The weekend after General Conference, our household doubled! Ben's brother Michael and his family stayed with us for several weeks while they were looking for a house to move into in the Salt Lake area. Which means... more family (COUSINS!) in Utah - hooray!
Among the other preparations we made before they arrived, we had fun making and eating Halloween sugar cookies - something I really wanted to do before we began limiting the gluten-based items we baked because Michael's family eats GF. It felt like an extra special treat to randomly cut and frost sugar cookies on a weekday afternoon and evening, too.
They arrived on a Friday night and the kids were so excited to have cousins here! They had some play time before getting settled that night, then got right back to it on Saturday. We decided to go on a little outing, to Orem City's "Touch a Truck" event, where kids (and adults) could get up close and personal with tons of different trucks, from waste management to first resonders to construction, and more. The kids enjoyed seeing the trucks but mostly it was just fun to hang out together!
Well, after taking a hiatus for several weeks, I'm going to try to get back on the blog train here. I left off with General Conference, so here are a few snapshots and memories from that weekend.
I arrived at the Conference Center in SLC as Ben and the kids were getting ready to go help clean our church Saturday morning...
then they were rewarded with enormous doughnuts.
When I got home after the morning session, Cat had a non-member friend over, and he stayed for the afternoon session.
The girls really wanted to go to the church to watch the Women's Session that evening, so we put on some church clothes and headed to the church. I'm so glad we did - what an amazing meeting! I was overwhelmed that Pres. Nelson announced the new temples during that session! Pretty cool to have one coming to our neck of the woods, too.
We love the new YW Theme too.
I'm pretty sure when I arrived for an earlier call time at the Conference Center on Sunday morning, everyone at the house was still asleep. (Or they should have been!)
Evidence that the kids had fun hanging out on our neighbor's trampoline between sessions. Hooray for good weather!
I'm so thankful for the council we receive during General Conference. Ben and I have tried to make it a priority for us to watch each session as a family, and I love seeing the kids pay more attention and learn more as they grow older and more mature. We're so blessed to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Well, since we changed schools, Jack has now had his second opportunity to participate in a wax museum. I guess this is a popular thing in Utah. At our previous school, this was a traditional project in Spring of 3rd grade. (Remember Jack as MLK?) At the new school, it is a traditional project in the fall of 6th grade. This year Jack chose to portray George Lucas.
He enjoyed reading book and learning about this sci-fi and film master, especially how he was involved in so many iconic movies. (I, for one, never knew that he hasn't won an Academy Award.) Jack worked on some of the aspects of the project in class. With the various things we had going on, though, he and I didn't work on putting the tri-fold board together until the evening before. He was up about an hour past his usual bedtime, but that wasn't too bad. And he was really happy about how it turned out.
I bought the beard while Jack was at school, thinking I could convince him to put baby powder in his hair to complete George Lucas's current sagely look, but Jack wasn't interested. So we'll say his hair was a nod to the George's younger days.
I recorded him delivering his informational monologue but it was pretty loud and crowded in the gym so it's hard to hear him.
THE LIFE OF GEORGE LUCAS FACTS
Lucas was born on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California.
He was a very creative child. He liked to read comics, and watch TV.
When he graduated from high school, Lucas told his father that he would be a millionaire by the age of 30 - and he was!
He went to the University of Southern California and studied film production.
Lucas married Marcia Griffin in 1969.
He created his own film company, Lucasfilm,Ltd., and made his first movie called American Graffiti, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, in 1973.
Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars in 1977.
He was the creator, story writer, and producer for all Indiana Jones movies (1981-2008).
Lucas and his wife Marcia divorced in 1983.
Lucas worked on the special effects of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1994.
In 2012, Walt Disney bought Lucasfilm, Ltd.
YOUNG GEORGE LUCAS
Born on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California
Did not like to work.
He liked listening to radio and reading comics.
He got first T.V set at age 10 and liked watching western T.V shows.
Lucas did not do well in school because he had such a creative brain full of imagination, he was distracted.
He liked listening to Rock and Roll.
His father gave him a 35-mm camera.
His father wanted him to have a job, so started him in his shop.
Liked to race cars as a teenager.
A few days before high school graduation, Lucas got in a crash speeding around a corner, after a car hit him. His car flipped MANY times.
After the crash, he went to the hospital, but recovered after several weeks.
After the crash, George Lucas learned a valuable lesson: to take life and school, more seriously.
We've had to divide up our block of piano lessons during soccer season, which means that when we go back to our teacher's house for Cat's lesson after dinner, the younger kids have had sufficient time to complete their homework. I attend Cat's lesson every other week, so on the weeks when I'm not listening in, I usually take the kids to a nearby playground while Cat has her lesson. Everyone who's finished his/her homework gets to play on the playground. For the first two times we did this, Luke was not able to play because he hadn't done his homework, even though he knew what he would be missing out on.
But the third time? He worked quickly and finished everything in time to have some fun on a beautiful fall evening.
Last week I sat down at the computer and started looking at all of the performances in my area, at the various colleges and community theaters within an easy distance. I found some that I'd like to take Ben or one or other of the kids to, or maybe all of us, but a series of concerts at BYU immediately got my attention: free, kid-centered performances on Saturday mornings. What?!? The first one that I found was last weekend and it was so great. (And, yes, I am bothered by the fact that this series has been going on for 5 years and I'm just now finding out about it.)
Since the concert was free and we weren't sure how popular it would be, we arrived early. Actually, we arrived before they opened the doors. But that meant we got great seats.
I'd brought a few things to keep the kids busy since I knew we'd be waiting in our seats after getting there early, but the programs had lots of games that were entertaining enough that I didn't have to use anything from my bag of tricks.
The concert was called "Magical Movie Music" with the BYU Philharmonic playing several soundtrack pieces from movies kids were familiar with, and a few new ones. The program included Darth Vader's Theme and the Main Theme from Star Wars, Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter, William Tell from The Lone Ranger, Hoedown from Rodeo (not sure if this was in a movie, but I know it's been in commercials), and an excerpt from the score of King Kong.
The Star Wars music was entertaining and exciting enough for the kids that the orchestra just played it. But for every other piece, there was an interactive component: tapping or moving your finger according to different themes within a piece, demonstrated by a narrator with an overhead projector; watching a scene from King Kong first without the music, then with the music, etc. The narrator also talked about the various composers too. It was very cool.
Celeste, as heard at the beginning of "Hedwig's Theme."
When the concert was over, kids were invited to come up on stage for a "musical petting zoo," and try out the different instruments. Cat and Luke weren't interested, but Jack and Eliza loved it!
It was a small moment of sweet justice for me when Eliza did NOT want to stop playing the Steinway, and the percussionist we'd seen running from instrument to instrument during the concert told us that he had a piano background. In other words, piano rules.
I'll let you imagine how loudly Eliza hit this gong.
I'm glad this violinist let Eliza try her violin - something she's been wanting to do for a while! But I don't know that I would have been that trusting with all those kids around!
Then we got a (very little) lunch/snack at Ripple's, a place we've been wanting to try for years. We forgot that the restaurant is cash-only so we just got some burgers and shakes to share - enough to know that it would be okay to return and get more burgers another day when we have more cash on hand.
This little drive-in burger place was the main location for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints video "The Phone Call"- I included the video below. It's one of our favorites! Released in 1977, it's full of funny scenes and lines that we had fun reenacting and quoting while we were there.
While we were waiting to pick Jack up from theater this evening, Luke and I started talking about zombies. He said if a zombie is chasing you, you should just move to the side, since most zombies died of a broken neck so they can't turn their heads to see you.
I told him I'd keep that in mind for the next time a zombie is trying to take my brain. Then he said it would be hard for someone to get a brain because it has three things blocking it: your skull, muscles, and your face. (He's been learning about the different systems of the body in science.)
So, there you have it. If a zombie is chasing you, just veer to the side. But don't worry about it too much, since they probably won't be able to get to your brain anyway.
P.S. Luke told also told me tonight that he wants to be the Grim Reaper for Halloween. Or a murderer. Or something bloody. Because that's Halloween. I suggested we come up with some other ideas, since Halloween isn't just about scary things, but also about fun. "And treats!" he added.
