General Conference Weekend

I always look forward to General Conference Weekend. It takes me back to my days at BYU and Tuesday Devotionals in the blue chairs down front if I was lucky! However, the good old days at BYU did not include 5 children so enjoying the Devotional was much easier and a very peaceful and fulfilling experience. As much as I love my 5 boys, "easy" and "peace" don't work into my vocabulary very often in the same sentence. So after much "long suffering" during the Saturday sessions of Conference, I decided to get a better game plan for Sunday.

I had already printed out the General Conference packets various people put together (thank you--out there to all of you who put those together!) and of course I had the stand by Conference Bingo cards and Angry Bird Space fruit snacks to go with them. But I found some new ideas online that I thought would help the older kids focus a little better.


I divided the basement into different areas. Everyone had their own spot to help avoid fighting and talking. Bradley and Bryson had their bean bags with their Conference packets and bingo cards but I also challenged them to learn about 3 Apostles. I got out the 8x10 pictures of the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency but I also printed off little "flash cards" that had a shorter summary of each.

Blake's spot was on his chair by the lockers. You can see in the picture that the side of the lockers is covered with Gospel Art Kit pictures. This was one idea I found online which I tweaked slightly. I picked different topics (faith, sacrament, love, scriptures, family, missionaries, temples, and obedience or choosing the right) and picked a picture to match it and labeled the picture. As one of the Apostles would talk we decided which topic (if any that I chose) the talk came under and moved the picture of that Apostle to the picture of that topic. This worked well during Conference and we've used it all week long since then to review the talks by the Apostles and match the topic.


Brock's spot was over by this play table. I had a bucket of church books for him and a Temple matching game that I made for a class at BYU. I always forget that I have it so it was a fun novelty for Brock. He also had Conference papers to color and bingo cards.


In between sessions we worked on lunch and another fun idea I found online. I mixed up a big batch of cookie dough and left it plain. Then gave the boys a chunk and we shaped it into ties--like dress shirt ties. We called them Conference Cookies. They had fun putting designs on their tie and even etched out patterns with a plastic knife. This picture was taken before the cookies baked.


This is how enormous the ties ended up! The boys of course thought it was great. Next time we'll make them a little smaller! Blake's taste runs a little Jackson Pollack I think.


Bryson, my Anti-Chocolate kiddo used Skittles and blue sprinkles. It turned out cute and he said it tasted good. . . I don't think I'll add Skittles into cookie dough for myself anytime soon.


Bradley stuck with a classic polka-dot/checkerboard design. His also baked into the best shape. We'll definitely make these again so we can perfect the shape, size and baking aspects.


Brock was asleep during the baking project and when he woke up he just wanted to make "circles." So we decorated 4 circles for him and he was thrilled!

So all in all we cut down on a little bit of the noise and chaos and Scott and I were able to enjoy Conference a little more. I love having that time of concentrated meditation on the greatness of the Gospel and the love of our Savior and Heavenly Father. I appreciate the constant encouragement from the General Authorities to, as President Hinckley once said, "try a little harder to be a little better." It was a great weekend!

Spring Break 2012!

Thursday--Water Day


Our favorite theme day during Spring Break (and the only theme day to appear every year) is Water Day. We were more fortunate than last year to have amazing weather every day this week. Today the temps in sunny Mesa, AZ got up to 82 degrees! I think if we had just pushed all the kids outside with nothing but the hose they would have been happy. But we pulled a few tricks out of the garages to make the day even more fun!


Bradley and Bryson replaced batteries in the water guns we bought for Bradley's 12th birthday party and got those ready for a water war. Who knew the buckets we store them in would be so much fun?


Really, the buckets were supposed to be used to refill the water cartridges for the water guns.


But some kids just wanted to see if they could get stuck inside them.

Aunt Kaley brought her slip-n-slide with blow up boogie boards. Adam and Brock had the best time slipping and sliding and playing in the the little pool of water at the end of it. They just played and were pretty oblivious to everything and everyone around them!


After a while they started a Water War. Uh Oh. The phrase "This can only end in tears" comes to mind.


Brock must have won that battle because he is geared up ready to win the war!

The only casualty of the day was the kids necks and forearms. . . and legs. . . and noses. Yes, we forgot the sunscreen until they were almost ready to come inside. I know. How could we be that dumb? I have no idea. We totally know better.


On closer inspection, Brock and Adam both have a bit of a sun-glow about them. They were so wiped out they watched Toy Story (after 4 hours outside) then came upstairs to play on the computer--and did it without fighting! Hooray for exhaustion!


During Quiet Time, Kaley, Cassi and I got the food and tables ready for dinner. We luau-ed up again with Kalua Pork, fried rice (compliments of Panda Express), fresh fruit, chocolate chip cookies (compliments of Iron Chef Day) and to top off the taste of our Home Away from Home, Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts!


We tried to change up our tablescape a bit this year which was fun. The King stands in the background next to the grapes! Our homage to Ohau and our favorite island show Hawaii 5-0!


Grandma-ma came over to luau with us and posed with Miss Madi!


Do they look like hungry natives?


Aunt Kaley called the kids over in order of best behavior. Really at that point they were all hungry and sitting pretty quietly. But Megan won the honor of first crack at the macadamia nuts!


Bradley was smart and wanted a lot of pork so he stayed really quiet and got to go second. Man, this kid is tall!


Katelyn and Bryson were called next. These are two scary peas in a Hawaiian pod!


Adam went next. He was so tired he couldn't find the camera lens to look at and say "Maui."


No surprise, these two were last. Iggy and Squiggy both filled their plates and quickly got down to business eating. In fact, all the kids were really quiet at the table. They were HUNGRY!


Brett chilled in his highchair and watched all the chaos unfold. Grandma-ma informed us that March 15th is Rock Star Bret Michaels birthday and he turned 49 this year. I meant to completely confuse all the kids and sing Happy Birthday but I got so mesmerized by those Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts I forgot. So Happy Birthday Poison singer Bret Michaels and Happy First Spring Break Luau to our Brett Michael! Another Spring Break Day to remember!

Spring Break 2012!

Wednesday--Iron Chef Day

Today I wanted to teach the boys some basics of cooking and baking but have fun too. I think part of my job as a mom of all boys is to make sure they won't starve on their missions and at college. Of course, as long as milk and cereal is in their budget I know they won't starve! However, it was fun to spend the day teaching them how to make some things we eat all the time, some new things they NEVER eat, and a surprise here and there too. I realize we didn't get any where close to the Cordon Bleu Cooking School arena, but hopefully a thing or two will stick so they can at least impress some unsuspecting girl in the future.

So back to Iron Chef Day! We didn't really have an Iron Chef Contest, but by the end of the day the true Iron Chef of the group emerged. He was the only one who endured all the tasks during the day and was still smiling. His identity to be revealed later.

We started the morning by making homemade waffles, biscuits and cinnamon rolls. The latter two were thanks to our friend Mr. Pillbury. The little boys thought it was cool to watch me bang the can on the counter top to get it to pop open. I'm not going to lie--it was fun to bang it on the counter top! We were so busy eating and cooking that I forgot to take pictures but believe me when I say you have never seen cinnamon rolls disappear so fast!


After we cleaned up (come to find out Brock has mad dish scubbing skillz!), did a little exercising with the Wii downstairs, we started in on the first food assignment: spaghetti sauce. You might think that was a weird thing to have them make but it was fairly easy, it taught them how to brown hamburger and I needed some more to freeze anyway. Bradley and Bryson worked on the hamburger, Bryson and I opened all the cans of tomato sauce and paste (we did a double batch), Bryson and Brock dumped it in and Brock and I cleaned up the cans and recycled them while Bryson stirred the sauce. While all the goodness simmered I had them work on lunch which was Mac-N-Cheese. Again, you're probably thinking "Why?" My kids don't like most pasta in general but they do like spaghetti (hence, the sauce). So I thought we give Mac-N-Cheese a go and see if anyone's tastes had progressed. We did simple Kraft Mac-N-Cheese and taught them how to boil the water, cook the pasta without letting it stick, drain it in the colander (that was the vocabulary word for the day), and follow the directions to make the sauce.


The above picture is Brock's reaction to Mac-N-Cheese which was pretty much everyone's reaction too. Eventually, they all ate a small portion because they knew that the next food assignment was baking cookies!


When it comes to cookies Brock is my right hand man! He always pulls a chair over to help dump things in and snag a chocolate chip or two or 10 in the process. Today, he and Blake sort of took turns at the chair and Bryson also helped measure and dump ingredients in. After I scooped out a few cookies to put them on the cookie sheet Brock said he wanted to "roll them" (like little balls). So I scooped and he rolled and the oven baked.


He was impressed I could lift three cookies off the baking sheet at a time with our pancake turner.


Thanks to Aunt Kaley's extra arms and legs we were able to clean up in between each project and not go crazy. She and Brock finished baking the cookies while I ran to grab Egg Beaters for our last project. In the meantime we started dinner: Meat and Taters. You can't really mess up this three ingredient casserole, although some have tried. Bradley, Bryson and Brock watched as I smashed down the hamburger, they lined up the tater tots and then Bryson spread the Cream of Chicken soup on top. It was completely devoured an hour later!


It had been a little bit of a long day for the King of Rock and Queen of Everything. They did have fun playing on the floor and kissing each other--that will have to be stopped soon but now it's totally cute! Brett was so excited to crawl over to Madi's carseat, grab on to the seat part and pull himself up by hanging on to the bar. Madi and Kaley were getting ready to leave so he leaned over for a last good-bye.


Our last assignment was the one I was most excited for: My Grandma Partridge's Homemade Ice Cream! I have never made it before but somehow inherited their ice cream machine and felt like I was not living up to my heritage! The kids have asked numerous times if we could make ice cream but I always put them off. So today was the day and I think Grandma and Grandpa would be proud of our first time efforts! All the boys took turns mashing the strawberries. Bradley's height and muscles came in especially handy. Blake even came out of oblivion to help on this one and was excited to mash for a while. He and Brock helped me dump and mix the rest of the ingredients and watched me pour it into the ice cream machine.


We had a brief pause while Scott got some ice (duh, should have thought of that yesterday) and we got things churning. Brock stayed in the kitchen to monitor the ice level and helped me fill it up when it needed more.


Everyone was upset we weren't making vanilla but my childhood memories of Grandma and Grandpa's strawberry won out--it's my Spring Break too, right? So when it was finished Brock was curious to see if it turned into vanilla or was still strawberry. After a quick taste, he decided strawberry was ok after all!


Oh, the goodness!


It's heaven in a big ice cream bucket!


And so our Iron Chef of the Day was Brock. He did a great job helping all day long--even scrubbing dishes and dust busting crumbs under the table. He hung in there with me until the very end where we shared a big spoonful of ice cream! That's my Brock-lee!

Spring Break 2012!

Tuesday--Game Day

While trying to think of fun themes for each day, I also wanted to pick things that would satisfy some of Bryson's scout requirements for his Bear Badge. Game Day did just that for us. Here's how it went down.

We roped Kaley & Madi, Cassi, Katelyn, Megan and Adam into joining with us--it's always a lot more fun with a crowd. Plus, I am no expert on volleyball--one of the games we had to play for the scout requirement. Anyway, we went to a nearby park and ran relays with the kids for a while until my legs (I won't speak for Kaley's legs) were turning to Jell-O. Mom stopped by with some apples--a welcomed snack and break for my Jell-O legs. Cassi and crew came along shortly after and we got down to business.


While we organized ourselves Blake and Bryson tried their hands at the Monkey Bars. Blake was super excited to finally make it all the way across.






Bryson in action.






We (really Kaley and Cassi) explained the rules for Volleyball and we divided into teams. Unfortunately, I didn't plan very well and we were without a volleyball but made due with a cheap bouncy ball.


Cassi and I were supposed to trade in and out so we could keep an eye on the little boys but she was a much better asset to the team. I would have just been . . . well . . . not so much an asset.


I think Katelyn was trying to bump the ball over. Good try with a not so great ball!


The kids started to get the hang of getting the ball over and we have an actual volley happen a few time.


Brock and Adam got in on the action a few courts down trying to throw a beach ball over. They had so much fun!


Blake's turn to serve.


TOE-tally happy Brett, loving the outside world!


At half-time of the Volleyball game we decided to change games. So half-time became Final Score--everyone wins! We went out to the field and set up some rocks with paper towels under them for bases for a game of Kickball--another scout requirement. (Why soccer wasn't listed I don't know.)


This game was funnier than Volleyball. Brock and Adam of course had no idea which way to run. Just after Brock kicked the ball in this picture he ran to First Base, where Adam was baseman, and Adam started running away which led Brock to run after him. It was a reincarnation of "Who's On First?"


This was a great effort of compassion and teamwork by Kaley and I. Blake came running to 2nd base where I was baseman but he could see that I had the ball so he ran the other way. So I chased him--slowly. Kaley covered 2nd as we headed back that way and I must have thrown the ball a little too late because he was safe. FEEUUFFF!!! What a play!


It was a super fun morning followed by a picnic at a different park by Cassi's house. The kids ate well (Brett ate his toes!) and played some more on the playground and basketball court. We all got a little sunburned from all the outside goodness! Tomorrow is sure to be chaos as I attempt "Iron Chef" Day!