General Conference Weekend

Friday, October 2, was Name Your Car Day. I told this to Jet and even though we'd already named both of our vehicles years ago, Jet insisted on naming the van when I picked him up from school. He named it "Car So Long." OK. Why not? 

Then when we got in the van, he decided it should be Name Your Banana Slug Day. Timothy, the banana slug, was in the van that day. He let me know Timothy should be renamed "Bernard the Banana Slug." Jet is such a hoot. He makes me smile, which is appropriate because October 2 was also World Smile Day.

 

Saturday, October 3, we gathered children in Car So Long and listened to General Conference on the radio on the way to Idaho. 

Road Trip! 

 

We drove to Rigby to visit the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum. 

The last talk of the first session was from President Christofferson and he talked about the dangers of gambling. We missed the second session because we were in the museum but we watched it Sunday evening.

As soon as we walked into the museum on Saturday afternoon, the person to greet us immediately showed us an old fashioned slot machine, or "one armed bandit." Ha Ha Ha Ha. The kids were able to play with it. The museum supplied nickels and any nickels that came out of it were given back to the museum. We made sure to explain how it was pretend (even though it was a real slot machine from way back when) and to stay away from these things when they got older. I thought the timing was funny.

We had a good time at the museum. Lucky's doing a report about TV for school so we mainly made this trip for him so he could see first hand some of the history of Philo T. Farnsworth in Rigby.

There was a man at the museum who came up to us and let us know how he was distantly related to Philo T. Farnsworth. We explained how we were more closely related. How fun. Cousins! We had a really nice chat with the man. His name was Doug. It was lovely. 

 

On Sunday, October 4, we enjoyed General Conference at home with nachos, of course, and the next day Jr. made brownies for FHE treat since there isn't a Saturday evening session of Conference anymore so we can't have them then.

Quick Visit

Remember how I was so late for something, we didn't make it? That event was celebrating my Dad's birthday- big family reunion with people I hadn't seen for years.

I had seen my parents at my niece's wedding and reception the month before but I was looking forward to this big event. I was so sad.

Since we missed the event, my parents stopped by Monday morning for a quick visit. I love my parents so much. 

That day, September 7, was Labor Day. 

It was also the anniversary of when the first fully electric television set was achieved by Philo T. Farnsworth. I remembered to mention it to my Farnsworth friend (and distant relative) at church the day before.

 

Jet and I continued on with literacy activities from Shadow Mountain Publishing's adult and children's calendars for National Literacy Month. #LiteracyAtEveryAge

 

September 7 Start a new book

Draw your child's favorite character

His response was, "I love it, Mom!" 

A Little More September Catching Up

We found out September 6 was National Hummingbird Day. How did we not have that on our calendar before now? It has since been added. First Saturday in September.

To celebrate, Nichole created this picture. I do a lot of celebrating with food. She does a lot of celebrating with art. I love it.

September 7 was the anniversary of when the first fully electric TV set was achieved by Philo T. Farnsworth. Now Philo T. Farnsworth was my grandma's cousin so he's kind of a big deal in my family. I have a friend in our ward with the last name of Farnsworth so I finally asked him if he was related to Philo T. Farnsworth. Yes! Me, too. When he found out we were both related he asked if we as kids also all wrote reports about Philo T. Farnsworth for school. Yes! It was funny to find out that my family (including cousins) isn't the only family who did this. Someone I didn't know I was related to did it, too. 

Anyway so this year for the anniversary, I sat down with my friend and we figured out how we were each related to Philo T. Farnsworth and so how we were related to each other. That and Jeremy made a card for him. 

I can't find the card on the computer and I didn't take a picture before I gave it to my friend. Oh well.

 

September 7 was also Grandparents Day. I wished my mom and my sister Happy Grandparents Day.

 

September 8 was the anniversary of the original Star Trek. I wished that happy anniversary to a friend who likes Star Trek.

 

It was also Tim Bergling's birthday so I went around singing an Avicii song.

 

September 9 was Ants on a Log Day. 

 

It was also President Nelson's 101st birthday. I decided not to try to put 101 candles on a cake so we just put one in the middle and Jet got to blow it out. 

And Then There Are Those Other Celebrations

Yesterday, I mentioned on this blog about how some celebrations take planning and effort and some celebrations are easy because we just do what we normally do.  Then there are those times when there is planning, but it doesn't exactly come together as planned.
Today, September 7, 2012, is the 85th anniversary of when Philo T. Farnsworth showed a working electronic television.  Now TV is great, right?  But do we really need to celebrate this Philo T. Farnsworth guy?  Well, yes.  In my family, we do.  It was an important thing for everyone in my family growing up to know who Philo T. Farnsworth was.  Not just because we like TV, but because Philo T. Farnsworth was my grandma's cousin.  See, it's Family History.

So I had things planned to celebrate today.  After a lovely breakfast of breakfast burritos (thanks, Jeremy.  You're my hero), the older kids went to school.

Then the younger kid and we parents went shopping and to the library where we checked out some books about television inventions and inventors.  I intended to read with the kids after school about Philo T. Farnsworth and talk about how we're related and that he is known as the "father of television."

I also planned to make a pie when Jr. got home from school.  Mmmm.  Strawberries were on sale this week.
It took longer than I expected.  After two attempts baking the crust (see, it happens to all of us- not just with birthday cakes),

and a few hours of cooling later, we ended up with a nice looking strawberry pie (thanks, Mom, for the recipe, and for letting me call you countless times to double check on things).  It tasted so good.

We invited some friends over to enjoy it with us, so by the end of the day, we didn't have time to sit down together to read about Philo T. Farnsworth.
So not exactly what I had planned for today.  I browsed through the library books myself and the kids can look at them later.
But hey, we had pie.