General Conference

My kids look forward to General Conference every time. They each gather their "stuff" and settle in for a quiet listening.

This time we had cousins with us, which made it even more fun and exciting.

Audrey, Katelyn and Sydney joined us for the Saturday morning session, while Karen ran a 10K with a friend.

We got out our well-loved "file folders" which only come out at conference time. My kids are starting to get too old for most of them, but Sydney was the perfect age for many of them.

I was proud of how the kids did. I shushed a few times, but generally they were quiet and listened.

"We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet"!

M & M

With General Conference just around the corner, I thought I would make these for my visiting teaching ladies...thanks to Pinterest.

I included a notebook for them to take notes. I should have included M&M's, but didn't make it to the store before our appointments. Bummer. --I was thanked later, by at least one of my ladies, because she was on a diet. :)

Looking forward to hearing from our prophet and apostles.

General Conference

General Conference... two of our favorite times of the year!

I often make up activity packets for my kids to do while they are watching. Usually a note-taking type for the older girls and puzzle and games for the younger 2. This year, I decided they were all old enough to take notes..and have less other type activities. They each received the same packet that had a picture of the apostle/prophet and space to take notes. We also had pictures on the wall. As each person spoke, they took turns placing their picture with their name and then writing down a few things from each talk.

Our Direct TV contract had ended this very week (maybe not the most convenient or best timing) AND the color wheel of our projector t.v. upstairs had broken.... sooooo we had to get a little creative in watching conference.

Plan A- was to watch it on the t.v. in our bedroom, BUT local channels weren't working right yet.

Plan B-watch on my laptop from lds.org.

Not ideal viewing, but really not all that bad either. So grateful for technology.

Later when Jason was home, he figured out how to connect the laptop to the t.v. so we could watch it on a bigger screen. And for the last session, he had finally figured out how to get the local t.v. station working.

Each kiddo made a "spot" (sometimes they have so many pillows and blankets it looks like a nest) for themselves.

Guess who. :)

I have to admit there was a little candy bribery that went on too. After the first congregational hymn, Treyson was the only one to receive candy (the only one beside myself who sang). Next several songs, Abree wanted to receive candy for singing, but I had to inform her she would only get credit for the congregational hymns, not the choir numbers. :) Candy was also distributed to those who participated in writing notes on the posted pictures.

I'm so glad to have this tradition of watching General Conference together as a family. I cherish the time spent together, as well as the guidance/direction we receive from our prophet, apostles and other leaders.

Conference Weekend & Easter Sunday

"We thank thee O God for a Prophet to guide us in these latter-days....."

Early Saturday morning, Treyson came into my room and asked, "Is it time for General Conference to start?"

"Not yet, go back to bed or go read a book or something. Let me sleep."

Minutes later, "Now is it time?!"

"No, I'll let you know. You won't miss it... I promise."

Then it was Abree's turn. :)

Since our FHE lesson on Monday, Treyson and Abree had been tag-teaming me with the same question over and over. I was pleased that they were excited about General Conference, but wasn't showing it that early in the morning.

In the last few years, my kids have shown more interest and have started looking forward to General Conference. It could be combination of many things, maybe one of these; getting older, conference activity booklets/BINGO, quiet play items and SNACKS.

Whatever the motivation, I am proud of them. They were the ones to call to me when it FINALLY started that morning.

Saturday, we stayed in our jammies all day.

Except for Treyson who couldn't stand it any longer and had to get dressed, about 2 hours before it would be time to get them back on.

We brought our blankies, pillows and note taking items into the family room and got settled in for a quiet day of instruction.

After both sessions, we briefly discussed what we had learned. It was interesting to see what the kids had listened to. Each of them could come up with at least one talk, story or point that was their favorite.

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Easter Sunday

Our wheat grass was this tall Easter Sunday!

I was relieved that it actually grew...and in just under 1 week.

You should see it now. It's a lot taller. I'll be posting what I did with mine.

Between conference sessions on Sunday, we ate our traditional "Jerusalem Dinner". This year we had tuna fish pitas, hard-boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, almonds, dried apricots, figs, olives, carrots, juice AND the highly anticipated GOAT CHEESE. Seriously, my kids look forward to the goat cheese all year. The olives and hard-boiled eggs are also another favorite.

We also did our traditional "Easter in an Egg".
This example isn't exactly the same one that we do, but very similar.

I'm so glad that we have established these Easter traditions. I feel good about focusing on Christ AND have fun together.

No more goat cheese...... until next year! :)

Spring Break: Day 3 & 4

Sunday, we went to church and had a low-key day; quiet time/nap time, FHE preparations, cherry coconut dessert and "Minute to Win It".
Anyone else watching this show? We like to watch it as a family, because it's fun and clean.

We can totally see us playing these games at a party, FHE or Family Reunion.

Monday, Krissi helped the kids plant wheat in their pots, while I finished FHE preparations.

She even planted some for me.

I bought 3 of these metal planters at Target's "Dollar Spot". My plan is to have Easter grass to decorate my mantle. Hope the wheat grass grows! :)

Our FHE lesson focused on the upcoming General Conference. We talked about the "hidden treasures" we could find in the talks from our Prophet and other inspired leaders. We were all excited to hear what they had in store for us.

Next, we went on a treasure hunt. I gave the kids their first clue and they were off...

Some clues were found out-of-order, others were hard to find without additional clues.... this is NOT what I had envisioned. (One clue had accidentally been found even before FHE started. It was re-hidden, in a different spot, and proved to be harder to find the second time around.) Even so, I think the kids had fun.

Finally, all clues were found... and in the correct order. The kids brought in the chest found by the bikes in the garage. Inside they discovered many treasures.

For each of them there was a personalized conference booklet. These booklets had mazes, pictures to color, word finds, places to take notes on talks and much more.

Also included were pencils, prophet/apostle cards, conference BINGO cards, colored pencils and a conference trail mix.

Sugardoodle to the rescue!

You can find the poem and ingredients here.

Yum!

Now let the countdown begin.