Thanksgiving, Christmas trees, Muppets, and Gingerbread

Okay so I'm really behind in posts.  I'll do my best to hit the highlights from Thanksgiving weekend.

So this year Thanksgiving was at my parents' house.  And I have to say the people in my family LOVE good food!  My folks brined a turkey and smoked a turkey and we all brought other stuff to dinner.  Brodie and I brought mashed potatoes, gravy (we made our own turkey dinner the Sunday before so we could use the carcass to make real gravy), stuffing, green bean casserole, chocolate pecan pie, banana cream pie, and my Great Aunt Libbie's green tomato mince meat pie with butter rum sauce.  Did I mention we love good food?  Oh, and I think we had enough leftovers for a few more Thanksgiving meals.  We also had a great time visiting as adults and the kids played and played.  And we celebrated two of my neice's birthdays with a pinata full of candy, cupcakes, and presents for Aliya and Afton.

I hate shopping.  No, let me rephrase that.  I hate going to stores.  I love shopping online.  But despite my dislike of shopping in stores and being in crowds and lines, I still go Black Friday shopping.  A couple years ago I got my sister and mother to come with me and we had so much fun that we had to do it again!  But now everything's open Thanksgiving evening.  So after the kids were in bed I picked up my mom and sister and we headed over to Walmart.  I stood by the item I wanted and waited while my mom and sister roamed the store for about an hour.  Then the craziness started with people screaming and tearing off the plastic wraps.  I grabbed some stufff while my sister grabbed some pajamas and my mom headed into the checkout line.  We pushed through the crowds to catch up to my mom and we were out of there.  Then we headed to Target where we waited outside in line for about an hour and  half (they didn't open until midnight--Walmart had let us inside but not open the stuff until 10).  I remember the first time we went a couple years ago when we were waiting outside at 5 am and it was SOOOO cold.  This year was warm enough I survived in my flip flops.  This is the funnest part for me.  We stand around being silly and talking and laughing and if anyone else was with us they would think we had lost it.  But we have fun.  We got what we wanted in Target and then had to wait forever in the line (it was moving the whole time, but went through every single grocery aisle).  I think we were outside for an hour and a half and inside for an hour and a half here.  Then we stopped at Shopko.  By the time I unloaded my mom, sister, and all their stuff and then came home and unloaded my stuff I got to bed at 3:30 a.m.

Friday was pretty rough.  I had a horrible migraine and was exhausted and not really in the fun Christmas spirit.  But it was tree day.  I turned on the Christmas music and got setting up my tree.  Usually I love this.  I don't like anyone to help me.  I set up the tree and stratetically wrap around 2,000 lights.  I then open up and place each of my special Disney ornaments one at a time.  Yes this takes me the entire day.  And because the kids really love my Disney ornaments it's hard to tell them they can't touch them.  But they can't.  So each kid has their own Christmas tree with their own ornaments (mainly Disney of course) that they can set up howevever they want and touch whenever they want. 

 

As I was busy with my tree and in pain with a migraine, Brodie took Spencer and Tessa out for Friday fun day.  They went to McDonald's and got Hello Kitty and Bakugan toys.  Brodie even ate a Happy Meal so he could bring a Hello Kitty toy home for Clara.  What a sweet dad.  Then he took them to the Muppet movie.  They LOVED it.  They came home in great moods telling me about how funny the movie was.  They both agreed their favorite part was the "Fart Shoes" which  meant they pretended they were wearing fart shoes around the rest of the day.

Now that the trees were up it was time to get ready for Christmas.  This included making a gingerbread house, which we did on Sunday.  I love the kits from Costco.  For the same price you can get a kit at any store the Costco one comes already assembled (the others you have to ice together the walls of the house the night before you decorate it so it can set up) and includes a tree and 2 gingerbread people.  And it has white, red, and green icing and plenty of candy to decorate (we didn't even use it all).  So I piped the icing and let the three kids go crazy with the candy.  Here's how it turned out:

Planet Play again

We don't have kids in our close neighborhood for my kids to play with regularly.  And lately Spencer and Tessa have been fighting more and more together.  I realize I need to make more of an effort for Spencer to play with other boys his age and for Tessa to play with other girls her age.  So I'm trying.  Last week I was able to arrange 2 playdates for Spencer.  One with his best friend from kindergarten and one with his best friend in first grade.  And I arranged for 2 with Tessa.  Every Monday a high school friend of mine and I are switching houses to let our girls play together--they're almost exactly 1 year apart in age.  I also picked my neice up to have her come over and play.  She is only 2 months younger than Tessa and Tessa's most favorite playmate.  Plus my sister just barely had a new baby (who is so dang cute and sweet by the way) so I thought maybe it would help her out if I entertained her little one for a few hours.  Tessa and A get along sooooo well--they really seem to be on the same brain-wave most of the time.  I love watching the two of them play together.  So for this week Spencer went to his best from kindergarten's house after school one day.  His first after-school playdate.  Because it was already 4 by the time I got him there his friend's dad invited him to stay for dinner.  Another first.  Thankfully it all went well and his dad told me Spencer was a real good eater.  Yes, he definitely is that.  Unlike his sisters...  I also arranged a playdate for him with another boy in his first grade class for today after school.  Tessa got her regular Monday playdate and another one this morning with a girl in our outer neighborhood whose mom had a doctor appointment.

Anyhow, because of Spencer's playdate today I knew I would have to do something different for Friday fun day.  I had bought another Planet Play deal on City Deals and thankfully Planet Play is one of the places still honoring City Deals.  I figured today would be a good time to use that.  I picked Spencer up at 4 (it was short day at school) and brought him home.  Then I helped the kids pick up the toy room, TV room, front room, and their bedrooms.  Spencer whined, complained, and cried about it but Tessa was amazingly cooperative (because she knew we were going to Planet Play as soon as we cleaned up).

I blogged about Planet Play back in June and put some pictures up back then.  Because I knew I already had posted pictures combined with the fact that Tessa was wearing navy sweat pants under her pink dress and had been doing gymnastics in the house making her double french braids look like she had been electrocuted, I intentionally left my camera home tonight.

Tonight was much busier than the last time we went to Planet Play.  There were some sports groups and plenty of families.  Although I typically don't like crowds, that meant the pizza was being replenished quicker and was therefore fresher and tastier.  Still not somewhere I would go only for the food, but the food was actually not bad.  Small salad bar, lots of different pizzas, baked potatoes, pasta, fresh apple slices, dessert, and drinks for $9 adult and $7 kids and kids 3 and under are free.  Reasonable.  However, the prices for their games and rides are not reasonable.  Hence the City Deals.  We got 4 buffets and $50 of game cards.  I really don't remember what I paid for this deal but it was somewhere between $30-$40.  Now that I think is a good deal to feed and entertain the whole family.  (Definitely not worth the $86 it was valued at)

The kids loved choosing their own food and actually getting soda, although they each only drank about 2 swallows of it, and getting dessert!  After eating we headed to play.  Tessa was too short for the bumper cars so Brodie went with Spencer.  They had sooo much fun.  The "bumper cars" are really more like little hover crafts.  They were spinning around in circles and gliding around occasionally bumping each other.  Then they went to the pretend race cars and Spencer rode with Brodie around there.  Meanwhile I took the girls to the little climbing/sliding area that I like better than Jungle Jim's because it's easier to navigate and they have a little section for toddlers like Clara (which she LOVED).  They also rode the little carousel like the one at Chuck E Cheese and rode a little one person race car ride that slowly goes around in a circle. 

Then we started playing some of the arcade games.  I do like that the tickets accumulate on the cards rather than having to keep track of paper tickets.  Eventually Spencer and Brodie caught up with us and then Brodie took Tessa on the race car ride while I helped Spencer and Clara play games.  It didn't take too long for the $50 of game cards to disappear.  Thanks to a couple of the $2 games we added some tickets to the cards to make up for all the playing we did with them so we accumulated 700 tickets.  I do like the prize selection here better than Chuck E Cheese, Classic, and Jungle Jim's.  Spencer got a 40" plush snake, toy handcuffs, a couple popper things, and a black bracelet.  Tessa got a pink 40" plush snake, 2 pencil topper stamps, and a little yellow duck.  Clara got a little princess bag (she LOVES purses), a little duck, and a couple bracelets.  The kids were ecstatic about their new prizes.  And I don't even see myself throwing any of them away in the next few days.

Allowance, snow, potatoes, and a repeat trip to the Aquarium

Okay, so I've been bad at this lately.  So this one is for the past two weeks, then I'll post today's Friday Fun day.

Two weeks ago Spencer didn't have school on Friday.  We had "mommy school" instead.  By then I decided whatever we were going to do would be after lunch so we wouldn't have to buy anything to eat.  As I was trying to think of something fun, cheap, and that we hadn't done recently I realized it had been a while since the kids had emptied their piggy banks.  Each day the kids each get a quarter at the end of the day if I feel they've been pretty good that day.  Of course I forget this more often than I remember.  And my kids rarely remind me.  So I probably only get one out of three.  Occasionally I feel guilty and slip a few extra quarters into their banks.  Usually we go spend it when they are around $10.  But Spencer also had $3 from the tooth fairy for losing his first 3 teeth.  We counted their money, took out tithing, and then put the rest in Ziploc bags and headed to Toys R Us. 

We frequently shop at Walmart and even a bit at Target so the kids know all the toys in those stores.  But Toys R Us is a special occasion for the kids.  Seriously--they get to go maybe 5 or 6 times a year to buy a toy with their saved money and that's it.  So we walked through just about every single aisle in the store and carried around a few items that the kids liked until they found something better.  Clara somehow managed to keep finding the little poppers left around and would run to them and push them around until I took them away and made her cry.  At the end of it Tessa HAD to have a Little Miss Muffin toy (the wonderful work of commercials) and Spencer got a Finn McMissile that changes colors in hot/cold water and another small Ninjago set (he is really into this and so far only has the set he got in Legoland).  The kids were VERY happy with their choices and have had a lot of fun with them over the last couple of weeks.

As Toys R Us is basically across the street from Fashion Place Mall, I headed over there next.  I try to go to the malls as minimally as possible.  I do not like shopping in stores--but I do like to do it online!  I especially dislike malls.  However, I had recently (about 45 days prior) bought a couple bras at Dillards and one of them had the wire poke through and it kept poking me.  I know they only take returns for 30 days but I felt a store like Dillards should be able to do something for me with a defective $40 bra after 45 days.  I was wrong.  The girl at the counter was very friendly and told me she was sure they would exchange it but she had to check with her manager.  The manager very coldly told me they couldn't do anything once it had been worn.  Period.  Last time I purchase a bra, or probably anything, from Dillards.  I was surprised how busy the mall was and Christmas was amost 2 months away still!

The next day (Saturday) we woke up to about 8" of snow.  And Brodie had to work this day.  The kids kept begging to go play in the snow, but I had just ordered them boots online the day before so they didn't have any.  After lunch I realized I was going to have to shovel the drive way as Brodie wasn't sure how long he'd be working.  I let Tessa wear some boots my sister passed down, although they were much too big and kept falling off her feet.  I let Spencer just wear his regular shoes.  Other than that they were quite bundled up.  Luckily the wonderful world of Ebay (wonderful to me in more than one way...) had some boots and a snowsuit small enough that I bought when Tessa was this age so I could get Clara out.  I let the kids play in the front yard snow while I shoveled the driveway.

When I first set Clara down she just kind of froze--uncertain of what she was supposed to be doing.  Or maybe she was trying to figure out how to move all bundled up.

She cautiously walked through the snow and asked me to lift her up ("Bup!?!") but I was busy shoveling the drive way.  Then the kids asked me for toys to play in the snow so I set the shovel down and pulled out the snow toys.  Okay so the stores really sale them as "Beach toys" but we live in Utah.  We get a lot more use out of these as "Snow toys".  While I was in the garage I decided to pull out Clara's car so she would feel more comfortable.  She sat in it for a while watching the other kids before she finally decided she must be missing out on a lot of fun and she dove off the car landing the only uncovered part of her in the snow--her face.  She cried so I dropped the shovel and brushed off her face and hugged her for a while.  Then I set her down and she proceeded to have fun shoveling and playing in the snow with her siblings.  Spencer worked on a snow tower and Tessa just shoveled and dumped snow.

When I finished shoveling the driveway I pulled out the little saucer sled and pushed the kids in it down the slight incline in our front yard.  They loved this, especially Clara.  After being in the snow about an hour Brodie came home and I decided to get Clara in and down for a nap.  But I don't let the kids stay in the front yard if I'm not out there so I had them move to the backyard.  I also pulled out the full sled and Spencer pulled Tessa around the flat backyard for a while.  When he decided he was done Tessa came in crying so Brodie went out and pulled her around a couple more times.  Then they kept playing for about another hour.  When they finally came in I had them change socks and shoes as Spencer's were a bit wet and cold.  I also made them some hot chocolate. 

Brodie pulled in the Halloween decorations that I hadn't gotten around to pulling in yet and took the pumpkins to the compost pile in the back.  I had bought the face pieces for the kids and Brodie had left those on the table.  Spencer asked what we were going to do with the pieces now and I smiled and said, "I have an idea..." and Spencer said, "Put them on real potatoes like a real potato head?"  I was torn here between feeling pride in my son for thinking the exact same thing I was thinking or feeling quite immature myself for thinking the exact same thing a 6-year old was thinking.  But we ran downstairs and grabbed a few potatoes.  All three kids had a blast!  They kept trading pieces and re-arranging their potato heads and then running into the front room to show dad.  This continued to entertain the kids for at least half an hour.

Okay so then last week Spencer actually had school.  With Christmas coming I once again wanted to make sure we did something cheap.  And indoors as it was windy and cold.  I decided on the Living Planet Aquarium.  This is one place I actually have been a regular pass holder to for a few years.  It's quite close to our house, indoors (which being in Utah we have a lot of really hot and really cold days that I don't want to spend outside), educational, and fun.  And they keep growing.  Since we started going they have added on the Amazon section with caymans, pirhanas, little poisonous frogs, an Anaconda, and many more.  This exhibit is my kids favorite as the tanks and water creatures are so large and easy to see moving around.  They've also added penguins that are a lot of fun to watch swimming and diving in the water.  And they've added the Superhero exhibit.  The funny thing here is that the creatures they have are really quite boring except the gecko at the end.  However there are posted signs that say what their superpower is and this makes the educational part so much fun for the kids.  They've also changed a few exhibits over time.  Of course we love to watch the sharks and the large turtle in the shark tank.  The stingrays are fun when they're swimming around and let you touch them but this day they were just laying on the bottom not moving so the kids moved on.  Clara LOVES to watch the jellyfish and the large coral tank with the clown fish and all sorts of those type.  We were also very excited to see that they will have Sea Otters come January! 

We love the Living Planet Aquarium so much that we go there at least 4 times a year (which is more than any other place we visit throughout the year.  We usually get to the Zoo and the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life and Classic Fun Center a couple times a year and other places usually are only visited once a year).  The regular price is $9 for an adult and $7 for a child.  An annual pass is $20 for an adult and $16 for a child.  And if you aren't sure about how much you'll like it they are letting everyone in FREE this coming Monday, November 28th.  And they occasionally have deals in the Happenings (Entertainment) Book or during the summer.

However, I saw something on their website about memberships only being valid through October of 2012 and then "the Sandy location" will be shut down for 6 months.  It also mentioned something about a new location.  Are they moving?  If so, where to?  Or are they making 2 locations seeings how they didn't say the Sandy location would be closed, just shut down for 6 months, and they are currently building the Sea Otter exhibit.  Anyone know the answer to this?

I didn't bring my camera as I have plenty of pictures here, but if you want to see some scroll back through my posts as I believe I have 2 prior posts regarding the Aquarium.  I'll bring my camera again when we go see the Otters.

Halloween overload

Halloween is truly a kids' holiday.  Dress up and candy and sweets and parties.  So much fun.  And I enjoy watching my kids enjoy it.  It all starts with a costume...

Going back a few years to my first Halloween as a mother.  Of course I had to dress up my first child for his first Halloween as a race car driver:

You can definitely tell Clara is his baby sister!  Anyway it was getting together with families, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

The next year I thought Spencer would make the cutest Fireman.  We even drove up to Park City where Brodie's cousin is a Fireman to show Spencer a real Firehouse and Firetruck and Firemen.  Also the same getting together with family, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

 















By the next year Spencer was big into Cars and Toy Story so I decided it would be fun for him to be Buzz Lightyear.  This became one of his favorite dress ups which opened my eyes to the fact that boys love dressing up as much as girls.  Hence the current toy boxes in each kids' room stuffed FULL of dress ups.  Later on this Buzz Lightyear costume became one of Tessa's favorite dress ups (along with Wolverine) before she realized she was a girl.  However this year Tessa was only 6 weeks old so I got one of those bunting bags (like a sleeping bag with arms and a hood) and had her be a little frog.  This year my sisters and I went to a Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point (not Cornbelly's) with the little ones.

 

So by the next Halloween Tessa was just over a year old.  She was at the cute, wobbly just walking stage.  She was also so small for age and had such big emotions--up and down--that I just knew I had to have her be Tinkerbell for Halloween.  And Spencer was her best friend so I thought he should be Peter Pan.  This year I decided to actually do something more than the usual routines so I tried Boo at the Zoo.  But Spencer didn't want to wear his Peter Pan costume so I let him choose a dress up he had and he chose Buzz again.  Then I dressed Tessa in Spencer's old race car driver costume.  We also went to Wheeler Farm where we played some games, saw the farm, took a wagon ride, and even made a Scarecrow.  This was also Spencer's first school Halloween parade in preschool.  And after taking the kids through the circle Brodie took them through some of the rest of the neighborhood.

For the next year I already had decided Tessa would be a ballerina cuz I had gotten a great deal on clearance costumes in 2008 (Tinkerbell year).  As Spencer was really into space when he was 4 years old I decided to spend the most money I had spent yet on a costume for him to be an astronaut with a really cool helmet.  I was in early pregnancy stage and was really sick this year so we just did the family stuff, ward Halloween party, and trick or treating.

 













Clara came summer of 2011.  And this year Spencer decided on his own that he wanted to be Ghost Rider.  I tried SOOOO hard to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't budge.  He was big into superheroes and understood that Halloween had a "scary" element so he wanted to be a superhero who was also a little scary.  Luckily Spencer didn't really know much about Ghost Rider and I actually did find a costume online.  But he couldn't wear a mask to school and his costume didn't make any sense without the mask.  So I also bought him a flame wig and painted his face on school day and for the Ward Halloween Party.  Tessa was adamant on being a Disney princess so I guided her towards choosing Snow White.  I even dared buy spray paint and sprayed Tessa's hair black.  Of course I couldn't get it completely out of the white part of her dress so now it's gray.  And I found a very cute little strawberry costume for Clara.  This year Brodie was in Germany over Halloween but my awesome sister came over with her kids so I could take all the kids trick or treating and still have someone at my house passing out candy.  (By the way in the picture my sister, Janelle, is the witch and my neices are Annie and a monarch butterfly).  I also did the whole Halloween themed dinner this time.

 

So that brings us to this year.  After last year Tessa told me she was going to be Ariel for Halloween this year.  She never changed her mind.  But all the Ariel costumes we found were more of a dress with a tail colored skirt and Tessa kept asking where the tail was.  So I finally found her a mermaid costume with a tail, but she pointed out it wasn't Ariel.  So I got her an Ariel wig.  She kept telling people she was "a mermaid with Ariel hair" rather than Ariel.  What a girl.  Spencer was going to be Ash--from Pokemon.  Period.  Once again we ran into the mask issue so for school I put paper over his red hat and used eyeliner to draw marks like Ash's under his eyes and make the part of hair that comes down Ash's forehead.  I wasn't going to spend money on a costume for Clara--just have her wear a small ladybug dressup of Tessa's.  But then a few days before Halloween I found this cute peacock costume on sale that I just couldn't pass up on.  And the kids kept asking what I was going to be so I gave in and got a Malificent costume.  But I thought painting my face green would be a little too scary to my kids so I just went with purple eyeshadow. 

This year we started the festivities by going to Cornbelly's (prior post).  Then on Tuesday we made and decorated caramel apples with a really yummy caramel recipe I got off Our Best Bites (look at my following list).  Super delicious and the kids LOVED making and eating them.  Of course the kids first just ate off all their toppings (mini M&Ms, Heath bits, Halloween Oreos, and melted chocolate).  Then Spencer let me cut his apple into slices but Tessa wanted to keep hers whole so she continued to eat all the caramel off and leave the apple.

On Wednesday Tessa got to wear her costume to gymnastics but the hair kept getting in her eyes and even fell off when she was on the bars.  Wednesday night was our Ward Halloween Party with a trunk or treat and then some games inside including the cake walk and fishing games.  On Thursday both kids wore their costumes to school and had Halloween parties.  Tessa's didn't include a parade or parents so I just went to Spencer's with Clara.  Their parade went outside the school and through the neighborhoods.  Of course this morning was the coldest yet, at 32 degrees.  However, I didn't see another Ash in his whole school.  At least his odd choices are original.

Thursday evening Spencer's play practice was a combined Halloween party where they did fun theatrical Halloween games and we brought candy that was combined and bagged and sent home with each kid.  Friday Spencer didn't have school so we went to IHOP for free creepy face pancakes for the kids.  I originally ordered one for each kid, but she only brought them out for Spencer and Tessa.  No problem as I had ordered pumpkin pancake combo plate and had way more than I could eat so Clara got some eggs, hashbrowns, a sausage, and part of my pumpkin pancake.  The older kids made their faces by putting mini-Oreos and candy corns on top of the whipped topping on their large pancakes.  Then they put some of each of the four different types of syrup (strawberry, blueberry, butter pecan, and maple) on top.  Spencer ate his whole pancake but after picking off the toppings Tessa only ate a couple bits of pancake.  So Clara also had some of hers.  After IHOP we headed to the library for the Monster in the Bathtub puppet show.  Which the kids of course loved.  Then we spent an hour reading books before checking out some books and DVDs to bring home.  After lunch Spencer's friend from school came over for a couple of hours.

On Saturday we headed over to Brodie's parents for a family Halloween Party.  Grandma Julie made cheese soup, Papa made chili and I brought some sliced baguettes and made some spinach artichoke dip.  After eating the kids painted and carved pumpkins.  I had a horrible cold, as did Clara, so I stayed in with her and put Brodie in charge of pumpkin time.

Then, of course, Monday was Halloween.  After school the kids watched TV and played while I worked on dinner.  I made breadsticks for Monster Fingers, tomato soup as blood soup, olives for bat brains, frog eye salad that I topped with green dyed pineapple rings and marchino cherries in the middle, cheese jack-o-lanterns (I cut pumpkin shapes out of cheese and used a toothpick to "carve" them), and apple juice concentrate mixed with Club Soda for witches brew.  Then we headed out.  I took the kids through our circle and then packed them in the car to drive them to the neighborhood where their primary teachers live (Tessa said she HAD to go trick-or-treating at their houses).  Then since we were in the car anyway we stopped by my folks before coming home.  Brodie then took the kids out to a few other houses in the neighborhood while I put Clara to bed.  When they got home I let them each eat one candy before getting them in their pajamas and to bed.  Now while I'm typing this they are devouring a huge box of Bottlecaps.  We'll see how well they eat dinner tonight.  Speaking of which, I should probably go figure out what I'm going to make and get started on it.