Chris's ideas

Chris has had a couple of great ideas lately

(Which will come as no great surprise)

I bought way too many peanuts for the baseball baby shower, so Chris thought of a great idea:

Peanut butter!

He said that while he was on his mission he tried blending peanuts to make peanut butter, but it didn't ever work.

He put a bunch of ours in the food processor and voilà!

It tastes pretty good!

Elle actually hates regular peanut butter, so I buy her fresh-ground stuff in the bulk section.

Now I don't have to buy any for a looooong time!

Great idea #2

Actually, it's a more of a story, really.

(no, that's not Elle, it's one of her teammates just for reference)

Last weekend, Elle's soccer team (in the red) played the team in the maroon (or purple or grape)

I think everyone on our team had both parents there watching.  There were even some grandparents and siblings.

When I looked across at the other team's spectators, there were only four people not including the coach!

Chris told me why:

(Here is where the great 'idea' comes in.  All his answers will be in red)

They are all orphans.

The spectators are actually local church members who signed up to come support them.

I heard one of the spectators cheer by one of the girls by name.

That's because the church members were given a list of names.

The team was also a lot smaller in stature.

That's because they are underfed at this particular orphanage.

Some girls were much smaller than others

That's because they came to the orphanage later in life and hadn't benefited from the nourishing food of the orphanage as long.

The other team used their own jargon when talking to each other about defending the other team, passing the ball, etc.

This is common when girls are shut up in a tight space for long periods of time

Eventually, more people came to cheer on the other team

The spectators called other members of their church to come help cheer.

When Elle's team did the cheer for the other team at the end of the game, Chris quietly said what they really meant to say.

Goooooo Orphans!

Maybe you had to be there . . .

Family Home Evening

For FHE we did our annual pumpkin carving

Can guess who's is who's?

 Just in case you didn't guess, here's the big reveal:

Spider Web

Adventure Time-esk

Mine is supposed to be a vampire.

Elle gave me the tip on how to put the teeth in.

She saw the idea the other day when she and her friend were browsing Pinterest on the bus!

Kids today!

Baby shower #2 It's a Boy!

I wanted to throw a shower for my friend (the one in the black shirt, obviously), but she said our other friend (the one in the red sweater) was already thinking about it 

So, she and I brought our brains together to plan!

Thankfully, she knows more about showers than I do.  We looked on some websites and decided on the theme of Baseball. (She said we needed a theme which is how I knew the girl shower needed a theme)

Chris thought this was the strangest thing ever.  "It's a baby shower. Why are you doing a baseball party?"

I was all excited about the theme, but he made me doubt myself.

I talked to the mother-to-be at the girl shower I gave a couple weeks ago and told her, kind of apologetically, that we were going to do a baseball theme for her shower.

"What?!  

I LOVE baseball!  Did someone tell you that?  My parents even turned our back yard into a baseball field!  My whole family is passionate about baseball!  That is so cool that you chose a baseball theme!  Oh my gosh!"

Ha!

Vindicated

Since we had a theme, it was easy to think of food:

Homemade mini corn dogs. 

I made them myself! (you can probably tell)

I watched a few how-to's on Youtube.

This was my absolute favorite video.  I thought it was so funny I even had Chris watch it later. 

(she's kind of raw so beware if you watch it)

Chris drew baseball lines on these styrofoam balls and I stuck the corn dogs in them 

 I was pretty excited that my cupcakes turned out nice and poofy!

I turned them into baseballs, and (the green stuff is supposed to be) grass

Chris made this "Concessions" sign

I found a little popcorn box template online so I could shrink it and put peanuts in, but the colors were off so I asked Chris why.

Boy oh Boy.

I had no idea what I started!

He somehow put the template into one of his professional software programs then changed the colors, the construction (so it was one whole piece to assemble instead of the original two), and made bigger tabs so it would be easier to fold! 

Then, he downloaded a bunch fonts until he found one he liked for the "It's a Boy!"

I did all the folding and glueing, so I felt like I helped a little.

Then, thanks to Amazon, I bought some Cracker Jacks.

(Do you notice the theme here?  Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. . .)

My co-hostess printed out labels for the water bottles

(Which we conveniently found online)

She also made baseball decorations by sewing string onto these balls

AND  

She and her sister made cotton candy!

She had the brilliant idea of having a baseball as our "guest book"

She also made this banner out of baseball cards

(sorry it's so very fuzzy)

And I forgot to take a picture of the other banner that said

"Slugger"

It was cute too.  

TA DA!

Now I just need to finish preparations for the fondu birthday party I'm hosting tomorrow!

:)

A couple of Anecdotes

#1

The other day, I was at the hospital during Chris's colonoscopy, and Elle was at home. I texted to make sure everything was OK:

My phone:

Then, I saw Chris's phone in my bag

(Evil laughter)

Chris's phone:

It was pretty awesome. 

#2

The other day two girls* were talking:

GIRL 1: "This car smells like hospital."

GIRL 2: " Our car smells like soccer--mud and sweat, and rain"

GIRL: "Oh, from that day it rained really hard during our game!"

GIRL 2: "Ya. My dad said we had to go to the grocery store right after!"

GIRL 1: "What?!"

GIRL 2: " Ya! I was about to cry! Then he said he was teasing. He's so serious that I can never tell when he's kidding. He's like such a good actor. "

GIRL 1: "Ya, my dad is always immature.  My mom tells him he shouldn't act his shoe size."

*Girl #1 in the above conversation does not necessarily refer to anyone you know and love.  But it might.

Goodbye Primary, Hello Young Women's!

Here's how Elle's last day in Primary went down:

We curled her hair after slathering it in gel, then fumigating it afterwards with hairspray.

(And just so you know, the curls fell out by the end of church.  What is the secret?!)

She donned her fancy dress and to-die-for shoes

Everyone sang a happy birthday song.
(although, I can't even remember which one!)

The entire group of Young Women came in to get her.  It is half the size it was before we split the ward.  Elle will be Beehive #5, and #2 consistently active. 

(you can see Chris in the back watching the festivities as well)

Then, the epic "Cutting of the Tie"

If they complete their Faith in God booklet, they get to choose one of the Bishop's spare ties to cut from his neck.  It's a big deal.  The kids think about how they will cut it the whole time they're in Primary.  The last guy cut his initials in the Bishop's tie!

I thought it was kind of random until the RS president pointed out to me that it symbolizes the children "cutting the ties" with Primary.

Duh!

She did a zig-zag pattern

So fun!

She gets to keep the whole thing.  She Said she's going to make it into a tithing keeper/pocket.

Everyone waved goodbye.

The first counselor (in the black dress and pink sweater) actually cried.

(I cried earlier)

And the Young Women's presidency escorted her down the hall to the YW's room!

*sniff* 

My little baby's all grown up!

What are little girl showers made of?

Here are all the ingredients for the Victorian-themed baby shower my friend and I did:

A pretty parasol borrowed from a friend

An amazing looking banner made by my co-hostess and her daughter.

(It has quotes about children from various authors from that time period.)

Uniquely designed (by Chris, of course) bookmarks with the same quotes

A cute Victorian-era picture found by my co-hostess--

 and tweaked to fit the frame by Chris. 

 (It was too tall so he spliced it on the computer. Oh, and he downloaded a bunch of fonts until he found the perfect one for the baby's name-- "Jane," obviously. 

Not to be confused with Jayne or Jain or Jaine or Yane)

A frilly table cloth ($7 Thank you, Ross Dress For Less TM)

I took a picture hours before the shower because I just knew I'd forget to take one later!

perfect little tartlets

(dough made by me, formed perfectly by Chris)

Yum!

A delicious cucumber-lime punch, cucumber sandwiches, pastries, fancy chocolate cookies, cheese and crackers with fruit, and plenty of flowers for decoration.

This was taken halfway through the shower while awkwardly standing in the middle of everyone.

(Now you know why I took one before, ya? ;)

The mother-to-be x2 (she has a little boy already) is in the striped shirt on the left.

I was not clever enough to get her picture face-on that night.

(I was too busy gabbing with all my friends)

My co-hostess and I were very pleased with how it all turned out!

Stay tuned for baby shower # 2 for a little boy!

(The Primary president asked me if this was my new calling--giving baby showers ;)

Ha!

Party!

Here's what happened at Elle's party with her friends:

They all made individual pizzas

(Yes, I know it's fuzzy.  YOU try getting five 12-year-old girls to hold still!)

They turned out great!

Yum!

Then they played games

(No, not Poker.  Apples to Apples, plus some other silly games)

If you squint your eyes and tilt your head you can see that the cupcakes are in the shape of a 

"12"

Silly girls.  I don't think they are capable of making straight faces!

Then we drove to a shady-looking warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

(Seriously, I thought we were about to witness a drug deal or something)

And then they jumped

and jumped

and jumped

and flipped!

and jumped some more.

A good time was had by all

:)