Playing Catch-up

So this post's purpose to play catch-up of the events that have happened in our little family up until Thanksgiving. Also this quick posting serves as proof to my children that we did do these activities and when they are teenagers I will be able to prove that I wasn't always a mean mom. :) We started out on the 15th by having FHE at our house. We had our usual group and after the lesson we made roll turkeys. They looked cute ... but tasted "interesting." Think next year we'll do a different type of turkey roll.

Mutated birds ... don't eat them! Yuck! Well the eyes were ok cause they were chocolate chips - but the rest - yuck!

Annika with cute little Isabella. Both Annika and Mieka are in love with babies and want to hold people's babies all the time. Good little future mommies!

On Wednesday the 17th we had Janelle and her kids and Emilee and her kids over to make some Thanksgiving crafts. We started out by making bracelets that told the Thanksgiving story. Each bead represented a part of the story. Fun idea - hard to execute with little kids. They had a little trouble getting the beads laced on their strings ... but the main problem was keeping the bracelet in one piece. Several were broken after they went down to play in the basement. Now I can see why other people just used regular plastic beads and pipe cleaners. :)


Later we decorated ice cream cone tepees, played outside, and made bow and arrows out of popsicle sticks, dental floss and q-tips. And yes - the bows could actually shoot arrows - almost 10-15 feet. They were awesome! :)




On Friday and Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to go to Time Out for Women up in Salt Lake with my family. It was so nice to have a short break to just sit and think about things of a spiritual nature. And I learned tons of things to help improve who I am. By the time it was finished my brain was on overload with all the things I wanted to do ... but that's a good thing. :)

We were missing Marianne, Ashley, Janice and Lois. Bummer that we didn't get a picture with all of us. :(

For our Science Sunday we talked about surface tension and did a milk experiment. Drops of food coloring in a shallow dish of milk - add a few drops of dish soap and the colors start to dance around the milk. Very neat experiment.

You can see a video of the milk dancing here: Awesome Milk Trick

Afterward we made Plymouth Rock cookies. Hmm .. probably wont follow this recipe again. But the girls had fun making the dough in to rocks.

Yes - I agree - it looks nothing like Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock probably looks more palatable then this!

Monday we built a wigwam out of newspaper. Yes - it is possible! We rolled up mass amounts of newspaper, stapled them together and voila! We had made our own little wigwam ... of sorts. :) The girls had a fun time watching tv and having snacks in their hide out.



Tuesday we were suppose to head down to the Covey Center to watch a musical made from the book Knuffle Bunny. They girls were so excited to go ... it's one of Mieka's favorite books. But there were major storm warnings ... something about a blizzard. :( And so instead we stayed home and had a super movie night with popcorn and licorice. I have to admit I was pretty bugged when I woke up the next morning and there was hardly a skiff of snow on the ground. Oh well - better safe than sorry. :)

And that leads us up to Thanksgiving which I'll cover in the next post.

School Pictures

So, we just got back Mieka's school pictures so now we can post both Annika's and Mieka's. I thought they turned out really cute. Annika in her cute uniform and Mieka in her "what I want to be when I grow up" out fit. Mieka decided that she wanted to be a "maker." Her words "so that I can make stuff with cantaloupe, sugar, and flour." That sounds like an interesting recipe!

Flat Annika

This year in Annika's kindergarten class they did Flat Stanley's. Well - actually in Annika's class it was Flat _____ - so for Annika it was Flat Annika. The kids drew a flat version of themselves, and just like the book Flat Stanely, mailed themselves off to family or friends for a visit. Flat Annika decided she wanted to see the wilds of Alaska and that she did! Thanks so much to Gary and Marianne for the scenic tour you took Flat Annika on. Here's the photos Marianne and Gary sent back of the super trip - their captions are included - way funnier then mine could be. :)

Safety first! Buckled up and ready for adventure!

Wow!! There's Denali (Mt. McKinley) Amazing how big it is.

Stopped at the "Beautiful" town of Talkeetna. Well, maybe not so beautiful in the Fall.

How's this for a real Alaskan hat? :)

I don't see lions or tigers ... but bears! Ahhh!! Run!

At the Anchorage temple with Aunt Marianne, and cousins Braeden and Hayden.

Out at the Eagle River Visitor Center - close by where my mom used to live!

Uncle Gary showing me the sites at the Visitor Center.

A baby moose! Quick let me back in the car!!!

Reindeer! Guess this is where they hang out when Santa isn't using them.

Mmmmm ... Alaska Wildberry and Chocolate Factory - where they have a real chocolate waterfall. I'll see if I can take a dip later. :)

My own Alaskan Souvenir. I'll "moose" you all when I have to go back to Utah!

Thanks again for the super fun trip! And for all the funny goodies you sent back to the non-flat Annika!

Highlights

Just the highlights - cause ... well ... I'm lazy! :)

For FHE on Monday we made Oreo Turkey's for our project. The girls had a fun time eating candy, using frosting as glue to put together their turkeys, and eating more candy. Bleck! I was sick by the end of the evening just from watching them eat so much. Bad Mom. :( Next year I think I will give each of them a little cup of their ingredients instead of splaying it all out on the table.

Mieka and Matthew's turkeys didn't last very long - about 2 minutes. They were more interested in eating them than making them.

Annika proclaimed between mouthfuls of candy .. "I just can't stop eating this stuff!" Umm ... yes you can.

A happy no longer bleeding nose Emma with her fun turkeys. Poor girl had a sudden nose bleed that put a sad damper for her on the turkey festivities. But now she's happy!

Rachel came to play for family home evening while Nancy was in Florida. After making turkeys she chased the girls around the basement. Thanks for tiring them out for us!!

Tuesday through Thursday just flew by ... not much to report. Well - except for a super AWESOME Hello Kitty Turkey that Mieka made for school. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the finished project. Note to self - remember to insert picture of a fore mentioned turkey here!

Mieka dancing in the snow trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue. :)

Friday I got to go to the cannery with Nancy and Janice. I wish that I had taken pictures of us in our lovely aprons and hair nets. Lookin' Good! We canned chicken. Yuck! I will never look at canned meat the same again. But I am grateful that we were able to go help can food for those in need and that we are also now eligible to buy some for our food storage. Hoping it looks better when comes out than it did going in.

Saturday we were able to go to the Gingerbread House Festival done by the Boy Scouts. There were some pretty incredible gingerbread houses there. We ended up buying one of them - the Pinkalicious one of course! As soon as we it get home I'm going to fully coat it with shellac - mostly to keep little fingers from picking it apart before Christmas.

The Girls favorite gingerbread house - and of course it's pink - Pinkalicious!

Yay - we've already got our gingerbread house done for this year - in November! We bought it cause I knew I would never have the time or patience to recreate it for the girls. :)

This one was my favorite - and Dave's too. It's based on Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water House. Amazing!

Quick montage of the rest of the ones we thought that were stellar.
Amazing stuff and amazing people that made the amazing stuff!

Later we had a sort of super Saturday where we did all the Thanksgiving Count Down crafts that we were suppose to do during the week. Apple turkeys, Mayflowers, and nifty corn syrup leaves.

Joe Cool Turkey - looks like he has sunglasses on. :)

Leaves painted with Karo syrup and drops of food coloring. These turned out really pretty - the pictures don't do them justice. They are all marbled and shiny. Very cool.

Mayflower boats made from the cup grippers from Starbucks. Yes! I went to Starbucks and got hot chocolate just so that we could make these little crazy boats. My first time there - probably last unless we need more supplies for more crafts. :) Their coffee must be better than their hot chocolate.

That evening we headed over to a new burger place in Lehi. They make Belgian type fries there, so we decided to give it a try. Annika proclaimed the fries so good that she wants to go there every Saturday night! Apparently dipping them in her Lime Slushie is what made them good. Bleck! And Mieka decided that drinking her ketchup was the easiest way to get her vegetables for the day. Double Bleck!

Slushie dipper!

Ketchup drinker? What has Dave been teaching these girls?!?

Today was the Primary Program. I think because they had so many kids in the primary they had to make up some parts. Annika's part was to tell about a miracle that happened to her. She told about when she was sick last year and her Daddy and uncle (Dan) gave her a blessing. She immediately felt better - so it was a miracle. And truly it was! I had never seen her so sick and know that the blessing did heal her and give her comfort. Anyway - she did a super fantastic job. Walked right up to the microphone, spoke clearly and slowly. She did great!

Right before the Primary Program. Cute girls!

Later we made some funky little pie pastry things - layers of pie crust with chocolate chips and marshmallows between them. On FamilyFun they call them yumm-o leaves ... I would probably say more sort-of-ok leaves. Annika proclaimed them "too crusty." I would have to agree. :) Probably give them a 2 1/2 stars - with Dave being the only one that wanted second helpings.



And then Dave gave a great Science Sunday lesson on surface tension. Awesome! Dave is a great teacher and does a great job of explaining why different things work the way the do. I hope by doing this that we will help encourage the girls to be interested in science. Maybe they will grow up to be rocket scientists!


Super great week. Once again we are so blessed to have happy, healthy girls. And happy, maybe not so healthy as we could be but working on it mom and dad. We are grateful for Dave's jobs - plural as in 2 - just until February. And we are grateful for the great prosperity Heavenly Father has blessed us with!