Updated General Conference Fall Tree Activity

*UPDATE Oct 2019: There’s a fun new Ultimate Conference Packet available HERE! (You can check out ALL the fun Conference Updates using the ‘General Conference’ tag in the sidebar!)*

Ladies and Gents… this is incredibly last minute–I know, but I figured since I have it done, I’ll share it with y’all. This is an updated activity packet for the Happy Fall Tree to use with your munchkins during this weekends LDS General Conference.

I wasn’t planning on adding any new Conference activities this time around. But with the recent passing of three of our dear apostles, I decided to update the Happy Fall Tree activity–since it’s the one I’m planning to use with my kiddos this time around. (I apologize that I have not had a chance to update the other packets, but please feel free to modify them as needed if you are using them.)

{Click Here to Download the Happy Fall Tree Activity}

To update the packet, I have removed the leaves for our dearly departed President Boyd K. Packer, Elder L. Tom Perry, and Elder Richard G. Scott, and have added a page that has some blank leaves to be able to use for the newly appointed apostles. I also added an extra page to use for any of the speakers from the Seventies, and included a leaf for a Sister speaker as well. (And you can print that page out as many times as you’d like for as many extra leaves as you’d like.) 🙂

I also added pictures of the General Authorities to their leaves (kind of combining the original nursery packet leaves with the primary packet leaves) because I enjoy seeing their faces on the leaves when they are taped up on our wall. 🙂

Anyway, I’m truly excited for this weekend. I don’t know about you, but my life could sure use a boost of peace and reassurance from the Lord. 🙂

Warmest Wishes to you all, and as always Happy Prepping! 😉

The Ultimate LDS General Conference Packet- 2!

**UPDATE: Check out the super fun, ALL NEW ‘Conference Catastrophe’ Activity Packet available over on my new website: Simply JAD !**

*UPDATE: Check out the NEW Ultimate Conference Packet 3 HERE!* (And for ALL Conference updates on various packets and activities, click the ‘General Conference’ tag in the sidebar.)

Hey y’all! Just poppin’ in to share an ALL NEW Ultimate General Conference Activity Packet! I’m pretty sure I swore to myself after the first one that I would NEVER do this again. But it’s kinda like childbirth… after some time passes, you forget how painful the whole process was and decide to give it another go! HAHAHA!

So here is my new little baby to share with y’all! (Isn’t she so cute?!) 😉 It’s loaded just like the first one with a whole whoppin’ 35 pages of activities to help keep the munchkins occupied, yet still aware of what’s going on during Conference! This packet is geared to the 5-12 year old age bracket, but could be used beyond that as well. Just be sure to get all the needed items (listed on the second page) gathered together prior to the start of Conference and you’re good to go.

I hope your kiddos enjoy it , and that you can snag a few uninterrupted moments of peace and inspiration during the upcoming General Conference. (And in case you forgot, that’s on October 4th and 5th, 2014 at 10AM and 2PM Mountain Standard Time… that’s 11AM and 3PM for us Texans, y’all!) 😉

And for all those who are not of the LDS faith, I would invite y’all to join us as well! The messages shared are for the whole world, not just one specific religion. To watch online, just go to LDS.org and follow the links to watch, or you can just click HERE (when it’s time to watch).

{Click on the image below to download the activity packet}

{Click HERE for the updated pages with the new apostles.}

Have a GREAT Conference weekend y’all! And if you want to check out some of my previous Conference packets and activity ideas, you can see them in previous posts HERE. And, as always, best wishes in ALL your preparedness efforts!

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The “Mommy… I’m BORED!” Buster Board

Seriously… I’ve already heard it multiple times and school’s only been out for 2 days!! “Mommy… I’m BORED!!!” Oh heavens.

Time to take action!

I’ve got a ton of cute ideas pinned on my Pinterest Summertime board (and the Mommy…I’m Bored board), but my kids don’t know how to access that (thankfully?), so that does little to keep them from coming and tapping me every 10 minutes to complain that they’ve got nothing to do. Oh, what to do, what to do?

{Insert royal trumpets sounding} SOOO… I created this printable for the kiddos to reference on their own whenever they’ve got the “I’m Bored” Blues! The first column is activities they can do by themselves, the second column is things to do with a sibling or friend (although a lot of items on either column could be done alone or with a friend).

Print, laminate (if desired), and post it on the fridge where they can easily see it. Problem solved. (Or so I’m pretending!) 😉

And since I know I’m not the only parent out there with the same problem, I thought it a worthy cause to break my internet silence and share it with y’all. lol. 🙂 So I’m including a free printable for y’all… as always, just cuz I love ya!

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD the I’M BORED file!

{And speaking of breaking internet silence, I’m also hoping to find some time (soon) to start sharing some information with y’all that I’ve recently learned about regarding planning for your financial future! It is SO AWESOME and SO AMAZING! I can’t believe it’s not more known! But now that I know about it I’m definitely going to try and spread the word. So stay tuned for some financial features!!}

But back to the list… I tried to use pretty generic ideas that any kid anywhere could do. But here are some things I’ll clarify and that you may want to have on hand and ready to go as they use the list:

• PERLER BEADS… these are awesome to have on hand. You can find Perler Beads, like THESE on Amazon, or they are also at craft stores.You stick the beads on a plastic pegboard to make a design, and then lightly iron it to melt the beads together.  My girls LOVE doing these and they can occupy HOURS, I tell you. HOURS! 🙂 My girls have THIS PET SET and love it!
• A Money Job is simply a job they can do around the house for some money. We have a list of them printed out for them to see, but you can always just make some up on the fly.
• Print out some “Learn to draw” pages from off the internet (Google search) to have ready for them to grab.
• PONY BEADS are great to have on hand for making necklaces, bracelets, or even decorating crafts.
• Keep PLAY-DOH on hand (homemade or store bought)… and I’ll try and upload my play-dough mats soon, but you can probably Google some too! Just don’t forget to laminate them, or they’ll get all gunked up and need to be tossed. (Speaking of laminating… I totally recommend getting your own laminator! THIS is the kind I have and I love it. Not very expensive and saves TONS on not having to reprint things!)
• Here’s a link to instructions for SALT PAINTING. Super cute and very easy set-up.
• Here’s a link to the MARBLE RACE TRACK (it uses pool noodles… keep those on hand too! There are TONS of things to do with them!!)
• And I can’t find my link for the tin foil river, but basically, you just take a loooonng length of aluminum foil and curve the edges up (lengthwise) into a “U” shape, then fill with water down the length of the foil and have them race things down it… sticks, homemade boats, bottle caps, anything small that floats. 🙂

I think everything else is typical ‘around the house’ stuff. So by just keeping a few things on hand–ready for when it strikes their summertime fancy–you’ll be a happy, sane Mommy. (Living in denial is a wonderful thing.) 🙂  HAPPY SUMMER!!!!

Oct 2012 Conference Packets and Activities

{Update: Click HERE to view/download the newest, latest and greatest Conference packet. Enjoy!}

In two weeks (October 6th and 7th), we have the blessed opportunity to listen to prophets of the Lord speak to us in General Conference to give counsel and commandments needed for our day. What a wonderful time to be alive! I’m truly looking forward to hearing what they have to say and soaking in the peace they have to offer. Whether of the LDS faith or not, I encourage everyone to listen to their words and find out for yourself if the words they speak are true. It is so wonderful to be able to gain a testimony of truth and to have that stability in this world of uncertainty.

As always, I try to do a lot of prep work prior to Conference for my young kiddos (now 5, 3, and 6 months) so that not only they will be able to learn something, but so that I can actually sit and learn something too (without being constantly peppered with little requests). 🙂

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about our family garden–how we need to get our fall crops planted soon, etc.– and that gave me an idea for another fun Conference activity for the kids (like the Fall Tree and the Spring Garden from previous Conferences).

This activity is the Fall Harvest Garden. (See below to download.) The theme behind it is: ‘Sew Seeds of Faith, Harvest a Testimony’. The idea is to cut out the different vegetables in the packet, and then while listening to the speakers in Conference, write the theme of their talk on the front of the vegetables and then on the back you write something you can do that you learned from the talk. Then you ‘plant’ your garden on your wall (aka tape it up) and then as you either discuss the talks or apply them (do what’s written on the back), you harvest your fall vegetables and pick them off the wall. 🙂  There’s better instructions in the packet, but that’s the gist of it.

This activity will serve not only as a reminder of the things we learn in Conference, but it will also help to remind us to get working on our fall garden! lol. 🙂

Click to get the Fall Harvest Garden Activity: Download PDF

In addition to the activity, I also revamped my packets that I created for the kiddos. Nothing crazy exciting or different, just some new coloring pages in the Nursery/Sunbeam edition, some new activities in the Jr/Sr Primary editions, new questions in the parent interview from the Sr Primary edition, etc… Just brushing off some dust from the older versions. 🙂

My General Conference Packets

• Nursery/Sunbeam Age Packet
• Junior Primary Age Packet
• Senior Primary Age Packet
• YM/YW Age Packet
• Conference Journal Page for Adults

And just FYI, each packet has the same ‘BINGO’ card in it, but if you have more than one child and they want to compete by having different layouts, here are two extra BINGO cards you could use:  Download Cards

Okay! Well, that does it for me! There are, of course, tons of wonderful ideas on the internet for other activities to get your family involved in General Conference. Here are some links to some great ideas that I’ve enjoyed searching before:

• Packets and Ideas from Sugardoodle: Click HERE
• Primary Age Packet from Jenny Phillips: Click HERE
• Primary Age Packet from Deseret Book: Click HERE
• A BIG LONG Collection of Ideas from 2 Kids and Tired Activity Ideas: Click HERE
• A Collection of Conference Ideas from Prepared, Not Scared: Click HERE
• Activities for Children from LDS.org: Click HERE
• And another Collection of Ideas from LDS.About.Com: Click HERE

I hope you all can enjoy the wonderful Conference Weekend! I’ll try and check in a bit later with some more of my Conference Preps, but until then, Happy Prepping Y’all!

Important Papers Project: Grand Finale!

There’s nothing like starting the New Year off with a Grand Finale, eh? 😀 Begin with the end! (I’ve always been a little backwards in my life.) 🙂

Well, this project has definitely been a BIG one. I still have a long way to go in getting my folder all put together and completed, but maybe that will be another pseudo goal of mine for this year (there are so many!). It really would be nice to be able to just have all this information in one place, organized, and right at my fingertips.

{For those who are unaware as to what the Important Papers Folder is, click HERE for all previous posts, downloads, and information. There’s about seven other posts that take you through this process. :)}

So anyway, {drumroll} here are the FINAL FOUR sections of the Important Papers Folder (just click on each image to view/download/print it)…

• Section 11: Individual Family Member Information (have info for each member of your family)

• Section 12: Household Information

• Section 13: Home Property

• Section 14: Miscellaneous

And that’s it!! That’s all the sections! {Deep breaths. In. Out.} Now just remember… this book is (or will be) 🙂 full of all your most important information for your family and home. That being said, you will want to keep it in a safe place where it could not be easily stolen or destroyed, but you also still want to be able to easily access it for the information you need. So choose it’s dwelling place wisely. 🙂  Good luck with your project, everyone! And HAPPY FRIDAY!! 😀

Spiritual Prep: Book of Mormon Reading Goal

{File Update: If you downloaded this chart prior to May 24th, 2012 you are likely missing a space for Helaman chapter 14. This has been corrected and a new version is available for download. Sorry for any inconvenience!}

So, one of our family’s goals for this year is to read the Book of Mormon (one of the books of scripture in the LDS church). It was a challenge given to us by our Stake Presidency and we hope to fulfill it. It takes us a bit longer than most to get through the book though (since our girls’ attention span is quite low when it comes to sitting still for reading that doesn’t involve princesses :)), so I’ve created this chart to help track our progress. {My chart was actually inspired by THIS one, but seeing as I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to drop on that sort of thing, I just made my own. :)}

Anyway, I of course wanted to share it with all of you in hopes it can be of use to some of you with your goals as well (click on the file name below to download it… it’s in PDF form). You can use stickers to mark off each chapter completed, or let your little ones color in each circle… whatever floats your boat. And hopefully this will help keep our kiddos motivated to sit still a little longer. 🙂 Enjoy!

Download Here: Book of Mormon Reading Chart