Conference Squares

You know what is super lame? Having family home evening without a husband.
 You know what we are so use to in this house it doesn't even make us sad anymore?
Having family home evening without a dad.  After many semesters of Monday night classes we are use to only three at family home evening.  So even though its no longer the norm, we hardly forget its not when he isn't here.  The point of this rambling is sometimes you need something low key.
Tonight was that night, but I still want a emphasize the recent conference, so I went to lds.org hoping for conference highlights for primary kids.  No such luck I guess I have to wait for the November Friend.  Instead I printed off Conference Squares, something we skipped during conference, and played Bingo, one of my children's favorite game.  Before my son could put on his m&m on the square he had to explain why each square was on the board, and what it had to do with church.  Sure I filled in some blanks that he left out.  Anyway, turned out to be a really great low key, fun, learning family home evening.  The perfect kind, although we still wish dad would have been in the fourth chair.  Nan she didn't get a bingo, because she ate the m&ms too fast, but everytime I said Family Home evening, she said then ice cream! I guess she is learning.

FHE- Escape from Bagel

Remember the Tower of Bagel story?  Well weeks ago, a month ago, something, I found this picture of the Tower of Babel, which my son was fascinated with for days.  I kept the link open on the internet, and he would just stare. Somewhere along the lines I found this idea to make a tower of babel out of cake for the activity/treat of family home evening.  So four weeks ago, or more, J gave his first family home evening lesson.  I think I mentioned that before.  His topic the Brother of Jared and family leaving Babel for the promise land. He watched the scripture movie of it a bunch of times during Monday afternoon so he could learn the story again, we used the book, and I and his dad helped, but the point is he was learning. Before it was his job to tell the story in FHE he told me the story a half a dozen times, I think he froze up when the attention was on him. Then we had a super fun activity, that I found online from an unknown source at this point.  Brent thought it was a little weird that we were building the Tower of Babel out of cake. 

 They all fell over after three bricks.

 Best part, never in her life will her mom give her this much cake again.

 Daddy thought he could make his higher.

It fell down after three bricks.
A cake mix box at 7,000 ft can sometimes make A LOT of cake.  It all depends on the humidity I guess. Last week when I make cupcakes it is suppose to make 36 instead of 24 at this altitude, and I've always had a ton of batter since moving here, until last week, I got 24.  Wierd huh? All that cake on the table, came from one box.

FHE- Title of Liberty

Two weeks ago my son asked to have a family home evening on the Title of Liberty.  Two weeks ago we had multiple families over for dinner.  I hosted a joyschool bbq, so everyone could know each other and families better,  ie so my husband can know who my friends were, and who their husband's were, to prove to him he actually does have something in common with my friend's husbands.  Our daughters all being in preschool together just happened to be happy coincident. But I digress, like all other bloggers out there.
Last night we had family home evening on the Title of Liberty.  Sure I could have prepared a lesson fit for a five year old myself, but why, we were given the internet for a reason.
But why my son wanted a lesson on the Title of Liberty remains a mystery.  We have never had a lesson on it before so how does he know about it?  Book of Mormon DVD?  Maybe, I like to say it was a result of my fine taste in art.  He has had this picture in his room for two years of so.  Although he could have asked his dad, I have no memory of telling him what the picture is. That picture is by far my favorite artistic rendition of The Title of Liberty.  And being a God fearing Political Scientist how could I not have it in my son's room. Although I'm thinking about moving it after this lesson, I remembered how much I like it, and so maybe the whole family wants to see it more.
So I googled FHE Title of Liberty, and found lots and lots of lessons.  But in my fine form, I used the church's scripture stories. They make it so simple and to the point, and truthful! I honestly didn't even read the other lessons. I also used this coloring page, for my daughter, from Mormon Share. Nan and Dad colored while J and discussed the title of Liberty, Captain Moroni and Amalickiah. I always want my husband to take over teaching, I'm convinced he is better at it than I am.  For goodness sakes, he stole me away and made me a mom before I got to go on a mission, so since he has a mission under his belt he must be better.  But since I am the one that spend the last 4 years in Primary, there is a chance he doesn't think he needs to take over.
After the Book of Mormon reader we talked about the flag being a symbol to remind us of something important.  We talked about other symbols in our life. J brought up pictures of the temple in our a house (from our family home evening lesson three weeks), we mentioned, CTR rings, the american flag outside our neighbors house out our front window, wedding rings, etc. (My husband learned something there, apparently he didn't know his ring was suppose to remind him of the covenants he made when we married.)
So that is the secret to our great family home evening.  After the lesson, J declared it was time to make the Title of Liberty.  So I ran upstairs found a scrap of material, and pulled up a sharpy.  J found a stick in the backyard while I heated up the glue gun. Tah Dah

It just happens to be the same color as in Walter Rane's painting.  I didn't even realize until this afternoon. We finished up with a bowl of ice cream.  Then we cut off my son's hair, his first hair cut since we moved.  yes, we moved in May.
Our Title of Liberty is now in a vase with a bunch of fabric flowers, in the living room to remind us
 "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children."
Oh actually I did scan a few lessons, one had a great idea, as a family come up with your own Title of Liberty, but that was a little beyond my children's comprehension, I didn't even try.