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!

Family Glass Block

I'm helping out with our ward's Super Saturday again this year. But this time I'm only doing one project. This might be the one...

I saw this project just after we had decided on last year's Super Sat. projects and knew that it would be a great one for this year.

So here's my version with instructions on how to make your own.

Gather your supplies:
-glass block
-glass etching cream
-rocks
-2x3 picture frame
-ribbon
-button
-vinyl stencil
-(not pictured) family picture, paper towels, glass cleaner, needle, thread

1. Clean your glass block and apply the stencil. I made this stencil on my Silhouette using the Great Vibes font. Then I did an Internet search for the swirl. I can't remember the site where I found this one. Use masking tape if you are worried that the glass etching cream will spill out over your stencil.

2. Liberally apply glass etching cream over the entire stencil. Make sure to brush up and down and back and forth for the best coverage. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Wipe off the glass etching cream and return it to the jar. You can reuse this stuff! Then rinse off the block with water. Remove the stencil and then clean the glass with glass cleaner.

4. Fill the block with some rocks or sand or shells or beads or anything really!

5. Place the picture frame on the rocks and ensure that it is straight.

6. Tie a ribbon around the block and sew a button onto the middle of the bow.

Ta da!

Our Northwoods ABCs - Part 3

Our Northwoods ABCs - Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4

I had one guess of "more fun" for the letter M. I'm going to have to save that one for a future vacation log. This time around we went with something a little more specific.

M is for Movies (and maybe some marshmallows too)

Jason always brings his outdoor movie set up when we go on vacation now. It's fun to build a fire and watch a movie together. This time we watched Bedtime Stories. Most of the family did anyway. Kara started crying shortly after it started. I went inside to see if she would go to sleep and I had finally laid her down and walked outside only to see "The End" up there on the big screen. Bummer. Later in the week it rained a bit, so we set up the projector in the cabin and watched The Lion King and The Great and Powerful Oz. We were going to try to hook the Wii up to the projector too but I'm not sure if they ever did.

Isaiah and I built a fire for some heat for the movie and of course for the marshmallow roasting. I love this picture of Clark. He reminds me of John Travolta and I fear he may break into song about Sandy at any moment.

Dave brought his GoPro camera on vacation. It was pretty cool to get movies from a different perspective. He took it on the waverunners and on the tubes on Eagle River. I'm not sure how exciting a tubing video would be, but maybe he caught some eagles or something on it. Then Josh got to wear it on the go-karts. When we were on the go-karts, I was riding with Kent and we were slowing down so we could be in the video. The camera came by just as we were going up a hill. We didn't have enough steam to get up the hill and rolled backwards. Then Jason comes along and slows down to make fun of us for not being able to make it up the hill. He stopped laughing once his go-kart started rolling in the opposite direction too! So much for making a good impression on camera!

N is for Naptime

Vacations are notorious for wreaking havoc on children's sleep schedule. This one was no different. The kids tried to sneak in some zzzz's any chance they could. Looking back I wish we would have pushed Isaiah off the boat while he was sleeping here. Too bad he wasn't asleep with his life vest on or we probably would have done it!

O is for Our Lake House

Whenever we go on vacation where there is water, Jason starts talking about our lake house. We have planned on moving to a lake when we retire, but now he wants to push the timeline up a little sooner. I'm not totally on board yet since we still have a TON of stuff to do on our house. Wouldn't it be fun though? I've started a Pinterest board called Our Lake House to gather ideas for our dream. While we were out on the boat, we found many lovely properties that we would love to have! They are just $1 million dollars over budget.

P is for Paul Bunyan

Ahhhh, the cook shanty! This year we stopped at Paul Bunyan's for a fantastic breakfast to start our vacation. They have the most amazing sugar donuts in the world. And I know donuts.

How do you like that Clark is picking Babe's ear and Kent is picking his nose.?

Q is for Quilting and Crafting

I guess technically I was piecing, but do you know how hard it is to come up with a Q? I guess I could have gone with Quiet except that there wasn't any of that to be found, haha! So here we are back at my quilt top. I picked up this awesome jelly roll back in January 2012. 18 months to piece a quilt that was just for me for fun - I'd say that's pretty good!

We always have a list of projects that we do up at the cabin. This year Kelli brought stuff for the kids to do some Pinterest projects like making crayon candles. They didn't really work out the way they were supposed to, but it kept little fingers busy. They also made parachute cord bracelets. Dave brought his models to put together. And we did a puzzle that Kelli wants to frame. We gathered rocks for googly eye rock pets but didn't get around to making them. Maybe next year.

R is for Renting a Pontoon

On the last day we decided to rent a pontoon boat and some tubes. Clark, Jason and Alvinia loved the tubes. Isaiah and Kent did not. They were the only brave souls to try them. I decided not to do a tube this time around. A Northwoods summer is certainly not known for the heat. It was probably 70 outside and the water was colder. Clark made his dad super proud. He was steering the tube, making jumps and he even took his hands off the grips. He had a hard time letting others ride it because he was having so much fun. Then when the boat would stop, he and Alvinia wanted to get out and swim. How fun is that? Kent did get in the tube, but it didn't work out. Jason tried holding on to the back at first, but the boat wasn't fast enough to get him up on the tube. Then we tried Kent sitting on Jason's lap but they toppled backward before the boat even moved. Kent was mad about getting on in the first place, so we decided that he didn't have to ride it if he didn't want to. Usually we force the kids to do things they don't want to. It's our job to ruin their lives, er...give them opportunities.

It was so nice to be on the boat though. It was maybe one of the more relaxing things we did. We saw a lot of wildlife: loons, otters and many eagles! The boat was brand new and we made some very BAD food choices! We brought on orange soda, popcorn, chocolate donuts, PB&J. Seriously could we have picked messier things? Maybe caramel apples? Even with all the possibility of messiness, the boat stayed clean except where we brought the anchor up!

More ABCs coming soon!

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.

The PIN IT Button

I know that in terms of reality TV, news headlines, music, movies, etc. I am WAY behind the times. I mean I just found out who the Kardashians are! And my brother had to tell me! Eek! (it was maybe 2 months ago!!)

But...I know the Internet. Not the news sites obviously, but the crafty ones. I've known about Pinterest for a long time. I didn't request an invite for a while, but now that I have, I really enjoy looking at all of the fun things and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling!

Some friends of mine have talked about how they pin things and I suddenly realized...they don't have the PIN IT button! It's so easy to pin things from websites and stores that you like using the Pin It Button. So...let's get that fixed right away.

1. Head on over to Pinterest.com and log in. At the top of the screen you'll see an "About" drop down menu. Click on that and you'll see the directions for the Pin It Button!

2. Don't worry if you don't use Chrome. The proper directions pop up for whatever browser you're using...talk about cool!!

3. Once the Pin It Button is installed, you can use it to pin things from blogs, shops, websites, etc. If you are on a blog, be sure to click the title of the post that you want to pin. This gives you a direct url to that post. It sure makes it easier for yourself and others to find what you've pinned! Otherwise it may just pin it to the general url of the blog. Not so helpful if it was a tutorial from 1 year ago or something!

So. Make sure there is a direct url and then click your Pin It Button.

4. A row of images will appear. Choose the one that you would like to pin. Click Pin This

5. Now you're familiar with these next steps...put it in the right category, add a description and click the Pin It Button and you're done!

If you'd like an invite, let me know and I'll get you one. If you'd like to follow me, click on the Pinterest button on the sidebar. Happy Scrolling and Pinning!