Lots of Love

Valentine's Day! We'll call this Throwback Saturday or something?!

I wonder if I'll ever tire of this pose. I don't think so. It's too cute.

We had a great Valentine's Day. I love Valentine's Day so much more now that we have kids. It's just fun to celebrate anything with them - especially a day that celebrates how much I love them. Kent, Kara and I went to a special Valentine's Day storytime at Barnes and Noble to start our day. Then we stopped by Clark's classroom for a little party. Clark is such a great big brother. He let Kent help him decorate his valentine bag. We came home and exchanged our little gifts. Each person got some candy and then a little toy. Jason got a box of Kit Kats and a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock game. Clark got Star Wars candy and a drawing book with pencils. Kent got TMNT candy and an El Toro Loco truck. Kara got puffs and a board book. And I got Reese's PB Cups, Charlie Brown Valentine's Movie and flowers. I guess I lucked out and got the most. Jason is always trying to one up me. Grandma and Grandpa came over and brought the kids Valentine's and then we went to Gigi and Boompa's for heart shaped pizzas and some more Valentine fun.

It was busy, but we had fun! I sure do love these kids and their dad.

Winter OIympics 2014

We celebrated a LOT during February. We had Chinese New Year, the Superbowl and the Winter Olympics all in the first week or so! The kids were loving all of the fun stuff we did. I was just loving the food. Just keeping it real.

I decided that I wanted to have a little party to celebrate the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We made a paper chain out of the Olympic ring colors. I still have a bunch of strips leftover from our snake project from last Chinese New Year, so any time we can use our strips, we do. Here's what we did for Thanksgiving with more strips. And the leaves from Clark's family tree used these strips too!

For dinner we had Russian Blini. Oh. My. Goodness. Can I just say that I was instantly back in Russia when I took the first bite. The phrase for "blini with sweetened condensed milk" is one of the key phrases that I remember in Russian. That's how much I used to order them!! 

We used this recipe and they turned out so yummy. We had many different toppings to use: sweetened condensed milk (my favorite), strawberries, bananas, cream cheese fruit dip, chocolate spread, chocolate almond spread, chocolate hazelnut spread, powdered sugar, and maybe a few more things. I can't remember. It was fun to just try different combinations and see what we liked the best. I stand by my favorite of blini with sweetened condensed milk lightly dusted with powdered sugar on top. Oh, who are we kidding, you just load that thing up with powdered sugar! I won't be waiting until the next Russian Olympic games to make them though!

During the opening ceremonies, we played a little bingo game that I found online. It didn't last long. We really just liked talking about the different countries and guessing how many athletes each one would have. We had the globe out so we could find the different countries and we had google out so we could answer any of those tough questions Clark asked!

Clark really enjoyed the Olympics this year. Everyday he would follow the US on the app and see how many medals we won. He loved watching the videos of all of the new (to him) sports. He thought curling was hilarious. It was so fun to see how much he enjoyed the games. Made me love them more too!

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!

2014!

New Year's Eve is always an adventure it seems. There is always some drama going on. This year it was my dad causing the drama. He found himself in the ER on New Year's Eve with some bleeding that wouldn't stop. They kept him overnight for observation. The rest of us went to Dave and Kelli's to ring in the new year with some fondue. Yum! We played Clark's new favorite game, Axis of Villains. It's kind of a cool game because you are all on a team together. Everyone either wins or loses the game together. 

I wish I could remember what the problem was here. It doesn't matter much. This is a very common pose for Kent. It's tough being 3.

The boys wishing you a very Happy New Year!

And in video form...

Watch Out Tom!

A turkey shoot out! I saw this idea from Frugal Fun for Boys and thought the boys would really love it too. They did for a little bit and then the older ones were off to play with something else. Kent stayed around with me and shot the turkeys. I love shooting targets ever since this summer when I shot the pellet gun.

I made both the file folder and the free standing targets. We liked the freestanding ones best. I won't bother with the file folder ones next time.

Long after the kids were gone my dad and I tried to get a photo of the turkey going down. This was as close as we got to the perfect shot. Good enough. Why were we trying, you ask? Why not?

What else can we shoot? A Grinch for Christmas or maybe coal?

Minecraft Madness

Clark loves the game Minecraft so naturally he wanted a Minecraft party. I wasn't really going to put much work into his family party since we were going to throw him a friend party this year...still thinking on that one! Anyway, I started looking at Minecraft ideas on Pinterest and things sort of snowballed. I still didn't do too much, but we tried to make it as Minecraft-y as possible given our time restraints of 2 days.

The Minecraft Cake. Jason modeled this one after the one that is in the game. We looked at the picture a little closer AFTER he had already frosted the body of the cake. Next time we would leave the bottom the color of the cake. Clark didn't care though - he loved it!

One of his awesome gifts - he loved his Clark bar! I think it might be his new favorite candy bar.

A new camera for our budding photographer! Now you'll be seeing pictures from both my perspective and Clark's perspective. How cool is that?

And of course an awesome creeper doll!

He got lots of other cool things like books, shirts, a cool Razor tricycle thing, TMNT Legos and more - thank you everyone!

The food was really the only place we did the Minecraft thing. We tried to match everything to a food or item from the game. Then I made food labels using pictures from the game and the Minecrafter font. We made TNT for favors by covering a set of 3 Rolos in red construction paper and wrapping it with a ribbon and label.

I was really excited about our Potion Brewing Station. Potions are a big part of the game and Clark loves mixing his own flavors of drinks when we go out to eat. I bought a bunch of Jelly Belly sno-cone flavors and little beakers and pitchers for them to use. Then we had a chart telling them what the potions were and what they looked like. The concept was great. One big problem - the potions tasted horrible. Bust. I think the kids actually needed to add more syrup to their drinks. Or maybe we should have started with a 7-Up base instead of just water. Another thought I had was to use those Kool-Aid juice things. Oh well.

Regardless, I had fun celebrating with my big 6 year old!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

We are! Clark's first game was last Saturday against the Vikings. Now they don't keep score at this level, but we kicked their butts, 21-7. They got to play on the big field at the high school which was pretty cool.

And a HUGE thanks to everyone who came out to see Clark play! Even if some people only showed up for the last 11 seconds of the game, hehe!!

Christmas Eve

Kelli decided that this year we were going to do a pajama party for Christmas Eve at my mom's. I was excited since I like to make matching pajamas for the family for Christmas Eve. Turns out I just couldn't work the homemade pajamas in the schedule. Oh well. Jason was out shopping on Christmas Eve to find us all some pajamas that would work. We were supposed to be coordinating, but that just didn't work out either. And that's okay.

We took our family PJ pic BEFORE the party. White shirts are a silly idea, hehe!

Each of us was also supposed to bring an activity or something to do with the kids. Kelli brought some foam reindeer ornaments.

I had found a Christmas version of If You're Happy and You Know It. It started out innocent enough. And they were all having a good time.

Then very quickly it disintegrated into this...

My mom's game was a fun one. Each child gets a wrapped present. Then as I read The Night Before Christmas, the kids would listen for when I would say the word "and." Each time I said it, they would pass the gift to the left. When the story was over, they got to unwrap the gift in their hand as the first gift of the night. The kids LOVED it.

Speaking of loved it...Kent and his golf game. He was so excited when he opened it that he didn't want to open any other gifts. When I would give him another gift, he would give a sigh and say, "okay, I'll open it." Then as soon as the paper was off, he would point to the golf game and ask to play it.

Once it was opened...there was no stopping him. He played for a good long while and kept coming back to it again and again.

Kara even got a cute little outfit.

Clark is very accomplished in this thing called gift opening. He was efficient and grateful.

He loved his new guitar! Lessons of course have to start with which way is up.

A little leaf bubble blower fun.

Such a fun Christmas Eve!

Pinned It and Did It

I was going through my Pinterest boards the other day and realized that I've actually done a few things on the boards. So...I thought I'd share!

Magnet Nativity - I found this one on Pinterest, but I decided to create one of my own instead. I used Chelle's Creations Oh Come Let Us Adore Him kit. It was fun and easy to make. I still need put a coat of poly on it, but the majority of work is done. Bring on Christmas!

I made this toothbrush holder from the inspiration here. I made it for our trip to Canada and I think it is one of the most useful things I've made in a long time. LOVE it!

Remember those passport pics? They also turned into dry erase fun for church! Inspiration here (note: the pin only goes to the blog homepage...not the particular post). We had a blast turning the kids into Batman, Wolverine, and funny old guys with moustaches.

Other fun stuff for the road trip...laminated everything. Thanks momsminivan.com and others...I just searched Pinterest for road trip games and found all of these. I didn't actually pin them.

Last night I made Taco Pie (we changed the name since I made it in a pie plate). Clark's verdict, "I love this stuff. Can we have it every night?" Absolutely!

I also made the Brown Sugar Chicken found on Pinterest. It didn't turn out. I am going to try again now that I've learned a few things about chicken in the Crock Pot. Brown Sugar can't be bad.

Stake Picnic

Our Stake had a picnic a few weeks ago to celebrate our "I Am A Mormon" theme. Each ward was asked to create a booth with something to do. The kids had such a great time and there was so much to do. I loved the photo booth that one of the wards created. They even emailed pictures out the very next day. Very cool. 

A kids game of Plinko - one of Clark's favorites.

Hula hooping

A little game of catch while the rain came tumbling down.

He thought it was so funny that he got so wet. It cooled him off for sure though. It was so hot and humid.

One of the wards brought this huge trebuchet. They would load it with water balloons and launch it at the kids to see if they could catch it. Serious fun. My mom wants Jason to build one for Clark's birthday party. I don't know if that's a good idea...we'll be seeing water balloons over the hill onto the busy road behind us!

There was a football toss that was Kent's favorite. No shocker there.

Some of the members of our ward painted a Nauvoo temple/pioneer family scene with cut outs for the faces. I haven't received our family pics, but these of Kent made me laugh.

So...I am a Mormon and I had fun at our Stake Picnic! Thanks!!