Family Home Evening - Gratitude

I know not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving but we all have things to be Thankful for. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving a lesson on Gratitude :) Enjoy!

Opening Song: I am Glad for Many Things

Opening Prayer:

Read D&C 59:7
Why has Heavenly Father commanded us to be Thankful?

Read The Thankful Game - The Friend May 1994:

Alison knew it was going to be a bad day. The world outside was gray and drizzly. Mommy told her she had to clean her room. And—worst of all—there was a big bowl of cold oatmeal on the table that she still had to eat.

“I wish it was tomorrow already,” she mumbled.

Mommy looked up from the computer where she was working. “Oh, things aren’t that bad, are they?”

Alison nodded without saying anything more.

“Well, then,” Mommy said, “why don’t we play the Thank-You Game. Find a reason to be grateful for everything you can. No complaining is allowed. If you can do it the whole day, I’ll give you a surprise.”

“That’s a funny game,” said Alison.

“I’ll help you begin. Why are you grateful for oatmeal?”

Alison thought a moment. “I guess it’s better than a bowl full of bugs to eat.”

“Well, that’s a start,” Mommy chuckled.

Alison gobbled down her oatmeal, to get it over with. “I’m grateful I have orange juice to help wash the oatmeal down,” she said.

Then she went to her room. It was a mess! How can I be grateful for a messy room? she wondered. “I know—I’m grateful I have all these toys to play with.” She hummed as she put them all away.

The drizzle outside turned into a freezing rain that tap-tap-tapped against the window. Alison pressed her nose against the frosty glass.

I’m grateful the rain comes so that the flowers don’t get thirsty, she thought.

When her room was tidy, she got out her play dough. She made funny shapes with it and squished it through her fingers. “I’m grateful for things that feel good in my hands,” she giggled.

Alison was having a busy day. Soon her eyelids began to grow heavy.

“I think it’s nap time,” Mommy said.

Alison was going to complain, but she remembered that it wasn’t allowed. She climbed onto her bed and reached for her stuffed rabbit. “I’m grateful I have Charlie to snuggle with,” she told Mommy.

The Thank-You Game got easier and easier. It wasn’t turning out to be such a bad day, after all!

That night Mommy looked pleased. “You played the game really well, Alison,” she said, “Here’s your surprise,” She gave Alison a strip of bubble-gum-scented stickers along with her usual hug and kiss.

Alison smiled. “It turned out to be a really nice day,” she said. “I’m grateful for bubble-gum stickers and hugs and kisses and you!”

Question: Is it easy to always find things to be Thankful for?

Read Alma 37:37

Talk to your family about what it means to “let thy heart be full of thanks unto God”.

Bare your Testimony about some of the things you are Thankful for and why.

Closing Song: Im Thankful to be me

Activity: Tonight we will be starting the Family Home Evening Phantom in our ward. This is always so much fun. Our children have loved starting it in other wards and it is just a lot of fun to hear wisperings from ward members the following Sunday. All you do if take some of your FHE treat to a family from the ward, Knock and run. Of course the next week it is then their turn to do the same. Here is the note you attach to the treats so they know what is happening:



I also found this really cute one for Thanksgiving. If we were back in the states we would do this instead because it is adorable!




And if you dont fancy either of those ideas here is a nice picture for the children to color.Thankful Coloring Page

Happy Family Night!

Toffee Popcorn

Tonight I decided it was a Toffee Popcorn night. It is so easy to make and absolutely delish!! So just incase you feel the need to have some Toffee Popcorn here is the recipe:

1 cube butter (1/2 cup, I use margarine)
1 cup corn syrup (For our UK guests this is Golden Syrup)
2 cups brown sugar

Melt together in large pot over medium heat and cook and stir until soft ball stage. (test a drop of mixture in cold water and if holds its shape when pinched into a ball, its cooked)

Turn off heat and slowly add;

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla

Mix until marshmallows are just about melted and pour over a large batch of popcorn. I used 4 bags tonight but it will depend on how big your bags are.

Pour onto a baking tray. Once cooled Enjoy!!

Autumn Wreath

I love the idea of a dried fruit wreath. I saw something in town a few weeks ago and immediately thought hey, I can do that!! Here is what I came up with:


This wreath was so easy to do and it only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. Brilliant plus the supplies cost me 1/4 of what it would have cost to buy it. Here is what I used.



Variety of Dried fruit, I bought oranges and apples at a craft supply store.
Baby Pine Cones
Cinnamon Sticks
Thick Ribbon
Floral Wire

Literally all you do is thread everything onto the floral wire.


Next just pull the two sides of the wire together to the shape you want.

Thats it, easy peasy lemon squeezy as the Brits say here :)

Family Home Evening - Blessings

As we are now in the month of November I thought it would be appropriate to talk about our blessings. I hope this idea works for you and your family.

Opening Song: Count Your Many Blessings

Opening Prayer:

Lesson:

For the Object Lesson you will need:

A small cup
Dish full of water
Spoon
Saucer to place under the empty cup

Ask the children to name blessings which they receive from our Father in Heaven. Every time they say a blessing they get to take a spoon full of water and put it in the cup. Quickly the cup will be completely full. My daughter said " Ummm Mommy the cup if over flowing" PERFECT. I then explained how this is just like our blessings from our Father in Heaven. He wants to bless us. He gives us so many blessings that they are overflowing as long as we are worthy to receive them.

I asked the children then what we have to do to be worthy to recieve blessings from our Father in Heaven.

Next we read 1 Thessalonians 5:18

How can we thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings he has given us?

We discussed through our prayers meaning we can pray and tell heavenly Father thank you. We talked again very quickly about the 4 steps of prayer. We also talked about how we can thank him through our actions, ie being nice to our brother and sister :)

Bear your testimony and make sure to ask the children if there is anything else they want to discuss or anything they dont understand.

Activity: I have decided to do a Thanksgiving Decoration for our FHE activity. I have printed about 15 different color leaves I will then let the children write some of the blessings they are thankful for on the leaves I will then tie the leaves together and make a swag out of them to hang across our mantle until Thanksgiving to remind us of all the things we are thankful for. Here is a picture I found on google of something similar to what I have in mind:

Dessert: Homemade Cinnabons <--- Link

This is the best recipe ever if you are making homemade Cinnamon Rolls. It is tradition in my family to have Cinnamon Rolls and Hot Chocolate in the winter A Lot!! So starting tonight we will be having these. YUMMY

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Yesterday after school the kids were begging me to do two things. First make Tom and Jerry cupcakes and second to do some kind of craft. So we made the cakes and while they were cooking we did a Thanksgiving Craft. I seriously dont have any Thanksgiving decorations so I was excited to get some more stuff done. Here is what we made:



I had some squares cut from 2x4's for a craft I never got around to so we cut a turkey body and feathers out of Foam and just glued it all together.

Here are the supplies we used:



I think they turned out pretty cute. I have lots more ideas lets see if I can get around to making them in time for Thanksgiving :)

Family Home Evening - Prayer

I know prayer is something which we alk about a lot with our children and the importance of it. But It is a topic which I just dont think we can talk to much about. So last week I decided to go over prayer again in out home. I hope this lesson idea can help to inspire each of you.

Opening Song: A Child Prayer
Opening Prayer:

Lesson: Mommy


I started by asking the children if Mommy had to go away on a long trip and I couldnt see them for a few days what are some of the ways that we could keep in touch. Since times are so modern and we are so far away from my family in the states they had a few answers which included, Letters, Email, Skype and of course talk on the phone (which is what I was looking for). I then explained to the children that before we were born we lived with Heavenly Father and that we loved him the same way as we love Mommy and Daddy. Heavenly Father wanted what was best for us which is why he let us come to earth so that we could do everything we can to go live with him forever. But Heavenly Father didnt want to not be able to talk to us or hear from us just like if Mommy was away on a trip I wouldnt want to not talk to them. So Heavenly Father gave us a way to talk to him through prayer.

I then showed them a paper which I had made with the Four Parts of Prayer on it:

1. Dear Heavenly Father
2. We Thank Thee.....
3. We Ask Thee.....
4. In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen

We then discussed things we could thank Heavenly Father for. There are so many.

We then discussed the things we could ask Heavenly Father for. Again the kids had a great list of things.

Finally we discussed why we say in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen to finish our prayers rather then just stop once we have Thanked Heavenly Father and Asked him for the things we need.

Next I told the kids this picture:



I asked them the story of Daniel and the Lions Den and we discussed it. We love this story in our house so the kids knew it well.

Lastly I played the song: "I pray in Faith" from the Childrens song book, (the song and music can be found for free on LDS.org)the words say:

I begin by saying “Dear Heavenly Father”;
I thank him for blessings he sends;
Then humbly I ask him for things that I need,
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Lastly for our activity I gave the children the following Maze to complete:



Closing Song: I am a Child of God
Closing Prayer:



For a treat why not try this Banoffee Pie. It is so lush!!

Halloween Ghosts

It is time for the church Halloween Party again and this year Ive been asked to decorate a door for the children to trick or treat to. Im excited. I love Halloween. Ive also decided to go all out and make these little guys for the children.



Yep.... Lollipops made to look like ghosts. They are a favorite for friends this time of year so Ive made 50 extra to hand out to the children. Im going to attempt to go dressed as a hillbilly this year. My 6 year old will be a scary with, my 3 year old Mr tickle and my 10 week old..... a baby :) If you cant remember how to make these little ghosts I did a small tutorial here last year. More Halloween crafts to come before the end of the week I promise!

Family Home Evening - Scripture Study

Recently I was speaking with a good friend of mine who is on the Primary Presidency about my children and scriptures. See my daughter is 6 and we send her to church with the scripture readers. I thought it gets her in the habit of taking scriptures and she can understand them so I was doing the right thing.... WRONG!! My friend explained to me how my 6 yr old was the only child without her own "real" scriptures. What did I do? That afternoon I rushed out and bought her her own set of "real scriptures" I also bought them for my 3 year old cause he will need them soon too. Apparently it isnt cool to wait until you are 8 to get scriptures anymore the cool thing is to get them straight when you go into primary. Man I am so behind on these kind of things. I felt terrible and thought what kind of mom am I to not have known this. We are back on the right track again. So what do you think FHE was about the week following the new scriptures? Yep Scripture study and Marking Scriptures. Anyway here is what we did and I hope that you can get a good idea for your FHE tonight from whaat happen in our home.

Opening Song: Search Ponder and Pray

Opening Prayer: Assigned

Lesson: Mommy

How many books of scripture do we have: (answer 4) We have the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctorine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

The Bible has stories written by Prophets who testified that Jesus would come and by people who knew Jesus when he was alive on the earth. These people lived where Jesus came from, in the East.

The Book of Mormon was written by Prophets who lived all the way across the world from where Jesus grew up. But they wrote the same things...Prophets told that Christ would come, they shared their testimonies of Him and they saw Him after his resurrection.

The Doctrine and Covenants was written by modern Prophets, like Joseph Smith. As he was organizing Christ's church on the earth he had many questions. The Doctrine and Covenants has the answers to many of those questions and is a history of the early Latter Day church.

The Pearl of Great Price contains many sacred writing that were lost many years ago. The Lord guided Joseph Smith to find those lost writings and translate them for us to read today. It also has a history of Joseph Smith's life and the Articles of Faith.

President Howard W. Hunter said, “When we … read and study the scriptures, benefits and blessings of many kinds come to us. This is the most profitable of all study in which we could engage.”

I told of experiences when the scriptures have helped me make decisions.

My Husband then did a little bit about marking scriptures and why we do this. He explained that we dont just write in our scriptures for no reason but how we mark things which are important to us. Things which we want to be able to find again quickly. He showed his scriptures from his mission and all the markings in them. The kids thought they were pretty cool.

We both bore our testimony about scriptures to the kids and then we moved on to our favorite part of FHE the activity. We made Scripture cookies. Fun and Yummy. This is also the dessert.

3/4 cup _________
“The words of his mouth were smoother than ____” (Ps. 55:21)

1/3 cup _________
“Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy ____ and honey” (2 Ne. 26:25)

1 1/2 cups _________
“To what purpose cometh there to me … the ____ ____ from a far country?” (Jer. 6:20)

2 _________
“As one gathereth ____ that are left, have I gathered all the earth” (Isa. 10:14)

2 cups _________
“And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine ____” (1 Kgs. 4:22)

1 teaspoon _________
“Take thou also unto thee principal spices … and of sweet ____ half so much” (Ex. 30:23)

1 teaspoon _________
“Ye are the ____ of the earth” (Matt. 5:13)

1/2 teaspoon _________
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto ____ (Matt. 13:33)

3 cups _________
“Nevertheless … ____ for the horse” (D&C 89:17)

1 cup _________
“And they gave him … two clusters of ____” (1 Sam. 30:12)

Beat first four ingredients together. Mix in remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° F (175° C) for 15 minutes.

Recipe origin unknown

Scripture Cookie Answers:
3/4 c butter, 1/3 c milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, 2 eggs, 2 c flour, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t salt, 1/2 t baking soda, 3 c oats, 1 c

I also printed off this picture for the kids to do while the cookies were baking:

I hope your family enjoys this lesson as much as mine did!!

Family Home Evening Idea

This morning on the way to school my daughter asked if for Family Home Evening we can talk about prophets. So as I have contemplated all day what we can talk about that we havent already discussed, I started singing the song Follow The Prophet. It then hit me my kids LOVE this song but Im not to sure how much they know about all the prophets in the song. So tonight we are going to focus on two Prophets they have heard of know the stories but maybe we havent talk about them as much as the modern and Book of Mormon prophets. I hope this idea can work for you and your family too.

Opening song: Follow the Prophet
Opening Prayer:
Family Business: Daddy (We have a Young family so this doesnt take to long. But with me being on the RS presidency and my husband the EQ President we tend to discuss what we will be doing in the week. Even our 6 year old gets involved. For example tonight she will be sure to remind us of her school disco on Wednesday, School Field Trip on Thursday and Dance on Saturday.)

Lesson: Mommy



Show picture of Adam and Eve and ask children if they know who these people are? We will then discuss Adam as a prophet how he was the first prophet. I tend to wing it and answer and ask questions about the picture and about Adam and Eve.



Next I will show a picture of the city of Enoch. I will ask my husband to tell the story of what happen to the people of the city of Enoch. We will again just talk with the children about Enoch and the city and how righteous they were.

Activity: Memory game with prophet pictures. I made some of these a while ago and they have come in so handy. All I di was make this picture bigger and print it out twice. I them cute the pictures up and thats it, Prophets Memory / Matching Game.



Dessert tonight is homemade Oreo type cookies. Here is the recipe I use.



Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 boxes Devils Food Cake Mix
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup shortening

Mix cake mixes, eggs, shortening. Roll in prune-size balls. Bake at 350 degrees on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet.

Cream Frosting for middle:
8 oz cream cheese
3 cups Powder Sugar
1/4 cup butter

Mix filling - put between 2 cooled cookies. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween Swag

I love this time of year and making loads of crafts. I have so many things on the go at the moment and I want to get them all done ASAP so that I can get to display them before the end of the Halloween season.

So craft Number 1 is a Halloween Swag. I just wanted something cute to hang across my mantle piece. and here is what I came up with:




This was so simple to make. I found some paper mache letters at the local craft shop. I just painted them black and orange and then glued them to a piece of orange ribbon. I also found some cute Halloween stickers that I put on some of the letters too. It was so simple and it looks really cute on my mantle.

Like I said I have loads more crafts on the go, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas things. So keep watching for more.