Not so Pinteresting

Well, Conference weekend has come and gone and if you thought my botched up hair job was an epic fail -- you ain't seen nothing yet.  Hahaha.  In what was arguably the worst family Conference viewing to date, I have only myself to blame.  And Pinterest.  Hahahaha.  Problem number one was the fact that I was probably overly under-prepared if that even makes sense.  I was focusing so much on things I could do to make Conference "fun" for the kids that I kind of lost sight of the actual point of the weekend -- that we get to hear our prophet and church leaders speak to us.  

Problem number two involved an idea I found on Pinterest.  Last time around in April, I used a conglomeration of different ideas I found online to come up with "Conference Stations" for the kids to rotate through during the different talks each session.  We had a station for "building a temple" out of blocks, a station set up at the kiddie table for coloring, a station for playing with some file folder games, and a few other little stations that I don't really remember.  They stayed at each station for the length of one talk and then switched with the next speaker.  For President Monson, President Eyring, and President Uchtdorf, I had them all gather in front of the screen and doled out candy and some "Conference Bingo" sheets while encouraging them to listen and pay attention to what they were telling us.  THIS year, I tried expanding on my big plans and ended up instead with a massive failure on my hands.

{The Calm Before the Storm -- while they were still utilizing the stations}

You see, I found this idea on Pinterest for "Conference Pennies."  With each talk, a keyword is chosen and any time you hear it you put a penny in your jar.  Then -- when each session is over -- you get to use your pennies to buy stuff from the "Conference Store!"  Sounds so fun, right?  And a really great idea to help get kids to listen to the speakers, right?   WRONG.  At least for my kids.  Hahaha.  After the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Saturday morning's session to start, the kids eagerly helped me set up all the stations and get the "store" ready for afterwards.  All seemed surprisingly well.  And then we picked the first keyword for the first talk.  I can't even remember what it was or who was even speaking -- much less what they were speaking about.  For the next 2+ hours {the session had to be stopped a number of times to break up fights, etc.} we dealt with kids screaming at each other, fighting, and accusing each other of cheating.  Ethan was the most particularly perturbed.  With his over-ripe sense of justice it only made sense that HE would be the one to take it upon himself to be the arbiter of fairness with their keyword hearing accuracy.  To be fair, though, he really wasn't set up to be the best version of himself that day due to a late night up the night before.  As a result he spent most of yesterday FREAKING out about EVERYTHING.  The Conference Pennies just happened to be a trigger.  

Halfway through the first session I declared that this would be the ONLY session we would be earning Conference Pennies.  None of the stations were even being used because they were all so intent on making sure they got as many pennies as they could {and minding each other's business.}  Sophie probably handled the activity the best, but Ethan and Grace got so bad that they eventually broke off into 2 separate camps facing each other and hiding their money so they couldn't "cheat" and put pennies in their jar if they didn't really hear the word.  

Keeping score in a notebook since we ran out of pennies.

Grace took particular pleasure out of this activity.

For the record, I'm pretty sure she WAS cheating.  

By the end of the morning session, no one had learned a single thing, and nothing was gotten out of Conference.  After letting them "buy" their junk I let them know that I was returning everything else I bought so I could get my money back.  

In the end, it was such a nightmarish experience that I couldn't even stomach the idea of trying to make them watch the afternoon session as well.  After an early dinner and an even earlier bedtime, Scott left for the Priesthood session and I tried to {stay awake and} figure out what would work better for today. We decided to scale back and set up only a few stations and that seemed to work a bit better.  Even though I doubt they learned anything from today's session either, at least we experienced a lot less screaming and fighting.  Except for when it came time to decorate some pumpkins for one of the station activities.  After repeatedly telling them "NO, you can't use glitter!" we finally caved and told them they could do whatever they wanted just "DON'T MAKE A MESS."  Never a proud parenting moment when that happens.




All's well that ends well, though, and the loveliest part of the day was when we all went on a walk together in the woods near our house towards the end of the day.  It was a PERFECT kind of fall afternoon and it was nice to be together and enjoy this beautiful world.  And making everything even more enjoyable is knowing that I can watch/re-watch and re-listen to every single talk that was given this weekend thanks to the wonders of modern technology.  How awesome is that?

And now to end on a couple of completely unrelated notes.  I know you're all dying to hear what was gotten at the infamous Book Fair.   Rest assured that the number one thing on Grace's wish list was not a book, but a poster.  Of dogs, of course.  Hahahaha.  She could hardly wait to hang it in her room, but she graciously posed for a quick photo op when she came home from school.  And she even let Sophie and Jane get in on the action!  Ethan ended up buying a cardinals poster {they indoctrinate them young here} and some book that I can't remember the title of right now.  Sophie used her own allowance money {two month's worth!} to buy "Ponyella," and I ended up buying them each one more thing when I went with them later that night during Parent Teacher Conferences.  Those conferences all went well, and the school year seems to be going fairly swimmingly for them all.  So that's a relief.

Last, but certainly not least -- or actually, probably definitely least {at least for right now} is an idea I've been kicking around for a couple years now but have never actually gotten up the gumption to do anything about it.  Until now.  

I am in the beginning stages of creating an Etsy store, and even though I don't really have anything real in it just yet, it makes me excited to think about filling it with some of the quilts that I love to make.  It's probably nothing more than a passing hobby at this point, but I had a lot of fun making up my store banner {above} this week, so I thought I'd post a pic and keep you all up to date with all the facets of our family's life these days!  Hahaha.  And on that note, I hope everyone else enjoyed a wonderful weekend!!!