Conference Weekend

I look forward to Conference Weekend every 6 months, almost like it's Christmas. I heard more during this conference than any other previous (since I've had children). They're growing up!! I spent the week trying to think of creative ways to help us have an enjoyable time and still listen. Here's Emma (sporting her new dance costume) putting a puzzle together. . .

Damian and Gehrig had a blast creating these little "guys". . .

And eating sugar cookies (frosted and decorated by themselves).

We copied a couple of ideas from other blogs and Ensign articles to come up with the most effective plan I've had yet. The night before conference, the children and I thought of different topics that we might hear addressed at conference (love, sacrament, scriptures, prophets, family history, etc.). Then, they drew pictures to go with the topics and we taped them all over the room where we were listening. My creative friend, Annette, made up a great game with pictures and stats on the prophet and apostles (which we played several times before conference to become more familiar with them). We used those pictures to paste on the topic pictures the kids drew whenever we heard them speaking about a certain topic. And. . .whenever the children heard key words and yelled them out to me, I threw them a smartie (not a whole package--they'd have been sick). These things helped them listen more than they have ever listened before. A funny side note: the following Sunday in Sacrament Meeting, Emma heard the word "eternity" and called it out to me (expecting a smartie to come flying at her). :) I was so happy to know that they were listening and are still listening!
I let the boys play with their building blocks during one session, but it wasn't the most effective thing we did. . .(it's hard for them not to talk when they're playing).

One of our favorite Conference traditions is Sunday morning breakfast. The microscopic piece of cantaloupe came from our garden (it was the size of a baseball). Can't wait for the next conference to be "fed" again (spiritually)! :)