Thanksgiving round up

I think I started a Thanksgiving craft worthy to become a family tradition. I wanted some sort of daily gratitude log that would maintain kid appeal through the whole month.

Well, not only did it maintain appeal, but it also prompted Ellie to start writing without assistance. Every day (or so) we printed an object of our gratitude on a feather and I let the kids put them where they would. I loved seeing the turkey's feathers fill out and it's always nice to have to remind myself how much I have to be thankful for.

These days I am feeling the great strain of three little ones and massive sleep deprivation to an emotionally debilitating extent, but when I actually pause to reflect on the list of good stuff I have, I am humbled and surprised by its length.

Ellie decorated feathers in her own print with things like, "gams," "mom dad," "femele," "frenss," "foot," and "crissmis." (In case you're not familiar with children's phonetics, that would be games, Mom & Dad, family, friends, food, and Christmas.

Erik dictated his blessings to be things such as, "mine brother," "superheroes," "turtles," "Bowser turtles" (actually this was his first suggestion nearly every time), "stomp," "tadpoles and friends," and "snakes that go ssssssssss when I run away."

Mish is grateful for the criminal justice system and rockin' deals on Breyers and Dreyers ice cream, Bob noted that he's grateful for sisters who are awesome cooks, Kyle is thankful for a good job and for an Ellie who unloads the silverware, and I fanned out the majority of those feathers with blessings like good music, having a live-in Mish, and pbs between the hours of 7 and 9am.

In the first week of November, we thought to take a stroll and enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the mountains. Hmmmm, that probably would have been a good idea when the beautiful fall colors of the mountains were still in season. We were too deep in the canyon by the time we realized that winter was nigh upon us, but still took a brief walk collecting pine cones for a craft that will be featured soon. Just as soon as I finish the other two thirds of it.



We missed the autumn hues in a natural setting, so tried to recreate it in cardboard and felt form.

And there will be no Thanksgiving in this house without a handprint turkey craft.

Actually there was no Thanksgiving in this house. No Thanksgiving dinner, that is. I would never whip up a feast of any proportion if Marilyn would do it for me instead. This was my fifth Thanksgiving at the Williams' and my entourage (seven of us showed up this year) has grown considerably since that first one, seven years ago.

The feast was unbelievably scrumptious, as we knew it would be. Bob declared that a holiday dinner without Marilyn's crescent rolls just might make the world implode. I would echo that sentiment regarding the buttery, mashed yams.

I love living in Utah, but I don't know if I will ever fully embrace this land as my home because without so many of our family members around, it can't truly feel like home. Especially now that our kids are getting old enough to recognize and remember individuals, I ache (as do the kids themselves) for them to have frequent contact with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Marilyn has been such a wonderful surrogate mom and grandma. I don't know how we'd be faring here without her, and not just because I would've been stuck making a turkey myself.

This was taken just upon Mish's first bite-- she's excited, if that grin and clasped hands didn't give it away.


Warm, delicious, wonderful Thanksgiving. And then there was Black Friday....

Just in time for Thanksgiving...

... I'll finally post about Halloween.

With Ellie's party consuming the first half of the month, our Halloween crafts and field trip season was cut short, but we did manage a trip to a cute, boutique-laden shopping area called Gardner Village that decorated the grounds with a variety of curiously engaged witches. Unfortunately, it's an outdoor shopping area so our fingers and faces nearly froze, but knowing there was a discounted cookie at the end of our witch scavenger hunt pushed us to our reward.

I didn't get good pictures, but some of the animatronix witches were doing pretty interesting things, like the one biking in the sky you can see in the background. I'm waaaay too cheap to purchase any of the merchandise being sold in such a shopping venue, but I did a whole lot of adorable window shopping.

Halloween afternoon, Kyle helped the kids carve pumpkins.

Erik has recently developed a love for violin-playing and requires only simple props to do so.

We knew the kids would be up late Halloween night, so tried very hard to coerce them into napping. On account of her head full of sponge rollers, Ellie never fell asleep, and this is how she felt about her new hair-do.

And this is how Charlie felt about being ignored all day while I finished up the kids' Halloween costumes (actually I was trying to take a picture of him sleeping in his bumbo-- poor, neglected third child-- but he woke up as I was taking it).

It was hard to get a picture in which Ellie was more than a blur-- she was almost as excited about candy as I was that Erik finally agreed to wear his costume.

Why Mario Bros? When my kids found out Carter and Holden were planning to be Mario and Luigi, they were determined to complete the video game's cast.


Rowan was the star (I've never played it myself, but I believe stars are claimed for temporary invincibility or some other desirable), and Charlie went as Toad.

Mish crocheted the cute turban hat for him.


Erik kept insisting Bowser is an elephant, though I corrected him showing him pictures like this numerous times, and made sure he really was partial to being a fire-breathing turtle/dragon villain for a night. He never entertained the thought of being anything but Bowser for Halloween, though he clearly misunderstood the full commitment...

He was thrilled about it, all the way up until Halloween, at which time he utterly refused to have anything to do with his costume. It wasn't until all the other kids already had lollipops in their mouths that he consented to make his transformation. I threw orange poster paint in his hair and eyebrows while he wasn't looking (though not nearly as much as I'd planned to).

Oh yes, and I had yellow clothes for him to wear under his shell, but given his unpredictable moods, we didn't dare remove his red Incredibles pajamas, which he's been wearing under his clothes (interchangeably with skeleton jammies from his cousins L&L, and sometimes one over the other) daily for several weeks. The other day at the library, he stripped off his sweatshirt and waddled around with his pants around his ankles for the hour or so we were there, unwilling to cover up the Incredibles pajamas under his clothes. We got a lot of bewildered and disapproving looks, but it's truly not worth arguing with this stubborn two-year-old on such trivial matters as wearing pants in public.


Ellie was naturally pleased as punch to be the token female character in the cast of Mario Bros: Princess Peach.


You may notice that Princess Peach doesn't have tight ringlet curls a la Shirley Temple. See, I figured Ellie's hair, being thin and fine like mine, would not hold curl well so would require such a drastic measure to achieve even the subtle waves of Peach's hair. Turns out her hair holds sponge roller curl quite well. In fact, it was still holding attractive curl for church the next day. And was still pretty cute three days later.

When Carter first saw Ellie, he knew exactly what to say: "Ellie, you look so silly.... and beautiful!" We couldn't help but smile as he called her Peach all night, saying things like, "I'll wait for you, Peach" and "I'll hold Peach's hand."

I have to give proper credit to Kjerstin, who made Ellie's dress with her own bare hands, as a birthday gift. She did an incredible job and saved me weeks of stress and further sleep deprivation by taking care of that costume. It is definitely Ellie's prettiest and new favorite dress-up item, and will be for a while, I'm sure.

We wrapped up trick-or-treating when five out of six of our kids were being held, complaining of exhaustion. The weather was, amazingly, not very cold, and it made for a perfectly enjoyable evening. The occasional school-aged child even recognized my children's costumes for what they were! (I mean, only a few young guys recognized Bowser, and though people appreciated Ellie's pretty dress, only video game generation-ers could appreciate how closely she resembled Peach.)

Here they're showing off the pumpkins they designed, with Dorito-stained mouths, the first treat they both chose to open from their goody bags.

After I rinsed that paint out of Erik's scalp and scrubbed the sugar out of the kids' teeth, they were out in a wink and the real partying began! For a celebration at the Paul's, I convinced Kjerstin to fill the role Kyle refused to with me. We were Sick and Tired, cuz that's about how I feel about being sick and tired for the past some odd months.

Somehow Kyle preferred to go as a Libyan capitalist. Yes, everyone thought he was a terrorist.

And as long as we were rejecting political correctness, Mish just plain went as a Mexican. Donning stick-on earrings, Charlie went as her illegitimate child.

We had fun playing games and stuffing ourselves with more sugar even than our kids consumed, including these eyeball doughnuts Kjerst made with Ellie,

and these from-scratch pumpkin pies by Mish.

Delicious, delightful, de-lovely and wonderful Halloween, my best one yet.

Seussmania part III: the rest

Several hours worth of attempts later, inexplicably still can't upload my short video clip of the party ambiance... boo hoo. A few snapshots will have to suffice.

Kjerstin's school and the local library supplemented our Dr. Seuss collection (though we still had nowhere near all 62 of his published books) and it made for some mighty simple and cost-free decor.

I made the birthday banner with paper scraps and the birthday bird I drew on printer papers taped together. Kjerst and I stayed up late one night coloring him in with markers.


Mish made this cute sign for our newest pet, inherited via Emily as a sort of birthday gift for Ellie, although Mish was more than pleased to welcome another reptile into the family.


My other lucky break on party decor was a second-hand Dr. Seuss trivia game I bought at a yard sale months ago (that we've still never played), but even if we never end up playing it, it was still by golly worth the $2 for the sake of this event. I threaded all the big cards together for this garland, and we put up the tiny little book cover cards around the room. Without the game pieces, I would've still decked the room out, but the theme wouldn't have stood out much.

I held the party in early evening so a couple good friends could make it, but I knew this would put a damper on my children's moods (as evenings have since the cessation of afternoon naptime some months ago). Erik is especially affected by the time evening rolls around, when crankiness can escalate into one prolonged tantrum. Soooo, a couple hours before the party started, I sent Kyle off on a drive with the kids (which I figured would knock them out, as it often does). They finally succeeded, but Erik took his nap to the fullest and was out solid until halfway through Ellie's party, when Kjerstin finally went up and revived (and re-dressed) him. I don't think he was fully awake until about when the party ended. Anyway, if we hadn't done what we did, he would've been ACTING a bit too much like Thing 2 instead of just looking like him.

Is anybody out there considering throwing a similarly themed party? If so, don't you dare try to make Cat-in-the-hat tophats as a party favor (especially if your sewing machine breaks a week before the party). I will save you time and sanity by just assuring you it's not worth it. Actually, I could give you the dimensions that, after hours of trial-and-error, produced hats that actually fit on children's heads without swallowing them. Then it might be worth it. But only if you have a Laurisa to lend you a sewing machine and figure out a pattern with you while your six kids wreak havoc on her home, and a Kjerstin who is willing to stay up until the wee hours of the morning whipping them up with you.

And even then, you might have some kids at the party who throw screaming fits refusing to wear them, or even refusing to take them home. So maybe dollar store candy would make a better party favor (we had that, too). (And yes, outsiders attempted to dissuade me from tackling this project many times, but sometimes I refuse to take the easy/sensible way out. I think I learned my lesson. Maybe.)

Apparently the party was not so riveting to some...

At least Rowan appreciated my hard work on those hats. (Haha, pretty pathetic if a baby is really my biggest fan.)

Costumes may seem a bit excessive, but I picked up the shirts/onesie for $1 each at a thrift store and painted them on in under an hour. Nothing like their Halloween costumes...


As for entertainment, we started out with an egg toss. Green eggs, of course. I made the beanbags out of felt scraps.

Then I read them brief excerpts from Horton Hears a Who, just to orient everyone with the look and idea of the pink clovers, and particularly of the pink clover housing the extensive community of Whos that Horton searches for fervently for hours.

Our little Hortons searched for more like 30 seconds for the pink clovers (that we hurriedly scattered while Kyle kept the kids busy in the basement), and even though only one bore the teeny dot that was Whoville, they all found some so everyone was a winner. This was, by a long shot, our most popular game.

This was, by a long shot, our least popular game. What was supposed to happen was the kids put their socks half on and then crawl around pulling each others' socks off in a jovial manner, a la Fox in Socks. What really transpired was the kids put their socks half on and then took turns crying (Ellie started it) when one of their socks got pulled off until everyone was crying or still wearing two socks. Guess I don't know much about kids because it sounded fun to me.

Here's the display table again. I originally wanted to color the party red, pink, and baby blue (the colors from The Cat in the Hat), but ultimately, for such a theme, no less than twenty-three colors would do.

P.S. I stole the cupcake idea from Lindsey at kitchendoughdough.blogspot.com. They were my inspiration for the entire party. Before I discovered these delights, we were planning a fairy princess party. I hope more than just all of Ellie's male friends appreciate the direction we took instead.


Presents! Finally! She did have to wait an extra week after all (since I postponed the party to finish the silly party favor hats I MEAN because of a family emergency), and thanks to our friends' generosity, it was well worth the wait.

And this is about how we all felt at the end of it. Happy, sleepy, and unmotivated to undo any of the party magic we'd slaved to create. And actually I still feel like that, and that's why some of the party decorations still aren't down.

Seussmania part II: the feast

Thanks to those who took the time to try out my little quiz. I can finally put that endeavor to rest and get on to reporting more exciting pieces of business, like Halloween, Ellie's first ballet recital, and of course the rest of the Dr. Seuss extravaganza. This post features the menu-- yes, I went a little overboard. In retrospect, I would definitely make less than half of what I did ("I" including my loyal friend and family minions), since again I think most people (all of the kids, for sure) failed to recognize that each dish was calculated for the effect of the theme. Oh well.

Actually, I had a blast reading every Dr. Seuss book I could get my paws on and marking each reference to something edible, and then recreating each dish. I hanged (or is it hung? I can't decide) photocopies of my inspiration above the food table. The house favorites were the hot dogs (they were Hillshire Farm hotdogs, after all) and ABC cookies (props to Aunt C for the cookie cutters).

Happy Birthday to You:


How the Grinch Stole Christmas:


Green Eggs & Ham:


One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish:


Fox in Socks:


Dr. Seuss' ABC:


One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish:


Oh Say Can You Say:


The Butter Battle Book:



The Cat in the Hat:

p.s.

I forgot to add that whoever participates in the Dr. Seuss game/quiz also gets to be my best friend. My guilty conscience really wants to feel like the time and energy and time and energy and other people's time and energy that fueled into this party for months can be appreciated by someone, cuz the kids were just there for the candy. So yes, I'm fishing for love in a not-so-subtle way, but buy into it, please. Pleeeeease?

How Seussy are you-sy?

About five minutes into Ellie's party, I realized that most toddlers have nowhere near the attention span necessary to participate in the Dr. Seuss identification game I'd carefully prepared. In retrospect, of course I regret investing so much time and effort into gathering remote items for this game that I doubt any of the adults even noticed or appreciated. That's why I'm posting pictures of them here. I know I have a Dr. Seuss fan or two out there willing to take a little quiz, and that will render the preparation I put into the failed party activity less of a waste. (So please pretty PLEASE do this, for my sake if nothing else!) And since we had a no-show at the party, I have a spare party favor... so whoever correctly identifies the most of the following scenes scores a homemade (child-sized) Cat in the Hat hat. Get very excited.

Try to identify both the item displayed and the book from which it originates. For example, if there was a bear sitting on a cactus, the answer would be something like "No Pat no, don't sit on that!" from "Hop on Pop." It doesn't have to be verbatim, just the right idea. Grab a pencil and paper and get to it!

1.
2.
3.
Turtles are 4. and chicken is 5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Review if you need to, because here come the answers!
...

...

...

...

...

...

...

1. There's a Wocket in my Pocket
2. empty stocking from How the Grinch Stole Christmas
3. truffula trees from The Lorax
4. stack of oppressed turtles from Yertle the Turtle
5. "chicks in socks" from Fox in Socks
6. "could you, would you, in a house? ... with a mouse?" from Green Eggs and Ham
7. Horton holding his clover from Horton Hears a Who
8. Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
9. the fish in the teapot from The Cat in the Hat
10. "This one has a little car. Say! What a lot of fish there are!" from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
11. boy in his hot air balloon from Oh the Places You'll Go
12. the birthday bird from Happy Birthday to You!
13. "pale green pants with nobody inside them" from What was I scared of?
14. star-bellied sneetch from The Sneetches

I got them all right-- how about you? =)

More of this and that

Chicken caught the swine flu.

Dr. Ellie to the rescue! She wrote a whole notepad of prescriptions for the sickies.

LOTS of sickies, judging by the waiting room.

Taking Mo for a "walk." I think she only moved once, to scurry under a bush.

Homemade belt, part of an ongoing series of birthday gifts for Kjerstin (that were all intended to be completed by her July birthday).

Made this little duo for Amy's baby, Katie. It reads "mei mei," or little sister, in Chinese. Amy's family braved Tianjin, too, though left before we arrived. Still, knowing how many of our experiences paralleled makes her a bosom friend. I feel, in some ways, like we went through that year in China together.

Miche R. and I copied this fabric flower design from "the pleated poppy."

This one's a barrette. I'd love to use my scraps to make lots more of these someday.

Pee-pee teepees for Jeff and Cristi. A little silly, but surprisingly useful if you've got a male infant around.

Charlie's trying out their crinkle square. Yep, it works.

Flannel on one side and minky on the other, with plastic wipes case wrapper in between, and ribbon tags for easy attachment. Babies can't resist the crackling of plastic sacks, and finally there's a safe outlet for the urge. Not to mention how much cuter this is than a plastic sack.

I also mod podged (I'm pretty sure that's a legit verb) these letters for their nursery, taking cues from their nursery colors (surf blue and apple green) quite literally.

They were sooooooo enthusiastic and appreciative of my simple gifts-- it made me wish I'd had time to make much more! We had a great visit (over Kyle's winning curry) with the beaming new parents after their Jenny Phillips singing group (technically I'm a member, too) performed for our stake.

Marbled shaving cream craft a new fave.

I love a craft that looks just as good under a toddler's hand as an adult's.

Freezer paper stenciled this shirt for Emily's birthday (also in July, hehe) almost in time for her to wear the t-shirt before it got too cold. (Got the idea from a website Mish found--can't take credit for this piece of "lol" genius.)

I was drowning in party prep, among other things, on Ellie's birthday, so didn't pamper her at all until an evening treat at Coldstone's.

You can safely conclude from their tinted lips that both Mish and Ellie opted for a scoop of blue cotton candy.

And Kjerstin could not suppress her persistent urge to prematurely introduce Charlie to solid foods.

We three went for a walk sporting mobys, chic mamas (and pop) that we are. My moby is the baby item dearest to my heart, and shoulders, and lower back. Because we'd all be aching without it.

This is how Erik feels about shopping at Walmart. The second red purse strap (not very visible) is actually acting as a noose around his neck-- I was almost unable to procure the camera from my bag for this priceless shot.

Ellie spent much of the shopping excursion partially hidden, as well. I don't like to be seen in Walmart, either, but my drive for a bargain sometimes gets the better of me.


Ellie's releve-ing it up in her ballet class. Mish calls it the cutest time of the week. Videos to come soon.


Also coming soon are Dr. Seuss party details, beginning with a short quiz I would love all of you to humor me with by taking, please and thank you.

Aug-Sept

I know I said I'd try for shorter posts, but not today! Ellie's birthday party almost completely consumed my existence over the past few weeks (as well as engulfing the time and energies of any able-bodied friends and family members in my path), and details on that are to come, but let's just combine three long overdue posts tonight and consider ourselves caught up through September. Time is short, so these will be three-worders.

Golden Corrall buffet

Thanksgiving Point museum...

admission only $2!

possessive streak manifested

wearing kids out

scaring kids out

scared worn out

spontaneous photo shoot...

for Kyle's mom's...

new wall decoration.

edit out arm

Charlie Quasi-modo eye?

this my fave

couldn't get enough...

of Grandma and...

Grandpa on their...

too short visit.


so content together

happy birthday Grandma!


fairytale chalk murals

come back soon!

animal farm reunion...

with Kallist/Naomi/pony ride

Cougareat field trip...

loaded apple pie

mother of sprinklers

engagement going well

Laurisa's half marathon

sweet battle wound

sweet hotel suite


Kjerst babysitting craft

face more embarrassing

pink/brown polka-dot party


another attempt at...

pretty family photos...

not quite awesome.

Emily tried but...

Erik hardly cooperated.

later discovered he...

had high fever!

normally not hard...

make him smile.

still beautiful day...

still beautiful life.