FRG Leaders

This is a fabulous book for kids whose Soldier is deployed.

This month, our kids listened to the story, Night Catch, at our FRG Family Night.  From the Amazon.com website description:

When a Soldier's work takes him half-way around the world, he enlists the help of the North Star for a nightly game of catch with his son.  Night Catch is a timeless story that connects families while they are apart and offers comforting hope for their reunion.

The kids each got a bag of "Galaxy Play Dough" which was homemade play dough colored dark blue with glitter in a Ziploc baggie.  They also enjoyed using black construction paper, silver star stickers, hole punchers, and chalk to make their own constellations.

More fun ideas for this theme can be found at this Pinterest board:  Night Catch FRG Meeting.

One of our FRG Leaders recently came up with the idea to create a "We are thankful for our Red Dragon Soldiers" banner to display in the unit headquarters. She did a great job and it turned out really cute.

She cut 150 feathers out of cardstock paper in fall colors while another very talented leader drew and cut out the turkey shapes.  At our November FRG Family Night (which is basically a battalion-wide FRG Meeting), each person was asked to write their Soldier's name and explain why they were thankful for him/her.  The kids did a great job drawing pictures and the spouses had some wonderfully heartfelt words to share.

The day after the meeting, three ladies met together to put the banner together and display it in our battalion's headquarters.  We look forward to our heroes reading the sweet words written about them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kids start the meeting making "I am thankful for ..." mini books and decorating their turkey feathers.

Working on the turkey feathers!

Putting the banner up in battalion headquarters

Close-up of a small turkey

Close-up of another small turkey

We are thankful for our Red Dragon Soldiers!

The lovely ladies who made this happen for us!

For our battalion's November Family Night (battalion-wide FRG Meeting), we hosted a Thanksgiving potluck, showed a slideshow of photos from downrange, received some great information from our brigade MFLC (Military Family Life Consultant), and met as battery-level FRGs as well.

For more details, you can visit:

SlideShare: November Family Night PowerPoint Slides

Facebook Photo Album:  November Family Night

Blogger Post:  FRG Thanksgiving Banner

Families enjoy a Thanksgiving Potluck dinner before the meeting begins.

Unit kids enjoying their dinner.

The meeting begins with a slideshow of photos from downrange.

The kids write notes to their Soldier on "feathers" to be added to a Thanksgiving turkey display.

The Rear Detachment Commander and the unit FRSA draw for door prize winners.

A happy door prize winner!

The completed Thanksgiving Turkey!