Pioneer Day!

I've been a member of this church for 5 years now, and each year Pioneer Day has come and gone.  I never knew when it was coming or really even understood why we were celebrating it.  So this year, mostly thanks to my calling in Primary, we made sure we took the time as a family to celebrate and honor the hard-work and sacrifices of our Pioneer ancestors....especially since Justin's ancestors made the trek from Nauvoo.  We kicked it off with a Pioneer themed Family Home Evening that included sitting around a "campfire" (just an app. on my phone that brings up an animated pic of a campfire with real sounds of camping) and singing "Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked" with Ethan marching in circles around us.  We then looked at different pictures of the pioneers and let Ethan pick out what he could from the pictures before talking about their long walk West.  We ended the night with "s'mores" by "firelight"...well, we didn't have chocolate bars (yeah, like I'm going to keep those around my house while I try to lose baby weight) to make s'mores so we just had chocolate pudding with graham crackers and marshmallows, and sang our pioneer songs again per Ethan's request.  On July 24th, Pioneer Day, we decided to make Pioneer Pudding and have a Pioneer Picnic in our living room with the campfire on again.  We sang more Pioneer songs and read about the Pioneers from "My Church History Storybook"...perfect for kids, definitely recommend it.  This book talks about the Pioneers but on a level that Ethan can understand like saying "people were being mean to the Saints so they decided to leave Nauvoo" and stuff like that.  All in all, it's been a fun-filled few days of modern-day pioneering here at the Peterson's.  And we are so grateful for the faith, hard-work, and sacrifices made by our pioneer ancestors so we can enjoy our religious freedoms today, as well as our modern day technology so we can travel in comfort :) 

helping mommy make pioneer pudding (campfire again, Ethan was obsessed with the campfire on my phone)

Claire helping make the pudding

finished product

Pioneer Picnic with pioneer pudding by "campfire"

pioneer picnic

We read about the pioneers from this children's book.  Definitely a must-have if you have children.  Thanks for Justin's parents for the book by the way, it was a Christmas gift.