First I need to apologize for not posting a Family Home Evening idea yesterday.  I have to confess that I have been reading “The Hunger Games” and I had a hard time tearing myself away in my free time (really – free time? – okay so not free time, but down time like waiting in carpool line and at night before I go to bed).  I should warn you that it is a bit violent but I was glued to it nonetheless!  It was a little like my Twilight experience.   My husband also works at home on Mondays so getting computer time is quite a feat!  Anyway, I hope you will all forgive me.  I also hope that you planted a tree last night as a family.  If that is the case, I have just the thing for you.  I finished the scrapbook pages for Earth Day and they are attached below.  I  want to give credit to http://polkadotscraps.blogspot.com for the cute components of my scrapbook page.  They are fabulous!

Earth Day 2010 Scrapbook page

Earth Day 2010 Scrapbook page2

The first page is for your first year and the second can be used in later years to keep the tradition going.  Plant a tree, and plant some hope!  Have a great week!

Happy Earth Day!  I thought I should post today instead of tomorrow since it relates to Earth Day.  I hope you are enjoying this crazy weather we are having today if you live here in Utah.  It almost feels like the earth is making itself known on its special day!    I was out with my children this morning on Fieldwork for school planting trees, pulling weeds, and beautifying a local trail here in Ogden and we were doing it in the snow!  Now (of coarse after we are finished!) it is actually sunny and beautiful outside.  What a crazy day!

I was recently talking with my friend and she was on her way to purchase a tree for her new baby boy.  She said that they plant a tree for each child the year they are born so they can watch the tree grow as they grow.  What a great idea!  I love it!  Unfortunately I have had my 5 children and have yet to plant a tree.  However, I think this is something my children would really enjoy.  I think if you are just starting your family, this is an awesome tradition.  If not, it can be started with older children or even grandchildren.  Take advantage of Earth Day and plant a tree that they can take care of and nurture.  As the tree grows they will be reminded that trees are important and they will take pride in the fact that they planted it and took care of it.  There are so many things we can teach our children about taking care of our world.  Teaching them about the importance of trees and nature seems like a great place to start!

I am working on a scrapbook page for you so make sure that you take pictures of your beautiful kids and/or husbands while you are planting your trees!  I’ll let you know when we have it ready.  Making memories is so much fun and looking back brings so much joy!  You can choose to plant a tree every year (there are a lot of parks and places in your area that could use some trees or plants of some kind) or you can pick something new to do each year (i.e., pick up trash along the road or at the park, learn about recycling, pass off something in scouts that has to do with taking care of the earth, start your garden if you haven’t already or plant something special in honor of Earth Day, etc.).  The possibilities are endless and your children will appreciate learning how to be responsible for the world around them.  Have a happy Earth Day!

O.k. I have been wanting to create these for years and I finally got around to creating 5.  I am working on the rest of the 19 right now, so that you can have a total of 24 individual BINGO cards for Conference.  I love these because they are FULL COLOR and they are me!  Enjoy everyone!!  Leave some comments if you enjoy these, or as other people say on their blogs, leave some LOVE!!!!

Conference Bingo Cards 1-5

Conference Bingo Cards 6-10

Here’s a sample of one of the cards!  Isn’t it beautiful?!?!?!

I love it when Easter falls on General Conference Sunday.  It is kind of nice to stay at home with your family and listen to the prophet speak on Easter Sunday.   In light of those two events happening this weekend, I wanted to remind you of some fun tradition ideas that we have shared before as well as a new one. 

You can find a great conference packet link here http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5851 at one of our favorite websites www.sugardoodle.net.  Thanks for doing such an awesome job on your website!

I love the idea of  having a  “Conference Wall”.  I did this last October and it worked fabulously.  My kids loved it!  I just placed topics (one topic per sheet of paper) on the wall.  Then I used the 2009ApostleCards and had my kids place each apostle’s photo under the topic they spoke about.  This kept my children interested in what they were saying because they had to figure out what they were talking about!   I just chose basic topics like the Atonement, Church History, Repentance, Missionary Work, etc.  Sometimes they would change where they had put them half way through their talk because they covered a couple of different topics.  I loved that they were listening that close!  You can also read a little about each apostle before or after they speak from the Apostle Cards.  These have been such a great learning tool!  The photo is kind of small but it will give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

You can check out some previous posts from us here http://blog.myheartandhome.com/index.php?cat=146&paged=2 that have some more conference ideas and our great Nature Walk for Easter.  The Nature Walk would be a perfect activity in between sessions on Sunday.  If you can’t do the walk due to the weather, you can always gather the items and talk about them together instead.

I love Easter!  I’m looking forward to the food, the family time, listening to conference, and feeling the Spirit that comes with Easter.  Let’s all remember to take time to reflect on what the Savior did for us – his sacrifice as well as his resurrection.

So we are a little out of sync with our organization Wednesday, but since tomorrow is April Fools Day we thought it would be fun to give you a few more ideas.  I am actually taking these from my sister-in-law because I thought they were so funny I just had to pass them along.

Since today is an organizing tip.  I wanted to share one of my favorites with you.  I LOVE our Holiday Organizer.  Not only does it come with fantastic pages to help you organize your holidays better, there is a place for everything you have related to your holidays.  Not including your decorations of course.  But there is a place to help you organize your decorations as well in our Holiday Organizer.  I am talking about all those Bingo games, Tom the Turkeys, Halloween Scavenger Hunts, Valentine’s Love Notes, St. Patrick’s day Neighborhood Lucky Leprechaun game, and the list goes on with our products.  Then if you have additional stuff besides that, you have a lot to keep track of.  I found a way to utilize our Holiday Organizer even better by keeping everything together.  Doesn’t that sound familiar?  After dividing my organizer into two binders, January through June and July through December, I have taken ordinary photo holders, page protectors and page pockets and turned them into my storage of holiday ideas and games.  I then placed each of my holiday games and ideas in front of the cooresponding month folder for that particular holiday.  It’s the perfect way to keep everything organized and keep it handy in one place.  I love being able to go to that month and see all my fun games and ideas without having to search endlessly for where I put them last.  Even they can get lost or even forgotten in a tote full of decorations.  To give you a better idea, I took some pictures of how I put mine together.  However, make it work for you and your personality.  Feel free to comment about what has worked for you or you are always welcome to ask questions in the comment section and we will answer them for you.

It seems like holidays get more and more commercialized every year.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.  In fact, I sometimes think I have more fun with them than the kids do!   I love Easter with the deviled eggs (so yummy!), Easter egg hunts (I prefer the chocolate filled eggs), and picnics.   However, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the fun and forget the real reason we are celebrating.  I am a big believer that you can have fun with your family and teach them something at the same time!  There are so many fun things that you can do with your family to help them remember why we celebrate Easter and to focus on the resurrection of our Savior.

At our house we have asked the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday morning so that on Sunday we can focus on the Savior.  It has worked well for us because the kids usually want to play outside with their new things or go on Easter egg hunts on Saturday anyway.   Easter Sunday is reserved for more spiritual activities and family get togethers.  In the morning we usually go on an Easter egg hunt for eggs filled with reminders of the Savior’s sacrifice and resurrection.  Later in the day my kids have enjoyed taking a nature walk together.  We are surrounded by beautiful things that can remind us of Christ every day.  As we walk around our yard or around the neighborhood we look for things that remind us of the Savior and his sacrifice.  For example, we find a branch and talk about Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, we look for thorns and talk about the crown of thorns that he wore, a simple piece of wood can remind us of the cross he bore, and so on.  It has been eye opening for the kids and I hope that it helps them remember year round what the Savior did for each one of us.

We have created an Easter Nature Walk for you to try with your kids.  I hope that you love it as much as our family has.  This is such a great time of year to bear testimony and teach your children about the Savior.  There are so many teaching moments that come when we participate in simple family activities together!    Happy Easter!

I have to admit that I have an addiction, a General Conference addiction!  I have used activity packets for my children in the past and we have just loved them.  So, with another conference rapidly approaching, I went to my favorite resource, the internet, and started searching.  I became overwhelmed, excited, and even addicted in finding all the many ideas, activities, and games that you can print out for your children to help them with General Conference.  I started printing out different packets for everyone and realized just how much information I had!  So, I decided to make conference binders for my children.  Each child has a 3 ring binder and tabs to seperate the different activities and/or packets that I have printed out.  I’m going to let them choose which packets they would like to work on during general conference.  Then, (here’s the exciting part for me) I will keep their binders for future sacrament meetings.  I love being able to use these great ideas each Sunday and not just saving them for General Conference.  Here are links to a few of my favorite packets!  Enjoy!

*I love Sugardoodle!  She has oodles and oodles of ideas and links!  http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4195&Itemid=5

*I just stumbled across The Idea Door and was impressed with how much information they have!  http://www.theideadoor.com/General%20Conference%20Page.html

*I really like this packet.  It’s all about President Monson!  http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/monson.html


Another Idea:  I came across General Conference Kit’s that you can put together for your visiting teachers.  Here are a couple of pictures on how they turned out.

I found everything in the dollar section of Target (gotta love that place!) and they are just darling.  The “kit” includes:  1 notepad, 1 pen, 1 bag of popcorn, 1 pack of Extra gum, 1 lotion and about 10 Lifesavers.

Visiting Teacher Conference Gift

Growing up, I always looked forward to each April Fool’s Day.  It was the one day where I could play as many jokes on the family as I wanted and I never got in trouble for them.  I took advantage of this wonderful day from sun-up to sun-down.  Having years of experience and many teaser bones in my body, I thought I would share just a few fun ideas to do with or on your family  this Wednesday, April 1st.

Grab a bunch of alarm clocks, set them to alarm at different times, very early in the morning, and hide them all around different places in your victim’s room!

Fill a glass with water. Add food dye so it matches the color of whatever juice you have in your refrigerator. Serve the “juice” to your family. They will be expecting something sweet and getting water so it will taste funny at first. Don’t forget to watch the funny faces they make!

Here’s another prank you can do at breakfast: open up all the boxes of cereal and pull the bags with the cereal in them out of the boxes. Put each bag in a wrong cereal box. When your family members go to pour their cereal they will get the wrong kind!

Stuff toilet paper or tissues or whatever into the toe part of someone’s shoes so they have trouble getting their feet in!

Put a spool of thread in your pocket and leave the tail hanging out. Then go up to your friend and say, “I’ve been pulling this and pulling this but it won’t come out!” Then your friend will try to pull it. It will go on and on and on and on and her hands will be full!

Superglue a pen cap to the pen and ask people if they can get it off for you!

Take toilet paper and unravel it so that a marker doesn’t show through. Then with the marker write: “Help, I’m lost in a toilet paper factory,” and whoever goes to the bathroom next will get a joke out of that one!

Put some water in a cereal bowl, and place it in the freezer so that the water freezes. Offer to serve cereal in the morning, making sure you use that same bowl. Put their favorite cereal over the top of the ice, and serve.

This ones for all you pet owners! First, put a walky talky some where near the area of where your pet is laying. Go into another room with the other walky talky. Then, when someone goes to pet your furry friend, say something like…”Hey Pal! Get your grimy hands off me!”

Fill a box with ping pong balls or packing peanuts and place it into a cupboard. Arrange the box so the box flap will fall open when the cupboard is opened. Carefully close the cupboard, and then wait nearby for the fun!

While the victim is asleep, reset all the clocks ahead two hours. When they wake up they will panic and think they slept late and are late for school or work.

Find a scrap of cloth.  Place a dollar on the floor and stay nearby.  When the victim comes by and bends down to pick up the dollar, rip the cloth loudly.  Most people will reach back to see if they ripped their pants!

Take a quarter and use a pencil to trace around it—this will leave pencil dust all along the edge of the coin. Hide this coin in your hand for now. Go to your victim and tell him you want to show them a trick. Tell him you can do something that you bet he can’t. Take a quarter (a new quarter, not the “marked” quarter) and roll in down your face from the top of your forehead, over your nose, and down to your chin. Challenge your victim to do the same thing—handing them the “marked” quarter. When your victim finishes, congratulate them and walk away. Let them figure out for themselves that you tricked them into marking a big line down the middle of their face!

Family Fun Magazine also has some great recipe ideas and other April Fool’s Day ideas to use. 

Have fun, and remember laughter IS really the best medicine!