Conference goes on

Every six months, I am once again shocked to find that this Ellis boy, now 5 and almost 6, is still completely fascinated by Conference.  

This year he played with the chart for a few weeks after.  He wanted to cut out EVERYONE from the 70s and auxiliary presidencies to play with them.  This was great scissor practice for him, so I let him do it if he would do it on his own.

He ended up making an entire "Conference Center" and filling it.  When this was full and he still had a few guys to cut out, he put them on a separate paper and called it "the Tabernacle" (naturally, because that is where the people go who don't fit in the Conference Center -- and you'd better believe that one of the apostles was there in the Tabernacle to watch over that group).

When our neighbor Molly came over in the middle of the Conference Chart fun, she couldn't resist taking part.  It's fun to have the guys go up to the podium!  I was in the kitchen and overheard Ellis telling her all the names.  When he said, "Dieter F. Uchtdorf," she busted up laughing, like it was the funniest name she had ever heard.  I think Ellis realized how funny the name was too, and they were both cracking up.  Then he searched for all the funny names, and they spend a good while laughing and laughing.

Conference Apprentice

Let Sam's Conference adventures begin!

And Conference Goes On

At our house, General Conference is never really over. With Ellis, we talk about the General Authorities year round, and he usually begs to watch a session on Sunday afternoons while Ben and I take a nap (how can we refuse such a request?). The General Conference sessions that come every six months are really just a reminder to Ellis about how much fun the "Conference Guys" can be! He loves them all year long, but after getting to watch 8 hours of Conference in a two-day period, the fire is always rekindled. Ellis is definitely on a post-Conference high right now (I am too, I guess!).

Ben let it slip that there are actually six sessions of General Conference, and that we had only watched four of them. On Monday morning, Ellis begged me to let him watch the Young Women session. He watched the whole thing (mostly sitting on the couch, with a bit of pillow fighting with Sam in between) and was thrilled with all of the details: Sister Dalton, conducting?!?! All the sisters speaking! And President Monson as the last speaker! It was almost too much.

The Conference Chart was a hit during the regular sessions! One of our super-cool ward members had the idea to use a pin for a 3-D microphone, so we had to upgrade ours.

I wasn't too surprised to find out that the chart would be even more fun when Conference was over! Ellis has been playing with it all week -- pretending to have Conference. He'll choose someone to conduct and will go through an entire mock session, complete with testimonies, prayers, and silly hymns that he makes up.

[It's not very reverent, so you might find this video to be offensive. If you do, I welcome you to come into my house and try to explain to this child why we don't say pretend prayers in silly voices. I have been hesitant since my attempt to teach him which potty words "we don't really talk about" backfired].

I don't think I'll ever get over how amusing, unique, and hilarious this quirky obsession is! And I'll be the first to say how SHOCKED I am that it is still going on, 18 months after this initial Conference post. It is such a part of Ellis now that I would hate to see him grow out of it. Kind of endearing, you know?

General Conference Chart

Ellis and I have been dreaming up a chart like this for quite some time.  He loves looking at pictures of the General Authorities in their red chairs.  He likes to talk about what order they sit in, who is coming up to the microphone next, etc.  If I know Ellis as well as I think I do, I'm pretty sure this little project is going to be well worth my time and effort, because he is going to spend HOURS playing with it!  I also imagine it will be great fun during General Conference.

See?  President Monson and all of the "Conference Guys" are sitting in their comfy red chairs!

The poster is laminated, and the General Authority page from the middle of the Conference Ensign is laminated too.  They are all attached with Velcro dots (one of my favorite things in the entire universe).

When it's President Monson's turn to speak, you can take him out of his chair . . .

And let him "stand" at the podium!

Ellis insisted that we draw the microphone on the podium.  I tell you, microphones are the center of the universe to this kid!

All of the other apostles are Velcro-ed into their chairs, ready to take their turn at the microphone.

There are 15 extra little chairs on the back row for the other speakers.  Since we don't know who they are, we just laminated the whole page (as well as the page in the back of the Ensign with the auxiliary presidencies), and we'll cut them out during Conference, let them "speak," and then put them in a seat on the back row.

I got the pictures of the chairs and the podium from The Friend magazine.  They are really small in The Friend, though, so I enlarged them on my computer and printed them out in the appropriate sizes (see below if you want my enlarged versions).

UPDATE: If you want to make your own Conference Chart, go to my tutorial at Primary in Zion.  There you will find the printables to download, as well as the instructions.  Enjoy!

Sweet Dreams

Something about that voice is just so soothing . . .