was a good idea in theory...

SO, in an attempt to get my creative juices flowing i went to the LDS martha stewart blog. okay, her name is really jadi, but she sure has been giving me hope to be creative again. i stole an idea that she had posted about and thought since this is conference weekend, i could lure my girls into watching conference quietly in exchange for a nice little surprise. no, i'm not against bribing. i started to prepare on thursday, gathering all my supplies, painting and putting the crafts together. i stayed up far to late friday night finishing the final touches, and just prayed that this weekend would go better than all the previous conference weekends.

you see, these weekends even though they happen only twice a year, are the dread of my existence. literally. i remember the good 'ol days when i could lounge around in my pjs with my hubby not doing ANYTHING all weekend long except listening to conference and occasionally getting up to eat something. sigh, what fond memories. now, it's all about the whining and complaining and begging to do just about anything BUT listen to conference. it's terrible. i've now resulted in taking my kids to the church building in the hopes that maybe they will be better there. (usually not). since this weekend i don't have a car, i've had to find some ways to entertain my kids. i printed out a huge 14 page packet of activities that go along with the talks (that lasted through one talk, before being put aside). i got plenty of paper, crayons, soft toys all to no avail. michelle cried for so long she fell asleep, wesley decided he wanted to nurse again for ONE HOUR resulting also in sleep and elise finally calmed down enough to watch the last half of conference while i fell asleep from staying up so late the night before. yeah, you could really feel the spirit...
after the morning session, as promised (even though they weren't the best), i quickly put together my surprise of having a spring picnic.

i painted flower pots,

taped paper flowers to the pots with a york mint in the center and made name tags

made sandwich's out of butterflies and flowers, don't you just love those plates?

my girls happy for the only hour of the day

i made butterfly, tulip, egg and bunny sugar cookies as well, then had them decorate with frosting and sprinkles

i was quite pleased at how well it turned out, and the girls were excited to. we had a nice hour of calm giggles, smiles and chatting. i was happy.

and then the afternoon session started. i don't want to talk about what happened THEN. let's just say, i threw my kids outside to play so i could at least hear some of the talks, telling them that on sunday we would be listening to all of it no questions asked. of course i had to bribe them with a walk in between sessions, but i pray tomorrow goes better. here's wishing me luck.