And the winner is...

Conference weekend was great! We were planning a trip to UT but decided to stay here for conference instead of driving up on Saturday (while conference was on). I am glad we did! The messages were wonderful and full of hope; inspired me to work on many areas in my life. We started by making German pancakes for breakfast and then watched conference in our bedroom (where most family activities take place!).

I had our Conference Activities Packet printed out (you may email me for a copy or you may download a similar version on my friend Jen's blog -- she and I share resources, which I appreciate much!) a few days before. Instead of taking them to get spiral-bound (which I did last year), I used colored file folders and stapled the sheets at the top. Of all the many coloring activities, cut and paste pictures of Apostles, matching, etc., the clear winner this year were the Word Tally Sheets (original idea from Jen's family).

Allie and Collin sat thru most, if not all, of the sessions, listening. Collin used car stickers for tally marks, which he loved to do. He was able to tally 200 different words (see photo) and Allie tallied over 1,300. The tally marks equal reward points that they will get to redeem later. I need to make the box sizes for the stickers bigger for next time, as they quickly filled up -- especially the box for Jesus Christ, which got a tally mark anytime any variation of His name was mentioned, which in itself was a lesson for the kids. Their ears were quick to recognize that "Redeemer" and "Savior" needed tally marks under "Jesus Christ". I also loved that I heard comments like "he said challenges again but we don't have that on our sheet", or Allie saying something about swimsuits and modesty during Elder Oaks' talk (he talked about the manner of dress briefly).