The Year of the Horse & Improv Games

Way back at the beginning of February we rang in the Chinese New Year. We had our usual Chinese fare: sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, egg rolls, pot stickers, Chinese chicken salad and mu shu pork. We had a few other things too, but I can't remember what they were! Jason and I have finally figured out how to work our sweet and sour chicken frying extravaganza. It's quite the ordeal, usually three hours of frying chicken into little bite size pieces. Yum. Details are for another post.

Oh...seaweed! We've had seaweed before and every year someone new seems to want to try it out. The kids in Taiwan used to prefer seaweed strips to candy bars. This year was obviously Cana's turn! She was brave and tried it out and then quickly spit it out! I would have done the same thing!

We kept a few things the same this year for decorations - same tablecloths, same table decor, same lanterns and Taiwanese souvenirs and red envelopes of course. Clark helped me put together a Chinese zodiac banner. I want to make it look a little better for next year, but it looked festive enough. The chocolate bars were the prizes for our improv games. More on that if you keep reading...

We decided that we wanted to play a game this year with everyone instead of just sitting around and talking. Jason and I put together some improv games a la Hollywood Game Night and Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Here are some of the ideas that we used just in case you want to host a game night of your own! It's really fun to prepare because so many of the ideas could be from inside jokes or common experiences. And these can be tailored to any age group or interests!

1. Party Quirks - for an idea of how to play the game click here

Scoring - We timed each team and the team who guessed the quirks in the shortest amount of time won the points.

The quirks we used...
-all four teenage mutant ninja turtles hungry for pizza
-wwe wrestler (hulk hogan)
-peyton manning's #1 fan (it was superbowl weekend too)
-someone who keeps stepping in dog poop
-kid in a candy store
-fruit fly in search of a banana
-ninja trying not to be seen

2. In Other Words - for a video of how this game is played click here

Scoring and Game Play: We played two rounds of this game. That meant each person got a chance to say the clue twice. Their team had 60 seconds-ish to guess the answer. If they guessed it, they got a point. If not, no point.

Some of the quotes we used...
-fish are friends, not food
-i see dead people
-may the force be with you
-i'm the king of the world
-e.t. phone home
-there is no crying in baseball
-go ahead, make my day

3 & 4. How Do You Do? and Show Me the Music
These are different games, but we just created one big pile of song titles and sorted them to what we thought would work best. For an example of How Do You Do? click here and for Show Me the Music click here. We modified Show Me the Music into just charades with music titles since we didn't have noise cancelling headphones and such. We used quite a few Disney songs since we thought that some younger kids would be playing.

Scoring and Game Play - we gave each team 2 minutes to guess. They were awarded one point for each correct answer.

Some of the song titles we used:
-waiting for a girl like you
-edge of glory
-mr. roboto
-rocket man
-dancing queen
-america
-it's a small world
-mickey mouse march
-bibbidi bobbidi boo

5. Timeline - for a video on how to play click here
We thought it would be fun to do one round with our favorite Asian actor and another round with Horse movies for the Year of the Horse.

Scoring and Game Play - Each team was given two minutes. They received one point for each correctly placed movie poster.

Jackie Chan movies we used:
First Strike, Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, The Medallion, Kung Fu Panda, The Spy Next Door and The Karate Kid

Horse movies we used:
Wild Hearts Can't be Broken, Black Beauty, Horse Whisperer, Spirit, Seabiscuit, Flicka, Secretariat

6. Celebrity Name Game - for the version we played, click here
We decided to keep our list of celebrities to tv, movie or sports figures. You could do this with anything though to tailor it to your group's likes.

Scoring and Game Play - Teams had 2 minutes to guess as many celebrities as they could. They received one point for each correct answer.

Some celebrities we used:
-Harrison Ford
-John Travolta
-Natalie Portman
-Adam Sandler
-Lucy Liu
-Jennifer Aniston

I wish I had some pictures of the event. Maybe next year. I really need to be better about photographing a Chinese New Year celebration. It's one of my favorite parties. There's always next year!

We really loved the Game Night except that Jason and I wanted to play instead of just hosting. So next time we may have each family be in charge of bringing an improv game that they would host and then we'll get to play too!

Is it Science or Industry?

Days off of school seem so rare and precious! I'm finally feeling up to taking all three kids places...that is until I took them all to the Museum of Science and Industry! Haha! I know most of the exhibits are hands on, but I just wanted them to stop pushing buttons! Aghhhhh! We did have a great day though. Even if I needed a tranquilizer.

I'm so glad that Clark reminded me of our souvenir photo series. Here is the second photo in our series. You can find the rest of them (the other one with hopefully more to come) here.

We were also super lucky to stumble upon the "Bangs, Flashes and Fire" show. Clark loved it and participated every chance he could. He got a sticker for identifying safety glasses as protective gear...smart kid, haha! Kent hid behind me the whole time. Kara happily watched. The first thing they did was set some ice on fire. That was pretty cool, but we were wanting to see more than a little candle flame even if it was burning ice. So then they made some different color fires and we learned that the things they add to the fuel makes the different colors. Lithium makes pink and copper makes green. I can't remember what the super tall flame was, but it was high! The bangs came at the end when they blew up a hydrogen balloon. Then they filled a balloon with rocket fuel and blew that one up. I don't have a picture of that one since I had to cover Kara's poor ears for the bang!

The museum has SO much in it that I never feel like I even scratch the surface of what we can see. We walked down by the ships and race cars. Then went to the weather exhibit where Clark got to walk in the vortex. Kent didn't want to. Clark also wanted to step into a tornado and experience 80 mph winds. He's fascinated by tornadoes right now, so I think it's fun for him to learn the science behind them. We also went to the YOU exhibit where Clark was able to take a spin on the hamster wheel and Kent finally enjoyed something! He practiced with a Tai Chi master.

Jason stopped by the museum after work and joined us for the last half of the day. They had a special Disney exhibit there too. I was so excited to see some Mary Poppins stuff. The carpet bag was really like carpet - long carpet. I always thought it was a bit more like tapestry. I have to watch the movie again. They also had the prop storybooks from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I thought they were really cool to see. They had a lot of information about the animation process which always fascinates me. I am always shocked at how much goes into making an animated film. Simply amazing. The last stop of the day was at the Animation Studio where they taught us how to draw Mickey Mouse - without an eraser! It was fun and most of the Mickeys turned out pretty well! I always love seeing Clark's drawings!

Earth Day 2013

I love Earth Day. I have no idea why. It's just such a great day to enjoy our beautiful Earth. I was so glad when the cold weather broke this year long enough to play outside and have a "picmic" as Kent would say. It wasn't much of a picmic either. We had drinks and some string cheese. But he looks happy enough.

Then he got to run around with Cutlass. She might be getting old, but she still loves to run with Kent.

When Clark got home from school we had to choose one of our beautification projects to work on. His choices were... 1 - The Great American Backyard Clean Up or 2 - Operations Put the Rocks in the Box. His response, "I wish Earth Day was in the winter." He was even getting paid to fill the boxes with rocks which is what we decided to work on.

He spent most of his time picking up roly polies.

We did a little Earth Day dinner. I figured they should try to eat something grown from the earth. So we had strawberries and pineapple with an Orange Creamsicle Fruit Dip which Kent preferred to eat without the fruit. We also had a Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing. It was SOOO good. I added some mandarin oranges which made it even better. We ate this salad for two nights...that is unheard of in the Wilde household. We don't do leftovers.

Kent enjoying his toothpicks, or "pickles" as he calls them sometimes.

Clark taking a mean bite out of that yummy strawberry.

We finished the night up with some dirt and worms and Wings of Life, the new Disneynature documentary.

LOVE Earth Day.

Peter Pan Returned

I'm not sure if you've been counting down at your house, but everyday Clark asks me how many days until Monday, February 13th. He's been so excited to see Jake and the Neverland Pirates: Peter Pan Returns. We sat down to watch it and I said, "Wow, Clark are you excited to see this? We've waited such a long time." Clark's reply (with much emotion...almost reverence), "And now it's finally here."

I decided to make a special Family Home Evening for it. Dinner and a movie sort of night. And I had to stretch on the dinner menu since we don't eat seafood. Or at least I don't cook seafood. Blech. What else would a pirate eat?

Dinner: Neverland Haystacks (aka Hawaiian Haystacks)
I'm not sure if you've ever had Neverland Haystacks before (I hadn't before BYU) but they are so good. Start with a bed of rice, add some cooked chicken to some cream of chicken soup on top, then just keep adding the toppings of your choice. We like pineapple, mandarin oranges, corn, cheese, and those crunchy rice noodles on top. Yum! Some people like to add some other colors...we like beige...but you could add peas or celery or broccoli or whatever. Jason used to put sunflower seeds on his, but I always forget to buy those.

Movie time with my favorite boys

Just like their dad...doesn't work well with a flash.

Dessert: None other than a chocolate Tic Toc Croc
My parents brought back this yummy chocolate alligator from the Keys last week and I thought it would be perfect for our Peter Pan night.

The verdict: Clark wants to watch it again tomorrow.