New Years, Windmills, Big Jud's, Into the Woods

2015!!!!  Whew, its going to be a good year.

Today I start my blog journal, where I tell you what my family and I have been up to each day, then come back and add pictures when I get the chance.

So for starters, we were up till midnight playing Uno and Spaz and listening to the kids play hide and seek in the dark and Bryce and Tenills house.  (Tenill is Jared's cousin). Lots of fun, laughter and food.  But due to the 1 am bedtime we all slept in a bit this morning.

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We didn't set an alarm, which means I woke up, as usual, before Jared.  No alarm, no wake up for Jared.  Because if that I found a wonderful New Years Resolution that Jared and I are teaming up to do for 2015.

2,015 miles run/walk in 2015!!!  Super excited!

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And I started off right by running 4 miles on the tredmill.  Off to a good start!

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We took a little drive later to see the Windmills up on the hills just South of Rigby, ID.  They were quite impressive.  Except there was no wind so they weren't rotating, so that was kind of sad.  We'll just have to go back in the summer.

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This evening we went to Big Jud's Country Diner and ordered a 1lb Hamburger with one order of fries and one order of tater tots.  That served our entire family with food left over.  It was so good.  Topped of with a Root Beer of course.

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One day I might go back and take on their challenge.  There was only one girl on their wall.  I need to be on there too I think.

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To finish the day we went to the theater for "Into the Woods."  It was wonderful!  I couldn't stir singing along.  And it was hilarious to listen to the girls behind us laughing and gasping at the Princes.  They have obviously never seen the musical.  :)

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Good Friends

London has the opportunity in school this year to participate in the Musical "Grease."  He has been having so much fun at practice and getting to know the other kids.  But performance time is getting closer and as such more practices are needed.

 

At rehearsal yesterday the Director informed the group that there would be no rehearsal this Saturday due to an unscheduled event she had come up.  One of the students remarked, "Let's have practice on Sunday then."  Another Mormon boy in the group, Sam Tibone, is an 18 year old Senior and as good a kid as I've ever met.  Upon this request Sam said, "No.  No practice on Sundays."  "Why?" they asked.

 

Sam then raised his school uniform top to reveal this shirt.

 

Everyone laughed then agreed, "OK.  No rehearsals on Sundays." 

Gotta love a strong Mormon Boy.  I'm grateful London has youth like this to look up to.

Sicily's Little Cow Dance

I figured out the logistics and was able to post  Sicily's Dance here.  Have a little watch.  It's 2 minutes of Cuteness.

Sicily's Dance Recital

We started out the day looking cute and adorable in the curlers I put in last night.  She had a rather LARGE breakfast of 1 Ginormous Pancake, about a cup of yogurt, 2 cups of Strawberry's and a glass of milk.  I didn't know she could hold that much in her at one time.

On to the hair.  Curlers came out and curls stayed in.

Boy did they ever.  And I swear I looked just like this when I was a kid.  Missing teeth and all.  I'll find a photo to put side by side with this one.

She's meant to have a high curly pony tail.  Pony's don't stay in Sicily or Aspens hair when their hair is straight.  But curls are the easiest thing in the word.  You just gather them up and put in a band, no brush or comb required.  Love it!

Then comes the best part.  THE COSTUME!!!  Isn't she the Cutest Cow in the Whole Wide World.  Love it, Love it, Love it!!!

She didn't dance until after Intermission though, so while we waited for the show to start we did normal kid activities.   I had to add this one of Phoenix though, doesn't he look so very excited to be here.  :)

Here's her class before they went on stage.  So many cute little cows.

Sicily was first in line.  So we sat and watched her watch the performance before her.  She was so cute and patient, while all the other little girls wiggled and fidgeted.  Good girl Sicily.

We bought her a little pink rose, she was so happy.  They also gave the little dancers some candy, so she was happy for that too.  All up, a rather GOOD day! 

Happy 11th Birthday Aspen

Can you believe it?  Aspen is 11 on Oct 28th.  She is our beautiful daughter.  Such a good big sister, helpful to everyone, FRIENDS with everyone.  Aspen is a talented gymnast, amazing pianist, learning clarinet, sings wonderfully, is rather gifted in school, a great cook and just an all around Great Daughter.  Don't know what we'd do with out her.

We had just a few good friends over for the evening.  We started out at the Soul Studio.  A cozy and artsy ceramic shop.  Each sweet girl picked a piece and for the next hour we giggled and painted.  Starting on the left and going round the table we have Nena, Hanna (Tall Hanna we call her), Aspen, Tyla, and Lia.

Back to the house for some pizza making.  As you can see Hanna is quite tall.  That and Aspen's kind of short.  :)

While the pizza cooked we played a few games to pass the time.  And now that they mostly know their left from their right, Twister is hilarious to watch.  Especially Hanna and Nena, with their long gangley limbs. Nena lost....face plant.

Pizza was delish.  The weather was so nice that they all headed outside.  I'm guessing Beaux got a few more bites of pizza off of these sweethearts than he should have.

Aspen's not a big fan of frosting so she opted for Pumpkin Pie instead.  I was happy to accommodate.  And spray Whip Creme is always lots of fun.  They all tried to eat with out spoons.  Then after I briefly squished a friends face in her plate....

 We all ended up with a little Whip Creme on our faces.  Some more than others.  :)

And what's a Halloween Birthday Party without a Halloween Movie.  Aspen picked a good one.  

Happy Birthday Aspen!  We love you.

Primary Halloween Party

All dressed up and ready to go.  Whew!!  What a morning.  My Activity Day Girls hosted a Halloween Party for the Jr. Primary and Nursery.  It was so much fun.  Sicily was a Flamenco Dancer, Aspen was a Grandma, and I was a Soldier.  I even got asked by one Mom if I'd actually been in the Army.  I said I wish I had but no, just a costume.

We had Frankenstein Crafts, much parent involvement needed.

 Cookie Decorating of course.  With the best icing I've ever tasted, thank you Stephanie Laroque.

 Pumpkin (Grapefruit) Relay races.  I couldn't find light enough pumpkins for those little guys to push around.  Don't let the muscle suits fool you.

 Played with Balloons and learned a few cute Halloween songs.

We also had Pumpkin Bowling, but I couldn't get a cute enough shot.  The kids were all so cute.  Ate too many cookies and wrapped it all up in just over an hour.  But that hour took a lot of work and I am pooped.

Flamenco at the Play

It was such a crazy afternoon and evening yesterday that Sicily went straight from Dance to Phoenix's Play. Since Halloween is on Thursday next week her dance class will be cancelled, so she got to wear her costume to class.  Then me, brilliant Mom that I am, took her clothes home and left them there.  So she got to be all dressed up for the play.  

London was so sweetly holding his little sisters hand for the camera.

 Then as Sicily strikes a pose I notice London's rabbit ears.  Silly boys, they never grow up.

Tell me a Story

Grade 3 hosted the cutest little play last night.  It was all about Fairy Tales.  We had Cinderella, The Fisherman's Wife, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Froggy went a Courting...everything.  

Here's Phoenix, front and center, as the Big Bad Wolf.  He wore Jared's monstrous Guatemalan Alpaca Coat and London's coyote skin hat.  He looked so cute singing and doing all the actions.  So much fun.

Each class did a different Fairy Tale.  Phoenix's was Cinderella.  They had to memorize their lines and say them as clear as they could.  As you can see, by this point Phoenix was hot so he ditched his fur coat and just went with the hat.  Wish he'd had a brown shirt on instead of one that says, "Trust me I'm a Ninja."  Ninja Big Bad Wolf, that's my Phoenix.  :)

I don't think the kids really wanted to go home at the end of the evening.  This is Phoenix and Kye.  They'd already stripped out of their costumes, but I made Phoenix put his back on since it was hard to get pictures in the gym.  Such handsome boys.

Vulcan

Bet you didn't know Vulcan was located in Alberta, Canada.  Jared had to drive through for a work project and stopped at the bakery.  Ironically he was served by a Chinese man and even got fortune cookies with his bagel and donut.  :)  It's an InterSpacial "city" apparently.  

This Welcome sign was awesome, you could remove the actors faces and put yours in their place.  But he only got the picture of the sign.  I don't know, I think he'd make a pretty handsome Klingon.

The Enterprise, but not the Enterprise.  I'm guessing this was erected in 1995, since that's the numbers on it.  

"Live Long and Prosper."

If you don't get this post, we have some serious problems, and I'm not too sure you should be reading my blog at all.  Go watch some Star Trek...the old ones.  :)

Activity Days Halloween Party Prep

It's the end of October and time for some Halloween Fun.  One of our Faith in God Achievements requires us to entertain and care for small children.  We decided this meant a Halloween Party.

Aspen started our prep off nice by having a Birthday.  So she got our latest gift which is a Rice Crispy Treat Hershey Kiss.  She was super excited and all the other girls can't wait till their own Birthdays.

So on with the show.  We decided for our Halloween Party we'd have a Carnival of Games.  Eloise is drawing the faces for a cute Pumpkin Rolling Relay.  But seeing as Nursery kids can't quite move a pumpkin by themselves we opted to use Grapefruit instead and call it good.

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies.  And even after all the taste testing (Aspen) we still ended up with about 110 bats, ghosts, pumpkins and cats.

Now each station needs a sign, right?  And who's better at drawing and crafting than 8-11 year old girls. Their posters were cuter than I ever could have made them.

And cut, cut, cut we must.  We made the cutest little Frankenstein Craft.  But when you have a possibility of 50 kids coming, that requires a lot of cutting.  50 smiles, 50 chins, 50 noses, 50 hairs, 50 eyebrows....no wait 100 eyebrows, 100 bolts.  Whew!  I hope we don't get more than 50 kids.

These girls were little troopers.  They worked so hard.  Did not complain once.  Smiled the entire evening and were sad to leave at the end.  I was told multiple times..."We only have 48 chins make sure you cut 2 more."

They so want these little kids to have a fun Halloween Party.  And with these sweet girls I know we will.