Easter 2014

Easter 2014 was two days of non-stop fun. Yep...two days. We celebrated on Saturday with Jason's family. Cute little kids in a fun hammock swing!

Kara loved the Easter egg hunt. Especially since people just brought the eggs to her.

Clark checking out the goods...

Kara is funny with sunglasses. She doesn't like to keep them on but we just keep putting them back on her and made it a game. We put them on, she pulls them off and makes a little pffffffttt sound. Then we do it again. And again. And again. 

Baskets on Sunday from the bunny

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Dressed in their Sunday best for church.

My awful attempt at a family Easter picture. Major fail.

We spent Sunday evening with my family at my brother's house. There was lots of hula hooping! And more eggs of course!

Little Things

I created a little scavenger hunt for St. Patrick's Day this year. The kids loved it. I had a great time coming up with silly rhymes and places to hide shamrocks. The boys keep asking if they can do another one. 

I'm almost getting used to Kent's missing tooth. Almost.

This has got to be one of my favorite faces of hers! Love every bit of it!

Our Fortune Cookie

My mom bought these cutest little fortune cookie shoes for me last year for Chinese New Year. They were more for Kara, but she wasn't born yet, so I got the gifts! I decided that I wanted to get a cute little Chinese dress for Kara and have her wear her fortune cookie shoes for this year's Chinese New Year. Well, the hunt for the Chinese dress didn't go as planned, of course. I decided that I would make one, but it didn't happen for the new year. No worries.

I know the dress is a little more Japanese in style, but that's okay too. I love the dress. It was super easy to make too. I used this Sweet Wrap Reversible Dress pattern by Heidi and Finn. I really love their patterns. And I love that we get two dresses out of one! I think she'll be wearing it next year too. I made the 12-18 month size. She's swimming in it. Next year she'll either still be wearing it as a dress or maybe a tunic with leggings.

She's so cute sometimes. We can't get over it!

Peekaboo! She's finally starting to enjoy this game. It's fun for the boys to play with her.

The cute little shoes.

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.

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...

It's Christmas!

Huh? Christmas was last month? Where does the time go? Christmas was lovely. I wanted desperately to buy Christmas pjs for us all this year, but I couldn't find anything that I even remotely liked. I had 8 yards of fabric from last year that I never used, so I pulled it out and made us some quick pjs pants. The kids' pants all turned out pretty good. The adult pjs had issues. Whatever. Slap a smile on your face and it's all good, right? I used this tutorial for the pj pants this year. It was super easy, but I have yet to find a decent method for making adult pj pants.

Christmas Eve we have a pajama party over at my parents' home. My dad had set up the train that he got for Christmas in 1957. The kids had a blast playing with it. It's amazing that it is in such great shape and runs well too. My mom made an amazing prime rib for dinner. I still think about it often it was so good. My iron must be low...dreaming about red meat! The kids played a left/right game with this story where we passed gifts around in a circle. Poor Kent was so confused and just wanted to open a present. After the game we watched the video that came with the book Christmas from Heaven. I would recommend the book, but now it's selling for $233! I certainly didn't pay that much!!

Then the gifts poured! It was certainly a football Christmas for Kent. Check out how excited he is for a chocolate football. Touchdown!! Clark loved his Kid Tough binoculars. I love the Kid Tough stuff. It really is tough.

A few more favorites...

We came home and the boys went right to bed. They did say they were going to stay up all night and listen for Santa. We told them that Santa wouldn't stop if they were awake. They weren't willing to risk it!

Santa came! Clark got a bean bag chair, diamond sword and pick axe, Lego Minecraft The Nether, Minecraft plush Creeper and Enderman, and some Minecraft guys. Kent got a bean bag chair, iron sword and pick axe, Bears football jersey and helmet, Minecraft plush Creeper and Enderman, and Bears Teammates. Kara got a Disney Princess Songs Palace. All of the kids got a Lionel Scout electric train set too. I can't wait to set that up each year!!

Look at me - I'm going to shoot my eye out! Opening gifts was a lot of fun. I just love seeing their faces get so excited about things. The best is when they actually stop to put it on, open it up, try it out. Then you know you picked out the perfect gift. Clark was very efficient at opening gifts. He stopped a few times to check things out, but knew that the ultimate purpose was to open things up as fast as he could and then check them out. Kent was v.e.r.y.s.l.o.w. at opening gifts. He wanted to open everything. Total overload. I felt bad rushing him at the end, but we had a busy day and had to move on!

Amidst the wreckage

Our next stop is over to Jason's parents house. We have a nice breakfast while we're there and then all migrate to the front room for gifts. Jason claimed his spot on his "sick chair."  I was handing out gifts most of the time, so there aren't many pictures from this presentfest, but it was fun! Cam made Wendy a beautiful shelf for the family room and he also got her wedding ring fixed. She was in tears! Such a fun morning!

We headed back home to get the sweet potato casserole in the oven and to meet my mom and dad. They came over with another one of Kent's gifts that was too big for Christmas Eve. They made him some PVC uprights for the backyard! I can't wait to try them out when it warms up a bit! They also brought over Jason's Thundercats Lair. Seriously. I could tell he was pretty bummed on Christmas Eve when he didn't get the Lair. He KNEW that my mom was going to get it for him, but he didn't open it up. He was okay with it and decided that he would just buy it with his Christmas cash. My mom likes to make him sweat I think, so she waited until Christmas Day to bring it over. He was very happy!! Like a kid on Christmas?! Clark also took a few minutes to try out his snowboard from Jason. He's since tried it on a lot of snow and loves it!

Our final Christmas stop is by Jason's Gram's house. We went and a lovely dinner and gifts. The boys were playing after dinner near the pool table. They weren't really being rough or anything. Kent bumped into the pool table and started crying. Jason went over slowly to see what was the matter. He looked kind of shocked and took him to the bathroom. I figured it was just a bloody lip which is pretty common with these boys. A few minutes later I went to the bathroom to check on him and there was blood everywhere! His gums were all black and blue and then I wiggled his tooth. It was loose! I was hoping it would just be kind of loose, but by the time we were done with presents it had fallen out. He was a trooper through the whole thing. I was probably more of a wreck than he was. My little hillbilly!

After a few phone calls to dentist friends, we realized there was nothing we could do. We took him to the dentist the following morning and they said his remaining teeth looked fine and that there was no damage. He was kind of excited to get the first visit to the tooth fairy in our house. She even brought $5 since it was knocked out! I guess we have to get used to this one tooth wonder!

Merry Christmas - a month later!!

Holiday Highlights

I thought I might take the rest of our pre-Christmas photos and compile them into holiday highlights reel instead of them each being their own post.

The Christmas Lights Polar Express

This was so much fun! When Clark and Dad got home (and Kara was fed) we gave each of the boys a ticket for the Christmas Lights Polar Express. I punched them with my favorite teeny paper punch just like in the movie. We made a stop at McDonald's for drive thru dinner and set out for Elburn, IL. Seriously, it seemed as far as it would have to go to the North Pole. 

We watched a few episodes of The Great Christmas Light Fight and saw the Larsen's house on the show. They won the prize for the night and we knew we had to go see it. In the long drive, we had enough time to eat dinner, read a book, fall asleep...you name it. The lights did not disappoint. I was hoping we would have been able to see more or do more, but Kent kept saying that he had to go to the bathroom. We don't mess around when he says he has to go to the bathroom. We're hoping his bladder control gets a little better for next year's show! After the lights we of course had to have some hot chocolate while listening to the song from the movie. That was Clark's idea. He's so funny!

Clark's Class Christmas Party

Clark's teacher is so nice to invite all of us to school events. Kent, Kara and I all went to Clark's Christmas party to have cookies and take pictures by the fireplace. I'm so glad he loves his class. Kent loved hanging out at his school too. He found these little blue papers that you could see through and was checking out how they made the everything look. Clark even made us a Christmas card - love the spelling on the card. I used to sign my name "Merry" on Christmas cards, but I think his version of "Mary Christmas" works too!

Our Christmas Tree

I didn't hate our Christmas tree this year as much as last year. It looks so sad though. It's no longer pre-lit and the extra lights that we put on this year just weren't enough as you can see on the bottom rung. But we're holding out to buy a new one after Kara goes through her toddler years. I'm just hoping this tree is going to make it!

Kara's Christmas Dress

I was so glad that I was able to make Kara's Christmas dress this year. With the way things were going, I thought I was going to have to buy one. That wouldn't have been a terrible thing. But I just really wanted to make one for her. I even found this shop that sells cute dress patterns for infants. I made the Ella Dress. I figure the boys just have to deal with having a silly picture here. This one showed off Kara's dress the best.

A Season of Excess

I have seriously felt the excess this season. It's everywhere. Smeared all over Kent's face in the form of cake batter and on Clark's plate for Sunday lunches. His new favorite sandwich...the triple decker. I am so grateful for a January of Simplicity after the December of Excess.

The Loyal Order of the Water Buffaloes Christmas Party

I should have declined the work of putting together a Christmas party for Jason's friends, but I always love a good party. And to be fair...Jason did most of the work despite having to work crazy long hours too. Dave was even kind enough to wear the shirt I made the group for their first Christmas party 3 or 4 years ago. I think he's the only one that still fits in his shirt!

Next up...Christmas!

Christmas Music Program

Clark was so excited about his school Christmas music program. He loves to perform. He told me about it at the beginning of December. Then he would randomly say things like, "I bet you're really excited for the 16th." There were a few times when I had no idea what was happening on the 16th. Then he would respond with exasperation, "my music program." I was really excited to see him sing though. I love seeing him do so many things!

Afterwards we went out to Oberweis for some awesome ice cream!

First up...Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

And Jolly Old St. Nicholas