Conference

So every 6 months our church broadcasts a conference. More info here. Sometimes 8 hours over two days of older men talking can be hard for little ones to watch. My kids are getting older and I decided to try to get them as excited as possible for conference this time. I got lots of different activities and ideas (mostly from pinterest) to try, to see what would work best for my kiddos. I wanted to share them with you guys in case you need some ideas.

I wanted to try to keep it as church themed as possible so they could tell a difference in what we were doing. Wal-mart had all their school supplies on clearance so they each got a tote and folder to organize their goodies. They also got little princess books (not church related, but they were excited to have something new) I also got out our Noah's ark little people set. I know it's a stretch but it's the most gospel oriented toys we have. It was really good to have the toys in an isolated area and they couldn't be distracted by other toys in their room. They stayed in the living room the whole time They also got a little bucket to hold treats, bubbles, coloring pages, and new crayons. That was good for Whitney, but didn't interest Lindsey too much:

On each of these bags I put a picture of a topic like temples or missionaries. If they heard that word they could get one piece of whatever was in the bag and keep it in their buckets if they didn't want to eat it right then. I think this would be something better for older kids. The only time Whitney recognized it first was when Lindsey was sleeping.:

By far the best thing I did was the bubbles. Notice the music note? They were only allowed to play with them during music breaks. This is a big deal because we don't usually have bubbles around here, and they for sure never get to do it by themselves. I put a sheet down with all the bubbles, treats, etc I knew there would be some messes and I didn't want to stress. As soon as the music would start they'd jump up and grab the bubbles and when it was over, they'd quickly put them away.

In April Whitney memorized the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and first presidency and has kept up and still remembers them. I took these picture/fact sheets out of a book that we have and attached each apostle to a different treat/activity. This was a big hit. Whitney was so excited to see and identify who would be speaking and then would find their picture to see what it was attached to.
Here's puzzles (pictures I mounted and cut up from the Friend), not too exciting for my kids:

Before you think I'm a terrible mom and feeding my kids all junk for two days, I did include some healthy choices but I had to use our fake kitchen food so the real stuff could stay refrigerated. :-)

We have a tradition of pancakes or french toast for the morning session:

Last conference we had to watch the whole thing on our computer screen since we don't get it on tv here. Well, I got a cord to connect our computer to the tv and it was a very good decision to get!

In between sessions on Saturday we went to the beach to get our wiggles out:

It was such a great conference and I hope that the girls will continue to get excited for conference like I do. I know I felt very spiritually fed and I'm so grateful that we can hear advice from the Lord's servants so often! Do you have any fun conference traditions or good advice to keep the kids focused/entertained?