Need ideas for a going-away party

[happy2bamom]

Good friends of ours are moving to Germany in 3 weeks. A group of us are hosting a picnic/potluck style party for the family (attended mostly by church friends). I was planning on taking lots of pictures and then putting together a photo album for each of their children. Other than that, I didn't really have anything planned.

Any ideas on what could be done as a nice send off? I want to do something more than just having everyone sign a card. I would like them to have some kind of keepsake. TIA

[elephantmeg]

Two things that I loved that people did when we left for overseas (we did this several times) are
-a memory book (very small notebook) that people wrote messages and put their addresses in
-a box that people wrote messages on small peices of paper and put them in the box. I still have the notebook that people wrote stuff in. And I use the addresses for Christmas cards.

[deannanb]

my friends had a t-shirt with markers for everyone to sign their name and write what they wanted -
my friend had decorated it first with iron on letters
(there's no place like home) - I moved from Kansas -
but you coudl think of something similar.

the kids would have fun with this.
or you could do a pillow case or stuffed animal