Tonight Collin helped me turn our Candyland game board into a general conference review activity. We covered up each sugary character with the face of one of the twelve apostles, clipped from the Ensign magazine. Then I typed up the titles to each of the conference talks (e.g., "The Divine Gift of Gratitude") and put them in a bowl.
Each player draws a slip of paper out of the bowl and counts the number of words in the title to see how many spaces they can move (e.g., 5 words means you get to move 5 spaces). I also put the names of the twelve apostles, the prophet and his two counselors in the bowl. If you drew one of their names, you got to move to wherever their picture was on the board.
On top of the Candyland Castle we put a picture of Jesus. Collin taught us that when we follow the prophet and the apostles, we follow Jesus Christ. We also talked about what it means to "come unto Christ" (Moroni 10:32). When the first person made it to Jesus, we helped others make it their too. We talked about how God wants ALL his children to return to Him.
The kids had a lot of fun playing this. And it was fun for my husband and me to try and remember who talked about what. After the game, we shared some of our favorite parts of conference. We then chose about six talks to use for future family home evenings. We'll definitely do this again after next general conference.
Luke said the closing prayer tonight and one thing he said was, "Thank you that we could have good feelings tonight." After the prayer, I told him those good feelings come from the Holy Ghost. We feel good because we feel God's love for us and because we love each other.
By the way, even little Owen kneels and prays with us now. He's only 18 months old. It's so cute to see him walk over to the circle and kneel down all by himself and fold his arms. He keeps his eyes open, but it's because he's watching all of us.
Owen is always watching, that's what I am constantly reminding my older boys. I love it when they are a good example to him. What a little miracle it is when a child learns to pray. It's a powerful thing.
Oh, and it was Luke's turn to choose an activity. Luke's new favorite activity is one that his dad taught him. We call it "statues". We all hold hands while Dad spins us, when he lets go we have to freeze. Then we take turns guessing what the statues are doing. Sometimes the statues are animals, or career persons, or just people doing something interesting. Merritt, for example, was once a dog taking a whiz on a fire hydrant. What would we do without Dads?
