Conference Day 1

It felt good to watch conference with the family today. Last night the kids helped me put together a poster board game to use for conference. I happened to be on a friend's blog (thanks April!) and saw that she had made this awesome board to play during conference. I LOVE to copy good things! It was a little different from the old conference books I put together for the kids every conference. So I gave them some variety this year. They were so excited to have a new game to play. And I was excited that they were looking forward to a tradition that hopefully has stuck with them.

I got small steno books (one each for all of us that could write), a sketch pad for Allie and Collin and made this conference chase board. Allie and Collin stayed up with me to cut out the pictures and glue them on the board. The result: not perfect but perfectly cool. They both liked the visual, and being able to move their little game piece on the board until they got to the Savior's picture. Then they got a prize. Ours were boxes of theater candy. Hey, whatever works!

Here's how to play:
You will need a game piece for each player. Line the game pieces up on the left side of the board and as you listen to conference listen for the words represented by each picture. When you hear that word, advance your piece to that game space--one space at a time. You may not skip over spaces! You can move vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The winner is the person who reaches the largest picture, or "Win Space" at the right side of the board first.

The first session was great they all took copious notes on that one. I like Collin's condensed version: "sperit" "profit" "hoole gowst" "ubedience" and other things that made me smile. He told me he noticed all those talks had at least 4 spirit and Jesus words in them. All of them. Yeah, he was listening. Allie remembered Elder Bednar's talk on expressing love, bearing testimony and being consistent. So did Kevin and I.

So the kids ate their winnings and built a fort in the theater room right before it was over. For the p.m. session Maddie napped, and we watched conference upstairs.

Extra Notes for today (for me mostly):

Maddie gobbled up a bunch of sweet tarts during conference. She likes her bed all cushy and soft. She went right to sleep when I put her down for a nap!

Kevin and Allie do NOT like candy corn kisses. Collin and I do.

Collin missed his soccer game in favor of conference. I missed a shower. Collin told me he was glad I was home to watch conference with him. I love that boy! He also told me his favorite holidays were first, Christmas, then Easter. He also asked me if he was nice this week would he get the "NICE" award to stick on his door?

Family awards given out this last week were: Neat As a Pin - Collin for keeping his room neat the last two weeks. He got so into it that he took his legos to our bedroom because he didn't want to mess his up. Allie snatched the "Sweet Heart" award - for writing us lots of little love notes the last month.