families, kids or even large groups.

Week 10: Letters to Soldiers

This week the girls wrote a letter to a soldier. We love and support our troops and wanted to share our gratitude with them.


You can write a letter too. A Million Thanks is a wonderful website dedicated to helping our troops.

Week 9: Kind Words

This week we decided to think about what we say to others. Big and grand acts of service are awesome, but sometimes just our words can brighten someone's day.

We discussed the difference in how we say things using examples of tone and facial expressions. Sometimes we don't realize how something may come out of our mouths even with the best intentions.

The goal for this week was to say something nice to someone every day.

Here are a couple of Sienna's experiences:
♥ She saw a lady walking to her car and thought she was pretty. She and I were sitting in our car so we rolled down the window and told her that she looked pretty today. The lady was surprised and very happy. She drove away with a huge smile on her face.
♥ Sienna told one of her friends at school that she loved her and gave her a big hug.

Here are a couple of Haven's experiences:
♥ During the school open house, Haven went to her teacher, Mrs. Miller and gave her a big hug and told her she loves her.
♥ She told one of her friends how much she likes playing with her.

Together, when we were at the mall, we told the lady helping us that shirt was really pretty.

These are just small things that didn't cost anything. They just took a few seconds of our time. However, they probably made someone smile and warmed a heart for a long time.

Week 8: Place mats for the Elderly

This week's service was to make place mats to donate to an assisted living facility in the neighborhood.



The girls really loved this project. They had some scrapbook paper and made a collage on some poster board cut to the size of a place mat. The best part was cutting out all the different pictures in the scrapbook paper. Once the collage was done, we went to the local office supply store to have them laminated.




Next we will deliver them to an assisted living facility. (This part is still in the works...To be continued!)

Week 7: Humanitarian Aid

Our service this week was to put together a hygiene kit for the LDS Humanitarian Center.

Sunday night we had a lesson about hygiene. We talked about how it would be to brush your hair without a comb or brush; washing your body without soap; brushing your teeth without toothpaste. It would be really hard to do. We talked about if there is a big disaster like an earthquake or fire, we would need to leave our home and might not have the essentials.

I found this article in the Friend magazine, "A Year Without Gifts," and read it to the family. It's about a family who decided not to buy gifts for the family that year. They made gifts for each other and did a lot of service instead.

The church has a great program to help people in need all around the world. This video really shows how quickly the church works. We showed it to the girls.

Later in the week we went to the store to gather the supplies:

2 unbreakable combs (without sharp handles)
4 packaged toothbrushes
1 6-8 oz tube of toothpaste
2 bars of soap
2 15x25" new hand towels


Then we assembled the items together in a gallon-sized zip lock bag. After that we boxed them up and sent them to the church Humanitarian Center.

Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center
1665 South Bennett Road
Salt Lake City, UT 84104


The girls really want their kits to go to Africa. However, there's no telling where they will go. It's such a blessing to know that we can, for just a few dollars, send hygiene essentials to people who are in need.

Week 6: Heart Attack Bouquets

This week for service we decided to give some Heart Attack Bouquets. The book suggested doing a Heart Attack for a local senior lady, but we wanted to put our own spin on it. The girls wanted to show their love and appreciation to their Primary teachers. We decided to do this anonymously.

Here's what we made.

It was fun and super easy to do. We went to the local craft store and picked up a big pack of red pipe cleaners and a couple packs of felt heart stickers. At our local hardware/garden center we picked up two mini rose plants.


Once home, we put two felt heart stickers on the end of a pipe cleaner. We made a lot of these heart stems. When they were complete, we trimmed the edges of the pipe cleaners so we'd have different lengths of heart stems. Finally, we stuck them into the dirt around the flower. We made a little note saying, "I Love You!"


That night we drove to the lady's homes, put the note and flower heart attack bouquets on their doorsteps, rang the doorbell and ran.


The girls really loved the ding dong ditching part the best. But it was fun to make the bouquets too.

This is great for Valentine's day, but also great any time of year. There are so many types of felt stickers and different colors of pipe cleaners. It's just fun to make these to show appreciation.

Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, love more, and all good things will be yours.
Swedish Proverb

Week 5: Fireman Appreciation Week

This week we decided to show our appreciation for our local firemen. In the book, 52 Weeks of Fun Family Service, there are many ideas of things to do for the firemen. We decided to make a candy poster. Remember making those in high school or college?

Sienna and Daddy went to the store to pick out all the candy bars we'd use along with a nice sturdy piece of foam core poster board. We used our bright colored markers and came up with a cute card using the candy. Since it's close to Valentine's day we cut hearts out of wrapping paper and put them around the poster in several places.

Here's what it says:

"Dear Firemen,

Every Now & Later you deserve an Extra PayDay. It isn't 100Grand and it may give U the Snickers. Our Hearts are filled with Mounds of thanks for not being Nerds but for being Life Savers. Like the 3Musketeers you save KitKats from trees in your Big Red firetrucks and Whatchamacallits. From the Milky Way to Carlsbad, we thank you."


Saturday we stopped by our local fire station, Fire Station #6. There were 3 guys on duty. There was the captain, the engineer and the firefighter/paramedic. We explained about our year of service and how this week is Fireman Appreciation Week. We wanted to show our gratitude for all they do for our community. They loved the card. Sienna told them to only eat one piece of candy at a time.


They pulled the fire truck into the station so we could get a couple photos by it with them. I think it really made their day.


What the girls thought:
Sienna: "My favorite part was telling them to only eat one piece of candy."
Haven: "My favorite part was giving them the card."

This picture is the view from the fire station.
Great huh? They work so hard for us that they deserve the best view of all!

"Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers."

Howard Thurman