General Conference Basket

Every year it seems like I do something different to get the kids excited about General Conference. Sometimes its Conference bingo sheets, or Conference notebooks, or just a basket of Conference treats to munch on during the sessions. For Conference this weekend I saw a great idea on Pinterest (which I am currently addicted to), you make bags for each general authority and the kids can do or munch on whatever is in that bag during that talk. Yay. It sounded fun. So last night I went to Target and got a bunch of treats/snacks and coloring/activity books/etc. to put the bags together. Thank goodness for the dollar section. The checkout clerk totally judged me and said I "sure was buying a lot of junk food". Sheesh. Then she said when she saw my carrots and celery (for a chicken noodle soup I'm making soon) she said, "at least you make your kids eat some vegetables". Holy moly. Stop the judging! It was just too much for me at that point (I could feel my face had turned a bit red) to explain the whole General Conference treats thing, so I just smiled when really I wanted to hurt her. But I'm okay now. Harboring bad feeling towards a clerk who was probably just trying to make conversation would hardly be General Conference-like. :) Anywho, I hope the kids like this incarnation of the Conference Basket and that it helps them to be excited about watching all the sessions this weekend.

So here is my list of goodies/activities for each bag:

• President Monson: Fun Size M&Ms
• President Eyring: Twizzlers
• President Uchtdorf: Gummy Bears (because he's from Germany :))
• Elder Packer: Coloring Books/ Hidden Picture Activity Book
• Elder Perry: Stickers
• Elder Nelson: Pringles
• Elder Oaks: Fun Size Almond Joys (my whole family loves these - Elder Oaks will be very popular)
• Elder Ballard: Lego Mini-Figures
• Elder Scott: Rice Krispie Treats
• Elder Hales: Dried Pineapple
• Elder Holland: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (another apostle who is going to be very popular)
• Elder Bednar: Little 100 Calorie Twinkie Packs
• Elder Cook: Felt Coloring Posters with Markers
• Elder Christofferson: 100 Calorie Milano Cookie Packs
• Elder Anderson: Snackwell Caramel Popcorn Packs

**Then in the back of the basket I have a folder with a bunch of coloring pages and Conference activity sheets to do any time during Conference.

Hunger Games

Adrian and I went to the Hunger Games midnight show a week ago and it was SO fun! I love that we can be crazy together.:) I thought the movie was so well done. I love the actors they chose and thought it was one of the best book adaptations I've ever seen. I guess that's what you get when the writer is one of the screen writers too. Didn't you think the acting was great?! Oh, and have you listened to the soundtrack?? For the most part it's very Appalachian folky and I love it, surprisingly. (I'm not as big of a fan of the Taylor Swift songs, but I can see why they choose her since this movie is so big with teens.) "Daughter's Lament" actually made me a little misty the first time I heard it and the Maroon 5 song is haunting and gorgeous. Oooh oooh and you can also buy Sting's "Down in the Meadow" on i-Tunes and it's a beautiful lullaby.

Cub Scouting Fun

Ben just started Cub Scouts a couple months ago and he adores it. The structure and goals are right up his alley. He thrives on that. Ben makes new years resolutions for himself and actually works on them. This year one of his resolutions was to learn more about South America and he's totally working on it. I think it's an awesome part of his personality and I really hope he keeps it up. So anywho, Scouts is just the best thing in the world to Ben because it's all about working on new thing and signing them off. He's having fun. Here's a couple of pictures of what he has been up to. He and Adrian are SO looking forward to the Pine Wood Derby. I can't wait to see what kind of car they make.

Ben with his Bobcat badge and the Mom's pin for the Bobcat which he really didn't want to relinquish to me.:)

Ben with his Blue and Gold Banquet cake. Our pack has the tradition of the scouts and their dad's making cakes together for the banquet, so Ben and Adrian made this rocking Angry birds cake. I think it's so cute and was so impressed that they made the fondant and decorated it all themselves.