Chuck E Cheese and General Conference

Connor got his wish again, and had his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.  We ended up with quite a lot of kids there, Including our friends the Palmers and the whole Kenny and Vance families!  I did a couple of things better this year.  I brought our own cake (a cupcake cake from Vons,) and sent Ryan ahead with the older kids to make sure stuff was ready.  Connor's highlight, of course, was going in the "ticket blaster" again.  He's really into the acquisition of wealth, I think.
  

 
For April conference, I decided to try a "Conference Refreshment Stand."  I had the kids help me cut out paper coins, then rewarded them with the coins for sitting still, doing conference packet activities, and generally being good.  Then, during the afternoon session, they could use their coins to buy refreshments between talks.  It worked really well.  Even better than the buckets activity last time, because I could expand beyond candy.  We also made collages out of old Friend magazines, and did a Conference Wall with pictures of the apostles.  I tried to identify the topics they talked about, and we filled them in as we listened.  That would have worked better if we hadn't missed so many talks ;-)

   

     

Connor and Elise made these faces out of clay at school.  I thought they were pretty cool looking.  They used to have ears, but those didn't survive long.
    

Left: Connor's.  Right: Elise's (with moustache.)

   
One of Connor's gifts was a Doctor Dreadful Alien Autopsy kit.  He made all kinds of gross candy blobs, and scattered colored sugar dust and goo everywhere.  Elise was really jealous.
   

  

 And here are a couple other goofy pictures:
    

Connor and his Friends.  I like how smart this picture makes them look.

Sleepy Baby

Princess Baby